Singapore's MAS puts Hyperliquid on investor alert list

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has placed fast developing decentralized trading platform Hyperliquid (HYPE) on its Investor Alert List on Friday, flagging both the Hyper Foundation website and the Hyperliquid trading application as unlicensed entities operating without regulatory authorization in the city-state.

The listing makes Hyperliquid one of the first major decentralized finance protocols to appear on the register. HYPE joins centralized exchanges Binance (BNB), KuCoin (KCS), Bitget (BGB), and Bybit on the alert list.

What even is Singapore’s alert list?

MAS created the Investor Alert List in 2004 as a consumer-protection tool, identifying financial service providers without proper licenses to operate in Singapore. However, it is important to note that appearing on the list does not mean there is any fraud at play or any enforcement action underway.

Entities on the register have not gone through Singapore’s regulatory process. This process covers capital requirements, compliance with anti-money laundering actions, and consumer safeguards. The consequence for Singaporeans who use platforms on the list is that MAS protections do not apply if anything goes wrong in their use of these platforms.

Hyperliquid responds

In a post on X, Hyperliquid said the listing “does not constitute a ban, an enforcement action, or a finding of wrongdoing.” The protocol also stated that it has never represented itself as holding MAS authorization and described itself as permissionless infrastructure where users maintain self-custody and transactions are settled purely on the blockchain.

Hyperliquid added that its operations remain unchanged and that it would “continue to engage constructively with regulators and institutions.” The platform currently ranks as the ninth-largest decentralized exchange by trading volume on CoinGecko, with roughly $5.7 billion in total value locked per DefiLlama estimates.

HYPE was trading around $64 to $65 at the time of the announcement, down by about 1% over 24 hours, according to Yahoo Finance.

Singapore tightens crypto regulation

Over the last few years, MAS has increased its efforts to shrink operational freedom available to unlicensed crypto operators in Singapore.

In 2024, rules were put into place to bar crypto and digital payments service providers from offering credit, leverage, or trading incentives to retail customers while also prohibiting them from lending or staking retail assets, according to Yahoo Finance. Crypto firms have also not been allowed to market themselves to the general public since January 2022.

In May 2025, MAS told crypto companies serving overseas customers from Singapore to either obtain licenses or stop operating, putting an end to a loophole used by some firms to avoid licensing by restricting services to non-Singaporean users.

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