Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) have matured into core pillars of crypto trading, now capturing roughly 20% of total market volumes. Within this space, Hyperliquid has emerged as the undisputed leader in on-chain derivatives. Launched in 2022 with the ambitious goal of matching centralized exchange (CEX) performance on-chain, Hyperliquid today processes billions in daily trading and controls about 70–75% of the DEX perpetual futures market. It achieves this by combining CEX-grade speed and deep liquidity with DeFi’s transparency and self-custody. The result is a vertically integrated Layer-1 blockchain and exchange that many now call “the blockchain to house all finance.” This report delves into Hyperliquid’s technical architecture, tokenomics, 2025 growth metrics, comparisons with other DEX leaders, ecosystem developments, and its vision for the future of on-chain finance.
Technical Architecture: A Vertically Integrated, High-Performance Chain
Hyperliquid is not just a DEX application – it is an entire Layer-1 blockchain built for trading performance. Its architecture consists of three tightly coupled components operating in a unified state:
- HyperBFT (Consensus): A custom Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus mechanism optimized for speed and throughput. Inspired by modern protocols like HotStuff, HyperBFT provides sub-second finality and high consistency to ensure all nodes agree on the order of transactions. This Proof-of-Stake consensus is designed to handle the intense load of a trading platform, supporting on the order of 100,000–200,000 operations per second in practice. By early 2025, Hyperliquid had around 27 independent validators securing the network, a number that is steadily growing to decentralize consensus.
- HyperCore (Execution Engine): A specialized on-chain engine for financial applications. Rather than using generic smart contracts for critical exchange logic, HyperCore implements built-in central limit order books (CLOBs) for perpetual futures and spot markets, as well as other modules for lending, auctions, oracles, and more. Every order placement, cancellation, trade match, and liquidation is processed on-chain with one-block finality, yielding execution speeds comparable to traditional exchanges. By eschewing AMMs and handling order matching within the protocol, Hyperliquid achieves deep liquidity and low latency – it has demonstrated <1s trade finality and throughput that rivals centralized venues. This custom execution layer (written in Rust) can reportedly handle up to 200k orders per second after recent optimizations, eliminating the bottlenecks that previously made on-chain order books infeasible.
- HyperEVM (Smart Contracts): A general-purpose Ethereum-compatible execution layer introduced in Feb 2025. HyperEVM allows developers to deploy Solidity smart contracts and dApps on Hyperliquid with full EVM compatibility, similar to building on Ethereum. Crucially, HyperEVM is not a separate shard or rollup – it shares the same unified state with HyperCore. This means that dApps on HyperEVM can natively interoperate with the exchange’s order books and liquidity. For example, a lending protocol on HyperEVM can read live prices from HyperCore’s order book or even post liquidation orders directly into the order book via system calls. This composability between smart contracts and the high-speed exchange layer is a unique design: no bridges or off-chain oracles are needed for dApps to leverage Hyperliquid’s trading infrastructure.
Figure: Hyperliquid's vertically integrated architecture showing the unified state between consensus (HyperBFT), exchange engine (HyperCore), smart contracts (HyperEVM), and asset bridging (HyperUnit).
Integration with On-Chain Infrastructure: By building its own chain, Hyperliquid tightly integrates normally siloed functions into one platform. HyperUnit, for instance, is Hyperliquid’s decentralized bridging and asset tokenization module enabling direct deposits of external assets like BTC, ETH, and SOL without custodial wrappers. Users can lock native BTC or ETH and receive equivalent tokens (e.g. uBTC, uETH) on Hyperliquid for use as trading collateral, without relying on centralized custodians. This design provides “true collateral mobility” and a more regulatory-aware framework for bringing real-world assets on-chain. Thanks to HyperUnit (and Circle’s USDC integration discussed later), traders on Hyperliquid can seamlessly move liquidity from other networks into Hyperliquid’s fast exchange environment.
Performance and Latency: All parts of the stack are optimized for minimal latency and maximal throughput. HyperBFT finalizes blocks within a second, and HyperCore processes trades in real time, so users experience near-instant order execution. There are effectively no gas fees for trading actions – HyperCore transactions are feeless, enabling high-frequency order placement and cancellation without cost to users. (Normal EVM contract calls on HyperEVM do incur a low gas fee, but the exchange’s operations run gas-free on the native engine.) This zero-gas, low-latency design makes advanced trading features viable on-chain. Indeed, Hyperliquid supports the same advanced order types and risk controls as top CEXs, such as limit and stop orders, cross-margining, and up to 50× leverage on major markets. In sum, Hyperliquid’s custom L1 chain eliminates the traditional trade-off between speed and decentralization. Every operation is on-chain and transparent, yet the user experience – in terms of execution speed and interface – parallels that of a professional centralized exchange.
Evolution and Scalability: Hyperliquid’s architecture was born from first principles engineering. The project launched quietly in 2022 as a closed-alpha perpetuals DEX on a custom Tendermint-based chain, proving the CLOB concept with ~20 assets and 50× leverage. By 2023 it transitioned into a fully sovereign L1 with the new HyperBFT consensus, achieving 100K+ orders per second and introducing zero-gas trading and community liquidity pools. The addition of HyperEVM in early 2025 opened the floodgates for developers, marking Hyperliquid’s evolution from a single-purpose exchange into a full DeFi platform**. Notably, all these enhancements have kept the system stable – Hyperliquid reports** 99.99% uptime historically[25]_. This track record and vertical integration_ give Hyperliquid a significant technical moat: it controls the entire stack (consensus, execution, application), allowing continuous optimization. As demand grows, the team continues to refine the node software for even higher throughput, ensuring scalability for the next wave of users and more complex on-chain markets.
