The Monetary Authority of Singapore placed the rapidly developing decentralized trading platform Hyperliquid (HYPE) on its investor alert list on Friday, flagging both the Hyper Foundation website and trading app Hyperliquid as unlicensed entities operating without a regulatory license in the city-state.
This list makes Hyperliquid one of the first major DeFi protocols to appear on the registry. HYPE joins centralized exchanges Binance (BNB), KuCoin (KCS), Bitget (BGB) and Bybit on the alert list.
What even is the alarm list in Singapore?
MAS established the Investor Alert List in 2004 as a consumer protection tool, identifying financial service providers who do not have proper licenses to operate in Singapore. However, it is important to note that appearing on the list does not mean there is any fraud or any enforcement action underway.
The entities listed on the register are not subject to regulatory proceedings in Singapore. This process covers capital requirements, compliance with anti-money laundering procedures, and consumer guarantees. The consequence for Singaporeans who use the listed platforms is that MAS protections do not apply if anything goes wrong in their use of these platforms.
Excess fluid responds
In a post on X, Hyperliquid said the listing “does not constitute a ban, enforcement action, or finding of wrongdoing.” The protocol also stated that it has never represented itself as holding a MAS license and described itself as a permissionless infrastructure where users maintain self-custody and transactions are settled on the blockchain only.
Hyperliquid has been added to MAS’s Investor Alert List (IAL). The IAL does not constitute a ban, enforcement action, or finding of wrongdoing. IAL provides a list of entities that, based on information available to MAS, may be mistakenly viewed as licensed…
– HyperliquidX (@HyperliquidX) June 26, 2026
Hyperliquid added that its operations remain unchanged and that it “will continue to work constructively with regulators and institutions.” The platform currently ranks as the ninth-largest decentralized exchange by trading volume on CoinGecko, with a total value of around $5.7 billion according to DefiLlama estimates.
HYPE was trading About $64 to $65 At the time of the announcement, it was down about 1% over 24 hours, according to Yahoo Finance.
Singapore tightens regulation of cryptocurrencies
Over the past few years, MAS has increased its efforts to curtail the operational freedom available to unlicensed cryptocurrency operators in Singapore.
In 2024, rules were put in place to prevent cryptocurrency and digital payments providers from offering credit, leverage or trading incentives to retail clients while also prohibiting them from lending or storing retail assets, according to Yahoo Finance. Cryptocurrency companies have also not been allowed to market themselves to the general public since January 2022.
In May 2025, MAS required cryptocurrency companies serving overseas customers from Singapore to either obtain licenses or cease operations, putting an end to a loophole that some companies used to avoid licensing by restricting services to non-Singaporean users.
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