Hyperliquid Achieves Record Revenue per Employee Globally at $106M

Cryptocurrency

Summary:

Hyperliquid’s revenue generation stems from trading fees collected on its decentralized perpetual futures exchange.

Hyperliquid has achieved the highest revenue per employee globally, at $106 million, surpassing traditional technology giants and the previous record holder, Tether Limited.

The revenue-per-employee metric places Hyperliquid significantly ahead of established technology companies. Data gathered by Hyperliquid France puts Tether in second with $93 million per employee, while OnlyFans ranks third at $37.6 million.

The decentralized derivatives exchange operates with just 11 core contributors, as CEO and co-founder Jeff Yan confirmed in a recent interview.

This minimal workforce generates an annualized revenue of $1.167 billion, based on DefiLlama estimates as of Aug. 20. Traditional tech giants lag considerably, with Nvidia at $3.6 million, Apple at $2.4 million, and Meta at $2.2 million per employee.

Hyperliquid’s revenue generation stems from trading fees collected on its decentralized perpetual futures exchange.

The platform captures a percentage of swap fees directed to treasury, token holders, and token buybacks, creating a direct revenue stream from trading volume without requiring extensive operational overhead.

The exchange’s automated market-making and derivatives trading infrastructure operates with minimal human intervention, allowing the small team to focus on protocol development and optimization rather than day-to-day operational management.

Rapid revenue accumulation

Since December, Hyperliquid has accumulated $589.11 million in revenue, demonstrating rapid growth acceleration in recent months. The platform’s 30-day revenue performance positions it as the third-largest revenue generator among crypto protocols, with $95.63 million added.

As a result, Hyperliquid trails only stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle, which generated $629.19 million and $203.91 million, respectively. This performance places the derivatives platform ahead of other known protocols, including Tron, Jupiter, and Pump.fun.

The comparison with traditional technology companies highlights the efficiency potential of decentralized finance protocols.

While Apple employs approximately 164,000 workers to generate $383 billion annually, Hyperliquid’s 11-person team produces nearly $1.2 billion in revenue through automated trading infrastructure.

The platform’s success demonstrates how decentralized exchange protocols can achieve massive scale with a reduced workforce, challenging traditional assumptions about revenue generation and operational requirements in traditional financial services.

Source: Cryptoslate

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Manuel

Bond

Political

President Donald Trump has bought hundreds of bonds since he returned to office, including those sold by US companies affected by the sweeping changes to federal policies he’s championed.

The 690 transactions, the first of which was made the day after his inauguration, total at least $103.7 million, according to a document released by the White House on Tuesday that disclosed the billionaire’s investing activity this year through early August.

In addition to municipal bonds issued by local governments, school boards, airport authorities and gas districts, Trump bought corporate debt in tranches of at least $500,000 each from Qualcomm Inc., Home Depot and T-Mobile US Inc. on Feb. 10. He also purchased at least $250,000 of debt from Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc. later that month.

The report, which all federal elected officials and appointees who trade must submit, doesn’t provide exact amounts or prices, since only broad ranges of transactions involving stocks, bonds, commodity futures and other securities are required. Trump reported no sales.

The investments provide another example of how the president, whose net worth is pegged at $6.4 billion by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, continues to pursue wealth accumulation while in office. Unlike his predecessors, Trump didn’t divest or move his assets into a blind trust with an independent overseer. His sprawling business empire is managed by two of his sons and operates in several areas that intersect with presidential policy.

Trump has held meetings with leaders of businesses whose supply chains have been upended by his implementation of the highest tariffs in decades as well as technology industry executives.

The 33-page filing, which was dated Aug. 12, was provided to the Office of Government Ethics.

Neither Trump nor any of his family members made the investment decisions, according to a senior White House official. Independent financial managers made the bond purchases using programs that replicate recognized indexes when making investments, the official said, adding that OGE signed off on the filings.

The president will continue to use financial managers to make investments, and will file reports in the future as required by the law, the official said.

In an earlier financial disclosure report spanning his activity in 2024, Trump listed hundreds of bonds held in personal investment accounts that are separate from his business empire. The latter encompasses properties like his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago, his stake in Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. and crypto ventures that have added at least $620 million to his fortune in recent months, according to the Bloomberg index.

Under federal ethics law, presidents aren’t required to divest assets that may pose conflicts of interest, but they have done so anyway. Trump is the first president to buck that since the law was passed in 1978.

Source: Bloomberg

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Manuel

Economic

China–U.S. Trade War

The Trump tariffs present something of a mystery. Trump's new import taxes raise the cost of many imported products by nearly 20%, on average. Yet price changes at the wholesale and retail level are nowhere near that magnitude. The higher cost of tariffs appears to be hiding deep inside global supply chains.

