registrations for the first academic AI trading competition ever to run on hyperliquid are live, and i'm honoured to have been part of the making of this
perpetual alpha is an official ICAIF 2026 competition: the annual ACM conference on AI in finance, this edition hosted in milan at bocconi university
it's organised by a committee of researchers and practitioners coming from intesa sanpaolo, scuola normale superiore, milan polytechnic, university of bologna and milano blockchain week
why it matters for hyperliquid: people from italy's largest bank, three top italian universities and the main academic venue for AI in finance chose hyperliquid as the infrastructure for a real competition. not a backtest, not a simulator. real order books, real fills, live for weeks
why it matters to me: italy rarely shows up in conversations about crypto infra. this is proof it's moving, and i'll keep doing my part to make sure hyperliquid gets the love it deserves over here
the venue is a HIP-3 dex on testnet: crypto, indexes, commodities. the HIP-3 pitch in practice: tradfi and crypto markets on the same engine, and now academia is trading them
format
- teams of 1 to 4, no hyperliquid experience needed
- identical starting capital for everyone
- ranking blends realised pnl, risk and a jury score on sophistication and originality
- liquidity on the dex provided by a real market maker
timeline
- register by sept 20
- practice round oct 5 to 18
- live scored trading oct 19 to nov 6
- top teams present on stage at ICAIF 2026, bocconi milan, nov 14 to 17
- prizes tba
if you've been building agents on hl, this is the one to show up for
register:
perpetual-alpha26.github.io