Hyperion DeFi (HYPD) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

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DATE

Thursday, May 14, 2026 at 8 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Chief Executive Officer — Hyunsu Jung
• Chief Financial Officer — David Knox

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TAKEAWAYS

• 2026 Adjusted Gross Profit Guidance -- Raised to $5 million to $7 million, a 20% increase from prior guidance.
• Q1 Adjusted Gross Profit -- $960,000, up 17% sequentially from Q4 and 119% since Q3.
• DeFi Monetization Growth -- Segment grew 140% quarter over quarter, reaching $245,000 adjusted gross profit, supported by new partnerships and expanded trading activity across HIP3 and Silhouette.
• Yield Enhancement Strategies -- Delivered 165% quarter-over-quarter growth, producing $211,000 adjusted gross profit, with Rysk premium vaults set to expand accessibility for institutional use.
• Cash Portion of Gross Profit -- Increased to 48% in Q1 from 22% in Q4 and 18% in Q3, indicating improved liquidity of earnings.
• Operating Expenses -- Down 1% sequentially to $2.98 million; SG&A (ex-stock compensation) decreased 5% to $2.7 million, with further declines projected as biotech operations wind down.
• Treasury Position -- HYPE tokens held increased from 1.88 million in Q4 to 1.94 million in Q1 and over 2 million by May 11; treasury value at $84.5 million exceeds cash basis by $8.6 million due to HYPE appreciation.
• Record Net Income and EBITDA -- Q1 net income of $8.8 million and adjusted EBITDA of $19.5 million, compared to Q4 net loss of $39.8 million and negative EBITDA of $38.9 million.
• Recent Capital Raise -- $10 million public equity offering completed last week, bringing cash to $16 million as of May 11, and expanding the share count to approximately 15 million.
• Segment Detail -- Staking generated 10,100 HYPE tokens in Q1, up 16% versus Q4; validator commissions at 1,300 HYPE tokens ($40,000), broadly stable sequentially.
• Ecosystem Rewards -- $150,000 in Q1 versus $285,000 in Q4, with noted volatility and contributions from 10 million HPL tokens (1% of total HPL supply) received from HyperLend.
• Key Equity/Token Awards -- As of May 11:>2 million HYPE, 1.9 million KNTQ, 10 million HPL, plus rights to 1% of Silhouette equity or tokens.
• Major Partnerships -- Agreements with Silhouette, HyperLend, Rysk, and Kinetiq have generated new income streams, equity positions, and protocol-specific rewards.
• HIP3 and HIP4 Developments -- HIP3 markets now drive nearly 50% of Hyperliquid daily volume; HIP4 outcome markets launched May 2 with initial volumes more than 3x Polymarket and Kalshi combined on day one.
• Net Asset Value -- Grew from $44.2 million at Q4 close to $69.9 million at Q1 end, reaching approximately $90 million as of May 11.
• Cash Flow and Financing -- Net cash used in operations was $4.2 million; $1.5 million in additional HYPE purchased in Q1, with $2.5 million more acquired through May 11.

SUMMARY

Hyperion DeFi (NASDAQ:HYPD) raised 2026 adjusted gross profit guidance to $5 million to $7 million, reflecting substantial business momentum driven by triple-digit growth in core DeFi activities and effective capital deployment. Management highlighted rising cash profitability, sharp reductions in core costs, and continued asset accumulation amid volatile HYPE token prices, establishing a multi-layered ecosystem monetization strategy distinct from digital asset beta exposure. The company secured notable protocol equity and token awards, indicated scalable product expansion with new institutional-grade DeFi partnerships, and successfully closed a $10 million public equity offering to fuel further strategic deployments.

