Is Hyperliquid-Binance rivalry real?
$HYPE was the last to become eligible and the community behind DeFi giant met such a measure with discontent, crying about sabotage and unfair competition tactics. It’s not that deep: Hyperliquid, being the headliner of decentralized finance, amasses a big share of the pie in on-chain derivatives trading, and of course this affects Binance’s business.
The retaliation between the two has continued since 2025 when Hyperliquid founder Jeff Yan publicly accused Binance of lowering liquidations data after the October 10, 2025 event, when positions worth around $40 billion were marginally closed across the crypto market. Binance then delayed the spot listing of $HYPE token until September 24, 2026 and gave it ‘Seed Tag’, which is usually applied to high-risk cryptocurrencies. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao diplomatically refused the accusations and said that strong decentralized exchanges on the contrary increase ‘the pie’ for the whole industry.
The delay indeed has a technical aspect. $HYPE operates within its own Layer-1, HyperEVM. Auditing a custom blockchain architecture — not standard EVM or Solana-based — in the aftermath of such a hack requires more time and attention to be carried out properly.
In the wake of the cybersecurity crisis the pause was still interpreted as corporate vengeance. This makes Yi He’s words and the demonstrative relaunch of withdrawals a sign that obligations for clients take priority over market rivalry.