Tokenomics of $HYPE: Governance, Staking, and Value Accrual
Hyperliquid’s economic design centers on its native token $HYPE, introduced in late 2024 to decentralize ownership and governance of the platform. The token’s launch and distribution were notably community-centric: in November 2024, Hyperliquid conducted an airdrop Token Generation Event (TGE), allocating 31% of the 1 billion fixed supply to early users as a reward for their participation. An even larger portion (≈38.8%) was set aside for future community incentives like liquidity mining or ecosystem development. Importantly, $HYPE had zero allocations to VCs or private investors, reflecting a philosophy of prioritizing community ownership. This transparent distribution aimed to avoid the heavy insider ownership seen in many projects and instead empower the actual traders and builders on Hyperliquid.
The $HYPE token serves multiple roles in the Hyperliquid ecosystem:
- Governance: $HYPE is a governance token enabling holders to vote on Hyperliquid Improvement Proposals (HIPs) and shape the protocol’s evolution. Already, critical upgrades like HIP-1, HIP-2, and HIP-3 have been passed, which established permissionless listing standards for spot tokens and perpetual markets. For example, HIP-3 opened up the ability for community members to permissionlessly deploy new perp markets, much like Uniswap did for spot trading, unlocking long-tail assets (including traditional market perps) on Hyperliquid. Governance will increasingly decide listings, parameter tweaks, and the use of community incentive funds.
- Staking & Network Security: Hyperliquid is a Proof-of-Stake chain, so staking $HYPE to validators secures the HyperBFT network. Stakers delegate to validators and earn a portion of block rewards and fees. Shortly after launch, Hyperliquid enabled staking with an annual yield ~2–2.5% to incentivize participation in consensus. As more users stake, the chain’s security and decentralization improve. Staked $HYPE (or derivative forms like upcoming beHYPE liquid staking) may also be used in governance voting, aligning security participants with decision-making.
- Exchange Utility (Fee Discounts): Holding or staking $HYPE confers trading fee discounts on Hyperliquid’s exchange. Similar to how Binance’s BNB or dYdX’s DYDX token offer reduced fees, active traders are incentivized to hold $HYPE to minimize their costs. This creates a natural demand for the token among the exchange’s user base, especially high-volume traders.
- Value Accrual via Buybacks: The most striking aspect of Hyperliquid's tokenomics is its aggressive fee-to-value mechanism. Hyperliquid uses the vast majority of its trading fee revenue to buy back and burn $HYPE on the open market, directly returning value to token holders. In fact, 97% of all protocol trading fees are allocated to buying back $HYPE (and the remainder to an insurance fund and liquidity providers). This is one of the highest fee return rates in the industry. By mid-2025, Hyperliquid was generating over $65 million in protocol revenue per month from trading fees – and virtually all of that went toward $HYPE repurchases, creating constant buy pressure. This deflationary token model, combined with a fixed 1B supply, means $HYPE's tokenomics are geared for long-term value accrual for loyal stakeholders. It also signals that Hyperliquid's team forgoes short-term profit (no fee revenue is taken as profit or distributed to insiders; even the core team presumably only benefits as token holders), instead funneling revenue to the community treasury and token value.
- Liquidity Provider Rewards: A small portion of fees (≈3–8%) is used to reward liquidity providers in Hyperliquid’s unique HyperLiquidity Pool (HLP). HLP is an on-chain USDC liquidity pool that facilitates market-making and auto-settlement for the order books, analogous to an “LP vault.” Users who provide USDC to HLP earn a share of trading fees in return. By early 2025, HLP was offering depositors an ~11% annualized yield from accrued trading fees. This mechanism lets community members share in the exchange’s success by contributing capital to backstop liquidity (similar in spirit to GMX’s GLP pool, but for an orderbook system). Notably, Hyperliquid’s insurance Assistance Fund (denominated in $HYPE) also uses a portion of revenue to cover any HLP losses or unusual events – for instance, a “Jelly” exploit in Q1 2025 incurred a $12M shortfall in HLP, which was fully reimbursed to pool users. The fee buyback model was so robust that despite that hit, $HYPE buybacks continued unabated and HLP remained profitable, demonstrating strong alignment between the protocol and its community liquidity providers.
In summary, Hyperliquid’s tokenomics emphasize community ownership, security, and long-term sustainability. The absence of VC allocations and the high buyback rate were decisions that signaled confidence in organic growth. The early results have been positive – since its TGE, $HYPE’s price climbed 4× (as of mid-2025) on the back of real adoption and revenue. More importantly, users remained engaged after the airdrop; trading activity actually accelerated post-token launch, rather than suffering the typical post-incentive drop-off. This suggests the token model is successfully aligning user incentives with the platform’s growth, creating a virtuous cycle for Hyperliquid’s ecosystem.
Trading Volume, Adoption, and Liquidity in 2025
Hyperliquid by the Numbers: In 2025, Hyperliquid stands out not just for its technology but for the sheer scale of its on-chain activity. It has rapidly become the largest decentralized derivatives exchange by a wide margin, setting new benchmarks for DeFi. Key metrics illustrating Hyperliquid’s traction include:
- Market Dominance: Hyperliquid handles roughly 70–77% of all DEX perpetual futures volume in 2025 – an 8× larger share than the next competitor. In other words, Hyperliquid by itself accounts for well over three-quarters of decentralized perp trading worldwide, making it the clear leader in its category. (For context, as of Q1 2025 this equated to about 56–73% of decentralized perp volume, up from ~4.5% at the start of 2024 – a stunning rise in one year.)
- Trading Volumes: Cumulative trading volume on Hyperliquid blew past $1.5 trillion in mid-2025, highlighting how much liquidity has flowed through its markets. By late 2024 the exchange was already seeing daily volumes around $10–14 billion, and volume continued to climb with new user influxes in 2025. In fact, during peak market activity (e.g. a memecoin frenzy in May 2025), Hyperliquid’s weekly trading volume reached as high as $780 billion in one week – averaging well over $100B per day – rivaling or exceeding many mid-sized centralized exchanges. Even in steady conditions, Hyperliquid was averaging roughly $470B in weekly volume in the first half of 2025. This scale is unprecedented for a DeFi platform; by mid-2025 Hyperliquid was executing about 6% of *all* crypto trading volume globally (including CEXs), narrowing the gap between DeFi and CeFi.
