🧐 Jeff Yan, 31, views Hyperliquid as “the infrastructure underlying exchanges.” Reporter @RyanJamesWeeks traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with Jeff Yan @chameleon_jeff and learn about the future strategic plans for Hyperliquid, the rapidly growing crypto platform he built from the ground up. We sat down in the lobby café of the prestigious Riggs Hotel, where his security team kept watch nearby. During our conversation, I found that this 31-year-old founder doesn’t always offer straightforward or definitive answers. This billionaire-valued programmer deeply understands the linguistic nuances of the crypto industry. While outsiders commonly define Hyperliquid as a digital asset exchange, he consistently emphasizes that Hyperliquid is not an exchange itself—but rather “the foundational infrastructure layer upon which exchanges are built.” He compares it to the internet: developers building applications on top of Hyperliquid must design their own risk controls and governance mechanisms. Jeff Yan avoids vague discussions about industry visions and instead focuses intently on coding. “I spend nearly all my time working,” he says. “For me, work consumes everything.” That dedication has yielded remarkable results: Hyperliquid began as a small offshore platform focused solely on perpetual contracts (Perps)—derivatives that trade continuously with no expiration date. Today, it has evolved into a core trading hub supporting proxy contracts for assets ranging from stocks to gold, generating $713 million in revenue over the past 12 months. Launched in 2023 and not yet open to U.S. markets, Hyperliquid’s rapid growth has disrupted industry giants—including the world’s largest derivatives exchange, CME Group—and drawn attention from the White House. Donald Trump, a supporter of the crypto industry, earned over $1.4 billion last year through his own crypto ventures and has stated that regulators are actively developing a regulatory framework for perpetual contracts. Jeff Yan is based in Singapore but traveled to Washington to support the Hyperliquid Policy Center, an independent lobbying entity that regularly submits filings to U.S. regulators to articulate the platform’s value. *Photo credit: Greg Kahn, Bloomberg Businessweek*