One new clue helps explain why Trump's new consumption taxes aren't fully hitting consumers just yet. Analysis by Capital Economics finds that the actual tariff rate paid on imports in June was just 9%. At the time, analysts estimated the average tariff rate to be around 15%. It turned out to be lower in reality because many US importers shifted their mix and source of imports to minimize the cost of the tariffs.

Research outfits such as the Yale Budget Lab, along with many private firms, have been trying to estimate average tariff rates at every step of Trump's convoluted trade war. That data helps economists estimate the effect of tariffs on the economy, while investors try to suss out which firms and sectors will be helped or hurt by the new taxes.

Estimates of the average tariff rate have changed many times during the past six months as Trump has threatened new tariffs, imposed some, delayed others, announced trade agreements, and changed his mind. The average tariff was about 2.5% when Trump took office. It went as high as 28% in April and May, according to the Yale Budget Lab. Since then, it has dropped to around 19%.

But those estimates rely on assumptions about what US firms will continue to import and from where. The actual June data shows that US importers were craftier than expected. "The composition of imports has shifted compared to 2024, with a higher proportion coming from countries with relatively low tariff rates," Capital Economics found.

The June data, for instance, shows that fewer imports came from China, which faced a 40% tariff rate. More imports came from Vietnam, Taiwan, and India, which faced lower rates at the time. That pushed the actual tariff rate lower than if import shares by country had stayed the same.

US businesses also shifted the kind of stuff they brought into the country. Imports of steel and aluminum — generally subject to a new 25% tariff — fell as a portion of all imported products. But there was an increase in electronics exempt from tariffs.

A third factor keeping the tariff rate fairly low was more "compliant" trade with Canada and Mexico than expected. That means there was more trade in goods that meet domestic-content requirements and are therefore exempt from the new Trump tariffs.

The June trend probably reflects the delayed onset of tariff inflation, rather than the total avoidance of it. Importers have been ducking and weaving as circumstances allow, but they can't do that forever. They can stock inventories with cheaper low-tariff goods while running down stockpiles of costlier high-tariff goods — for a while. But at some point, demand will require them to replenish all inventories, regardless of the tariffs.

Plus, Trump is wise to the transshipment of goods from a high-tariff country to the US via a low-tariff country, and some of his trade rules specifically target that. Imports from Vietnam, for instance, face a 20% tariff, but it's 40% if those products really come from China or some other country and just make a stop in Vietnam on their way to the US.

Even with lower-than-expected tariff rates — for now — tariff inflation is beginning to materialize. Monthly tariff revenue collected by the government has jumped from about $8 billion per month before Trump to about $30 billion now. That tax revenue comes from US businesses that have to pay the tariffs when they take possession of imported goods. It's real money that real Americans are forking over.

Wholesale prices in July jumped by the most in three years, confirming that importers are now paying more for goods. During the second quarter earnings season, dozens of big companies, including Apple (AAPL), Ford (F), General Motors (GM), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Kimberly-Clark (KMB), and Procter & Gamble (PG), said tariffs are denting profit margins.

Citi estimates that, for now, companies are absorbing most of the cost of tariffs through lower margins and supply chain workarounds. But the pain will eventually flow through to consumers.

"US firms appear to be absorbing 60%-70% of the tariffs," Citi researchers said in an August 20 analysis. "However, we doubt that this will prove sustainable. We expect that firms will increasingly seek to pass the tariffs through to their foreign suppliers and US customers."

Trump's trade deals will eventually yield a much clearer picture. The past several months have been a hodgepodge of on-and-off tariffs that have dramatically distorted trade flows. But a year from now, say, there will likely be across-the-board tariffs on most imports that range from 15% to 40%, plus product-specific tariffs on certain product categories that leave nowhere to hide. If you haven't noticed tariff inflation yet, you will soon.

Source: Yahoo Finance

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Manuel

Cryptocurrency

Federal Reserve officials focused significantly on stablecoins during their July 29-30 meeting, analyzing potential impacts on the financial system following the passage of the GENIUS Act.

In the minutes released on Aug. 20, the members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) mentioned the digital tokens multiple times.

Stablecoins discussed extensively

The officials mentioned “payment stablecoins” extensively, due to the discussions taking place less than two weeks after President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law on Jul. 18.

The bill established the first comprehensive federal framework for stablecoin regulation, and FOMC members cited it as a driver for growth in stablecoin usage.

