Binance CEO praises Hyperliquid, cites regulatory risks

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has praised the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid as an innovative platform that occupies a niche his own company cannot enter, while simultaneously warning of the significant regulatory risks such a model invites. Zhao made the comments in a recent interview on the Galaxy Brains podcast, reflecting on the compliance challenges he faced personally after Binance’s 2023 guilty plea to anti-money laundering violations.

Zhao, who served a four-month U.S. prison sentence in 2024, called Hyperliquid’s invention “actually awesome,” highlighting its high-performance blockchain, on-chain order books, and permissionless trading without Know Your Customer (KYC) checks. He stated these features create a competitive moat, but added he would never operate a platform the same way given his experiences, noting he assumes Hyperliquid has “good lawyers.”

The comments arrive as Hyperliquid’s native token, HYPE, reaches new highs. The token hit a record of $76.70 on June 16, bolstered in part by renewed inflows into U.S. spot HYPE exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which have drawn roughly $172 million in their first month. Asset manager Bitwise confirmed it is staking...