Hyperliquid's founder once turned down a $1 billion valuation funding proposal, sticking to a "Zero External Investment" approach.

April 13 — Hyperliquid founder Jeffrey Yan rejected a $100 million investment offer tied to a ~$1 billion valuation, just months after the blockchain protocol launched (less than a year online). The team had been self-funding operations throughout, with Yan personally covering monthly project costs before and after the investment proposal emerged. Yan consulted multiple entrepreneurs and VCs on fundraising’s purpose and value but never bought into the idea that external capital would boost the protocol’s intrinsic worth. He formally informed his team of the rejection this Monday. Fund management team members were stunned by the call, as they’d already made extensive preparations for the fundraising push, per insiders. Yan’s key rationale: Hyperliquid isn’t a traditional company but a blockchain protocol requiring neutrality. He argued external equity capital could undermine the protocol’s “permissionless, neutral” positioning — conflicting with its long-term design goals. He previously noted Bitcoin’s “neutrality narrative” might have been weakened if it’d accepted VC funding early on. By that logic, he’s keeping Hyperliquid investor-free and will cover some operational expenses long-term out of pocket. On Jan 28, 2024, Yan outlined the project’s core tenets on social media: • No investors • No paid market makers • No development team fees • No privileged insiders These rules underpin Hyperliquid’s “extremely decentralized/decapitalized” approach, per the report.