LAGUNA HILLS, Calif., March 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hyperion DeFi, Inc. (NASDAQ:HYPD) ("Hyperion DeFi" or the "Company") today announced that it has engaged with the HyperLend protocol ("HyperLend") to create a permissioned lending pool native to the HyperEVM.

Through this pool, Hyperion DeFi will utilize its HYPE Liquid Staking Token (LST), HiHYPE, as collateral to access credit on-chain at more favorable economics, including the ability to earn HyperLend's HPL token. The Company expects to use the proceeds to partially pay down its existing third-party obligations, replacing traditional debt at 8.0% annual cost with a new smart contract-enabled pool at 4.0%. Hyperion DeFi will initially utilize the pool to borrow Native Markets' USDH stablecoin on its own behalf, and selectively open access to other qualified lenders, borrowers, and supportable assets over time.

"This latest partnership with HyperLend builds on several months of work to develop scalable, monetizable infrastructure directly on the HyperEVM," said Hyunsu Jung, Chief Executive Officer at Hyperion DeFi. "As we integrate further into the Hyperliquid ecosystem, we will continue supporting the growth of key protocols that cover liquid staking, lending, and yield enhancement. These integrations accelerate our DeFi flywheel, establishing additional revenue and ecosystem rewards opportunities while supporting the growth of the ecosystem."

"HyperLend was designed to be both permissionless and flexible enough to support gated, private environments, having already processed more than $17B in cumulative volume," added Benjamin Sever, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of HyperLend. "Partnering with Hyperion DeFi to launch this institutional pool ensures that compliant participants have a secure, scalable environment to execute their on-chain credit strategies while leveraging the proven reliability of our core protocol."

Similar to the Company's previously announced Institutional Volatility Income Vault built on Rysk protocol, participants will be gated through HiHYPE (Hyperion Institutional HYPE) ownership, which is minted by staking HYPE to the ‘Kinetiq x Hyperion' validator. This structure creates a controlled, institutional-only access model designed to scale alongside the adoption of HiHYPE and USDH, while driving incremental, diversified fee revenue to Hyperion DeFi over time.

The Company expects this on-chain credit infrastructure to attract additional institutional-grade capital and users to HyperEVM, with the long-term objective to support asset-backed finance and other Real-World Asset (RWA) opportunities.

About the Hyperliquid Platform and the HYPE Token

Hyperliquid is a next-generation layer one blockchain optimized for high frequency, transparent trading. The blockchain includes fully on-chain perpetual futures and spot order books, with every order, cancel, trade, and liquidation occurring within 70 millisecond block times. It also hosts the HyperEVM, a general-purpose smart contract platform that supports permissionless decentralized financial applications akin to Ethereum.

HYPE is the native token of Hyperliquid. Staked HYPE provides utility for users via reduced trading fees and increased referral bonuses. As of March 2026, more than 41 million HYPE have been autonomously purchased and sequestered by the blockchain with the trading fees generated on the network's central limit order books.

About Hyperion DeFi, Inc.

Hyperion DeFi, Inc. is the first U.S. publicly listed company building a long-term strategic treasury of HYPE. The Company provides investors with streamlined access to the Hyperliquid ecosystem, one of the fastest growing, highest revenue-generating blockchains in the world. Shareholders benefit from compounding exposure to HYPE, both from its native staking yield and additional revenues generated from its unique on-chain utility.

Hyperion DeFi is also developing its proprietary Optejet User Filled Device that is designed to work with a variety of topical ophthalmic liquids, including artificial tears and lens rewetting products. The Optejet is especially useful in chronic front-of-the-eye diseases due to its ease of use, enhanced safety and tolerability, and potential for superior compliance versus standard eye drops. Together, these benefits may result in higher treatment compliance and better outcomes for patients and providers.

For more information, please visit Hyperiondefi.com or follow @hyperiondefi on X.

About HyperLend

HyperLend is the decentralized lending protocol functioning as the credit layer of Hyperliquid. HyperLend is a foundational component to the Hyperliquid ecosystem, servicing both HyperCore and HyperEVM with the layer that is necessary to continually increase capital velocity.

With $17B in cumulative volume and ~$540M in market size, HyperLend has built an impressive track record, providing market leading lending and borrowing interest rates and liquidity for its users. As HyperLiquid continues to develop as the house of all finance HyperLend is positioned to scale alongside it, continuing its mission to make decentralized credit as powerful and accessible as its traditional counterparts.

For more information, please visit https://www.hyperlend.finance/ or follow @hyperlendx on X.

Forward Looking Statements

Except for historical information, all the statements, expectations and assumptions contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements that express our intentions, beliefs, expectations, strategies, predictions or any other statements, our future activities or other future events or conditions, including the viability of, and risks associated with, our cryptocurrency treasury strategy, the growth and revenue potential of the Hyperliquid ecosystem and the growth prospects of the Company. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about our business based, in part, on assumptions made by management. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may, and in some cases are likely to, differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements due to numerous factors discussed from time to time in documents which we file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and except as may be required under applicable securities laws, Hyperion DeFi does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Certain information contained in this press release relates to or is based on studies, publications, surveys and other data obtained from third-party sources and Hyperion DeFi's own internal estimates and research. While Hyperion DeFi believes these third-party studies, publications, surveys and other data to be reliable as of the date of this press release, it has not independently verified, and makes no representation as to the adequacy, fairness, accuracy or completeness of, any information obtained from third-party sources. In addition, no independent source has evaluated the reasonableness or accuracy of Hyperion DeFi's internal estimates or research and no reliance should be made on any information or statements made in this press release relating to or based on such internal estimates and research. You should conduct your own investigation and analysis of Hyperion DeFi, its business, prospects, results of operations and financial condition. In furnishing this information, Hyperion DeFi does not undertake any obligation to provide you with access to any additional information (including forward-looking information and any projections contained herein) or to update or correct the information.

Hyperion DeFi, Inc. Investor Contact:

Jason Assad

Hyperion DeFi, Inc.

IR@hyperiondefi.com

(678) 570-6791

Hyperion DeFi Announces Private Lending Pool Built by HyperLend