• CEO Jung said, "We are very proud to share with you the results of the continued scaling of our DeFi operating businesses in addition to the growing network value of our ecosystem engagement," characterizing partner and protocol collaboration as essential value drivers.
• Protocols such as Silhouette and Kinetiq contributed meaningful volumes and provided Hyperion DeFi with equity rights and revenue share streams, expanding non-token revenue channels.
• CFO Knox said, "Adjusted gross profit, a non-GAAP metric, aims to capture all of Hyperion DeFi's value-add operating business activities beyond simply buying and holding HYPE Tokens," emphasizing that current and future guidance reflects multifaceted, active business operations rather than passive crypto treasury effects.
• Ongoing wind-down of the biotech legacy business accompanied by shifting GAAP presentment of validator economics signals a complete operational realignment towards DeFi and Hyperliquid ecosystem monetization.
• The company reiterated confidence in rapid product scaling, citing multi-quarter evidence of adjusted gross profit growth despite a 33% average HYPE token price decline across the past three periods.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• HIP3: Hyperliquid protocol markets focused on diverse asset classes including non-crypto financial instruments, used as a key revenue driver for DeFi activity.
• HIP4: Hyperliquid protocol upgrade enabling outcome-based markets, allowing trading or hedging based on real-world financial results.
• HYPE Asset Use Service (HAUS): Hyperion DeFi’s deployment program where HYPE tokens are utilized for trading fee reductions, lending, and protocol-specific income streams within the Hyperliquid platform.
• Staking Yield: Rewards earned by locking tokens within a blockchain protocol, receiving additional tokens for network security participation.
• Validator Commissions: Fees distributed to validators operating blockchain nodes, generated as a share of network transaction processing.
• Triple Dip Strategy: Hyperion’s approach to earning returns from three or more concurrent DeFi strategies—staking, validator operations, and ecosystem rewards—leveraging the same token base.
• Rysk Premium: Institutional-grade, smart contract-based crypto options vault product on Hyperliquid, developed with partner Rysk.
• KNTQ: Native token for Kinetiq, a Hyperliquid-based DeFi protocol; used for protocol rewards and equity-like stakeholder incentives.
• HPL: HyperLend protocol’s native governance and utility token, relevant for rebates and staking incentives through the Avia product line.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Hyunsu Jung: Thank you, Jason, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Hyperion DeFi's first quarter 2026 earnings call. In our first earnings call at Hyperion DeFi, we made a promise, stating that we would set ourselves apart from other digital asset treasury companies with our comprehensive ecosystem engagement strategy. At the time, it may have been difficult for investors to understand the concept of DeFi, let alone the idea of a public company using these strategies to generate revenue. We are off to a strong start of the year, continuing to distance ourselves from the crowd, fulfilling past promises, resulting in measurable growth across our core proficiencies, positioning ourselves in parallel with the rapid innovation from the Hyperliquid core team.

We have seen over the past few months that Hyperliquid continues to execute on its vision to become the blockchain to house all finance. HIP3 markets now account for almost 50% of Hyperliquid's daily average trading activity, an incredible testament to the product market fit of a unique on-chain primitive launched only 7 months ago. And just 12 days ago, HIP4, the network upgrade that unlocks outcome markets for Hyperliquid, went live on Mainnet. On its launch day, Hyperliquid's first outcome market for the price of Bitcoin did over 3x the combined volume of Polymarket and Kalshi.

This comes alongside the continued development of unified market accounts on Hyperliquid, which will ultimately enable users to access a seamless unified platform for positioning and hedging across all markets and products. As Hyperliquid's vision continues to become reality, Hyperion continues to position ourselves as the premier institutional gateway to DeFi innovation. We are very proud to share with you the results of the continued scaling of our DeFi operating businesses in addition to the growing network value of our ecosystem engagement. In our previous full year 2025 earnings call, we provided guidance of $4 million to $6 million adjusted gross profit for 2026, which captures our core DeFi operating businesses.

We have increased guidance to $5 million to $7 million for 2026 and anticipate cash flow breakeven by year-end, driven primarily by the continued opportunities to build income-generating businesses on Hyperliquid. As we walk through the results of this quarter, it should become clear why we raised capital and how our strategies continue to demonstrate the ability to triple dip on HYPE. In this quarter, we saw substantial growth in our DeFi monetization strategy as well as expansion of our yield enhancement strategies, both of which we expect to continue to grow through the remainder of 2026, driven by the continued adoption and growth of the Hyperliquid blockchain.

Specific to HyperCore, our DeFi monetization vertical grew by 140% this quarter, driven by our partnership with native Markets, a stronger quarter of volume on the Felix Exchange, our partnered HIP3 market and the initial spot testing volumes on Silhouette. These are 3 different variants of our HYPE asset use service or house, fees that are variable but correlated to the price of HYPE, fees that scale based on volume and fees generated on our markets listed on HIP3 and fees that scale based on aggregate volume and associated fee reductions for trading on Hyperliquid.

