Latest developments: Hyperliquid is outperforming much of the crypto market as traders return to higher-risk assets.
- Hyperliquid’s HYPE token hits new all-time high after launching two HYPE ETFs in the US
- Van de Poppe said European traders are increasingly turning to hyperliquid as perpetual futures trading remains difficult to access on many regulated platforms in Europe.
- He argued that Hyperliquide’s push into tokenized stocks, commodities and pre-IPO assets is accelerating broader tokenization trends in crypto markets.
- Van de Poppe said HYPE could reach $100 or more if the crypto market’s 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 stronger long-term conviction bet.
- He said liquidity in crypto markets is concentrated around a small group of protocols generating strong user and revenue growth.
- Van de Poppe said Hyperliquid was currently benefiting from this concentration, but warned that competitors would eventually enter the market and put pressure on its dominance.
- He described Solana as a successful transition from a “degenerate” ecosystem to a more institutional blockchain ecosystem.
- Van de Poppe said Solana’s long-term positioning as an infrastructure makes it more attractive than Hyperliquide over a multi-year horizon.
The AI business: AI-related crypto projects remain deeply undervalued compared to traditional AI companies, van de Poppe said.
- He highlighted NEAR and Bittensor as two of the strongest infrastructures related to AI adoption in crypto.
- Van de Poppe argued that the valuations of private and public AI companies have become overheated, while AI crypto tokens have fallen sharply despite the ecosystem’s continued growth.
- He said NEAR’s projected revenue growth, from about $10 million in 2025 to $100 million this year, supports a significantly higher valuation.
- Van de Poppe said Bittensor’s expanding ecosystem and subnet structure could justify prices between $1,000 and $2,000 if adoption continues.
The privacy debate: Privacy remains one of the major long-term themes in crypto, but fully anonymous systems face major regulatory risks.
- Van de Poppe said institutional and individual 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 funds in Europe already face restrictions when interacting with certain privacy-focused assets.
- He highlighted zero-knowledge proof systems and permissioned privacy models as more sustainable paths to institutional adoption.
Macroeconomic outlook: Van de Poppe said bond yields and central bank policy remain the key near-term macro drivers for crypto.
- He said Japanese bond yields are a key market signal and could strongly influence risk appetite overall.
- Falling yields could support equity and cryptocurrency markets, while persistent inflation could create headwinds.
- Van de Poppe said he did not expect aggressive rate cuts or further monetary easing from the Federal Reserve in the near term.
- He warned that additional rate hikes would likely put pressure on crypto and broader risk assets.
