Hyperliquid Founder Interview: Single-Parent Household Fosters Independent Self-Taught Personality, Early Display of Prodigy Scholar Talent

Recently, Hyperliquid founder Jeff opened up about his growth journey in an interview with *Colossus* magazine, a publication under *Forbes*. Jeff spent his childhood on the Redwood Coast (between San Francisco and Palo Alto) with his younger sister. His parents, both Chinese immigrants, divorced when he was in third grade, and his father left the family. His mother worked as an accountant and often pulled overtime during tax season. “I knew some people were wealthier than us, but I never resented it,” Jeff recalled. “Playing outside didn’t cost anything.” Jeff’s school lacked a competitive academic atmosphere. While his mother said she’d push him academically, she never followed through. No one pushed him to achieve anything until his teenage years—he spent each day playing outside, going to school, coming home, and playing more. That changed in eighth grade, when a chance encounter ignited his drive to learn. From there, he launched his path to academic excellence: he self-studied all Olympiad math problems in ninth grade, made the USA Math Olympiad training camp (top 50 in the U.S.), won a gold medal at the USA Physics Olympiad at 18, and finished 24th in the world. He later enrolled at Harvard University on a full scholarship. During his junior year winter, he joined Scott Wu in Hudson River Trading’s first-ever internship program—Hudson River Trading is one of the world’s top quant trading firms. Of the 10 selected interns, two went on to found notable companies: Alexandr Wang (Scale AI) and Jesse Zhang (Decagon). The program was structured as a three-week competition, where Wu and Jeff finished first and second in every round.