This diversified approach creates multiple avenues to generate DeFi income that are scalable over time and agnostic to the performance of just HYPE and crypto markets. We saw early on that the long-term appeal of these products would grow as Hyperliquid evolves to become more than just a platform to trade crypto. It will ultimately serve various real-world assets, outcome markets and structured products. And as a result, we have continued to see demand from clients and partners globally for our HYPE asset use service. We have also had the privilege of consistently being the first to be approached by these various deployers to support their objectives, and further integrate them into the Hyperliquid ecosystem.

With that responsibility, we continue to take a methodical approach to partner selection and ensure deal structures that create and return the most long-term value to our shareholders. A prime example is our recent partnership with Silhouette, the privacy layer built on top of Hyperliquid. As they fully migrate into production, we expect volumes to increase from several hundred thousand dollars to several millions of dollars in volume, driven both by the launch of the RFQ system, which will enable large positions to be filled by onboard counterparties as well as the ability to maintain those positions privately on Hyperliquid. This helps prevent the front running of trades as well as competitors potentially copying client strategies.

Silhouette's offering is further enhanced with up to a 30% reduction in trading fees, compounding the benefits by providing them to users through an aggregated trading layer. As part of this deal, Hyperion DeFi has received rights to 1% of Silhouette equity in addition to a revenue share fee savings. Long term, we believe that the value private permission trade settlement on Hyperliquid will be an attractive product to various funds, prop firms and market makers as the platform grows to service increasing financial flows. As such, we position for that future by establishing shared revenue streams and upside exposure to our partners.

Yield enhancements saw over 150% growth this quarter, driven by the HYPE tokens continued high volatility and our ability to enhance yield on our stake positions. We've optimized this strategy to work in parallel with our efforts to battle test and expand our yield infrastructure built on Rysk, our partner in offering institutional-grade vault strategies, which is known as Rysk premium. We formalized our strategic agreement with Rysk this quarter, establishing a revenue share model for Rysk premium, which will become publicly available in the coming months.

Currently, Rysk offers the ability to write covered calls and cash secure puts across a wide variety of crypto assets, including BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, HYPE, and USDH with the potential to expand to real-world assets and other tokenized primitives brought to the HyperEVM. We've had very positive conversations with institutions and foundations about bringing their yield enhancement strategies to risk premium. We see several tailwinds for the total value lock or TVL, increasing on this product. Actively managed on-chain yield strategies use smart contracts, which eliminates the unavoidable counterparty risk found in executing derivative strategies using off-chain execution desk.

Instead, strategies are operated using conditional smart contracts and thus resolved based on a specific coded outcome, whether or not the trade was in or out of the money. Depending on the outcome, the trade is either filled and settled, or the collateral is returned to the user without the need to rely on the counterparty to fulfill their obligation. In addition, because multiple liquidity providers are quoting prices for each trade, there is always competition to win user flows, resulting in the best premiums for the user. More recently, SEC Chair, Paul Atkins signaled new rule-making for on-chain markets, crypto vaults and blockchain settlement infrastructure.

We expect additional clarity for on-trade vaults to be critical towards driving more institutional adoption of strategies such as risk premium, especially when considering the safety and yield benefits noted above. Just as we are positioning for the future expansion of HyperCore, we believe that the HyperEVM still has immense opportunities for growth and value capture. One form of such value capture is our current accumulation of risk points, which entitles the company to receive a future incentive from risk, most likely governance tokens of the protocol. If risk continues to succeed, we believe that value and/or utility will accrue to their token.

And broadly, we expect to see continued volatility across markets in tandem with more regulatory clarity for crypto, which would bode well for products like risk premium. And the recent expansion of our balance sheet will allow the company to further scale such strategies and return that value to our shareholders. Ecosystem rewards remain variable, but we maintain a positive outlook for the ecosystem tokens we will receive through the remainder of the year. As mentioned earlier, our ecosystem engagement efforts have expanded beyond token representation of the protocols we believe have long-term potential. Hyperion DeFi has now acquired equity positions to various protocols for the benefit of our shareholders.

We continue to stand by and deliver on another core objective to create long-term value for the Hyperliquid ecosystem while simultaneously providing streamlined, comprehensive access to all of the valuable components built there. For example, last quarter, we announced that we had received 1 million HPL, the native token of the HyperLend protocol. By the end of March, our current allocation of HPL has increased to 10 million tokens, which represents 1% of the total token supply. Hyperion's engagement with each of our partners is laid on the foundation of building things together that increase the long-term value of the Hyperliquid ecosystem.

