Hyperliquid: The On-Chain Powerhouse Redefining DeFi Trading

HYPE is now available for trading in Canada on Netcoins.

In the fast-evolving world of decentralized finance (DeFi), Hyperliquid stands out as a transformative force. Built on its own custom Layer-1 blockchain, it delivers the speed and efficiency of centralized exchanges (CEXs) while upholding the transparency, self-custody, and permissionless access that define DeFi all without requiring KYC. As the leading decentralized perpetual exchange, Hyperliquid supports a wide range of trading activities, including spot trading, perpetual futures with up to 50x leverage, and vaults for copy trading. Remarkably, all transactions occur fully on-chain and are gas-free for end-users, eliminating one of the biggest pain points in traditional DeFi platforms.

Hyperliquid's dominance is underscored by its impressive revenue generation, leading all blockchain networks with $28 million in weekly revenue over the past two weeks and over $100 million in the last 30 days alone.

In a striking valuation perspective, $HYPE generates 36% of all crypto revenues while holding only 1.2% of the total crypto market cap at $3.76 trillion trading at a 30x discount relative to its revenue contribution.

What is Hyperliquid?

At its core, Hyperliquid is powered by HyperCore, a sophisticated architecture that integrates native order books and oracles. This is secured by the HyperBFT consensus mechanism, which ensures sub-second finality and can handle up to 200,000 orders per second rivaling the throughput of top CEXs. The platform enables permissionless innovation through a series of Hyper Improvement Proposals (HIPs), empowering builders to deploy new assets and markets seamlessly.

Users are drawn to Hyperliquid for several key reasons: its ultra-low fees (0.025% for takers, with maker rebates up to 0.0025%), lightning-fast execution speeds, intuitive user interface, and complete absence of gas costs. This combination makes it far more efficient than conventional DEXs. Additionally, Hyperliquid is uniquely positioned for trading pre-launch tokens with limited leverage (up to 3x), making it the only platform where such opportunities are available.

Beyond niche use cases, Hyperliquid serves as a primary venue for general crypto perpetuals and spot trading. Its spot volumes have surged dramatically, recently surpassing Coinbase over the weekend with a 24-hour all-time high of $3.4 billion total and $1.5 billion on BTC alone. This positioned Hyperliquid as the second-largest spot BTC trading venue globally, trailing only Binance.

For major assets like BTC, ETH, and SOL, Hyperliquid's spot volumes in August 2025 represent 118% of Bitstamp, 63% of Kraken, 21% of Coinbase, 18% of Bybit, and 3% of Binance. These percentages have been only growing as seen in the graph below.

HIP Proposals: Driving Permissionless Expansion

Hyperliquid's growth is fueled by its Hyper Improvement Proposals (HIPs), a governance framework that democratizes market creation and fosters ecosystem expansion.

HIP-1

This proposal introduces permissionless spot asset deployments through Dutch auctions held every 31 hours. Builders can list new tokens and capture up to 50% of the resulting trading fees, incentivizing rapid innovation and liquidity provision.

HIP-1 has been instrumental in enabling Hyperliquid's growth by opening the doors to a flood of new spot assets, attracting builders and traders alike. By allowing anyone to deploy tokens without centralized approval, it has rapidly expanded the platform's asset offerings, boosting liquidity and user engagement. This permissionless model has led to exponential increases in spot trading volumes, as diverse projects leverage the Dutch auction system to gain visibility and share in fees, ultimately contributing to Hyperliquid's rise as a dominant DeFi exchange with billions in cumulative volume.

HIP-2

Building on HIP-1, HIP-2 extends these mechanics to perpetual markets, allowing for customizable parameters such as leverage and funding rates to tailor derivative offerings to specific needs.

HIP-2 has further accelerated the exchange's expansion by applying the same permissionless principles to perpetuals, enabling builders to create bespoke derivative markets. This has diversified Hyperliquid's product suite, drawing in sophisticated traders seeking high-leverage opportunities beyond standard crypto assets. The customizable nature has spurred innovation, leading to higher open interest and trading activity, while the fee-sharing model incentivizes ongoing market creation. Together with HIP-1, it has transformed Hyperliquid into a high-performance hub, capturing significant market share in DeFi perpetuals and driving sustained growth through community-driven liquidity

HIP-3

HIP-3 takes permissionless deployment to the next level by enabling builders to launch their own perpetual markets. It requires a 1 million HYPE token stake and participation in Dutch auction slots. Deployers gain control over oracles, leverage settings, and settlement mechanisms, while earning up to 50% of fees. To ensure integrity, validators can slash stakes for malicious behavior, creating a secure yet open environment. This unlocks trading for traditional assets like the S&P 500, gold, and forex pairs. Moreover, Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) are evolving into on-chain hedge funds under HIP-3, directly linking their performance to Hyperliquid's expansion. HIP-3 is expected to significantly accelerate listing velocity, with features like builder codes enhancing distribution such as integrations with wallets like Phantom.

