BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has doubled down on a bullish call for Hyperliquid (HYPE), predicting the altcoin will surpass Solana’s market cap before this market cycle ends — and reiterating a $150 price target he expects to see by the start of the second half of the year.
Hayes made the remarks on X, arguing that HYPE should, at a minimum, overtake Solana before the current “bull run” finishes. He added that his own portfolio is in a bull market, pushing back on an X user who described the broader crypto market as being in a bear phase. Hayes has also disclosed positions in HYPE as well as ZEC and NEAR, three alts that have outperformed in recent weeks.
When Hayes first floated the Solana-overtake thesis, HYPE was trading below the $70 psychological level with roughly a $15 billion market cap. Since then the token has climbed to a fresh all-time high above $73, lifting market capitalization to about $18 billion and pushing HYPE past Dogecoin to become the ninth-largest crypto by market cap. For HYPE to overtake Solana, its market cap would need to rise above roughly $48 billion — a scenario Hayes believes is attainable and that could push price north of $100, and ultimately toward his $150 projection.
Hayes previously said HYPE could hit $150 by August, linking the target to growth in activity on the Hyperliquid decentralized exchange. The DEX currently allocates up to 99% of fees to buy and burn HYPE tokens, a mechanism Hayes says will boost token scarcity and underpin price appreciation as the platform scales and fee revenue increases.
Adding color to the debate, Hayes challenged Solana advocate Kyle Samani to a charitable wager on X: $100,000 to a charity of Samani’s choice if HYPE outperforms any other current top crypto by market cap from now through year-end. Hayes asked Samani to name the token he believes would beat HYPE.
Performance so far supports some of Hayes’s confidence: Hyperliquid is the best-performing crypto among the top 10 by market cap year-to-date, with a YTD gain of roughly 188%. Justin Sun’s Tron is the only other top-10 token in positive territory this year, up about 23%.
At the time of writing, CoinMarketCap shows HYPE trading around $73, up more than 5% over the past 24 hours. As always, such predictions are speculative — but Hayes’s high-profile backing and the DEX’s aggressive buyback-and-burn policy have made Hyperliquid one of this cycle’s hottest stories.
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