- Open Interest and Liquidity: The depth of Hyperliquid’s markets is also evident in its open interest (OI) – the total value of active positions. OI grew from ~3.3B at 2024’s end to around **\15** billion by mid-2025. For perspective, this OI is about 60–120% of the levels on major CEXs like Bybit, OKX, or Bitget, indicating that professional traders are as comfortable deploying large positions on Hyperliquid as on established centralized venues. Order book depth on Hyperliquid for major pairs like BTC or ETH is reported to be comparable to top CEXs, with tight bid-ask spreads. During certain token launches (e.g. the popular PUMP meme coin), Hyperliquid even achieved the deepest liquidity and highest volume of any venue, beating out CEXs for that asset. This showcases how an on-chain order book, when well-designed, can match CEX liquidity – a milestone in DEX evolution.
- Users and Adoption: The platform’s user base has expanded dramatically through 2024–2025. Hyperliquid surpassed 500,000 unique user addresses in mid-2025. In the first half of 2025 alone, the count of active addresses nearly doubled (from ~291k to 518k). This 78% growth in six months was fueled by word-of-mouth, a successful referral & points program, and the buzz around the $HYPE airdrop (which interestingly retained users rather than just attracting mercenaries – there was no drop-off in usage after the airdrop, and activity kept climbing). Such growth indicates not just one-time curiosity but genuine adoption by traders. A significant portion of these users are believed to be “whales” and professional traders who migrated from CEXs, drawn by Hyperliquid’s liquidity and lower fees. Indeed, institutions and high-volume trading firms have begun treating Hyperliquid as a primary venue for perpetuals trading, validating DeFi’s appeal when performance issues are solved.
- Revenue and Fees: Hyperliquid’s robust volumes translate into substantial protocol revenue (which, as noted, largely accrues to $HYPE buybacks). In the last 30 days (as of mid-2025), Hyperliquid generated about $65.45 million in protocol fees. On a daily basis that’s roughly $2.0–2.5 million in fees earned from trading activity. Annualized, the platform is on track for $800M+ in revenue – an astonishing figure that approaches revenues of some major centralized exchanges, and far above typical DeFi protocols. It underscores how Hyperliquid’s high volume and fee structure (small per-trade fees that add up at scale) produce a thriving revenue model to support its token economy.
- Total Value Locked (TVL) and Assets: Hyperliquid’s ecosystem TVL – representing assets bridged into its chain and liquidity in its DeFi protocols – has climbed rapidly alongside trading activity. At the start of Q4 2024 (pre-token) Hyperliquid’s chain TVL was around $0.5B, but after the token launch and HyperEVM expansion, TVL soared to $2+ billion by early 2025. By mid-2025, it reached approximately $3.5 billion (June 30, 2025) and continued upward. The introduction of native USDC (via Circle) and other assets boosted on-chain capital to an estimated $5.5 billion AUM by July 2025. This includes assets in the HLP pool, DeFi lending pools, AMMs, and users’ collateral balances. Hyperliquid’s HyperLiquidity Pool (HLP) itself held a TVL around $370–500 million** in H1 2025, providing a deep USDC liquidity reserve for the exchange. Additionally, the **HyperEVM DeFi TVL** (excluding the core exchange) surpassed **\1 billion within a few months of launch, reflecting rapid growth of new dApps on the chain. These figures firmly place Hyperliquid among the largest blockchain ecosystems by TVL, despite being a specialized chain.
In summary, 2025 has seen Hyperliquid scale to CEX-like volumes and liquidity. It consistently ranks as the top DEX by volume, and even measures as a significant fraction of overall crypto trading. The ability to sustain half a trillion dollars in weekly volume on-chain, with half a million users, illustrates that the long-held promise of high-performance DeFi is being realized. Hyperliquid’s success is expanding the boundaries of what on-chain markets can do: for instance, it became the go-to venue for fast listing of new coins (it often is first to list perps for trending assets, attracting huge activity) and has proven that on-chain order books can handle blue-chip trading at scale (its BTC and ETH markets have liquidity comparable to leading CEXs). These achievements underpin Hyperliquid’s claim as a potential foundation for all on-chain finance going forward.
Comparison with Other Leading DEXs (dYdX, GMX, UniswapX, etc.)
The rise of Hyperliquid invites comparisons to other prominent decentralized exchanges. Each of the major DEX models – from order-book-based derivatives like dYdX, to liquidity pool-based perps like GMX, to spot DEX aggregators like UniswapX – takes a different approach to balancing performance, decentralization, and user experience. Below, we analyze how Hyperliquid stacks up against these platforms:
- Hyperliquid vs. dYdX: dYdX was the early leader in decentralized perps, but its initial design (v3) relied on a hybrid approach: an off-chain order book and matching engine, combined with an L2 settlement on StarkWare. This gave dYdX decent performance but came at the cost of decentralization and composability – the order book was run by a central server, and the system was not open to general smart contracts. In late 2023, dYdX launched v4 as a Cosmos app-chain, aiming to fully decentralize the order book within a dedicated PoS chain. This is philosophically similar to Hyperliquid’s approach (both built custom chains for on-chain order matching). Hyperliquid’s key edge has been its unified architecture and head start in performance tuning. By designing HyperCore and HyperEVM together, Hyperliquid achieved CEX-level speed entirely on-chain before dYdX’s Cosmos chain gained traction. In fact, Hyperliquid’s performance surpassed dYdX – it can handle far more throughput (hundreds of thousands of tx/sec) and offers cross-contract composability that dYdX (an app-specific chain without an EVM environment) currently lacks. Artemis Research notes: earlier protocols either compromised on performance (like GMX) or on decentralization (like dYdX), but Hyperliquid delivered both, solving the deeper challenge. This is reflected in market share: by 2025 Hyperliquid commands ~75% of the perp DEX market, whereas dYdX’s share has dwindled to single digits. In practical terms, traders find Hyperliquid’s UI and speed comparable to dYdX (both offer pro exchange interfaces, advanced orders, etc.), but Hyperliquid offers greater asset variety and on-chain integration. Another difference is fee and token models: dYdX’s token is mainly a governance token with indirect fee discounts, while Hyperliquid’s $HYPE directly accrues exchange value (via buybacks) and offers staking rights. Lastly, on decentralization, both are PoS chains – dYdX had ~20 validators at launch vs Hyperliquid’s ~27 by early 2025 – but Hyperliquid’s open builder ecosystem (HyperEVM) arguably makes it more decentralized in terms of development and usage. Overall, Hyperliquid can be seen as the spiritual successor to dYdX: it took the order book DEX concept and fully on-chain-ified it with greater performance, which is evidenced by Hyperliquid pulling significant volume even from centralized exchanges (something dYdX v3 struggled to do).