Today, we are proud to announce Avia by HyperLend, which offers institutional-grade private credit pools built to create liquidity for various assets unique to institutions. We are launching with natively staked HYPE, which we will be able to borrow or lend against. Additionally, by staking our 10 million HPL tokens to HyperLend, Hyperion can access a borrower rebate for the maximum staking tier, a utility unique to the platform. Our HPL token stake is factored into the effective rate, allowing us to borrow at rates below those available to any other participant. The structural advantage, which compounds as our borrowing scales, could later enable us and our partners to arbitrage rates between DeFi platforms or between DeFi and TradFi.

As these strategies scale, we expect both the TVL and revenue of Avia to grow, a percentage of which returns to Hyperion as DeFi monetization revenues. Another partner, Kinetiq, also had a busy quarter, surpassing over $3.3 billion in total volume on their HIP3 markets and the launch of their mobile trading application, which alone has generated over $100 million of volume despite being launched less than a month ago. They also successfully completed the implementation of Kinetiq improvement proposals 2 and 3, bringing substantial upgrades to the protocol. KIP-2 routes 50% of validated commission revenues generated by the Kinetiq platform to the buyback and redistribution of additional KNTQ to SKNTQ or Stake KNTQ holders.

Hyperion received nearly 2 million KNTQ tokens in Kinetiq's token generation event in November 2025, directly tied to our work and partnership with Kinetiq. And now we anticipate earning additional income and price appreciation on our stake KNTQ as another recurring ecosystem rewards channel within our flywheel. We will also highlight that there is a second Kinetiq K-Point season ongoing for which Hyperion has positioned itself to receive additional KNTQ. Investors should begin to see that these are the early signs of a flywheel in development enabled by the full suite of on-chain infrastructure built with our partners. We have covered liquid staking, lending, borrowing and yield generation, and that's just the start.

With the traction we've seen in the above ecosystem rewards strategies, we continue to engage in conversations with new builders seeking to come to Hyperliquid with the goal of making it the premier destination for new capital and users. I will now hand it over to our CFO, David Knox, to give highlights on our financial performance.

David Knox: Thank you, Hyunsu, and good morning, everyone. As Hyunsu already noted, today, we are raising our 2026 full year guidance by approximately 20% or plus $1 million to $5 million to $7 million of adjusted gross profit, driven by the momentum of our businesses, the immense opportunities we see and our success in raising $10 million in a public offering last week. We are very proud of what we have built since our new DeFi strategy launched in June of 2025, and the results speak for themselves. Taking a moment to reflect on the financial outcomes to date across the past 3 quarters.

Our Q1 adjusted gross profit has grown by 119% since Q3 and plus 17% sequentially versus Q4 from $439,000 in Q3 to $821,000 in Q4 to $960,000 in Q1. In addition, our achieved earnings multiple versus base staking yield grew from 1.3x in Q3 to 2.7x in Q4 to 3.1x in Q1 as our triple dip hype strategy continues to demonstrate our unique execution advantage versus our peers. The portion of our adjusted gross profit earned in cash has expanded from 18% in Q3 to 22% in Q4 and 48% in Q1. And our core costs have declined sequentially each quarter, and we expect our cost to continue to decline as our legacy biotech segment rolls off.

Meanwhile, in the past 3 quarters, the average price of HYPE declined from an average effective price of 45.8 in Q3 to 35.1 in Q4 to 30.8 in Q1, in total, a 33% decline since Q3. So we achieved plus 119% total growth in our operating business, while the underlying HYPE Token price declined by 33% and our expense base also declined. Altogether demonstrating that we are not simply a beta play on the price of HYPE, but that we are independently generating scalable value for our shareholders via our unique identity as the first DeFi public company building on hyperliquid.

All of this is built on our growing treasury of HYPE and Hyperliquid ecosystem positions, including, as of May 11, over 2 million HYPE tokens, about 1.9 million KNTQ, 10 million HPL and the future rights to 1% of Silhouette equity or tokens. Our track record shows we are more than just HYPE, and this is still the beginning of our journey. I will now give detail on each of our DeFi operating businesses. Adjusted gross profit, a non-GAAP metric, aims to capture all of Hyperion DeFi's value-add operating business activities beyond simply buying and holding HYPE Tokens.

