**[Hyperliquid Founder Once Rejected $1 Billion Valuation Financing Proposal, Adhering to a "Zero External Investment" Approach]** BlockBeats News, April 13 — According to Colossus, Hyperliquid founder Jeffrey Yan received an investment proposal based on a valuation of approximately $1 billion, with a funding scale of around $100 million, less than a year after the project launched. However, after careful consideration, he ultimately chose to reject the investment terms. The report revealed that prior to and during the financing proposal, the team had been operating in a state of continuous "self-funding," with the founder personally covering monthly project costs. During interactions with investors, Jeff engaged in discussions with multiple entrepreneurs and VCs about the nature and significance of fundraising but remained unconvinced that external capital could enhance the intrinsic value of the project. Ultimately, on a Monday, he explicitly informed the team of his decision to reject the financing proposal. Internal sources described the decision as shocking to team members responsible for managing funds, as significant preparatory work had already been undertaken for the financing. Jeff's core reasoning was that Hyperliquid is not a traditional company but rather an on-chain protocol that must maintain neutrality. He believed that introducing external equity capital could compromise the protocol's "permissionless and neutral" positioning, conflicting with its long-term design goals. He had previously stated publicly that if Bitcoin had accepted VC funding in its early days, its "neutrality narrative" might have been weakened. Following the same logic, he chose to maintain Hyperliquid's investor-free structure and continue supporting part of the operational expenses with personal funds. On January 28, 2024, he summarized the project's principles on social media: - No investors - No paid market makers - No fees charged to the development team (or no fees extracted by the development team) - No insiders (or privileged participants) This statement has been regarded as the core annotation of Hyperliquid's "extreme decentralization/de-capitalization" approach.