Simon Shockey

Positioning Early: Kittenswap, Hyperswap and the HyperEVM DeFi Opportunity

The HyperEVM is still in its early days — with no major tokens TGE’d yet — now’s the time to look for asymmetric farming opportunities. Not just for yield, but for points, governance power, and exposure to the protocols best positioned to ride Hyperliquid’s next leg of growth.

The top two DEXs by TVL on the HyperEVM today are Hyperswap ($57M) and Kittenswap ($32M). While Hyperswap leads in TVL for now, history suggests it’s not just size that matters — but alignment. Early DEXs that aligned emissions, governance, and community often captured the most value – regardless of their design approach – think Aerodrome ($AERO) on Base, Shadow ($SHAWDOW) on Sonic, Trader Joe ($JOE) on Avalanche, PancakeSwap ($CAKE) on BNB etc.

In my last Hyperliquid related Alpha Feed, I covered HyperUnit — the first protocol to really capitalize on HL’s permissionless spot markets. Since then, Unit has cleared another $2B in volume and even announced the launch of CT’s favorite, $FARTCOIN for spot trading. This time though, I’m diving into Kittenswap — a ve(3,3) DEX with HL- style tokenomics and multiple points-farming layers. While still smaller than Hyperswap, its design could attract more protocols and liquidity over time, potentially making $KITTEN a compelling bet once it TGE’s – especially since Hyperliquid remains neutral in the DEX race.

The Need for Liquid Markets: HyperEVM’s Expanding DeFi Ecosystem

As mentioned, the HyperEVM is still in its infancy (just over $900 million in total TVL & weekly DEX volume of ~ $1 billion) meaning it needs a liquidity layer as the list of protocols deploying there co

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