As a reminder, our triple dip strategy is designed to simultaneously support and monetize adoption of the Hyperliquid blockchain by deploying each token into at least 3 of our 5 strategies at once. First, we stake our HYPE. Second, we deploy the stakes HYPE into another business activity, our validator yield enhancement or DeFi monetization. And third, we position ourselves for upside in the ecosystem via token air drops, protocol points and rewards or equity in our partners. Starting with staking Yield. In Q1, we earned about 10,100 HYPE Tokens from staking, up 16% quarter-over-quarter versus about 8,400 in Q4.

On a dollar basis, our HYPE earned from staking generated $313,000 adjusted gross profit in Q1 versus $305,000 in Q4 while the effective average HYPE price in period declined from $35.1 in Q4 to $30.8 in Q1. Next, Validator Commissions. In Q1, the company earned about 1,300 HYPE Tokens from validating, roughly in line with 1,400 in Q4 worth $40,000. Over 10 million Hype tokens were delegated to our validator as of April 30, and we are the top 6 Hyperliquid validator after the Hyper Foundation. There is a GAAP presentment update related to how we account for validating and staking activities. Industry interpretations have evolved regarding the gross versus net presentment of our validator.

On December 15, 2025, we took unilateral control of our validator operations, and our structure and net economics have not changed. In Q3 and Q4, we presented as net until we took control of the validator on December 15, after which we presented as gross for the remainder of the year. However, in the Q1 GAAP financials, we are presenting validator economics on a net basis as a result of the evolving interpretations, but these differences in presentment have no impact on our adjusted gross profit. Back to our DeFi businesses. Next, our yield enhancement strategies, which primarily monetize volatility on HYPE, generated $211,000 of adjusted gross profit in Q1 versus $79,000 in Q4, plus 165% quarter-over-quarter.

In our DeFi monetization segment, we support and monetize Hyperliquid DeFi activity with sustainable, scalable practices. DeFi monetization generated $245,000 adjusted gross profit in Q1 versus $102,000 in Q4, plus 140% quarter-over-quarter. Hyunsu earlier gave detail on each of the growth drivers here. And in our earnings supplement, we have a section dedicated to what exactly our partnerships do for the Hyperliquid ecosystem, and we showcase how our partners are positioned to grow and succeed. And finally, ecosystem awards generated $150,000 of adjusted gross profit in Q1 versus $285,000 in Q4. We expect the quarter-over-quarter change in ecosystem awards to be volatile given the unexpected timing of air drops, token generation events and other rewards activity.

But this quarter, we are establishing a track record demonstrating that receiving upside in these early-stage protocols is a core component of our strategy. The Q1 figure reflects $10 million or 1% of maximum supply HPL tokens we received from HyperLend in connection with our partnership agreements. In the future, we expect to recognize tokens or equity from Silhouette and expect additional ecosystem awards throughout 2026. As demonstrated across all 5 strategies and as the first U.S. public company building on Hyperliquid, we believe this is a great time for us to own more Hype and position ourselves to deploy into the Hyperliquid ecosystem.

This is why last week, we closed a $10 million public common equity raise led by high-quality fundamental investors, including Arrington Capital, Blockchain.com, a mutual fund, a technology-driven investment firm and others in a time when other digital asset companies have struggled to raise capital. We anticipate this capital to yield accretion to our financials over time since as our model and results have shown, we generate a very high ROI with our hype and in Q1 generated over 3x base staking yield. And we've demonstrated this profile regardless of the price of Hype over the past few quarters.

As Hyunsu mentioned, we have a full pipeline ahead of us, not only from what we believe are emerging opportunities in HIP4 prediction markets, but also our core house or HYPE asset use service agreements. We now have more fuel for our businesses to expand and by raising full year 2026 guidance by about 20%, we are demonstrating our confidence and commitment to that expansion and holding ourselves accountable to the trust investors have placed in us.

Since the close of the offering as of May 11, we have already bought more HYPE with our treasury now exceeding 2 million HYPE tokens and our cash position is at $16 million, while we aim to be thoughtful on our Hype purchase timing and entry points. As we acquire more Hype and as our capacity for deals grows, you can expect we will add to our track record of innovative partnerships as we work to build Hyperliquid into the blockchain to house all of finance. Pivoting back to our operating results. Regarding our expenses, operating expenses, excluding stock-based compensation, declined 1% quarter-over-quarter from $3 million in Q4 to $2.98 million in Q1.

