Hypernova, a proprietary trading platform built entirely on the Hyperliquid blockchain, has closed a $3 million pre-seed funding round. The investment was led by Lemniscap, with additional participation from Very Early Ventures, CMS Holdings, and Pivot Global. Notable angel investors from the Hyperliquid ecosystem also joined, including Maximilian Fiege (co-founder of Native Markets), 'Ericonomic' of Kinetiq, 'Huf' of Pear Protocol, and the co-founders of HypurrCollective—Kirby Ong, Noel Tan, and 'Velocity'—who participated via the Echo onchain capital-raising platform, a venture recently acquired by Coinbase for $375 million.
The round, which closed in mid-October after launching fundraising in September, was oversubscribed by three times. It was structured as a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) with token warrants, and Lemniscap received a board observer seat. Hypernova co-founder and CEO Anar Bayramov declined to disclose the valuation but emphasized the firm’s vision of building a trustless prop trading firm that replaces opaque payout processes with smart contract automation and on-chain settlement.
Hypernova aims to fix a core tension in traditional retail prop trading, where firms operate on a B-book model and often view consistently profitable traders as a liability. Instead, the platform can dynamically A-book strong traders—taking their trades to market—while B-booking those with limited track records. This approach gives Hypernova two revenue paths: assessment fees during the alpha stage, and future trading profits from A-booked activity. The platform has been in closed alpha since May 1, onboarded 250 traders, funded over 20, and paid out more than $30,000. A public launch is planned within two months, with $1 million of the raise allocated to a payout reserve and the rest for team expansion and platform preparation.
The startup competes with crypto-focused prop firms like Breakout (acquired by Kraken), HyperPnL, and Propr. Hypernova’s team of seven plans to hire a quantitative researcher and developer, while Bayramov—formerly a DeFi investments lead at RockawayX—and CTO Nijat Bakhshaliyev (ex-Coinbase, Citi) drive the project. If successful, the team believes Hypernova could evolve into a globally distributed trading firm rivaling industry giants.
