Jeff Yan: If I were to start over, I might choose to explore options. Jeff Yan, founder of Hyperliquid, was interviewed by the Empire podcast at DAS 2026 Asia. When asked what he would build if he were a builder but no longer allowed to work on infrastructure, he said he would look at what hasn’t been built yet and has real potential—depending on what other builders are working on. Jeff Yan said that, at least for now, he might focus on options, because he’s heard many people express interest in trading them. He believes perpetual contracts largely satisfy most users, but some traders using perpetuals have mentioned that they still can’t fully express all their market views through them. He views HIP-4 as a clear path to building an options protocol, one that can inherit spot trading, order books, and portfolio margining; on the market-making side, perpetuals can be used to hedge option deltas. The key is turning that single element into something broadly compelling. He doesn’t believe any options-like or convexity-return products have truly achieved escape velocity in crypto, but such products have clearly done so in traditional finance.