Selling, general and administrative expenses subtracting stock-based compensation decreased 5% quarter-over-quarter from $2.8 million in Q4 to $2.7 million in Q1. We expect a near full wind down of legacy biotech operations by the end of the second quarter, which will eliminate R&D and reduce SG&A expenses on a go-forward basis. In the last 9 months, we have eliminated about $2.6 million of legacy GAAP liabilities related to the biotech business, including through direct engagement and resolution with historical partners. At this time, any monetization outcome on the Optejet is uncertain and could be 0. But from the third quarter onward, our entire focus and identity will be on the DeFi businesses.

On the treasury side, gross HYPE Tokens increased from 1.88 million in Q4 to 1.94 million in Q1 to over 2 million tokens as of May 11. The price of Hype increased from 25.4 at the end of Q4 to 36.6 in Q1 and 42.2 as of May 11. This compares to our aggregate purchase price on Hype tokens of 37.9, meaning the value of our HYPE treasury at 84.5 million exceeds our cash basis of 75.9 million by approximately $8.6 million. Our net asset value, which adjusts our treasury for net cash and debt, increased from $44.2 million as of Q4 to $69.9 million as of Q1 to approximately $90 million as of May 11.

Treasury gains was $21.5 million in Q1 as the price of Hype increased versus a treasury loss of $36.8 million in Q4. Based on the HYPE price at May 11, we estimate more than $10 million of additional embedded unrealized treasury gains as a tailwind to Q2. In totality, Q1 net income of $8.8 million, a record for the company, compares to Q4 net loss of $39.8 million. Q1 adjusted EBITDA of $19.5 million compares to Q4 adjusted EBITDA of negative $38.9 million.

The primary reconciliation of Q1 net income to adjusted EBITDA is our HYPE liquid staking tokens or LSTs, for which the GAAP carrying value is the low watermark price of HYPE as detailed further in our GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation section in our earnings release and earnings supplement. But if all our Hype LSTs were converted back to HYPE at the end of Q1, we believe that would have increased our GAAP net income by approximately $11.4 million. Finally, regarding our cash flows and cash position. Net cash used in operating activities was $4.2 million in Q1, which compares to $4.1 million in Q4.

However, Q1 operating cash flow included $1.5 million net increase in the levels of operating assets, including acquiring additional USDH stablecoin, without which net cash used in operating activities would have been $2.7 million. Our cash, cash equivalents and USDH totaled $9.1 million as of Q1 versus $6.5 million as of Q4. And as mentioned, as of May 11, we have about $16 million in cash. Net cash used in investing activities to purchase HYPE was $1.5 million in Q1 versus $6.3 million in Q4. Quarter-to-date, as of May 11, we have purchased $2.5 million in HYPE. Net cash provided by financing activities was $6.6 million in Q1, primarily from our at-the-market offering versus $9.4 million in Q4.

Through May 11, quarter-to-date, we have raised approximately $1.9 million net proceeds from the sale of about 500,000 common shares via our at-the-market offering. And as previously mentioned, we issued $10 million gross and approximately $9 million net proceeds from a public equity offering of approximately 2.8 million shares last week. Following that offering's close as of May 11, our common share count is approximately 15 million shares. Looking ahead, we continue to expect our net operating activity to flip cash flow positive by the end of 2026.

We set this goal for ourselves in our first earnings call under the new DeFi strategy in November 2025, and we have made consistent progress now with a 3-quarter track record of achieving growing adjusted gross profit and declining core operating expenses. We are immensely proud of what we have accomplished in the past 3 quarters, and we are just getting started. Until Hyperliquid is the blockchain to house all of finance, our job is not yet done. With that, we look forward to answering your questions.

Operator: [Operator instructions] The first question is from Gareth Gacetta from Cantor.

Gareth Gacetta: I was really impressed with the DeFi monetization in the quarter, and it's good to see that the activity on Hyperliquid is kind of flowing through to you guys. I was wondering if you could provide a little more color on the type of activity that each partnership you have is concentrated in and how you're thinking about diversifying these DeFi deployments based on what activity is most popular on the different protocols.