- Hyperliquid vs. GMX: GMX represents the AMM/pool-based model for perpetuals. It became popular on Arbitrum in 2022 by allowing users to trade perps against a pooled liquidity (GLP) with oracle-based pricing. GMX’s approach prioritized simplicity and zero price impact for small trades, but it sacrifices some performance and capital efficiency. Because GMX relies on price oracles and a single liquidity pool, large or frequent trades can be challenging – the pool can incur losses if traders win (GLP holders take the opposite side of trades), and oracle price latency can be exploited. Hyperliquid’s order book model avoids these issues by matching traders peer-to-peer at market-driven prices, with professional market makers providing deep liquidity. This yields far tighter spreads and better execution for big trades compared to GMX’s model. In essence, GMX’s design compromises on high-frequency performance (trades only update when oracles push prices, and there’s no rapid order placement/cancellation) whereas Hyperliquid’s design excels at it. The numbers reflect this: GMX’s volumes and OI are an order of magnitude smaller, and its market share has been dwarfed by Hyperliquid’s rise. For example, GMX typically supported under 20 markets (mostly large caps), whereas Hyperliquid offers 100+ markets including many long-tail assets – the latter is possible because maintaining many order books is feasible on Hyperliquid’s chain, whereas in GMX adding new asset pools is slower and riskier. From a user experience standpoint, GMX offers a simple swap-style interface (good for DeFi novices), while Hyperliquid provides a full exchange dashboard with charts and order books catering to advanced traders. Fees: GMX charges a ~0.1% fee on trades (which goes to GLP and GMX stakers) and has no token buyback; Hyperliquid charges very low maker/taker fees (on the order of 0.01–0.02%) and uses fees to buy back $HYPE for holders. Decentralization: GMX runs on Ethereum L2s (Arbitrum, Avalanche), inheriting strong base security, but its dependency on a centralized price oracle (Chainlink) and single liquidity pool introduces different centralized risks. Hyperliquid runs its own chain, which is newer/less battle-tested than Ethereum, but its mechanisms (order book + many makers) avoid centralized oracle dependence. In summary, Hyperliquid offers superior performance and institutional-grade liquidity relative to GMX, at the cost of more complex infrastructure. GMX proved there is demand for on-chain perps, but Hyperliquid’s order books have proven far more scalable for high-volume trading.
- Hyperliquid vs. UniswapX (and Spot DEXs): UniswapX is a recently introduced trade aggregator for spot swaps (built by Uniswap Labs) that finds the best price across AMMs and other liquidity sources. While not a direct competitor on perpetuals, UniswapX represents the cutting-edge of spot DEX user experience. It enables gas-free, aggregation-optimized token swaps by letting off-chain “fillers” execute trades for users. By contrast, Hyperliquid’s spot trading uses its own on-chain order books (and also has a native AMM called HyperSwap in its ecosystem). For a user looking to trade tokens spot, how do they compare? Performance: Hyperliquid’s spot order books offer immediate execution with low latency, similar to a centralized exchange, and thanks to no gas fees on HyperCore, taking an order is cheap and fast. UniswapX aims to save users gas on Ethereum by abstracting execution, but ultimately the trade settlement still happens on Ethereum (or other underlying chains) and may incur latency (waiting for fillers and block confirmations). Liquidity: UniswapX sources liquidity from many AMMs and market makers across multiple DEXs, which is great for long-tail tokens on Ethereum; however, for major pairs, Hyperliquid’s single order book often has deeper liquidity and less slippage because all traders congregate in one venue. Indeed, after launching spot markets in March 2024, Hyperliquid quickly saw spot volumes surge to record levels, with large traders bridging assets like BTC, ETH, and SOL into Hyperliquid for spot trading due to the superior execution, then bridging back out. UniswapX excels at breadth of token access, whereas Hyperliquid focuses on depth and efficiency for a more curated set of assets (those listed via its governance/auction process). Decentralization and UX: Uniswap (and X) leverage Ethereum’s very decentralized base and are non-custodial, but aggregators like UniswapX do introduce off-chain actors (fillers relaying orders) – albeit in a permissionless way. Hyperliquid’s approach keeps all trading actions on-chain with full transparency, and any asset listed on Hyperliquid gets the benefits of native order book trading plus composability with its DeFi apps. The user experience on Hyperliquid is closer to a centralized trading app (which advanced users prefer), while UniswapX is more like a “meta-DEX” for one-click swaps (convenient for casual trades). Fees: UniswapX’s fees depend on the DEX liquidity used (typically 0.05–0.3% on AMMs) plus possibly a filler incentive; Hyperliquid’s spot fees are minimal and often offset by $HYPE discounts. In short, Hyperliquid competes with Uniswap and other spot DEXs by offering a new model: an order-book-based spot exchange on a custom chain. It has carved out a niche where high-volume spot traders (especially for large-cap assets) prefer Hyperliquid for its deeper liquidity and CEX-like experience, whereas retail users swapping obscure ERC-20s may still prefer Uniswap’s ecosystem. Notably, Hyperliquid’s ecosystem even introduced Hyperswap (an AMM on HyperEVM with ~$70M TVL) to capture long-tail tokens via AMM pools – acknowledging that AMMs and order books can coexist, serving different market segments.
