Hyperliquid: the $10B crypto exchange run by 11 people, a cat mascot, and one guarded founder

The company at a glance

A profile in Colossus paints a startling picture: Hyperliquid is a three‑year‑old crypto trading exchange that, it has been reported, reached roughly a $10 billion market valuation and generated more than $900 million in profit in 2025 — all with 11 employees and no venture capital. Small team, huge returns. It sounds almost too tidy: the office looks like a plush‑toy store (the cleaner believes they sell stuffed cats), the mascot is a cat named Hypurr, and yet the business performance, if the numbers hold up, makes it one of the most profitable enterprises per employee on earth.

The man behind the machine

Jeffrey Yan, 31, is presented as the pivot. He reportedly started in Puerto Rico running an anonymous trading operation called Chameleon Trading from a $10,000 stake, grew it into serious money, and then helped build Hyperliquid without outside VC. He dresses like someone who still lives for the margins — the same Lululemon shorts and T‑shirt every day — but don’t let the casual wardrobe fool you: he’s the public face of a firm that moved its HQ for privacy and now keeps a bodyguard in the office.

Secrecy, danger, and the cost of success

It has been reported that a wave of violent incidents and targeted attacks on figures in the space — one story in the profile describes what was reportedly the 70th such attack worldwide in under a year — helped drive the company’s move and the heightened security. Allegedly, strangers began following co‑founders, and the team now works under pseudonyms; there’s a strange mix of secrecy and spectacle here. Is this the price of building a blockbuster crypto exchange outside the VC ecosystem? For now, Hyperliquid’s math and Yan’s odd combination of anonymity and visibility keep the industry watching — and wondering what comes next.

Sources: colossus.com