HyperLiquid, a decentralized perpetual exchange, is poised to be one of the crypto breakthrough projects of 2025, but rival companies are competing to lure away investors with their hefty reward systems.
Cantor Fitzgerald predicts that HyperLiquid’s HYPE (HYPE) token will soar to $200 by 2035. Hyun-soo Jeong, CEO of HYPE finance company Hyperion Defy, claims that this surge will be driven by Hyper Liquid Improvement Proposal 3 (HIP-3).
“We believe HIP-3 is a key driver of HyperLiquid’s next phase of growth and a key enabler of Kantar’s proposed valuation framework,” Jung told Cointelegraph.
Perpetual swaps are futures derivative contracts that track the price of an underlying asset but have no expiration date. The contract maintains a price close to the physical asset through a funding mechanism that transfers payments between long and short position holders.
Perpetual futures DEX market share rose from 2.1% in January 2023 to a record high of 11.7% in November 2025, according to a report by data aggregator CoinGecko.
Volume ratio of DEX and CEX. Source: CoinGecko.com
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Cantor Fitzgerald predicts HYPE token price to be $200 by 2035
In early December, a research note from Cantor Fitzgerald predicted that the HYPE token would rise to over $200 over the next 10 years due to increased use of decentralized exchanges.
“Given the fact that all fees are returned to token holders through buybacks, we argue that HYPE should trade at close to 50x by 2035,” the company wrote in a research note published on December 16, adding:
“Using this methodology, I see a path for HYPE to surpass $200.”
The company’s forecast assumes that the support fund will buy back approximately 291 million HYPE tokens, reducing the total supply to 666 million tokens, while the token price will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15%.
AF is an on-chain entity that uses 99% of protocol transaction fees to buy back HYPE tokens, with the purpose of artificially reinforcing demand for the tokens.
HYPE token prediction, 10 year forecast. Source: Cantor Fitzgerald
This optimistic forecast also assumes that CEXs will lose approximately 1% of their annual market share to DEXs, which equates to an estimated $600 billion in trading volume.
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Emerging rivals are the biggest threat to Hyper Liquid
Emerging rival DEXs remain the biggest threat to Hyperliquid’s growth projections, especially Lighter DEX’s upcoming token generation event (TGE).
“In the short term, the risk is competition from other perpetual DEXs, especially new entrants like Lighter who are using token generation events as an incentive to gain market share,” Jung said.
Lighter, an Ethereum rollup-based DEX, has begun to gain traction through its zero-fee trading model and unique points-based yield farming system, reporting daily trading volume of over $8 billion.
Perp Dex, 24 hour volume. Source: Perpetual Pulse/Cointelegraph
Lighter’s reward farming system has sparked widespread trader anticipation for the TGE, which is rumored to take place at the end of 2025. Although the platform has not yet officially announced the token, Lighter points are selling for around $12 on the over-the-counter market as of December 20, according to airdrop farming account Legends Trade.
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