Summary of Key Differences: The table below outlines a high-level comparison:
| DEX Platform | Design & Chain | Trading Model | Performance | Decentralization | Fee Mechanism |
|---|
| Hyperliquid | Custom L1 (HyperBFT PoS, ~27 validators) | On-chain CLOB for perps/spot; also EVM apps | ~0.5s finality, 100k+ tx/sec, CEX-like UI | PoS chain (community-run, unified state for dApps) | Tiny trading fees, ~97% of fees buy back $HYPE (indirectly rewarding holders) |
| dYdX v4 | Cosmos SDK app-chain (PoS, ~20 validators) | On-chain CLOB for perps only (no general smart contracts) | ~1-2s finality, high throughput (order matching by validators) | PoS chain (decentralized matching, but not EVM-composable) | Trading fees paid in USDC; DYDX token for governance & discounts (no fee buyback) |
| GMX | Arbitrum & Avalanche (Ethereum L2/L1) | AMM pooled liquidity (GLP) with oracle pricing for perps | Dependent on oracle update (~30s); good for casual trades, not HFT | Secured by Ethereum/Avax L1; fully on-chain but relies on centralized oracles | ~0.1% trading fee; 70% to liquidity providers (GLP), 30% to GMX stakers (revenue sharing) |
| UniswapX | Ethereum mainnet (and cross-chain) | Aggregator for spot swaps (routes across AMMs or RFQ market makers) | ~12s Ethereum block time (fills abstracted off-chain); gas fees abstracted | Runs on Ethereum (high base security); uses off-chain filler nodes for execution | Uses underlying AMM fees (0.05–0.3%) + potential filler incentive; UNI token not required for use |
In essence, Hyperliquid has set a new benchmark by combining the strengths of these approaches without the usual weaknesses: it offers the sophisticated order types, speed, and liquidity of a CEX (surpassing dYdX’s earlier attempt), without sacrificing the transparency and permissionless nature of DeFi (improving on GMX’s performance and Uniswap’s composability). As a result, rather than simply stealing market share from dYdX or GMX, Hyperliquid actually expanded the on-chain trading market by attracting traders who previously stayed on CEXs. Its success has spurred others to evolve – for example, even Coinbase and Robinhood have eyed entering the on-chain perps market, though with much lower leverage and liquidity so far. If this trend continues, we can expect a competitive push where both CEXs and DEXs race to combine performance with trustlessness – a race where Hyperliquid currently enjoys a strong lead.
Ecosystem Growth, Partnerships, and Community Initiatives
One of Hyperliquid’s greatest achievements in 2025 is growing from a single-product exchange into a thriving blockchain ecosystem. The launch of HyperEVM unlocked a Cambrian explosion of projects and partnerships building around Hyperliquid’s core, making it not just a trading venue but a full DeFi and Web3 environment. Here we explore the ecosystem’s expansion and key strategic alliances:
Ecosystem Projects and Developer Traction: Since early 2025, dozens of dApps have deployed on Hyperliquid, attracted by its built-in liquidity and user base. These span the gamut of DeFi primitives and even extend to NFTs and gaming:
- Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs): Besides Hyperliquid’s native order books, community-built DEXs have appeared to serve other needs. Notably, Hyperswap launched as an AMM on HyperEVM, quickly becoming the leading liquidity hub for long-tail tokens (it amassed >70M TVL and \2B volume within 4 months). Hyperswap’s automated pools complement Hyperliquid’s CLOB by allowing permissionless listing of new tokens and providing an easy venue for projects to bootstrap liquidity. Another project, KittenSwap (a Velodrome fork with ve(3,3) tokenomics), also went live to offer incentivized AMM trading for smaller assets. These DEX additions ensure that even meme coins and experimental tokens can thrive on Hyperliquid via AMMs, while the major assets trade on order books – a synergy that drives overall volume.
- Lending and Yield Protocols: The Hyperliquid ecosystem now features money markets and yield optimizers that interlink with the exchange. HyperBeat is a flagship lending/borrowing protocol on HyperEVM (with ~145M TVL as of mid-2025). It allows users to deposit assets like \HYPE, stablecoins, or even LP tokens to earn interest, and to borrow against collateral to trade on Hyperliquid with extra leverage. Because HyperBeat can read Hyperliquid’s order book prices directly and even trigger on-chain liquidations via HyperCore, it operates more efficiently and safely than cross-chain lending protocols. Yield aggregators are emerging too – HyperBeat’s “Hearts” rewards program and others incentivize providing liquidity or vault deposits. Another notable entrant is Kinetiq, a liquid staking project for $HYPE that drew over $400M in deposits on day one, indicating huge community appetite for earning yield on HYPE. Even external Ethereum-based protocols are integrating: EtherFi, a major liquid staking provider (with ~$9B in ETH staked) announced a collaboration to bring staked ETH and new yield strategies into Hyperliquid via HyperBeat. This partnership will introduce beHYPE, a liquid staking token for HYPE, and potentially bring EtherFi’s staked ETH as collateral to Hyperliquid’s markets. Such moves show confidence from established DeFi players in the Hyperliquid ecosystem’s potential.
