Hyperliquid Allocates 1M HYPE Tokens to Launch DeFi Policy Center in Washington

• Hyperliquid has allocated 1 million HYPE tokens worth $28 million to its new policy center based in Washington that leads lobbying for DeFi.
• The center is being led by Jake Chervinsky, a seasoned digital asset lawyer who was previously the head of legal services at Compound and The Blockchain Association.

The leading derivatives DeFi platform, Hyperliquid, has launched a new policy center in Washington D.C. to lobby the US government on its behalf as well as the entire DeFi industry.

Known as the Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC), the new organization has received 1 million HYPE tokens from the DeFi project to help with the setting up. HYPE trades at $28.22, giving the donation a $28.22 million valuation. The tokens were unstaked on Wednesday and transferred to wallets controlled by the new organization.

Announcing the donation, Hyperliquid wrote:

HPC is the latest in a growing list of crypto lobbying organizations in Washington, all seeking to secure better regulations for their specific crypto fields and the rest of the industry. These lobbyists showed their might in the 2024 election cycle, when the Fairshake PAC, whose biggest funders were Coinbase and Ripple, emerged the single largest corporate donor. The committee got over 50 of its sponsored candidates elected to office.

Hyperliquid’s Fight for DeFi in Washington

The Hyperliquid Policy Center says it’s an independent research and advocacy organization pushing for DeFi to thrive in the US.

“HPC is focused on advocating for regulatory frameworks that benefit decentralized finance, promote U.S. markets, and protect software developers from mistreatment under the law,” it says.

Its mandate includes engaging with Congress and regulators to support the implementation of policies that recognize the nuances of DeFi. Crypto has long complained that it has been subjected to regulations developed decades ago that fail to account for the new digital financial realities and which favor existing legacy banking rails. HPC believes that it can play a part in changing these structures.

HPC is being led by Jake Chervinsky, who previously worked with the Blockchain Association as legal counsel, as well as the chief legal advisor for Variant, a crypto investment firm that was an early investor in Uniswap, Worldcoin and Aptos.

Chervinsky is jumping into his job advocating for the DeFi sector straight away; earlier today, he argued against KYC on DeFi protocols, stating:

Chervinsky will be joined by Brad Bourque as the policy counsel at HPC. Bourque was previously an associate at Sullivan Cromwell, one of the world’s largest law firms.

The new venture comes at a time when Hyperliquid has faced mounting scrutiny after CoinGlass called into question the validity of perp DEX platforms’ reported volumes, as we reported.