Jeff Yan is the founder of Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange for perpetual futures built on a custom Layer 1 blockchain. With a background in mathematics, computer science, and high-frequency trading, he transitioned from traditional finance to the crypto space. Yan bootstrapped Hyperliquid entirely with profits from his prior trading firm, rejecting all venture capital to create a community-focused platform. ^[13]​

Education

In 2013, while in high school, Yan represented the United States in the International Physics Olympiad and won a gold medal. He later graduated from Harvard University with a degree in mathematics and computer science. ^{[13] [11]}​

Career

After graduating from Harvard, Yan had a brief stint at Google before joining Hudson River Trading, a prominent high-frequency trading (HFT) firm. There, he gained experience in low-latency strategies and complex problems blending engineering and mathematics. ^{[13] [11] [12]} In 2018, driven by the rise of cryptocurrency and Ethereum, he left to develop a Layer 2 exchange protocol as a prediction market. Despite raising funds and moving to San Francisco to build a team, the project was eventually shut down due to regulatory uncertainties and a lack of user adoption, as most people were more interested in token speculation than decentralized finance. ^{[1] [11]}​

Following this, during the 2020–2021 bull run, Yan founded the crypto market-making firm Chameleon Trading, which became one of the largest in the space. The collapse of FTX in late 2022 served as a key catalyst for Yan, who saw an opportunity to build a superior decentralized alternative for traders seeking self-custody. This led him to launch Hyperliquid in 2023, while his HFT operations continued to run in the background. For his work on Hyperliquid, Yan was named to CoinDesk's "Most Influential 2025" list. ^{[13] [14] [1]}​

Hyperliquid

Yan founded Hyperliquid in 2023, motivated by the collapse of FTX and the market's need for a high-performance, self-custodial trading platform. The project was built by a small team of 11 core contributors and entirely bootstrapped with profits from Yan's trading firm, Chameleon Trading. ^[13]​

The platform is built on a custom Layer 1 blockchain designed to support a fully on-chain order book. This architecture provides a user experience comparable to centralized exchanges, with sub-second transaction finality, while maintaining the transparency and security of decentralized finance (DeFi). ^{[3] [13]}​

​Hyperliquid experienced rapid organic growth, relying on its product performance rather than large marketing campaigns. By late 2025, the platform had amassed over 570,000 users and was processing approximately 308 billion for the month of October 2025. The native HYPE token launched in late 2024, with approximately 31% of the supply distributed to early users. ^[13]​

Key developments on the platform include:

• HyperEVM: Launched on February 19, 2025, this Ethereum-compatible virtual machine allows developers to build financial applications directly on Hyperliquid’s blockchain. ^{[2] [13]}
• Wallet Integration: In July 2025, Phantom Wallet launched its perpetuals trading feature, "Phantom Perps," using Hyperliquid as its core on-chain infrastructure. ^[2]
• Permissionless Markets (HIP-3): Launched in November 2025, this feature enabled protocols like Tradexyz, Ventuals, and Felix Protocol to build and deploy their own perpetuals markets on the platform. ^{[2] [13]}

In October 2025, Hyperliquid Strategies, a digital asset treasury company, announced plans to raise up to $1 billion to accumulate the HYPE token. ^[13]​

Liquidation System Criticism

During a market crash on October 10, 2025, Hyperliquid's liquidation system faced public criticism. In response, Yan published a technical defense explaining that the platform's liquidation models are designed to minimize systemic risk for all users, rather than to maximize protocol revenue from individual liquidations. He also noted that during the high volatility, the platform maintained 100% uptime with zero bad debt. ^{[13] [2]}​

Philosophy and Approach

Rejection of Venture Capital

Yan has taken an unconventional approach to building Hyperliquid by rejecting all venture capital (VC) funding, opting to self-fund the project entirely using profits from his trading company. He has stated that his motivation was never primarily financial but rather to create something interesting and valuable. According to Yan, VCs often foster an "illusion of progress" by inflating valuations without delivering real utility to users, and he believes VCs holding large stakes can become a "scar on the network." By avoiding external investors, he aimed to focus on what is best for the platform's users and community. ^{[4] [5] [13]}​

This community-first ethos is reflected in the platform's tokenomics. When the HYPE token launched in November 2024, approximately 31% of the supply was allocated directly to users based on their trading activity—a move made possible by the absence of VCs demanding priority distribution. All protocol fees are distributed exclusively to liquidity providers and insurance funds, with the development team receiving no share. This strategy has allowed Hyperliquid to grow organically, operated by a small, focused team of just 11 full-time members. ^{[4] [5] [13]}​

Stance on Market Makers

In line with his independent approach, Yan has clarified that Hyperliquid has no private arrangements, profit-sharing deals, or special partnerships with market makers. He has dispelled rumors of such collaborations, stating that avoiding these deals, while potentially slowing short-term growth, was the right long-term decision to maintain the platform's integrity and independence. Yan believes that for a decentralized exchange, it is critical to avoid reliance on internal desks or designated market makers from the outset. ^{[4] [6] [12]}​

The platform's only liquidity pool is the Hyperliquid Pool (HLP), which is protocol-owned and open for any user to deposit into, ensuring no single entity controls it. This approach was part of a broader strategy to let users discover the platform organically and preserve its authenticity and decentralization, rather than driving superficial traction through partnerships. ^{[4] [6] [12]}​

