Hyperliquid is, in my opinion, one of the riskiest and most dangerous cryptos in the top 20. I reviewed it recently and a viewer fired back: "Give it up, ICP is done — HYPE was a better investment than ICP this year." That comment is a perfect example of the short-term, what-pumped-lately thinking that gets people wrecked. This is my opinion, not financial advice, and I'm an ICP maxi.
Short-term winner is not the same as good investment
Is it true that HYPE outperformed ICP over the last several months? Sure. If you'd bought both at the start of the year, HYPE would be ahead today. But "what went up recently" is not a sound basis for investing. That's the trading mindset — buy ICP at three, sell at four, rebuy at two — and it keeps you anxious and reactive instead of owning something real. Whose price pumped this quarter tells you almost nothing about where value actually is.
Even supporters admit it's not decentralized
Here's the line that ends the debate for me. The commenter criticizing me wrote "even though HYPE is not decentralized" — and then kept going. Stop right there. The whole pitch for Hyperliquid is that it's a decentralized exchange, yet even its defenders concede it isn't. It's a centralized trading platform with some blockchain features bolted on and "decentralized" stamped across the marketing. Once you accept that, there's nothing to go past.
The valuation is absurd
Now look at the numbers. ICP, with every token unlocked, carries a fully diluted value around $1.2 billion. Hyperliquid is sitting near $33 billion in outstanding token value — roughly ten times ICP — for something that isn't actually decentralized, with enormous unlocks still ahead. To me that's overvalued by at least 10x, maybe 100x. I expect the vast majority of people holding it at these levels to get badly hurt. You can check how that prediction ages.
Where you invest is a moral choice
The part nobody wants to hear: where you put your money matters morally. The standard defense is "but the price is up." So what? Mindlessly dumping cash into something just because influencers — many of them paid — are hyping it, with no research and no care for how the profits are made, is exactly what creates the profit-over-people world people love to complain about. Hyperliquid is a textbook case. Nobody buying it seems to care that it isn't decentralized. Countries care. I care. Tens of thousands of us in the ICP community care.
Value-based investing is just calmer
There's a practical payoff to caring about fundamentals: peace. Even if HYPE had been a winner for you, holding it means riding an emotional roller coaster — checking every day, asking "do I sell now?", because deep down you know the fundamentals aren't there. Value-based, long-term investing in something you actually believe in is a relaxed, unstressed return instead of a daily gamble.
If I held HYPE today, I'd take profits now — not financial advice. It's the same lens as why market caps are a distraction: appraise what's really there. For more breakdowns, watch my crypto reviews playlist here.