hyperliquid, end to end [MEGA ARTICLE]

The Smart Ape argues Hyperliquid is the dominant on-chain perps venue with $1.16B in revenue across 11 employees ($102M per employee, outpacing Apple and Nvidia), doing 70% of all on-chain perp volume with $9B+ total OI. Founder Jeff Yan rejected a $100M round pre-launch to maintain credible neutrality, distributing 31% of supply to 94K airdrop recipients averaging $181K at current prices. Key risks include validator centralization (24 vs Solana's 1,400), closed-source core code, USDC dependency, and the JELLY incident showing validators can override code-as-law principles.