Advocacy for Transparent Markets

Yan is a proponent of transparent markets, arguing that they can lead to fairer and more efficient trading. He has defended Hyperliquid's model, which utilizes a fully visible on-chain order book. He challenges the notion that privacy is necessary for better trading execution, suggesting that many benefits of privacy actually stem from the ability to select counterparties. Hyperliquid's system applies this screening while keeping order information public, which helps prevent insider advantages from hidden deals. To address issues like latency arbitrage, the platform's order matching engine deprioritizes fast "taker" orders under certain conditions. This gives market makers a fair chance to update their prices, which encourages them to quote tighter spreads and ultimately provides better prices and liquidity for all users. ^{[7] [11]}​

In response to concerns that visible order data could expose large traders to front-running or liquidation hunting, Yan argues that providing equal access to data mitigates this risk. He explained that on centralized exchanges, insiders can exploit liquidation information, whereas on Hyperliquid, everyone sees the same data, which levels the playing field. He compared the platform's transparency to public ETF rebalances in traditional finance, where visibility does not prevent efficient execution. By distributing order data across many market makers, the system fosters a competitive environment that can lead to better pricing and lower slippage for all traders, including large "whales." ^[7]​

Personal Life and Values

Yan is a first-generation Chinese-American, born and raised in Palo Alto, California, after his parents immigrated from China. He speaks some Chinese but is more fluent in English, particularly for technical subjects. In an interview, he described his worldview as a blend of complementary Eastern and Western values that he believes have contributed to Hyperliquid's success. He credits this dual perspective for combining the "very American way of thinking"—dreaming big, believing a small team can change the world, and not accepting the status quo—with traditional Eastern values of "humility, doing more than talking, and a strong work ethic." ^{[12] [13]}​

Interviews

WuBlockchain Podcast

In an August 2025 interview on the WuBlockchain Podcast, Yan elaborated on Hyperliquid's foundational principles and future direction. He reiterated that the project was entirely self-funded, driven by a desire to build something valuable rather than for monetary gain, and to ensure ownership was community-driven. He criticized the common VC fundraising model in crypto as creating "fake progress," where success is measured by fundraising rounds rather than user value. Yan explained that the decision not to list the HYPE token on centralized exchanges stemmed from a lack of capacity and a "laser focus" on core development, trusting that good technology would eventually be listed organically. ^{[12] [5]}​

He also discussed the team's small size of 11 people, emphasizing a selective hiring process focused on finding smart, driven individuals with high integrity, noting that hiring the wrong person is "much worse than not hiring anyone at all." He described his management style as hands-on with technical details but not micromanaging, preferring to give team members full ownership of challenging tasks. Looking ahead, Yan stated that Hyperliquid is transitioning from an application to a protocol, with the goal of making the blockchain a performant and scalable foundation for others to build financial products like stablecoins and tokenized assets. He confirmed Hyperliquid itself would not be issuing these products. ^{[12] [6]}​

Winning in Crypto

Yan shared insights into developing Hyperliquid’s decentralized platform to disrupt traditional finance systems on the When Shift Happens podcast. His journey began with experimenting in crypto trading, eventually realizing the potential for decentralized finance (DeFi) after centralized exchanges like FTX collapsed. Hyperliquid, which provides a user-centric platform, avoids typical startup approaches like raising funds from VCs or incentivizing market makers.

Instead, the team prioritizes creating a product that users love, building from first principles. Despite the challenges and risks, Yan is committed to pushing DeFi forward, believing that offering better user experience and truly decentralized systems is the path toward real market change. ^[8]​

Better Perp DEX

On the 0xResearch podcast, Yan discussed the development of Hyperliquid’s decentralized perpetual exchange (perp DEX) and the company’s expansion into launching a Layer 1 blockchain. Initially focused on building a successful perp DEX with a strong user base, Hyperliquid leveraged its team's background in quantitative trading and low-level infrastructure to solve technical challenges such as liquidity and slippage, ensuring a competitive edge over centralized exchanges.

Yan explained that the Layer 1, initially built to support their DEX, now serves as a broader infrastructure for financial ecosystems, attracting users and liquidity. He emphasized the importance of custom-built solutions like the Vault system, which allows users to create decentralized copy-trading strategies. While initially not part of the plan, Hyperliquid's pivot to an Layer 1 was influenced by the realization that existing decentralized platforms were insufficient, particularly following the collapse of FTX. This shift allowed them to create a platform capable of scaling decentralized finance to match traditional finance. ^[9]​

Panels

DEXplosion

At TOKEN2049 Singapore 2023, several DEX founders discussed the growth and challenges of DEXs post-FTX. Yan, Cindy Leo from Drift,  Julian Koh from Ribbon Finance, and Suyang Yang from Circuit shared insights into their platforms and the broader DEX landscape. They identified liquidity as a major barrier for DEXs to compete with centralized exchanges (CEXs), noting that liquidity must significantly improve for DEXs to attract institutional traders and power users. They also highlighted challenges such as long onboarding times, the need for smoother user experiences, and the importance of censorship resistance and transparency in the decentralized space.

The founders emphasized that despite these hurdles, DEXs offer key advantages like better privacy, community ownership, and security. They also discussed technical decisions, such as building on custom Layer 1 or Layer 2 solutions to avoid congestion and maintain performance during market volatility. ^[10]​