By empowering anyone to create markets, HIP-3 positions Hyperliquid as the global liquidity layer for virtually any asset class, unlocking an expansive array of potential markets.

‍Potential Markets on Hyperliquid

With HIP-3's framework in place, Hyperliquid is poised to become a universal trading hub, extending beyond crypto into traditional and esoteric finance.

‍

 Here's a glimpse of the diverse markets that could thrive on the platform:

• Equities: From blue-chip stocks in developed markets to emerging opportunities in frontier economies, enabling seamless trading of global exchange-listed securities.
• Forex: High-leverage pairs for fiat currencies, attracting both crypto enthusiasts and traditional traders with options for up to 1,000x leverage.
• Real Estate (RE): Indexed pricing for hyper-specific assets, such as average apartment sales in New York versus Tokyo, or even breakdowns by square footage in major cities.
• Commodities: A broad spectrum including oil, precious metals, and agricultural products like wheat or coffee.
• Esoteric Assets: Data-driven indices tracking unconventional metrics, such as birth rates by country or environmental indicators.
• Prediction Markets: "Perpified" versions of yes/no events or outcomes, allowing continuous, leveraged trading on real-world events. Great read on this here via John Wang

This expansion is already reflected in Hyperliquid's metrics: The ratio of its perpetuals volumes to those of the three largest CEXs has grown more than 6x in the past year, with monthly perps volumes now equating to nearly 14% of Binance's futures. As Hyperliquid continues to erode CEX dominance, its role as a comprehensive liquidity layer will only strengthen.

Hyper EVM: Unlocking DeFi Composability

Hyperliquid's innovation extends to its Hyper EVM layer, which seamlessly integrates Ethereum-compatible smart contracts with the HyperCore engine. Through read and write precompiles, dApps can directly interact with the exchange's native order books and oracles, enabling atomic composability. For instance, users can lend against open perpetual positions or route DEX trades through Hyperliquid's deep liquidity pools: All in a single, efficient transaction.

The system employs a dual-block architecture to handle both high-speed simple transactions and more complex operations, with HYPE serving as the native gas token. Currently, over 140 protocols are building on Hyper EVM across categories like lending, DEXs, and vaults, with read precompiles already live for atomic state reads.

These advancements have propelled Hyperliquid to remarkable milestones, including a July trading volume of $330.8 billion, surpassing Robinhood's $237.8 billion despite having only 520,000 users compared to Robinhood's 26.5 million. 

HYPE Tokenomics

The native token of Hyperliquid, HYPE, plays a central role in the ecosystem's economics, designed to align incentives between users, builders, and the protocol itself. HYPE serves multiple utilities: it acts as the gas token for transactions on Hyper EVM, enables staking requirements for HIP-3 market deployments (requiring 1 million of HYPE), and provides trading fee discounts. This multifaceted utility encourages active participation, from staking for market creation to holding for reduced fees, fostering long-term commitment to the platform.

A key feature of HYPE's tokenomics is its deflationary mechanisms, including buybacks and burns, which reduce circulating supply and accrue value back to holders. Protocol fees generated from trading activity are channeled into the Hyperliquid Autonomous Fund (AF), which executes strategic buybacks of HYPE tokens. For instance, the AF has conducted massive repurchases, such as a $31 million buyback and a $3.97 million operation, contributing to a cumulative buyback volume exceeding $1 billion. These buybacks not only signal strong confidence in the protocol's future but also create consistent demand pressure, potentially driving price appreciation regardless of broader market conditions.

The Assistance Fund, holding significant reserves, exemplifies this value accrual model. By tying token value directly to platform success such as through revenue sharing and supply reduction HYPE's design mirrors private equity best practices, eliminating dependency on external exits. 

Community and Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Hyperliquid is cementing its status as the chain for all finance. A major upcoming milestone is the launch of Hyperliquid Strategies Inc, a publicly traded Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) in Q4 2025. Led by Bob Diamond (former Barclays CEO) and David Schamis, it will hold 12.6 million HYPE tokens and $305 million in cash, treating HYPE as a core asset for treasury management and integrating traditional finance tools.

As Hyperliquid accelerates growth through HIP-3 and continues capturing market share from CEXs, its all-time highs tell a compelling story: open interest exceeding $15 billion, daily fees topping $7 million, and a commanding 70% share of DeFi perpetuals. All this achieved with a team of around 12 operating it. 

This underscores significant and immense potential for future appreciation as Hyperliquid solidifies its role in the global financial landscape.