Jeff Sprecher, founder of the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), recently publicly stated that the on-chain trading platform Hyperliquid has surpassed Nasdaq in trading volume. As top executives from traditional markets offer their first positive evaluation of this platform, pressure from the on-chain perpetuals market on traditional exchanges has once again come into focus.
Hyperliquid receives praise from the founder of ICE
At a public event, Sprecher said that Hyperliquid, built by a team of 11, has already achieved significant trading volume and can no longer be ignored by traditional financial institutions. He noted that while most institutional clients have not yet traded directly on-chain, they are closely monitoring the platform’s price discovery.
He specifically noted that Hyperliquid allows trading of crude oil perpetual contracts over the weekend, while traditional markets under ICE are closed. Since some price movements related to geopolitical events involving Iran occur over the weekend, the role of the on-chain 24/7 market becomes even more prominent.
HYPE rebounds, market focuses on weekend trading
Sprecher also stated that the market now needs to adapt to a scenario where retail and professional traders participate in trading around the clock. Driven by these remarks, HYPE briefly rebounded by about 10%, rising to around $62.50.
The article also noted that Hyperliquid’s pre-IPO perpetual contract for SpaceX briefly plunged 45% on Thursday, dropping from $2,277 to around $1,254, before partially recovering, resulting in approximately $1.51 million in losses and triggering the liquidation of numerous retail positions.
JPMorgan and Standard Chartered offer different assessments.
JPMorgan stated that the "currency depreciation trade" driven by inflation, geopolitical risks, and currency weakness is cooling. Over the past two weeks, both Bitcoin ETFs and gold ETFs have experienced outflows, and positions in related futures at CME have also diminished. The bank believes this may be linked to market expectations of easing tensions between the U.S. and Iran.
Standard Chartered Bank remains bullish on Ethereum. The bank’s analysts believe the current ETH price has not yet reflected improvements in the network’s fundamentals, and they maintain their year-end target of $4,000 and a decade-end target of $40,000. Their rationale includes Ethereum’s continued dominance in the stablecoin and DeFi sectors.
Anthropic completes a new funding round
On the same day, AI company Anthropic announced the completion of a $65 billion Series H funding round, bringing its post-money valuation to $965 billion, alongside the launch of Claude Opus 4.8. Reports indicate that Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, and Sequoia Capital participated in this round of investment.
In market data, Bitcoin is trading at approximately $73,300, and Ethereum at approximately $2,000. On Thursday, Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded a net outflow of $223 million, Ethereum spot ETFs saw a net outflow of $121 million, while the HYPE ETF experienced a net inflow of $1.7 million.