The minutes also categorized stablecoins alongside “private liquidity funds” and “offshore MMFs” as alternative investment vehicles that “have grown rapidly and were noted as relatively less transparent” compared to traditional money market funds.

The minutes align with Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s remarks throughout this year.

During an April 16 speech, Powell called for a regulatory framework for stablecoins and recognized these assets as a digital product that could capture a broad appeal. He also showed a neutral stance towards Bitcoin, which he deemed digital gold instead of a dollar competitor.

Fed officials are preparing for increased stablecoin adoption under the new regulatory framework, conducting what amounts to a comprehensive risk assessment of potential market developments.

Efficiency acknowledged

FOMC participants recognized potential benefits from expanded stablecoin adoption, particularly for payment system efficiency.

The Fed officials also noted that stablecoins could boost demand for the underlying assets required to collateralize the tokens, particularly US Treasury securities, which serve as the primary backing for most major stablecoins.

Despite recognizing benefits, Fed participants raised multiple concerns about broader financial system implications. The minutes revealed officials’ worry that stablecoins “could have broader implications for the banking and financial systems as well as monetary policy implementation.”

FOMC members emphasized the need for “close attention, including monitoring of the various assets used to back stablecoins.”

The extensive discussions on the last FOMC meeting suggest the central bank views stablecoins as increasingly relevant to its monetary policy mandate and financial stability responsibilities.

Further, the minutes indicate federal financial regulators are taking a proactive approach to understanding how digital payment systems might integrate with or challenge traditional monetary infrastructure.

Source: Cryptoslate

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Manuel

Economic

Central Bank

The two Federal Reserve policymakers who dissented against the U.S. central bank decision's to leave interest rates unchanged last month appear not to have been joined by other policymakers in voicing support for lowering rates at that meeting, a readout of the gathering released on Wednesday showed.

"Almost all participants viewed it as appropriate to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 4.25% to 4.50% at this meeting," the minutes of the July 29-30 meeting said.

Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman and Governor Christopher Waller both voted against the decision to leave the benchmark interest rate unchanged, favoring instead a quarter-percentage-point reduction to guard against further weakening of the job market. It was the first time since 1993 that more than one Fed governor dissented against a rate decision.

Not even 48 hours after the conclusion of last month's meeting, data from the Labor Department appeared to validate the concerns of Bowman and Waller when it showed far fewer jobs than expected were created in July, a rise in the unemployment rate and a drop in the labor force participation rate to the lowest level since late 2022.

More unsettling, though, was an historic downward revision for estimates of employment in the previous two months. That revision erased more than a quarter of a million jobs thought to have been created in May and June and put a hefty dent in the prevailing narrative of a still-strong-job market. The event was so angering to President Donald Trump that he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Data since then, however, has provided some fodder for the camp more concerned that Trump's aggressive tariffs risk rekindling inflation to hold their ground against moving quickly to lower rates. The annual rate of underlying consumer inflation accelerated more than expected in July and was followed by an unexpectedly large jump in prices at the producer level.

The minutes showed officials continued an active debate on the effects of tariffs on inflation and the degree of restrictiveness in their policy stance. Several policymakers commented that the current level of the federal funds rate may not be far above its neutral level, where economic activity is neither stimulated nor constrained.

Fed policymakers assessed that the effects of higher tariffs had become more apparent in some goods prices but that the overall effect on the economy and inflation remained to be seen, the minutes showed.

Looking ahead, participants noted they may face difficult tradeoffs ahead if elevated inflation proved more persistent while the job market outlook weakened.

TRUMP'S PRESSURE CAMPAIGN

Heading into the release of the minutes, CME's FedWatch tool assigned an 85% probability of a quarter-percentage-point reduction in the Fed's policy rate at the September 16-17 meeting. That rate has been unchanged since December.

The minutes were released just two days before a highly anticipated speech from Fed Chair Jerome Powell at the annual economic symposium near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which is hosted by the Kansas City Fed. Powell's keynote speech on Friday morning - set to be his last such address as head of the central bank, with his term expiring next May - could show whether he has joined ranks with those sensing the time has come for steps to shield the job market from further weakening or if he remains in league with those more wary of inflation in light of its moves away from the Fed's 2% target.

The lack of rate cuts since Trump returned to the White House has agitated the Republican president, and he regularly lashes out at Powell for not engineering them.

Trump is already in the process of screening possible successors to Powell. After the unexpected resignation earlier this month of one of the seven Fed governors, Trump has a chance to put his imprint on the central bank soon.

The president has nominated Council of Economic Advisers Chair Stephen Miran to fill the seat recently vacated by former Fed Governor Adriana Kugler, a term that expires at the end of January. It is unclear whether Miran will win Senate confirmation before the Fed's next meeting.