Hyunsu Jung: Thanks for the question. So as covered in the beginning of the earnings call, it's primarily driven by 3 different forms of what we call HAUS or the HYPE Asset Use Service. So fees that are dependent on trading activity on products listed on Hyperliquids, so this is in the form of HIP3 markets, which has non-crypto trading for equities, commodities, FX, pre-IPO and so on. And then we have a trading fee reduction-based service in addition to generally offering HYPE to other clients at a variable rate depending on the price of HYPE.

And so we're actually seeing demand across all 3 of the different forms of HYPE asset use, and we have more opportunities to deploy them potentially for permissionless launch of HIP4 for outcome markets. So we're continuously gauging where the demand is coming from and are optimizing for the highest return on our HYPE.

Gareth Gacetta: Great. And then on the institutional-specific strategies, could you provide any metrics related to like how many institutions you might be working with on that end or where the growth might be on these different protocols you have?

Hyunsu Jung: Sure. We can't provide any names currently, but what we've done over the past several months, and I think the story is becoming more clear is that we've built primitives directly on the HyperEVM and on HyperCore that are geared towards eventual institutional use of both sides of the Hyperliquid platform. And so right now, we're designing it. We're doing a lot of the battle testing ourselves. We mentioned that with Avia on HyperLend, the Rysk Premium vaults on Rysk. And once we are very confident in the structure, the technology, the way that it will be able to operate at scale, we'll look to continue to move forward those conversations.

And the emphasis is on the fact that as more total value locked or capital is brought to these protocols and utilization increases, that does become an additional revenue stream of DeFi monetization for the company.

Operator: The next question is from Brian Vieten from Siebert.

Brian Vieten: Just I guess just 2 for me. So a big portion of volumes coming from HIP3. Does the raise allow you guys to extend the HIP4 without disrupting the sort of the traction with HIP3? And then more broadly, you sort of touched on this, but can you just talk about the balance of opportunities for the treasury assets? And can that multiple over staking, ratchet higher from here? Like what's an aspirational number there? Is it 4? Is it 5? Is it 10? Just exclusive of air drops?

Hyunsu Jung: Brian, thanks for the question. So for the first part, there isn't enough detail yet on HIP4 to clearly determine today what it will look like between HIP3 deployments that exist and whether or not they can immediately merge into HIP4, whether it will require net new HYPE stake. Regardless of whatever the outcome may be, we're prepared to approach it if we deem it appropriate to do so. For the time being, we want to focus, obviously, on continuing to grow trading activity on the existing HIP3 markets in addition to strategically designing any new markets that may come to Hyperliquid.

And then with regard to the second point on what the triple dip is today versus what it may be in the future, we think that there will always be opportunities to scale what we have built so far, right? That's the beauty of blockchain-based technology is that once the infrastructure is built and designed in a way that is robust, any new user can come net new and be able to use it without having to change input or capital costs from our side. So it really is about continuing the strategic design. And so far, we feel very confident in what we've seen.

And the remainder of the year will be focused on, again, scaling, onboarding new partnerships and continuing to advance that flywheel.

Operator: The next question is from James McIlree from Chardan.

James McIlree: I just wanted to press a little bit more on HIP4. If you have in mind a time frame when you think you might participate in that either by staking somebody or investing in somebody? And if you've soft circled in your minds kind of how much investment you would allocate to HIP4 over the next 12 months?

Hyunsu Jung: Jim, thanks for the question. So with regard to HIP4, we want to make it very clear. It did go live on Mainnet, May 2. It's currently the canonical version operated by the Hyperliquid Labs team. And historically, these kinds of products have been made permissionless for other deployers. So once that information becomes available, we will be able to make a full determination on what that rollout may potentially look like for Hyperion.

Now on the other side of that question with regard to capital investment and how we build these things with our partners, I want to make it very clear that everything that Hyperion has received so far in the ecosystem awards, our equity exposure, our token exposure to other partners, we did not pay for. So it is part of our deployment design that we are receiving that kind of ownership stake in our partners as we design these products.

So when it comes to HIP4, again, depending on what the design -- official design is going to look like, it will likely be only the deployment of Hype that we already have on our balance sheet in addition to strategic partnerships and rolling out in a way that we make sure that we have the best distribution, immediate day 1 impact and are able to generate revenues very, very quickly, the same way that we saw with our HIP3 deployment.

