Forward Industries CEO Slams Hyperliquid as ’Everything Wrong with Crypto’
Another day, another crypto executive throwing punches. This time, it's the CEO of Forward Industries taking aim at Hyperliquid—and he's not pulling any punches.
The Accusation Hits Hard
The criticism cuts straight to the core. No vague complaints about volatility or speculation. Instead, a targeted strike at what one leader calls the industry's fundamental flaws, all wrapped up in a single platform.
Decoding the Critique
What makes a project embody 'everything wrong' with an entire sector? It often boils down to priorities—speed over security, hype over utility, financial engineering over real-world application. The kind of stuff that makes traditional finance guys smirk into their overpriced lattes.
The Broader Battle Lines
This isn't just about one platform. It's a symptom of the ongoing identity crisis in crypto. Builders versus speculators. Infrastructure versus instant gratification. The tension defines the space—and occasionally tears it apart.
Why This Matters Now
With regulatory scrutiny intensifying globally, every high-profile critique adds weight to the perception battle. One executive's frustration can become a regulator's Exhibit A. That's how narratives get written—and markets get moved.
The verdict? Another messy chapter in crypto's ongoing struggle to grow up. Sometimes the loudest critics come from inside the house—and they're often the ones who know where the bodies are buried.
Samani made some serious allegations
According to Samani, Hyperliquid’s founder Jeff Yan, who is known for keeping a low profile, had to run from his home country in pursuit of freedom to build.
Yan succeeded in building Hyperliquid, but Samani claims the platform now brazenly facilitates crime and terror; is closed source and permissioned.
The post is clearly opinionated, and the sentiment directly clashes with many of the factors that users say help Hyperliquid stand out.
Samani regularly operates on Solana, so the rivalry between the chain and Hyperliquid could have spurred him on to make the post.
However, not all he said is verifiable or true. For example, there is no legal proof that Hyperliquid facilitates terrorism, and its founder chose to leave his home country because he wanted to build in the best environment.
Meanwhile, Hyperliquid continues to grow
While the likes of Samani continue to criticize Hyperliquid and its founder, the platform has continued to grow with nonstop iteration and innovation.
At the start of the month, Hyperliquid, looking to build on its strong price performance, announced the upcoming launch of HIP-4 markets, which WOULD enable prediction-market-like outcome trading.
“Outcomes are fully collateralized contracts that settle within a fixed range. They are a general-purpose primitive that are useful for applications such as prediction markets and bounded options-like instruments,” the official X post read.
Hyperliquid’s HYPE token has indeed been seeing strong performance this year, and analysts have linked the price action to the success of its HIP-3 upgrade, which enabled permissionless perpetual markets, allowing providers to tokenize traditional real-world assets such as Nasdaq Futures, Gold, and Forex.
HIP-3 trading via the leading market provider, TradeXYZ, has since been explosive, with the exchange processing over $12 billion in volume, about 4 times what it was processing before.
Sam Ruskin, a research analyst at Messari, has speculated on the upcoming HIP-4 launch, claiming it could be very bullish for pre-IPO trading on Hyperliquid.
“We’re about to see the most news-driven IPO cycle ever (OpenAI, SpaceX, Anthropic). There will undoubtedly be demand to bet on those markets, but the fundamental flaw for pre-IPO perps is that they rely on sketchy, unverified, private data. It’s too risky for both makers and takers to get involved at scale,” Ruskin wrote.
Ruskin claims that prediction markets eliminate the oracle problem entirely, and without oracles, there is no liquidation risk and less incentive for toxic flow.
“I could even see a world where pre-IPO perps become self-referential to prediction markets, an entirely end-to-end system. Very exciting catalysts on the horizon for Hyperliquid,” Ruskin concluded.
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