On Wednesday Trump demanded that Fed Governor Lisa Cook resign from the central bank over allegations of wrongdoing connected to mortgages on properties she owns in Georgia and Michigan.

Source: Bloomberg

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Manuel

Central Bank

Economic

Oil rose after a weekly report from the Energy Information Administration showed a 6-million-barrel decline in US inventories. Traders continue to monitor negotiations to end Russia’s war against Ukraine.

West Texas Intermediate futures for both the September and October contracts edged higher, with the more-active October contract trading near $63 a barrel. Brent futures strengthened to trade near $67 a barrel, clawing back Tuesday’s losses.

“All and all this is modestly bullish,” said Rebecca Babin, a senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth Group. “But not enough to change the minds of the permabears out there.”

Despite the overall draw, crude inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, grew for the seventh consecutive week, rising to 23.5 million barrels despite the American Petroleum Institute estimating a decrease. The hub, which serves as the main storage and delivery point for WTI futures, has seen a recent surge of supplies from the Permian Basin.

Investors are also watching the progress toward a Russsia-Ukraine ceasefire following a series of high-level talks brokered by President Donald Trump. The US and military officials from NATO discussed security measures Wednesday for Ukraine to help forge a peace agreement, according to a senior alliance official. Any peace deal could lead to fewer restrictions on Russia’s crude exports, although Moscow has largely kept its oil flowing despite an array of sanctions.

A lot of that crude has been shipped to India since the war, drawing criticism from the Trump administration. On Tuesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed on CNBC that some of the “richest families in India” benefited from purchases of Russian oil, reiterating plans to boost tariffs on the South Asian nation.

The longer-term outlook for the oil market looks bearish, with expectations for a glut later in 2025 as OPEC+ returns barrels and as Trump’s trade policies spark concerns about demand, according to the International Energy Agency. Futures are down more than 10% this year.

Source: Bloomberg

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Kevin Du

Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin‘s current stagnation at $113,400 is largely influenced by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes, which have dampened enthusiasm for risk among investors. Despite this, the Federal Reserve has shown unexpected backing for cryptocurrencies, aligning with earlier statements. Notably, two officials who favor lowering interest rates expressed similar support, which some interpret as maneuvers to appeal to President Trump.

Why is the Fed Showing Support for Cryptocurrencies?

In a recent address, Fed official Christopher Waller acknowledged significant transformations within the payments sector, embracing cryptocurrencies. Previously, another Fed member, Bowman, delivered a speech titled “Embracing Innovation,” focusing on the profound shifts in tokenization, cryptocurrency regulations, and payment systems. Bowman noted her amazement at the scale of change unfolding.

She described the evolving payment landscape as a “technology-driven revolution,” powered by advances in computing, data processing, and distributed networks. Key innovations include round-the-clock instant payments, intuitive digital wallets, mobile payment apps, and stablecoins. This transformation brings both anticipation and skepticism.

Bowman stated, “the evolution of payment systems tells a longstanding story of technological advancement.”

Concerning stablecoins, Waller highlighted their advantages, noting how they could expand their appeal as the market matures. Features such as 24/7 access and quick transfers make stablecoins particularly attractive in inflation-prone regions or areas with limited banking services. Stablecoins could enhance the US dollar’s global role.

Back in February, Waller recognized the growing stablecoin sector but called for regulatory clarity and coherence in the US. The introduction of the GENIUS Act marked a significant legislative milestone for crypto assets and payment stablecoins.

What Could Fed Operation 2.0 Entail?

There is buzz around the potential for “Fed Operation 2.0” as Trump’s policies accelerate. Although Trump has sought to sway monetary policy through potential legal actions against Powell, interest rate reductions remain unachieved. Following Kugler’s resignation, possible policy shifts seem more plausible with Miran’s appointment.

Still, there aren’t enough votes for moving forward. For Trump to assert greater influence, another Fed departure may be required. Meanwhile, an investigation into Fed Chairman Cook’s Massachusetts properties led Pulte of the US Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to reflect skeptically.

Bitcoin’s price is influenced by FOMC narratives, curbing investor interest.
Both Bowman and Waller have acknowledged and supported cryptocurrency advances.
Stablecoins continue to gain traction as promising financial tools.
Potential leadership changes could impact Fed strategies moving forward.

Developments at the Federal Reserve suggest a period of both opportunity and uncertainty for the cryptocurrency market. Observers are keenly watching how these dynamics unfold, mindful of the intricate dance between policy shifts and market responses.