Hyperliquid CEO slams market maker deals as “centralizing”

Speaking on a podcast hosted by blockchain reporter Colin Wu, Hyperliquid founder Jeff Yan disputed the claim that his decentralized exchange had ever made private arrangements with market makers. Per the CEO, market maker deals create the illusion of a platform’s liquidity, but make it less independent and more “centralized” in the long-term. 

During the interview, Blockchain news reporter Wu compared Hyperliquid to Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world by volume, and then asked its co-founder why the decentralized exchange (DEX) had become popular among traders. Yan answered that he never expected Hyperliquid to grow so fast, although he and his team had always believed it could become what they had foreseen.

“I definitely didn’t think it would necessarily be this big. It’s easy to do very well just by working harder than other people, having faith, and also having a long-term vision and commitment,” the CEO explained.

The US-based crypto KOL credited the project’s growth to persistence, a supportive community, and luck, adding that they only saw success after pushing through several setbacks. 

“Even now, I think we still have bigger versions of what it can be. A lot of it is hard work from the team, a lot of it is the community rallying behind an important idea at the right time, and I think a lot of it is also just luck.”

Yan: Hyperliquid rejected market maker deals

In the podcast, Wu asked Yan about rumors that Hyperliquid had partnered with market makers during its early days. The founder confidently denied the rumors, mentioning the project declined what he called “common practice” of attracting liquidity through special investors.

“There were no private arrangements, like profit-sharing deals or investments,” Yan stated. “Many decentralized exchanges would raise money and then raise funds from market makers. But we had no investors and no such arrangements.”

He admitted that while the approach may have slowed the DEX’s early progress, Hyperliquid made a deliberate choice to protect its integrity. Centralized exchanges, according to Yan, are lambasted by the crypto community for their overreliance on internal desks or designated market makers.

“For a decentralized exchange, it’s even more important to avoid any of that from day one,” the CEO propounded. However, he mentioned that “maybe” the exception was Hyperliquid’s liquidity pool, known as HLP, which is protocol-owned and open to deposits from any user, but is not owned by any single entity.

Hyperliquid was self-founded

The Harvard University graduate also revealed that Hyperliquid had been built entirely on his own resources, and without outside capital. He told Wu that he was motivated by curiosity, rather than financial reward.

“It has entirely been self-funded. I was never really doing it for money. Trading, even before Hyperliquid, taught me that money is really just a number. I’m not super materialistic. For me, it’s about doing something interesting and valuable to the world,” he surmised.

“I was pretty happy to just go with it, even if it failed. Just, you know, whatever, and optimize for the success case. I do think Hyperliquid is very unique because part of the vision, well, I guess the whole vision, is kind of reinventing how people interact with finance and value,” he explained.

Another topic of discussion during the interview was Hyperliquid’s token issuance and its non-listing status on centralized exchanges. Yan said the team had the option to list tokens on other trading platforms but chose not to prioritize it. 

“Our framework has always been focused on building and creating what users want, without caring too much about what others are doing,” he added.

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