Hyperliquid Looks Like Solana At $20 Last Cycle: Daniel Cheung

Daniel Cheung, co-founder of Syncracy Capital, says Hyperliquid’s native token HYPE is beginning to resemble Solana’s setup before its last major run, arguing that the protocol has become the clearest center of real trading activity in crypto. In a series of posts on X over the past month, Cheung laid out an increasingly aggressive thesis: Hyperliquid is not just outperforming within crypto, but could emerge as a broader financial trading platform with appeal beyond the sector.

Cheung’s most direct comparison came this week. “HYPE at $35 feels similar to SOL at $20 before its last cycle rally,” he wrote, framing Hyperliquid as an early-stage winner before a broader market expansion. He tied that view to what he sees as the protocol’s current market position: “Hyperliquid is currently the main chain where trading activity is happening and the only chain bringing new users into crypto right now given its offering around 24/7 markets.”

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What Cheung appears to be invoking is Solana’s move from a battered late-2022 asset into one of the cycle’s biggest winners. After trading around $8 at the end of 2022 and still hovering near $23 in September 2023, SOL eventually climbed to a fresh all-time high of $295.83 in mid-January 2025. From a $20 reference point, that would imply a rally of roughly 1,379%.

That argument is notable because it does not rest primarily on meme-driven activity, which has often powered attention cycles elsewhere. Cheung said Hyperliquid is “gaining significantly more media attention and respect” because its use cases are “centered around much more than dogshit memes.” In his telling, that gives the project a stronger foundation if speculative conditions improve again.

Across several posts, Cheung repeatedly described Hyperliquid less as a single-app crypto trade and more as a category-defining trading venue. On Feb. 28, he wrote, “Becoming more clear by the day that Hyperliquid is the financial trading platform of the future and that generational wealth will be made longing this coin. Think this has a chance to flip Robinhood, Interactive Brokers etc… Hyperliquid is out innovating peers.”

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That is a large claim, and Cheung presented it as a product and market-structure thesis rather than a short-term price call alone. His view appears to hinge on two linked assumptions: first, that perpetual futures become a much larger category than the market currently prices in, and second, that Hyperliquid captures a disproportionate share of that expansion because it is already where users are trading.

He made that point more explicitly on Feb. 12, when he said investors were missing “two things” in the current market. The first was that “HYPE is the most exciting startup not in AI and will eventually flip COIN and HOOD.” The second was that “the perps category will be bigger than anyone expects,” adding that another asset, LIT, looked deeply undervalued relative to HYPE on a fee basis.

Cheung’s posts also make clear that timing matters. On March 9, he said “HYPE to $120+” would be “pretty easy once the crypto bull market comes back,” before adding: “We are close.” That suggests his target is not based on Hyperliquid operating in isolation, but on the idea that a renewed bull phase would amplify an already strong relative position. Notably, BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes recently argued that HYPE could reach $150 until August this year.

At press time, HYPE traded at $36.16.

Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com