KEYTAKEAWAYS
-
Ventuals brings private markets on-chain.
Built on Hyperliquid, it lets users trade the valuations of companies like OpenAI and SpaceX through perpetual contracts — turning private equity into a transparent, liquid market.
-
A dual engine of vHYPE and points fuels its growth.
Its liquid staking and gamified rewards system create a self-reinforcing loop of liquidity, community engagement, and protocol expansion without early token inflation.
-
Paradigm’s backing anchors credibility.
With deep technical and strategic support from Paradigm, Ventuals positions itself at the frontier between DeFi innovation and traditional finance.
CONTENT
THE ORIGIN OF A NEW MARKET
In global finance, the biggest value explosions often happen long before a company goes public. Before OpenAI, SpaceX, or Neuralink ever reach the stock exchange, their valuations multiply behind closed doors. Those gains have always been reserved for insiders and accredited investors. Ventuals wants to change that.
Built on the Hyperliquid blockchain, Ventuals is creating the first on-chain derivatives market for private company valuations. Its core product, the “Valuation Perpetual Contract,” lets anyone go long or short on the future valuation of top private tech firms. A user can bet on OpenAI’s next funding round or take the opposite side on SpaceX. It turns the once-opaque pre-IPO equity market into a transparent, tradable layer of price discovery.
The foundation is Hyperliquid, a high-performance Layer 1 purpose-built for finance. After the HIP-3 upgrade, any builder can stake HYPE tokens to launch a perpetual market without permission. Ventuals became the first major project to use this model, showing how a single blockchain can host many independent financial protocols under one shared engine.
FROM CLOSED MARKETS TO OPEN LIQUIDITY
Traditional private markets have one fundamental flaw: they do not trade. Valuations are updated only a few times a year, set behind the walls of venture firms. Ventuals offers a different path by blending fundamental data with real-time market sentiment through a hybrid oracle system.
Half of its pricing feed comes from Notice, a data provider that tracks private valuations, mutual fund marks, and funding disclosures. The other half reflects on-chain trading activity, averaged over eight hours to capture the market’s pulse. This dual design keeps prices grounded in fundamentals while leaving room for speculation and reaction to breaking news. The result is a market that behaves both rationally and emotionally — just like any real one.
Liquidity is powered by the VLP pool, built with Hyperbeat. Users deposit stablecoins, which are deployed through automated market-making strategies. In return, they share in profits and trading fees. This structure allows Ventuals to maintain deep liquidity from day one without relying on a centralized market-making desk.
Accessibility is another priority. Through its integration with Privy, users can log in using email or social accounts. A wallet is created automatically behind the scenes — no browser extensions, no seed phrases. In minutes, anyone can open a position on the valuation of a private company. It makes DeFi feel less like an experiment and more like a product built for everyday investors.
THE ECONOMIC ENGINE OF VHYPE AND POINTS
Ventuals’ launch momentum was immediate. Within thirty minutes, its staking vault drew more than one million HYPE tokens — about thirty-eight million dollars. The key was a mechanism called vHYPE.
Under HIP-3, every new market must be backed by staked HYPE. Ventuals turned that requirement into a community-driven process. Users deposit HYPE and receive vHYPE, a liquid staking token that appreciates over time. Holders earn both Hyperliquid staking rewards and additional Ventuals points, creating dual yield.
The points system adds a powerful gamified layer. Early stakers received ten-times multipliers, while testnet traders, liquidity providers, and NFT holders earned extra boosts. These points function as pre-token rewards — expected by many to convert into governance tokens or airdrops. That belief triggered a feedback loop of capital inflows and community engagement.
The design works like a self-reinforcing circuit. Users provide capital to earn points. Points gain value as the project succeeds. That success, in turn, depends on the liquidity those users create. Without inflation or early token issuance, Ventuals built momentum few new protocols ever reach. It became a model for how incentives — not marketing — can power DeFi growth from the ground up.
RISKS, STRUCTURE AND THE ROAD AHEAD
Behind Ventuals stands a team with deep ties to Paradigm. Founder Alvin Hsia, a former Airbnb and Goldfinch product lead, developed the project through Paradigm’s in-house incubation program. Paradigm is not just an investor; it helped architect the project from the beginning, providing research and strategic guidance.
Yet every innovation comes with risk. Ventuals operates in one of the most sensitive areas of financial regulation. Offering leveraged exposure to private company valuations could attract scrutiny from regulators like the SEC. Its hybrid oracle may face manipulation risks, while thin liquidity could magnify volatility or trigger chain reactions of liquidations. For a protocol that bridges crypto and traditional finance, these challenges are real and ongoing.
Still, Ventuals points to where DeFi may be headed next. If blockchain finance truly aims to connect with the real economy, it must learn to price real assets. Ventuals offers a way to do that — turning innovation itself into a tradable instrument. The team plans to launch its mainnet markets soon and clarify how points will convert into tokens. If it succeeds, Ventuals could become a cornerstone of the Hyperliquid ecosystem and a model for future private-asset trading protocols.
This is bigger than one project. It is a statement that price discovery should not belong only to insiders. When the valuations of private giants begin to trade on-chain, a new chapter of finance will unfold — one where the line between private and public markets starts to blur, and where the crowd, not just capital, defines what innovation is worth.