James McIlree: Yes. I appreciate that. I guess I'm wondering if with what you've learned with HIP3, whether or not that gives you greater confidence or allows you to stake more with partners in HIP4. I'm just wondering if there's an element of either caution or optimism that you have now that you might not have had with HIP3 that would affect timing and as well as stakes in potential partners.

Hyunsu Jung: Yes. I would definitely say optimism. I mean we've seen what HIP3 has done in terms of creating net new businesses for early deployers, especially teams like Trade and what is enabled for teams like Kinetiq with mobile applications, building a brand-new user base and new sources of revenue. So the same thing applies for Hyperion.

We're I would say maybe the guidance I can give right now is that we are already having multiple conversations with various teams, but we are being very selective about the design and what we think will work a long time, especially given the current regulatory environment around prediction market specifically, although the outcome markets are a different, more of a financial product built for hedging. And so more details to come on that as we make the determination.

James McIlree: That's great. And David, I know that the accounting is complex. So I'm not -- I hesitate to ask this, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Is the revenue guidance a GAAP measure or not? And secondly, I know that the net and the gross validator income is an issue. But is the gross profit that you show in your charts, is that net gross or some of both, depending on the time period?

David Knox: Yes. Thanks very much for the question, Jim. The adjusted gross profit is a non-GAAP measure, which is meant to capture all of our core DeFi operating activities across all 5 of the strategies, the Staking Yield, Validator Commissions, Yield Enhancement, DeFi Monetization and Ecosystem Rewards. The reason -- the primary reason that we have this one metric is because these elements from a GAAP perspective appear in 3 places. It's in revenue, it's in operating income and it's in other income. So we pull it all together to give a single view of our core activities in the metric adjusted gross profit.

To your question on the validator, we have always presented our income here on a net basis in adjusted gross profit. From a GAAP perspective, interpretations continue to evolve. And as outlined in my remarks earlier, we are presenting Q1 fully on a net basis from a GAAP perspective, but that has no impact whatsoever on how we have calculated or how we present adjusted gross profit in any of the quarters, in this quarter or in our forward guidance.

James McIlree: Perfect. That answers my question. And revenue guidance, is that a GAAP measure or not?

David Knox: At this stage, we are not giving guidance of revenue in isolation because it would not be a complete picture of all of our activities. Some of our adjusted gross profit appears in revenue. But adjusted gross profit is the metric that includes everything altogether. As we operate all of our strategies, there should be increase in revenue. There should be increases in the components of operating income that are within adjusted gross profit, and there should be an increase in components of other income.

But we think that the best way for investors and the best way that we look at it ourselves is to continue to focus on that metric, adjusted gross profit, which is obviously fully reconciled in the back of the earnings release and supplement to the GAAP figures.

James McIlree: My apologies. I misread that. It's the guidance is adjusted gross profit, not revenue, excuse me.

Operator: There are no more questions. We will now turn the call back over to CEO, Hyunsu Jung, for closing remarks.

Hyunsu Jung: Thank you. So our team has had a productive first quarter of the year. We put our HYPE to work, scaling our business lines and most importantly, establishing key new partnerships. Today's results reflects this progress, and we are confident in our ability to continue to deliver on our road map. That includes, again, raising our guidance by 20% to $5 million to $7 million in full year 2026 from our operating businesses.

In the coming months, our view is that our business lines will continue to diversify and evolve to become key infrastructure in the Hyperliquid ecosystem, ranging from our core validator operations and the HYPE asset use service all the way to institutional geared products built on the HyperEVM. The early foundations have been laid and now is the time to ramp up our efforts to bring that capital to these various products, which we believe will create a flywheel effect. growing revenue streams tied to utilization, increasing the value of our partner protocols and ultimately resulting in more heightened buyback and burn.

As the flywheel accelerates, so does the broader global adoption of Hyperliquid, in turn, driving new users, products and capital to the ecosystem. The excitement is palpable, and we are thrilled to build alongside our partners, especially as countless new opportunities to innovate present themselves. And as large shareholders in the company ourselves, our goals have and always will be directly aligned with our shareholders. We only win if you win. With that as a core objective, our team's efforts will optimize for execution squarely focused on value creation within the Hyperliquid ecosystem.

Once again, we are immensely grateful to our investors and partners for their continued support as we advance our road map to build the premier institutional gateway to Hyperliquid.

Operator: That concludes today's call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

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