Unpacking Bitget’s $350M hack, DoubleZero ships real-time Hyperliquid data service

Austin Federa, Co-Founder, DoubleZero

Overview

DoubleZero co-founder Austin Federa joins Gareth Jenkinson on episode 41 of The Starting Block to break down the launch of real-time Hyperliquid data on DoubleZero Edge, and makes the case for a bullish Q4 despite a year of bear market woes and negativity on crypto twitter.

Key topics

• DoubleZero launches real-time full order book data feed for Hyperliquid
• Multicast technology allows uncapped, rate-limit-free data delivery to traders
• AI agents can now subscribe to DoubleZero feeds to build automated trading strategies
• Trading venue consolidation coming; Hyperliquid seen as a near-certain survivor
• Federa bullish on Q4 2026, dismissing year-long crypto Twitter doomerism

Outline

- Show Intro & Housekeeping
- The Block Briefing
- The Hot Seat: DoubleZero's Hyperliquid Launch
- Geolocation & Data Speed
- Trading Venue Landscape
- Market Outlook: Q4 Bull Case

Summary

DoubleZero Co-Founder Austin Federa joins Gareth Jenkinson on episode 41 of The Starting Block to discuss the launch of real-time Hyperliquid data on DoubleZero Edge and his bullish outlook on markets heading into Q4 2026.

Federa explained that DoubleZero is a blockchain protocol running a global permissioned fiber network designed to bring high-speed market data infrastructure to new finance systems — the kind of private dedicated network that large companies like Facebook already operate but that has never existed for Web3. The new Hyperliquid product streams a protocol-native binary feed with full order book depth across every native HyperCore and HIP-3 market, uncapped and without rate limits. Federa explained that this is possible because DoubleZero uses multicast technology — which replicates data in hardware at the edge rather than sending individual copies to each subscriber — meaning the company has no marginal bandwidth cost per customer. Most major traders on Hyperliquid are co-located in Tokyo where the network's 27-validator set runs, and DoubleZero works with validator partners Kinetic and Mayven to source that data for distribution, before transporting it over its global fiber network to wherever a trader wants to consume it — Chicago, Columbus, London, Virginia, or the Solana blockchain.

Federa also addressed the broader trading venue landscape, drawing a parallel between today's proliferation of perp DEXes and prediction markets and the L1 season of 2020–2021. He argued that a similar consolidation is inevitable — a race to zero on fees, compression when capital costs rise, and ultimately only a handful of survivors. He expressed high confidence that Hyperliquid will be among those that make it through the next bear market, citing its first-mover advantage and cryptographic asset assurance as genuine differentiators over centralized exchanges. He noted Solana's Alpenglow consensus upgrade had just hit testnet and said he was watching its rollout closely.

On markets, Federa pushed back on what he described as pervasive and unwarranted doomerism across crypto Twitter throughout 2026, arguing that fundamentals and macro conditions have actually been strong. He said he sees a very strong Q4 ahead and that he has been counter-trading the bearish consensus all year with positive results. He added a contrarian view on AI: that Anthropic and OpenAI are unlikely to remain the frontier AI companies within two to three years, and that Microsoft and the broader Elon Musk conglomerate — spanning SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla — are better positioned to monetize the AI wave long-term.

About the guest
Austin Federa is the Co-Founder of DoubleZero, a protocol that runs a global high-performance fiber network designed to deliver institutional-grade market data infrastructure to blockchain and new finance systems. Before co-founding DoubleZero, he served as Head of Strategy at the Solana Foundation, where he shaped strategic direction for one of the industries largest blockchain networks.