Valantis acquires second-largest HyperEVM liquid staking platform to boost DEX integration

Valantis, a modular DEX protocol, has acquired StakedHYPE (stHYPE), the second-largest liquid staking platform on Hyperliquid’s HyperEVM blockchain, for an undisclosed amount. 

According to the announcement, $stHYPE will have synchronous liquidity between HyperEVM and HyperCore, enabled by Valantis.

The acquisition will integrate $stHYPE with Valantis

The acquisition has unified $stHYPE and Valantis, and as a result, a single unified roadmap has emerged. It begins with new integrations, deep liquidity, net-new yield sources, and a more robust long-term outlook.

The roadmap is divided into two phases, with the first tagged the “foundation” and the second titled “the modular LST.”

As part of the foundation, Valantis will focus on controlling and executing all development, expansion, communication, and operations for $stHYPE. It also promised that the acquisition will not expose users to additional security risks as it will oversee the transition of stHYPE to use CoreWriter.

Valantis says it will be responsible for building more robust public monitoring of the off-chain stHYPE infrastructure, also offering a percentage of its referred staking rewards to users who integrate stHYPE today.

It is expected to continue expanding on that reward program to grow stHYPE in the realm of integrated LSTs on Hyperliquid.

The second phase of the roadmap will see stHYPE become CoreWriter-enabled in a way that supports any arbitrary number of staking addresses and building a permissionless base that enables net-new interactions between an LST & DeFi.

According to the announcement, Valantis liquidity providers will be able to simultaneously interact with DEXs, lending, staking, and Hypercore with their HYPE deposits. It also claims that its modular base will insulate $stHYPE holders against typical security risks and fragmentation associated with such ecosystems.

Valantis has assured all its plans will happen alongside STEX and that existing/new deployments will continue operating and scaling as usual.

“Nothing has changed regarding plans around these pools, acquiring stHYPE simply expands the scope of what’s possible with them,” it wrote.

The financial details of the deal remain undisclosed

The deal concluded after earlier informal discussions, but parties involved have declined to share the structure of the transaction and have not disclosed the names of the banking or legal advisors involved due to contractual restrictions.

What we do know is that as part of the deal, Addison Spiegel, founder of Thunderhead (the team behind StakedHYPE), will join Valantis as an advisor.

Spiegel is expected to be the only part of the six-man StakedHYPE team to switch sides in the deal. Unlike Valantis, which raised $7.5 million at a $40 million valuation last year, the team hasn’t raised external funds, but it has been profitable since inception.

Valantis was initially created to support developers in building decentralized exchanges using composable modules. However, it has since pivoted to building products on its own stack.

Not long ago, the firm launched an LST-specific DEX for StakedHYPE (stHYPE) and Kinetiq Staked HYPE (kHYPE), the two largest pools on HyperEVM, with nearly $70 million combined TVL and more than $500 million in cumulative trading volume.

The Valantis co-founder and CTO, Ed Carvalho, has said the StakedHYPE acquisition is designed for vertical integration and expects it will allow the firm to build further market infrastructure around LSTs.

“Valantis built initial traction as an LST-specific DEX, offering the best pricing/liquidity/returns for these kinds of assets,” Carvalho stated. “Full vertical integration of an LST protocol and a DEX protocol will lead to the deepest liquidity and most efficient market.”

Carvalho also believes that StakedHYPE will expand beyond Hyperliquid staking emissions via HIP-3 (builder-deployed perpetuals front-end checks) and market maker fee discounts.

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