Jeff Yan: Crypto's biggest problem is the lack of top entrepreneurial talent On July 9, 2026, Hyperliquid co-founder Jeff Yan @chameleon_jeff stated in an interview on the VALR podcast that a fair criticism of the current crypto and fintech sectors is their inability to attract enough of the highest quality entrepreneurial talent. He believes that amidst the AI boom and the social pressure to pursue prestige, the smartest young people often do not know what they could do to make the most impact, resulting in very few choosing to enter the space. Jeff Yan expressed that rebuilding financial engineering from the ground up based on first principles and translating academic concepts into scalable market designs is an incredible undertaking. He urged the younger generation not to take things at surface value, but to identify the real problems the world faces and participate in the incredible renaissance of on-chain finance happening right now.