- Stablecoins and Crypto Banking: Recognizing the need for stable on-chain currency, Hyperliquid has attracted both external and native stablecoin support. Most significantly, Circle (issuer of USDC) formed a strategic partnership to launch native USDC on Hyperliquid in 2025. Using Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), users will be able to burn USDC on Ethereum and mint 1:1 USDC on Hyperliquid, eliminating wrappers and enabling direct stablecoin liquidity on the chain. This integration is expected to streamline large transfers of capital into Hyperliquid and reduce reliance on only bridged USDT/USDC. In fact, by the time of announcement, Hyperliquid’s assets under management surged to $5.5B, partly on anticipation of native USDC support. On the native side, projects like Hyperstable have launched an over-collateralized stablecoin (USH) on HyperEVM with yield-bearing governance token PEG – adding diversity to the stablecoin options available for traders and DeFi users.
- Innovative DeFi Infrastructure: Hyperliquid’s unique capabilities have spurred innovation in DEX design and derivatives. Valantis, for example, is a modular DEX protocol on HyperEVM that lets developers create custom AMMs and “sovereign pools” with specialized logic. It supports advanced features like rebase tokens and dynamic fees, and has $44M TVL, showcasing that teams see Hyperliquid as fertile ground for pushing DeFi design forward. For perpetuals specifically, the community passed HIP-3 which opened Hyperliquid’s Core engine to anyone who wants to launch a new perpetual market. This is a game-changer: it means if a user wants a perp market for, say, a stock index or a commodity, they can deploy it (subject to governance parameters) without needing Hyperliquid’s team – a truly permissionless derivative framework much like Uniswap did for ERC20 swaps. Already, community-launched markets for novel assets are appearing, demonstrating the power of this openness.
- Analytics, Bots, and Tooling: A vibrant array of tools has emerged to support traders on Hyperliquid. For instance, PvP.trade is a Telegram-based trading bot that integrates with Hyperliquid’s API, enabling users to execute perp trades via chat and even follow friends’ positions for a social trading experience. It ran a points program and token airdrop that proved quite popular. On the analytics side, AI-driven platforms like Insilico Terminal and Katoshi AI have added support for Hyperliquid, providing traders with advanced market signals, automated strategy bots, and predictive analytics tailored to Hyperliquid’s markets. The presence of these third-party tools indicates that developers view Hyperliquid as a significant market – worth building bots and terminals for – similar to how many tools exist for Binance or Uniswap. Additionally, infrastructure providers have embraced Hyperliquid: QuickNode and others offer RPC endpoints for the Hyperliquid chain, Nansen has integrated Hyperliquid data into its portfolio tracker, and blockchain explorers and aggregators are supporting the network. This infrastructure adoption is crucial for user experience and signifies that Hyperliquid is recognized as a major network in the multi-chain landscape.
- NFTs and Gaming: Beyond pure finance, Hyperliquid’s ecosystem also dabbles in NFTs and crypto gaming, adding community flavor. HypurrFun is a meme coin launchpad that gained attention by using a Telegram bot auction system to list jokey tokens (like $PIP and $JEFF) on Hyperliquid’s spot market. It provided a fun, Pump.win-style experience for the community and was instrumental in testing Hyperliquid’s token auction mechanisms pre-HyperEVM. NFT projects like Hypio (an NFT collection integrating DeFi utility) have launched on Hyperliquid, and even an AI-powered game (TheFarm.fun) is leveraging the chain for minting creative NFTs and planning a token airdrop. These may be niche, but they indicate an organic community forming – traders who also engage in memes, NFTs, and social games on the same chain, increasing user stickiness.
Strategic Partnerships: Alongside grassroots projects, Hyperliquid’s team (via the Hyper Foundation) has actively pursued partnerships to extend its reach:
- Phantom Wallet (Solana Ecosystem): In July 2025, Hyperliquid announced a major partnership with Phantom, the popular Solana wallet, to bring in-wallet perpetuals trading to Phantom’s users. This integration allows Phantom’s mobile app (with millions of users) to trade Hyperliquid perps natively, without leaving the wallet interface. Over 100+ markets with up to 50× leverage became available in Phantom, covering BTC, ETH, SOL and more, with built-in risk controls like stop-loss orders. The significance is twofold: it gives Solana community users easy access to Hyperliquid’s markets (bridging ecosystems), and it showcases Hyperliquid’s API and backend strength – Phantom wouldn’t integrate a DEX that couldn’t handle large user flow. Phantom’s team highlighted that Hyperliquid’s liquidity and quick settlement were key to delivering a smooth mobile trading UX. This partnership essentially embeds Hyperliquid as the “perps engine” inside a leading crypto wallet, dramatically lowering friction for new users to start trading on Hyperliquid. It’s a strategic win for user acquisition and demonstrates Hyperliquid’s intent to collaborate rather than compete with other ecosystems (Solana in this case).
- Circle (USDC): As mentioned, Circle’s partnership to deploy native USDC via CCTP on Hyperliquid is a cornerstone integration. It not only legitimizes Hyperliquid as a first-class chain in the eyes of a major stablecoin issuer, but it also solves a critical piece of infrastructure: fiat liquidity. When Circle turns on native USDC for Hyperliquid, traders will be able to transfer dollars in/out of Hyperliquid’s network with the same ease (and trust) as moving USDC on Ethereum or Solana. This streamlines arbitrage and cross-exchange flows. Additionally, Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol v2 will allow USDC to move between Hyperliquid and other chains without intermediaries, further integrating Hyperliquid into the multi-chain liquidity network. By July 2025, anticipation of USDC and other assets coming on board had already driven Hyperliquid’s total asset pools to $5.5B. We can expect this number to grow once the Circle integration is fully live. In essence, this partnership addresses one of the last barriers for traders: easy fiat on/off ramps into Hyperliquid’s high-speed environment.
