Conversation with Hyperliquid Founder Jeff Yan: Moving Finance On-Chain Before AI Takes Over the World

Original article compiled by: WuBlockchain

This content is a transcript of the podcast interview “When Shift Happens” with Jeff Yan, Founder and CEO of Hyperliquid. Jeff reflects on the wealth effect and shift in responsibility brought by the TGE (Token Generation Event), elaborates on Hyperliquid’s core design philosophy of “no internal order book, no discretion,” and explains why the protocol insists on automatically repurchasing and burning fees rather than manual timing operations.

He emphasizes that Hyperliquid is not a “kripto company,” but a “financial protocol” that uses crypto technology to upgrade financial infrastructure, with the goal of “housing all of finance”—enabling all financial activities to be completed within a composable, permissionless, and transparent on-chain system.

Simultaneously, Jeff provides a detailed analysis of how key modules such as HyperEVM, HIP-3 (Permissionless Perps), Outcome Pasars, the alliance stablecoin USDH, Kinetiq staking, and Hyperlend lending collectively build a decentralized, scalable, and composable on-chain financial system.

In response to external skepticism, he stresses that Hyperliquid does not operate like a company; there is no “timed buyback” or “human intervention,” as all mechanisms are written into on-chain logic for execution. He also points out that real competition is not about short-term data, but about whether one can establish a trustless, globally accessible financial system.

The entire conversation presents a core proposition: in an era of accelerating AI development, if the financial system is not upgraded to an on-chain, programmable, and open architecture, there will be no place for humans in the future financial world.

On Wealth Effect and Long-termism

On Singapore’s Startup Environment

Kevin: What’s your take on Singapore?

Jef: It’s excellent. It’s truly a great place to get things done, to work on projects. It’s very safe, modern, and the infrastructure runs smoothly. Many people say it’s “boring,” considering that a drawback, but for me, that’s actually a huge advantage. Here, you can focus on building without many distractions. It’s a place very suitable for keeping your head down and working.

Did you anticipate wealth creation on this scale?

Kevin: Did you anticipate generating such a massive wealth effect at the time?

Jef: No, I didn’t. Honestly, I rarely think specifically about what results will be achieved at a certain point in time. We focus more on just doing our best. We know our direction and what we’re building, but I don’t write things down like, “It would be great if we hit a certain quantitative metric in a month.” That’s not how I operate.

Because as contributors, there are too many things outside our control. We need to focus on doing what we should do well. The outcome certainly depends largely on our efforts, but it’s also influenced by many external factors.

However, I was genuinely surprised by the overwhelmingly positive feedback later. Hearing people say things like, “This is rare in crypto,” “This is what should have happened, but we rarely see real examples,” felt really good. Others said Hyperliquid shows a positive path this industry could take.

That gave me a lot of satisfaction. Because I truly believe in this model and in free markets. There are many external examples cited to prove “this model doesn’t work.” And when you become a case that can refute those doubts, it feels really good.

Crypto Industry Talent Mismatch, Should “Do the Right Thing” to Change Industry Image

Kevin: Obviously, what you’ve achieved is very difficult. But do you think there are enough people in the crypto industry trying to do the right things in the right way?

Jef: I think there’s a widespread mismatch in the crypto industry between what “can actually be built” and the people “trying to build it.”

This stems largely from the crypto industry’s long-standing negative reputation. Compare it to fields like AI, or traditional finance and tech projects before AI. If someone is highly promising, graduated from a good school, or is very talented themselves, and wants to create something truly valuable—today, I think many such people wouldn’t even seriously consider entering the crypto industry.

Because the industry is filled with too many negative cases, leading to a stereotype: it seems like only people who aren’t serious about products and just want to make a quick buck are here.

But I think this view is completely wrong. This is not at all the true potential of this industry.

Kevin: So how do we change this situation?

Jef: What we can do is keep building. Focus on building what we truly believe in.

When I say “we,” I mean the entire ecosystem, not just one team. For example, the Hyperliquid ecosystem has never paid much attention to the so-called “market meta” or been swayed too much by external noise—like what people theoretically think “should be done now” or “which sector is hotter.” We act more as a community, doing what we truly believe in.

I think this might be the best thing we can do—using actual results as feedback and demonstration.

Of course, as a permissionless network, there will inevitably be some less-than-ideal examples. There will always be people trying to exploit the community, exploit mechanisms, for short-term arbitrage or value extraction for personal gain. Seeing that is indeed regrettable.

But overall, I think our community direction is very correct. There’s a great culture here. If we continue building this way, hopefully the outside world will gradually notice, and more people who truly want to build long-term will be willing to enter the DeFi space.

Responsibility Behind Massive Wealth

Kevin: I think a lot of people are indeed paying attention to you now. As a founder, when you create tens of billions of dollars in wealth almost overnight, what responsibility do you feel comes with that?

