Hyperliquid's HYPE is the biggest holding in Multicoin Capital's hedge fund, according to general partner Spencer Applebaum. Its portfolio weight and position size have not been disclosed. Multicoin is keeping its investment focus on crypto rather than moving into standalone artificial intelligence businesses, even as other venture investors expand their mandates.
Applebaum, also Multicoin's co-head of venture investments, told Bloomberg that the firm acquired its HYPE exposure in public markets. He said the manager generally owns publicly traded assets for several years. His comments linked Multicoin's continued investment in digital assets to its expertise in that field and questioned efforts to force connections between blockchain and AI.
The June Investment Case and Its Assumptions
The ownership disclosure predates that interview. A June 25 investment post by Applebaum, Shayon Sengupta and Tushar Jain said Multicoin had established a large HYPE position early in 2026 and added to it. They described Hyperliquid as a blockchain and decentralized exchange built for fast trading, with an opportunity to extend its markets beyond cryptocurrency derivatives.
Earlier coverage of the June research placed the start of accumulation in February and described a policy preventing trades for three days after publication. At that point, Multicoin called HYPE one of its largest liquid-fund positions. Applebaum's later description placed it first in the hedge fund, without quantifying its weight or explaining how the allocation had changed.
The June investment case used historical operating data from 2025: Multicoin estimated revenue of $873 million on trading volume of $2.9 trillion. User numbers increased from roughly 301,000 to 923,000 during that year, while open interest reached $6 billion. Those figures described earlier activity supporting the research, rather than current operating results or a forecast for the following year.
Multicoin's base case envisioned a HYPE price of $319 by 2028. In the full research report, it modeled approximately $8 billion in annual earnings for that year and valued those earnings at 20 times. The resulting $160 billion valuation was divided by an adjusted token supply of 502 million, producing a value above $319 per token. Both the earnings estimate and supply calculation were assumptions in the June model.
Its alternative scenarios yielded $109 in the bear case and $689 in the bull case. Changes in projected derivatives-market expansion and decentralized exchanges' share of that market drove the different outcomes. These were scenarios from the June investment analysis; they did not describe profits already achieved, and the Bloomberg interview did not make them newly issued October price forecasts.
The research also set out substantial risks. Multicoin identified questions involving governance and decentralization, regulatory restrictions, competition, interoperability between HyperCore and HyperEVM, dilution of tokens and bad debt. Its discussion of bad debt concerned thinly traded markets and price movements that could pass through liquidation levels, potentially leaving the protocol to absorb losses.
Expansion under HIP-3 formed another part of the thesis, including markets for commodities and equity indexes. Prediction markets, options and portfolio margining appeared as further opportunities. The investment post paired those possible extensions with regulatory and technical risks, rather than presenting every prospective market as an established business line.
Wallet reports published in September supplied a separate view of Multicoin-linked activity. Lookonchain attributed a September 24 deposit of 130,331 HYPE, valued at $12.15 million, to the investment manager. The transfer went to Coinbase; a deposit into an exchange-related service did not by itself show that the firm completed a sale.
Lookonchain counted cumulative deposits to Coinbase Prime since July 28 at 4.23 million HYPE, worth about $285 million at the prices recorded when the transfers occurred. Prime offers institutional custody as well as trade execution. The destination therefore does not establish the tokens' subsequent treatment, and the reported transfers do not reconcile purchases, withdrawals and remaining hedge-fund holdings. Continuous growth in Multicoin's position cannot be established from that record.
A different buyer appeared in September 25 reporting: Hyperliquid Strategies, the Nasdaq-listed treasury company. Lookonchain associated a wallet with that company and reported purchases of 494,200 HYPE for $45.8 million over 16 hours. The same wallet had acquired 5.51 million HYPE, valued at approximately $476 million, during the preceding month. These purchases concerned Hyperliquid Strategies, rather than Multicoin.
The public treasury company's earlier reported balance was about 29.3 million HYPE worth $1.9 billion as of June 30, following a $647 million equity raise. Those figures belonged to Hyperliquid Strategies. They neither disclosed Multicoin's hedge-fund allocation nor supplied a balance sheet reconciling the investment manager's later Coinbase Prime transfers.
Other Funds Broaden Their Investment Mandates
Paradigm's broader mandate offers another comparison with Multicoin's stated focus. Co-founder Matt Huang and managing partner Alana Palmedo announced Paradigm's fourth fund on July 8; July 9 coverage put commitments at $1.2 billion. Paradigm said its scope encompassed crypto, AI, robotics and other technologies while retaining investments in markets and financial systems. It cited Hyperliquid, Kalshi and Tempo as examples associated with that approach.
Other fund announcements also combined crypto with adjacent fields. Framework Ventures raised $400 million for its fourth fund in June, targeting crypto, AI, robotics and energy startups. Haun Ventures secured $1 billion in May for crypto infrastructure, tokenization and AI agents. These were separate managers' fundraising announcements, rather than evidence that Multicoin had redirected its own portfolio.