- Market Makers and Liquidity Partners: While not always publicized, Hyperliquid has likely cultivated relationships with professional market-making firms to bootstrap its order book liquidity. The depth observed (often rivaling Binance on some pairs) suggests that major crypto liquidity providers (possibly firms like Wintermute, Jump, etc.) are actively making markets on Hyperliquid. One indirect indicator: Auros Global, a trading firm, published a “Hyperliquid listing 101” guide in early 2025 noting Hyperliquid averaged $6.1B daily perps volume in Q1 2025, which implies market makers are paying attention. Additionally, Hyperliquid’s design (with incentives like maker rebates or HLP yields) and the no-gas benefit are very attractive to HFT firms. Although specific MM partnerships aren’t named, the ecosystem clearly benefits from their participation.
- Others: The Hyper Foundation, which stewards protocol development, has begun initiatives like a Delegation Program to incentivize reliable validators and global community programs (a Hackathon with $250k prizes was held in 2025). These help strengthen the network’s decentralization and bring in new talent. There’s also collaboration with oracle providers (Chainlink or Pyth) for external data when needed – e.g. if any synthetic real-world asset markets launch, those partnerships will be important. Given that Hyperliquid is EVM-compatible, tooling from Ethereum (like Hardhat, The Graph, etc.) can be relatively easily extended to Hyperliquid as developers demand.
Community and Governance: Community engagement in Hyperliquid has been high due to the early airdrop and ongoing governance votes. The Hyperliquid Improvement Proposal (HIP) framework has seen important proposals (HIP-1 to HIP-3) passed in its first year, signaling an active governance process. The community has played a role in token listings via Hyperliquid’s auction model – new tokens launch through an on-chain auction (often facilitated by HypurrFun or similar), and successful auctions get listed on the order book. This process, while permissioned by a fee and vetting, has allowed community-driven tokens (like meme coins) to gain traction on Hyperliquid without centralized gatekeeping. It also helped Hyperliquid avoid spam tokens since there’s a cost to list, ensuring only serious projects or enthusiastic communities pursue it. The result is an ecosystem that balances permissionless innovation with a degree of quality control – a novel approach in DeFi.
Moreover, the Hyper Foundation (a non-profit entity) was set up to support ecosystem growth. It has been responsible for initiatives like the $HYPE token launch and managing the incentive funds. The Foundation’s decision to not issue incentives recklessly (as noted in The Defiant, they provided no extra liquidity mining after the airdrop) may have initially tempered some yield-farmers, but it underscores a focus on organic usage over short-term TVL boosts. This strategy appears to have paid off with steady growth. Now, moves like EtherFi’s involvement and others show that even without massive liquidity mining, real DeFi activity is taking root on Hyperliquid due to its unique opportunities (like high yields from actual fee revenue and access to an active trading base).
To summarize, Hyperliquid in 2025 is surrounded by a flourishing ecosystem and strong alliances. Its chain is home to a comprehensive DeFi stack – from perps and spot trading, to AMMs, lending, stablecoins, liquid staking, NFTs, and beyond – much of which sprung up just in the past year. Strategic partnerships with the likes of Phantom and Circle are expanding its user reach and liquidity access across the crypto universe. The community-driven aspects (auctions, governance, hackathons) show an engaged user base that is increasingly invested in Hyperliquid's success. All these factors reinforce Hyperliquid's position as more than an exchange; it's becoming a holistic financial layer.
Future Outlook: Hyperliquid’s Vision for Onchain Finance (Derivatives, RWAs, and Beyond)
Hyperliquid’s rapid ascent begs the question: What’s next? The project’s vision has always been ambitious – to become the foundational infrastructure for all of onchain finance. Having achieved dominance in on-chain perps, Hyperliquid is poised to expand into new products and markets, potentially reshaping how traditional financial assets interact with crypto. Here are some key elements of its forward-looking vision:
- Expanding the Derivatives Suite: Perpetual futures were the initial beachhead, but Hyperliquid can extend to other derivatives. The architecture (HyperCore + HyperEVM) could support additional instruments like options, interest rate swaps, or structured products. A logical next step might be an on-chain options exchange or an options AMM launching on HyperEVM, leveraging the chain’s liquidity and fast execution. With unified state, an options protocol on Hyperliquid could directly hedge via the perps order book, creating efficient risk management. We haven’t seen a major on-chain options platform emerge on Hyperliquid yet, but given the ecosystem’s growth, it’s plausible for 2025-26. Additionally, traditional futures and tokenized derivatives (e.g. futures on stock indices, commodities, or FX rates) could be introduced via HIP proposals – essentially bringing traditional finance markets on-chain. Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 already paved the way for listing “any asset, crypto or traditional” as a perp market so long as there’s an oracle or price feed. This opens the door for community members to launch markets on equities, gold, or other assets in a permissionless way. If liquidity and legal considerations allow, Hyperliquid could become a hub for 24/7 tokenized trading of real-world markets, something even many CEXs don’t offer at scale. Such a development would truly realize the vision of a unified global trading platform on-chain.
- Real-World Assets (RWAs) and Regulated Markets: Bridging real-world assets into DeFi is a major trend, and Hyperliquid is well-positioned to facilitate it. Through HyperUnit and partnerships like Circle, the chain is integrating with real assets (fiat via USDC, BTC/SOL via wrapped tokens). The next step might be tokenized securities or bonds trading on Hyperliquid. For example, one could imagine a future where government bonds or stocks are tokenized (perhaps under regulatory sandbox) and traded on Hyperliquid’s order books 24/7. Already, Hyperliquid’s design is “regulatory-aware” – the use of native assets instead of synthetic IOUs can simplify compliance. The Hyper Foundation could explore working with jurisdictions to allow certain RWAs on the platform, especially as on-chain KYC/whitelisting tech improves (HyperEVM could support permissioned pools if needed for regulated assets). Even without formal RWA tokens, Hyperliquid’s permissionless perps could list derivatives that track RWAs (for instance, a perpetual swap on the S&P 500 index). That would bring RWA exposure to DeFi users in a roundabout but effective way. In summary, Hyperliquid aims to blur the line between crypto markets and traditional markets – to house all finance, you eventually need to accommodate assets and participants from the traditional side. The groundwork (in tech and liquidity) is being laid for that convergence.
