David Knox
Analyst · Chardan
Thank you, Hyunsu, and good morning, everyone. As Hyunsu already noted, today, we are raising our 2026 full year guidance by approximately 20% or plus $1 million to $5 million to $7 million of adjusted gross profit, driven by the momentum of our businesses, the immense opportunities we see and our success in raising $10 million in a public offering last week. We are very proud of what we have built since our new DeFi strategy launched in June of 2025, and the results speak for themselves. Taking a moment to reflect on the financial outcomes to date across the past 3 quarters. Our Q1 adjusted gross profit has grown by 119% since Q3 and plus 17% sequentially versus Q4 from $439,000 in Q3 to $821,000 in Q4 to $960,000 in Q1. In addition, our achieved earnings multiple versus base staking yield grew from 1.3x in Q3 to 2.7x in Q4 to 3.1x in Q1 as our triple dip hype strategy continues to demonstrate our unique execution advantage versus our peers. The portion of our adjusted gross profit earned in cash has expanded from 18% in Q3 to 22% in Q4 and 48% in Q1. And our core costs have declined sequentially each quarter, and we expect our cost to continue to decline as our legacy biotech segment rolls off. Meanwhile, in the past 3 quarters, the average price of HYPE declined from an average effective price of 45.8 in Q3 to 35.1 in Q4 to 30.8 in Q1, in total, a 33% decline since Q3. So we achieved plus 119% total growth in our operating business, while the underlying HYPE Token price declined by 33% and our expense base also declined. Altogether demonstrating that we are not simply a beta play on the price of HYPE, but that we are independently generating scalable value for our shareholders via our unique identity as the first DeFi public company building on hyperliquid. All of this is built on our growing treasury of HYPE and Hyperliquid ecosystem positions, including, as of May 11, over 2 million HYPE tokens, about 1.9 million KNTQ, 10 million HPL and the future rights to 1% of Silhouette equity or tokens. Our track record shows we are more than just HYPE, and this is still the beginning of our journey. I will now give detail on each of our DeFi operating businesses. Adjusted gross profit, a non-GAAP metric, aims to capture all of Hyperion DeFi's value-add operating business activities beyond simply buying and holding HYPE Tokens. As a reminder, our triple dip strategy is designed to simultaneously support and monetize adoption of the Hyperliquid blockchain by deploying each token into at least 3 of our 5 strategies at once. First, we stake our HYPE. Second, we deploy the stakes HYPE into another business activity, our validator yield enhancement or DeFi monetization. And third, we position ourselves for upside in the ecosystem via token air drops, protocol points and rewards or equity in our partners. Starting with staking Yield. In Q1, we earned about 10,100 HYPE Tokens from staking, up 16% quarter-over-quarter versus about 8,400 in Q4. On a dollar basis, our HYPE earned from staking generated $313,000 adjusted gross profit in Q1 versus $305,000 in Q4 while the effective average HYPE price in period declined from $35.1 in Q4 to $30.8 in Q1. Next, Validator Commissions. In Q1, the company earned about 1,300 HYPE Tokens from validating, roughly in line with 1,400 in Q4 worth $40,000. Over 10 million Hype tokens were delegated to our validator as of April 30, and we are the top 6 Hyperliquid validator after the Hyper Foundation. There is a GAAP presentment update related to how we account for validating and staking activities. Industry interpretations have evolved regarding the gross versus net presentment of our validator. On December 15, 2025, we took unilateral control of our validator operations, and our structure and net economics have not changed. In Q3 and Q4, we presented as net until we took control of the validator on December 15, after which we presented as gross for the remainder of the year. However, in the Q1 GAAP financials, we are presenting validator economics on a net basis as a result of the evolving interpretations, but these differences in presentment have no impact on our adjusted gross profit. Back to our DeFi businesses. Next, our yield enhancement strategies, which primarily monetize volatility on HYPE, generated $211,000 of adjusted gross profit in Q1 versus $79,000 in Q4, plus 165% quarter-over-quarter. In our DeFi monetization segment, we support and monetize Hyperliquid DeFi activity with sustainable, scalable practices. DeFi monetization generated $245,000 adjusted gross profit in Q1 versus $102,000 in Q4, plus 140% quarter-over-quarter. Hyunsu earlier gave detail on each of the growth drivers here. And in our earnings supplement, we have a section dedicated to what exactly our partnerships do for the Hyperliquid ecosystem, and we showcase how our partners are positioned to grow and succeed. And finally, ecosystem awards generated $150,000 of adjusted gross profit in Q1 versus $285,000 in Q4. We expect the quarter-over-quarter change in ecosystem awards to be volatile given the unexpected timing of air drops, token generation events and other rewards activity. But this quarter, we are establishing a track record demonstrating that receiving upside in these early-stage protocols is a core component of our strategy. The Q1 figure reflects $10 million or 1% of maximum supply HPL tokens we received from HyperLend in connection with our partnership agreements. In the future, we expect to recognize tokens or equity from Silhouette and expect additional ecosystem awards throughout 2026. As demonstrated across all 5 strategies and as the first U.S. public company building on Hyperliquid, we believe this is a great time for us to own more Hype and position ourselves to deploy into the Hyperliquid ecosystem. This is why last