Latest developments: Hyperliquid is outperforming much of the crypto market as traders rotate back to higher risk assets.
- Hyperliquid’s HYPE token hit a new all-time high after two HYPE ETFs launched in the US
- Van de Poppe said European traders have increasingly moved to Hyperliquid because perpetual futures trading remains difficult to access at many regulated venues in Europe.
- He argued that Hyperliquid’s push into tokenized stocks, commodities and pre-IPO assets is accelerating broader tokenization trends across crypto markets.
- Van de Poppe said HYPE could rise to $100 or more if crypto market appetite continues to strengthen.
- Van de Poppe joined Jennifer Sanasie on CoinDesk’s Markets Outlook.
What this means: Van de Poppe sees Hyperliquid as a short-term winner, but Solana as the strongest long-term bet.
- He said that liquidity in the crypto markets is concentrated around a small group of protocols that generate strong user growth and revenue.
- Van de Poppe said Hyperliquid currently benefits from this concentration, but warned that competitors will eventually enter the market and push its dominance.
- He described Solana as a successful transition from a “dough” ecosystem to a more institutional blockchain ecosystem.
- Van de Poppe said Solana’s long-term positioning as infrastructure makes it more attractive than Hyperliquid over a multi-year horizon.
AI Trading: AI-linked crypto projects remain deeply undervalued compared to traditional AI companies, van de Poppe said.
- He pointed to NEAR and Bittensor as two of the strongest infrastructure plays tied to AI adoption in crypto.
- Van de Poppe argued that valuations for private and public AI companies have become overheated, while crypto AI tokens have fallen sharply despite continued growth in the ecosystem.
- He said NEAR’s projected revenue growth from about $10 million in 2025 to as much as $100 million this year supports a significantly higher valuation.
- Van de Poppe said Bittensor’s ecosystem expansion and subnet structure could justify prices between $1,000 and $2,000 if adoption continues.
The privacy debate: Privacy remains one of crypto’s biggest long-term themes, but completely anonymous systems face major regulatory risks.
- Van de Poppe said institutional and retail users both want more transactional privacy on blockchains.
- He argued that governments are unlikely to support fully anonymous privacy coins in the long term because regulators want visibility into transactions.
- Van de Poppe said foundations in Europe already face restrictions when interacting with certain privacy-focused assets.
- He pointed to zero-knowledge proven systems and permissive privacy models as more sustainable paths forward for institutional adoption.
Macro Outlook: Van de Poppe said bond yields and central bank policy remain the biggest near-term macro drivers for crypto.
- He said Japanese bond yields are a key market signal and can have a big impact on broader risk appetite.
- Falling interest rates can support the stock and crypto markets, while persistent inflation can create headwinds.
- Van de Poppe said he does not expect aggressive rate cuts or renewed monetary easing from the Federal Reserve in the near term.
- He warned that further interest rate hikes were likely to pressure crypto and broader risk assets.