Jef: I’m not sure if specific events like the genesis moment or TGE actually change the responsibility itself. I think building any product related to finance inherently comes with enormous responsibility.

If you choose to build financial infrastructure, you have to give it your all. Even then, you’ll still feel there’s too much to do. Because finance is an extremely important part of a person’s life. When someone uses a financial product, the level of trust they place in you is far higher than when using ordinary consumer products.

So I don’t have a particularly grand answer either. What we can do is try our absolute best to execute, and we must achieve near-perfection.

This might mean we slow down; it might mean we choose harder, more complex ways to build the system. There are many similar examples. We must always design the system around some core principles: staying neutral, fair, and robust under various market conditions.

These principles don’t change because of the TGE. Even before that, users were already trusting Hyperliquid—trusting it as an on-chain, fully verifiable, transparent alternative to replace the opaque systems they were already tired of. It is this trust that is the real responsibility we need to bear.

From “In-Group Belief” to Targeting Global Users

Kevin: We last recorded the podcast about a month before the TGE. At that time, I did something I often use to test a community’s authenticity—because in crypto, there’s too much fake data, bot accounts, it’s a well-known problem. So I took a group photo and posted it to see the community’s reaction. The enthusiasm far exceeded my expectations, and I thought then that this community was stronger than I anticipated.

It felt a bit like “in-group belief,” but more like a hidden “code”—those who get it, get it, but many people in the industry didn’t fully understand what was happening. Then the TGE happened, and many things were done almost the right way. You went from a “belief-based community” with strong cohesion within crypto to a project supported by the entire industry.

So next, how do you make Hyperliquid a “code” that can attract users outside the circle? How do you get people not in crypto to want to join?

Jef: I think, ultimately, it’s about providing real value. This applies not just to Hyperliquid, but to all builders.

I don’t think the goal is to create a “fanatical community.” The so-called “sense of belief” or “cult vibe” people see is essentially resonance with a group of builders moving towards a common goal with clear values. It seems scarce because such long-termism and value alignment are not common in crypto.

I’m reluctant to call it “belief.” In my view, it’s just people coming together, doing the right things the right way, adhering to fair principles, building an open financial system. This should be the “norm.”

If we want the whole world to join, we must continuously prove: we can build value that the traditional financial system cannot. I’m very confident about this.

From a macro perspective, DeFi has always carried this promise. The past problem was more the gap between the idea and the technical implementation. That an open financial system benefits the world is almost indisputable. The key lies in execution, and not letting bad behavior, short-term temptations, or personal gain derail the overall direction.

I think there are only two core points: first, execute well; second, persist in doing things the right way. If these two can be achieved, then DeFi is essentially a massive technological upgrade to the existing financial system. When that becomes clear enough, people will naturally join.

Do You Celebrate Milestones?

Kevin: Did you celebrate at the time? Or was it completely business as usual? I ask because I remember a story, I think from Paradigm’s Matt Huang—some Web2 company IPO’d, they had champagne ready that day, but the whole team came down, each drank a glass of water, then went back to work until midnight, almost no celebration at all.

So I’m curious, what happened at Hyperliquid Labs then? You just said it was just a milestone, with much more to do. Did people have some form of celebration? Or was it, “This was planned all along,” and then focus on the next goal?

Jef: I thought about it… there really wasn’t any formal celebration. Looking back now, it feels a bit regrettable. Because if you review it, there were many moments worth celebrating. But in the moment, there’s always more to do. You can never find a “perfect time” to stop and celebrate.

Maybe many years later, when the entire system is fully autonomous, everything is mature and complete, truly becoming a stable operating financial system, perhaps that will be the time to celebrate.

Of course, everyone might celebrate in their own way. But at least at the Hyperliquid Labs team level, we don’t have that culture of “opening champagne when a feature launches.” That’s not our style.

I think it’s more a cultural issue—we’re naturally more focused on what to build next, rather than stopping to celebrate what’s already done.

On Team Screening, Work Intensity, and Privacy Boundaries

How to Screen for “High Integrity” Members

Kevin: How do you test if someone has “high integrity”?

Jef: That’s a great question. Frankly, there’s no perfect method.

In Hyperliquid Labs’ hiring process, we certainly do a lot of technical assessments, but beyond that, we always arrange at least a full day of real collaboration. Not a highly time-compressed, simulated interview, but actually working together.

When you collaborate with someone for a long time, discuss problems, write code together, face real challenges together, you gradually sense what kind of person they are. There are many “soft signals”—hard to quantify, but perceptible. You can never be 100% sure about someone’s character, but sometimes signals appear that make you think “this risk isn’t worth taking.”

Also, we make sure everyone on the team feels truly comfortable with the new member. There have indeed been cases: some people strongly supported a candidate, but others had reservations. Usually in such cases, we choose not to hire.

Kevin: So it’s a consensus mechanism? Everyone votes together?