week, we closed a $10 million public common equity raise led by high-quality fundamental investors, including Arrington Capital, Blockchain.com, a mutual fund, a technology-driven investment firm and others in a time when other digital asset companies have struggled to raise capital. We anticipate this capital to yield accretion to our financials over time since as our model and results have shown, we generate a very high ROI with our hype and in Q1 generated over 3x base staking yield. And we've demonstrated this profile regardless of the price of Hype over the past few quarters. As Hyunsu mentioned, we have a full pipeline ahead of us, not only from what we believe are emerging opportunities in HIP4 prediction markets, but also our core house or HYPE asset use service agreements. We now have more fuel for our businesses to expand and by raising full year 2026 guidance by about 20%, we are demonstrating our confidence and commitment to that expansion and holding ourselves accountable to the trust investors have placed in us. Since the close of the offering as of May 11, we have already bought more HYPE with our treasury now exceeding 2 million HYPE tokens and our cash position is at $16 million, while we aim to be thoughtful on our Hype purchase timing and entry points. As we acquire more Hype and as our capacity for deals grows, you can expect we will add to our track record of innovative partnerships as we work to build Hyperliquid into the blockchain to house all of finance. Pivoting back to our operating results. Regarding our expenses, operating expenses, excluding stock-based compensation, declined 1% quarter-over-quarter from $3 million in Q4 to $2.98 million in Q1. Selling, general and administrative expenses subtracting stock-based compensation decreased 5% quarter-over-quarter from $2.8 million in Q4 to $2.7 million in Q1. We expect a near full wind down of legacy biotech operations by the end of the second quarter, which will eliminate R&D and reduce SG&A expenses on a go-forward basis. In the last 9 months, we have eliminated about $2.6 million of legacy GAAP liabilities related to the biotech business, including through direct engagement and resolution with historical partners. At this time, any monetization outcome on the Optejet is uncertain and could be 0. But from the third quarter onward, our entire focus and identity will be on the DeFi businesses. On the treasury side, gross HYPE Tokens increased from 1.88 million in Q4 to 1.94 million in Q1 to over 2 million tokens as of May 11. The price of Hype increased from 25.4 at the end of Q4 to 36.6 in Q1 and 42.2 as of May 11. This compares to our aggregate purchase price on Hype tokens of 37.9, meaning the value of our HYPE treasury at 84.5 million exceeds our cash basis of 75.9 million by approximately $8.6 million. Our net asset value, which adjusts our treasury for net cash and debt, increased from $44.2 million as of Q4 to $69.9 million as of Q1 to approximately $90 million as of May 11. Treasury gains was $21.5 million in Q1 as the price of Hype increased versus a treasury loss of $36.8 million in Q4. Based on the HYPE price at May 11, we estimate more than $10 million of additional embedded unrealized treasury gains as a tailwind to Q2. In totality, Q1 net income of $8.8 million, a record for the company, compares to Q4 net loss of $39.8 million. Q1 adjusted EBITDA of $19.5 million compares to Q4 adjusted EBITDA of negative $38.9 million. The primary reconciliation of Q1 net income to adjusted EBITDA is our HYPE liquid staking tokens or LSTs, for which the GAAP carrying value is the low watermark price of HYPE as detailed further in our GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation section in our earnings release and earnings supplement. But if all our Hype LSTs were converted back to HYPE at the end of Q1, we believe that would have increased our GAAP net income by approximately $11.4 million. Finally, regarding our cash flows and cash position. Net cash used in operating activities was $4.2 million in Q1, which compares to $4.1 million in Q4. However, Q1 operating cash flow included $1.5 million net increase in the levels of operating assets, including acquiring additional USDH stablecoin, without which net cash used in operating activities would have been $2.7 million. Our cash, cash equivalents and USDH totaled $9.1 million as of Q1 versus $6.5 million as of Q4. And as mentioned, as of May 11, we have about $16 million in cash. Net cash used in investing activities to purchase HYPE was $1.5 million in Q1 versus $6.3 million in Q4. Quarter-to-date, as of May 11, we have purchased $2.5 million in HYPE. Net cash provided by financing activities was $6.6 million in Q1, primarily from our at-the-market offering versus $9.4 million in Q4. Through May 11, quarter-to-date, we have raised approximately $1.9 million net proceeds from the sale of about 500,000 common shares via our at-the-market offering. And as previously mentioned, we issued $10 million gross and approximately $9 million net proceeds from a public equity offering of approximately 2.8 million shares last week. Following that offering's close as of May 11, our common share count is approximately 15 million shares. Looking ahead, we continue to expect our net operating activity to flip cash flow positive by the end of 2026. We set this goal for ourselves in our first earnings call under the new DeFi strategy in November 2025, and we have made consistent progress now with a 3-quarter track record of achieving growing adjusted gross profit and declining core operating expenses. We are immensely proud of what we have accomplished in the past 3 quarters, and we are just getting started. Until Hyperliquid is the blockchain to house all of finance, our job is not yet done. With that, we look forward to answering your questions.