Pre-listing markets are often highly speculative and can be thinly traded, meaning any implied valuation should be treated with caution and may not reliably reflect actual market demand.

The argument also comes down to geography. Polymarket registered with the CFTC last July and is rebuilding its U.S. business, putting compliance at the center of its strategy.

However, in Asia, it is still grappling with how regulators classify its product. It is geoblocked in Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan, partially restricted in Japan. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, prediction markets more broadly are on the radar of gambling regulators

Hyperliquid faces no equivalent constraint, and its user base skews toward Asia, where crypto-native trading is already deep.

The contrast is clearest with Kalshi.

As a CFTC-regulated exchange, Kalshi’s model is built around compliance and licensing, not token incentives, which likely rules out the kind of value-accrual layer Hayes is pointing to.

That makes it the most direct test of his thesis. Users can trade event outcomes on Kalshi, but they have no path to the upside of the platform itself. In traditional markets, that kind of upside is typically accessed via equity, such as an IPO, though for now, Kalshi users’ participation is limited to trading on the platform.

Across the three platforms, the split is structural: Hyperliquid already ties usage to a token, Polymarket appears to be moving in that direction, and Kalshi’s model likely prevents it altogether.

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Jack Mallers (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Tether has moved to combine bitcoin treasury, mining, and financial services under one roof.

What to know:

  • Tether Investments has proposed merging Twenty One Capital (XXI) with Strike, a Bitcoin financial services platform, and bitcoin miner Elektron Energy.
  • If completed, the combined entity would unite bitcoin treasury, mining, financial services, lending, and capital markets under one public company.
  • XXI shares have climbed nearly 8% in after-market trading…

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