- Scaling and Interoperability: Hyperliquid will continue to scale vertically (more throughput, more validators) and likely horizontally via interoperability. With Cosmos IBC or other cross-chain protocols, Hyperliquid might connect to wider networks, allowing assets and messages to flow trustlessly. It already uses Circle’s CCTP for USDC; integration with something like Chainlink’s CCIP or Cosmos’s IBC could extend cross-chain trading possibilities. Hyperliquid could become a liquidity hub that other chains tap into (imagine dApps on Ethereum or Solana executing trades on Hyperliquid via trustless bridges – getting Hyperliquid’s liquidity without leaving their native chain). The mention of Hyperliquid as a “liquidity hub” and its growing open interest share (already ~18% of the entire crypto futures OI by mid-2025) indicates it might anchor a larger network of DeFi protocols. The Hyper Foundation’s collaborative approach (e.g. partnering with wallets, other L1s) suggests they see Hyperliquid as part of a multi-chain future rather than an isolated island.
- Advanced DeFi Infrastructure: By combining a high-performance exchange with general programmability, Hyperliquid could enable sophisticated financial products that were not previously feasible on-chain. For example, on-chain hedge funds or vault strategies can be built on HyperEVM that execute complex strategies directly through HyperCore (arbitrage, automated market making on order books, etc.) all on one chain. This vertical integration eliminates inefficiencies like moving funds across layers or being front-run by MEV bots during cross-chain arbitrage – everything can happen under HyperBFT consensus with full atomicity. We may see growth in automated strategy vaults that use Hyperliquid’s primitives to generate yield (some early vaults likely exist already, possibly run by HyperBeat or others). Hyperliquid’s founder summarized the strategy as “polish a native application and then grow into general-purpose infrastructure”. Now that the native trading app is polished and a broad user base is present, the door is open for Hyperliquid to become a general DeFi infrastructure layer. This could put it in competition not just with DEXs but with Layer-1s like Ethereum or Solana for hosting financial dApps – albeit Hyperliquid’s specialty will remain anything requiring deep liquidity or low latency.
- Institutional Adoption and Compliance: Hyperliquid’s future likely involves courting institutional players – hedge funds, market makers, even fintech firms – to use the platform. Already, institutional interest is rising given the volumes and the fact that firms like Coinbase, Robinhood, and others are eyeing perps. Hyperliquid might position itself as the infrastructure provider for institutions to go on-chain. It could offer features like sub-accounts, compliance reporting tools, or whitelisted pools (if needed for certain regulated users) – all while preserving the public, on-chain nature for retail. The regulatory climate will influence this: if jurisdictions clarify the status of DeFi derivatives, Hyperliquid could either become a licensed venue in some form or remain a purely decentralized network that institutions plug into indirectly. The mention of “regulatory-aware design” suggests the team is mindful of striking a balance that allows real-world integration without falling afoul of laws.
- Continuous Community Empowerment: As the platform grows, more decision-making may shift to token holders. We can expect future HIPs to cover things like adjusting fee parameters, allocating the incentive fund (the ~39% of supply set aside), introducing new products (e.g. if an options module were proposed), and expanding validator sets. The community will play a big role in guiding Hyperliquid’s trajectory, effectively acting as the shareholders of this decentralized exchange. The community treasury (funded by any tokens not yet distributed and possibly by any revenue not used in buybacks) could be directed to fund new projects on Hyperliquid or provide grants, further bolstering ecosystem development.
Conclusion: Hyperliquid in 2025 has achieved what many thought impossible: a fully on-chain exchange that rivals centralized platforms in performance and liquidity. Its technical architecture – HyperBFT, HyperCore, HyperEVM – has proven to be a blueprint for the next generation of financial networks. The $HYPE token model aligns the community tightly with the platform’s success, creating one of the most lucrative and deflationary token economies in DeFi. With massive trading volumes, a ballooning user base, and a fast-growing DeFi ecosystem around it, Hyperliquid has positioned itself as a premier layer-1 for financial applications. Looking ahead, its vision of becoming “the blockchain to house all finance” does not seem far-fetched. By bringing more asset classes on-chain (potentially including real-world assets) and continuing to integrate with other networks and partners, Hyperliquid could serve as the backbone for a truly global, 24/7, decentralized financial system. In such a future, the lines between crypto and traditional markets blur – and Hyperliquid’s blend of high performance and trustless architecture may well be the model that bridges them, building the future of onchain finance one block at a time.
Sources:
- QuickNode Blog – “Hyperliquid in 2025: A High-Performance DEX...” (Architecture, metrics, tokenomics, vision)
- Artemis Research – “Hyperliquid: A Valuation Model and Bull Case” (Market share, token model, comparisons)
- The Defiant – “EtherFi Expands to HyperLiquid…HyperBeat” (Ecosystem TVL, institutional interest)
- BlockBeats – “Inside Hyperliquid’s Growth – Semiannual Report 2025” (On-chain metrics, volume, OI, user stats)
- Coingape – “Hyperliquid Expands to Solana via Phantom Partnership” (Phantom wallet integration, mobile perps)
- Mitrade/Cryptopolitan – “Circle integrates USDC with Hyperliquid” (Native USDC launch, $5.5B AUM)
- Nansen – “What is Hyperliquid? – Blockchain DEX & Trading Explained” (Technical overview, sub-second finality, token uses)
- DeFi Prime – “Exploring the Hyperliquid Chain Ecosystem: Deep Dive” (Ecosystem projects: DEXs, lending, NFTs, etc.)
- Hyperliquid Wiki/Docs – Hyperliquid GitBook & Stats (Asset listings via HIPs, stats dashboard)
- CoinMarketCap – Hyperliquid (HYPE) Listing (Basic info on Hyperliquid L1 and on-chain order book design)