Jef: Not exactly formal voting. There’s no procedural voting system. But basically, if anyone expresses moderate to strong opposition, that’s usually enough to veto the hire.

On Work Intensity and Sleep

Kevin: How much do you sleep? How much do team members sleep? How much do you “allow” them to sleep?

Jef: It really varies by person. We don’t pressure on “hours invested,” because that’s often the start of disaster.

If someone really needs sleep and doesn’t get it, the quality of anything they produce will drop. Our quality standards are very high—even with full energy, writing excellent engineering code requires full effort.

So we operate on a high-trust system here. I also don’t agree with that “all-nighter culture” or the atmosphere of treating staying up late as an honor. I personally might work longer hours than many who promote that culture, but I don’t think it should be a hard requirement for the team.

Some on the team do work very late, others have fixed productive hours each day. As long as they can consistently produce A+ level results, we don’t care how many hours they specifically put in.

For us, what matters is not “how long you work,” but “the quality of output.”

Employee Token Unlocks and Privacy Boundaries

Kevin: Last question about the team. I promise it’s the last one. There’s been a lot of FUD over the past few months, and one concern among community members and token holders is the employee token unlock schedule. Many worry that about $300 million worth of tokens will continuously flow into the market each month, and for a long time. What’s the actual situation?

Jef: We won’t publicly discuss these specific details. Because I genuinely believe financial privacy is a fundamental right. This is also one of the reasons we entered the crypto industry and participate in DeFi.

Just like you wouldn’t demand a community member to publicly explain: “You hold a lot of tokens, you must tell everyone what you’re doing with every transaction.” I think a clear line must be drawn here, and that line is personal privacy.

I believe how the protocol operates must be completely transparent. The flow of every dollar should be clearly traceable; assets in the system must truly belong to the corresponding holders; protocol rules must be public and verifiable. This level of transparency is a non-negotiable prerequisite for an open financial system. Without it, we see the problems witnessed on some centralized exchanges.

But on the other hand, how any contributor handles their own tokens is their personal asset. That should not be subject to public scrutiny, nor is it my duty to judge or disclose.

The protocol must be transparent, but individuals must have privacy. These two are not in conflict.

On Handling FUD, Automatic Burn Mechanism, and Removing Human Discretion

How to Handle FUD and External Attacks

Kevin: Your way of handling FUD and external skepticism is quite interesting. Many people think Hyperliquid’s approach is to ignore it, stay silent.

Jef: That’s not really the case. Indeed, early on we tended not to respond. But later I realized my own intuition about PR isn’t always correct. So now I’m more willing to leave that part to more professional judgment and handling.

One thing we deliberately adjusted later—when FUD appears, my instinctive reaction is often: “This is obviously wrong, the facts will surface on their own.” But I gradually realized this mindset isn’t always right.

From a pragmatic perspective, if false information is spreading and clarification is indeed needed, we will respond. We will explain and correct specific issues, not ignore them all.

Of course, we won’t react to every voice either. The key is judgment: Is this misleading users, damaging community trust, or affecting proper understanding of the protocol? If yes, we will address it head-on.

So, rather than saying we “ignore FUD,” it’s more that we’re learning to handle it more maturely and strategically.

Kevin: Does this FUD affect you personally? Be honest.

Jef: It depends on the type of FUD.

Over the past six months, the overall crypto market has been very volatile, often downward. Certain events did cause real damage to the market. And because Hyperliquid is one of the few truly transparent trading venues, a lot of discussion naturally focused on us.

I was indeed very concerned during that period. I acted almost with a sense of “mission,” wanting to explain some technical details clearly. Because these issues are personal—many people may have lost a lot of money. In that situation, emotions are highly sensitive.

But I also saw some competitors deliberately “mischaracterizing” Hyperliquid from different angles. They downplayed what we did right, using negative narratives to divert attention from their own problems.

That kind of situation makes me angry. Because it’s clear they know what they’re doing.

But on the other hand, that anger ultimately turns into motivation—pushing me to explain more clearly to users why Hyperliquid is designed this way, why transparency is so important.

For example, some centralized exchanges might

Artikel ini bersumber dari internet: Conversation with Hyperliquid Founder Jeff Yan: Moving Finance On-Chain Before AI Takes Over the World

Related: OpenClaw: Another Wave of Middle-Class Unemployment

GitHub has a website called Star History, dedicated to tracking the popularity of open-source projects. The horizontal axis represents time, and the vertical axis represents the number of stars. It is said that programmers study this chart as seriously as a textbook. There are three lines on the chart. The red one is React. Open-sourced by Facebook in 2013, with thousands of engineers invested over 12 years, it climbed to 230K stars. Over half of the world’s website frontends use it. The yellow line is Linux. In 1991, Finnish university student Linus Torvalds posted the operating system kernel he wrote online. For the next thirty years, tens of thousands of developers worldwide continuously contributed code, supporting the operating systems for Android phones, cloud servers, and the International Space Station. The…