HYPE hits new high—Is the "HYPE version MicroStrategy" $PURR worth buying?

Author: Deep Tide TechFlow

On May 24, a tweet about Hyperliquid Strategies (NASDAQ: PURR) sparked considerable discussion in English CT:

The company used approximately $220 million to buy HYPE, and its current unrealized profit has reached nearly $1 billion, even surpassing the profit efficiency of Michael Saylor's Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) in BTC.

This topic is now gradually spreading to the Chinese-speaking crypto community. HYPE recently hit a new all-time high above $62, with year-to-date gains exceeding 150%, making it one of the best-performing major crypto assets this year.

As the only HYPE proxy listed on the US stock market, PURR has also risen over 100% year-to-date, naturally becoming a FOMO target for US stock research and investment.

But before jumping on the bandwagon, several questions need to be clarified:

1. What exactly is this company?

2. What’s the difference between buying PURR and buying HYPE directly?

3. Can the claim of "capital efficiency exceeding MicroStrategy" withstand scrutiny?

$PURR, Pure DAT

Conclusion first: PURR is not a company with actual operations; it is essentially a pure $HYPE stock wrapper.

Its business model is simple: Buy HYPE, stake HYPE, hold HYPE. As of April 2026, public information shows the company holds approximately 20 million HYPE tokens and about $113 million in cash, with zero debt.

This means the entire value of the stock depends on one thing: the price of HYPE.

Since there is no business to analyze, evaluating such a company boils down to two dimensions: the underlying asset itself, and who is operating this shell.

The latter determines capital operation capabilities, such as when to issue shares to buy more coins, when to conduct buybacks to support the price, and how to manage the premium/discount relationship between the stock price and net asset value... it also determines whether institutional funds are willing to enter through this vehicle.

Historically, PURR was formerly Sonnet BioTherapeutics, a small-cap biotech company listed on NASDAQ. In July 2025, it announced a merger with Rorschach I, completing the transaction in December of the same year with an overall valuation of $888 million. It was renamed Hyperliquid Strategies, with the ticker changed to PURR.

Notably, the deal was initiated by Paradigm and Atlas Merchant Capital.

Paradigm is one of the top venture capital firms in the crypto industry, having backed projects like Uniswap, Blur, and Friend.tech. It has deep involvement in the Hyperliquid ecosystem and directly participated in forming this SPAC.

Atlas Merchant Capital is a financial services investment firm based in New York and London. Its two founders hold key positions at PURR: Chairman Bob Diamond is the former CEO of Barclays Bank, and CEO David Schamis is a former partner at JC Flowers.

Other board members include former Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren and former NYSE COO Larry Leibowitz. Other participants include Galaxy, D1, and Pantera, all top-tier institutions in the crypto and macro space.

Most DAT company management comes from the crypto-native circle, while PURR's team is almost entirely composed of traditional finance veterans.

$HYPE Soars, $PURR Follows

PURR caught the attention of the Chinese crypto community primarily due to HYPE's strong performance.

HYPE has rallied from around $25 at the start of the year to break through $62 in May, setting a new all-time high with year-to-date gains exceeding 150%. Against the backdrop of BTC's sideways movement and the lackluster performance of ETH and SOL this year, HYPE stands out as the brightest major crypto asset.

Our previous article already dissected Hyperliquid's fundamental flywheel: ~70% market share in perp DEXs, weekly fee revenue exceeding tens of millions of dollars, and 97% of protocol fees used for buyback and burn of HYPE. This engine is still accelerating.

(Reference: Market Observation: From HYPE to ZEC, Grasping the 4 Narrative Lines Behind Recent Altcoin Heat)

As HYPE rises, PURR naturally follows suit.

As the only HYPE proxy listed on US stocks, PURR has surged over 100% year-to-date, climbing from the $3 range to a recent high of $8.79.

For investors who only have US stock accounts and no direct access to the crypto market, PURR is almost the only option to gain HYPE exposure. However, what turned PURR from a "niche target" into a "social media topic" were several institutional signals that materialized densely since May.

Goldman Sachs disclosed buying approximately 650,000 shares of PURR in its Q1 13F filing. While the amount is modest (~$3.3 million), the Goldman Sachs name itself serves as an endorsement. Around the same time, 21Shares and Bitwise HYPE spot ETFs were listed on Nasdaq and NYSE respectively, and Cantor Fitzgerald raised its PURR price target from $6 to $8.

These events, coinciding with HYPE's new ATH window, propelled PURR into more people’s sight.

Then came the tweet mentioned at the beginning of the article: PURR used $220 million principal to buy HYPE, with unrealized profits now nearing $1 billion. In the short term, its capital efficiency certainly surpasses MicroStrategy.

Amid such a surge, massive attention is inevitable. However, if you plan to trade this stock, caution is still advised.

Is It Really the Most Capital-Efficient DAT?

Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) invested over $60 billion to buy BTC, with an average cost of around $75,000. PURR used only about $220 million to buy HYPE, yet its unrealized profit is close to or even surpasses the former. Does this mean PURR's "capital efficiency" is far higher than MicroStrategy?

The comparison stands mathematically but is logically misleading.

PURR's early HYPE holdings have an average cost of about $7, and the current price is $62 – a nearly 9x increase. Strategy's average BTC cost is around $75,000, and BTC is currently near that level, showing almost no gain.

Therefore, PURR's higher unrealized profit isn't due to smarter moves by the company; it's simply because the underlying asset's price increase is on a completely different scale. Anyone who directly bought HYPE spot with the same amount of money at the same time would have achieved the same return rate, without bearing the risk of equity dilution.

In other words, this is the victory of "picking the right coin." If PURR had been established six months later, entering when HYPE was at $40, this "capital efficiency" story would be completely invalid.

For US stock investors who just noticed PURR today, the more practical question is: When buying PURR now, relative to the value of HYPE the company holds, are you paying a premium or a discount?

This brings us to the core valuation metric for DAT companies – mNAV (Modified Net Asset Value per share).

We pulled data from PURR's official dashboard and SEC filings for a quick mNAV calculation.

The company currently holds 20.8 million HYPE (approximately $1.296 billion at current prices), plus $114 million in cash. After deducting deferred tax liabilities and other liabilities, net assets are approximately $1.34 billion.

Based solely on the 134.6 million shares outstanding, NAV per share is about $9.98. With the current stock price at $7.67, this represents a discount of roughly 23%. If we include the approximately 29.8 million warrants, the fully diluted share count is about 155 million, resulting in a NAV per share of about $8.66, a discount of roughly 11%. However, the company just registered 35.16 million new shares. If all these are exercised, the share count expands to about 190 million, NAV per share drops to $7.07, and the stock price becomes a slight premium of 1.08x.

So, whether PURR is "cheap" or "expensive" depends on your view of future dilution.

Issuing new shares isn't necessarily bad. If management issues shares at a high premium and uses the proceeds to buy more HYPE, the per-share HYPE holdings could increase. However, if shares are issued when market sentiment cools and the stock price falls below NAV, it dilutes existing shareholders.

This company has only been around for six months and hasn't yet experienced a full downward cycle. How management would operate in an extreme environment remains unknown, with no historical record to reference.

Also, note that the deferred tax liability used in the above calculation is $60.5 million as of the Q3 financial report cutoff date (March 31st). However, HYPE has risen significantly since the end of March, meaning the tax liability corresponding to unrealized gains has likely increased further. The actual NAV might be slightly lower than our calculation.

The Real Difference Between Buying PURR and Buying HYPE Directly

This is the most practical question. Since PURR's entire value comes from HYPE, why not skip the middle layer and just buy HYPE?

The answer is simple: for some investors, they simply can't. US retirement accounts (IRA, 401k), traditional brokerage accounts, and some institutional funds with strict compliance requirements cannot directly hold crypto assets.

Furthermore, the Hyperliquid platform frontend explicitly restricts access for US residents.

Therefore, PURR offers a NASDAQ-listed stock wrapper, allowing these funds to gain HYPE exposure through standard stock trading. The shell built by Paradigm essentially sells this compliance channel.

If you belong to this category of investors, PURR is currently almost the only option. Although 21Shares and Bitwise HYPE spot ETFs launched in mid-May, these products have extremely short trading histories, and their liquidity and tracking error remain to be observed.

But if you are capable of buying HYPE directly, PURR's stock wrapper becomes a pure friction cost with negative effects; it cannot be considered a source of beta return on top of HYPE.

This cost manifests in several ways:

First, dilution risk. When holding HYPE directly, your share cannot be diluted by others. But holding PURR stock means the company can issue new shares at any time to buy more HYPE.

Second, incomplete return transmission. Holding HYPE directly allows you to stake it for staking rewards, and future airdrops or ecosystem incentives come directly to you. Holding through PURR means staking rewards first go into the company's books; after deducting operating expenses and taxes, they only indirectly reflect in the per-share net asset value.

Third, trading time and pricing friction. HYPE trades 24/7, while PURR only circulates during US stock market hours. If HYPE experiences significant volatility over the weekend or during after-hours trading, PURR holders can only react when the market opens.

Fourth, counterparty risk. SEC filings disclose that all of PURR's HYPE holdings are with a single custodian. By holding PURR, the safety of your assets depends on this custodian's performance and the company's operational continuity.

My assessment is that PURR is more of a "channel product" than an "investment product." Its value lies solely in providing a bridge from traditional financial accounts to HYPE. If you don't need this channel, every additional risk introduced by the middle layer is unnecessary.

Therefore, for crypto and US stock investors in the Chinese-speaking community, the conclusion is straightforward:

The judgment you need to make is whether you are bullish on HYPE, not whether you are bullish on the PURR shell itself.