Hyperliquid is a modern platform for trading cryptocurrency derivatives that combines the speed of centralized exchanges with the transparency of blockchain technology. The project quickly gained popularity and became a noticeable player in the crypto trading market.
Every day, new projects appear in the crypto industry. According to CoinGecko, in 2024 alone, more than 5,000 new digital assets were launched daily, and the total number of cryptocurrencies exceeded 37 million.
However, only a small portion of these projects gain widespread recognition. Some of them are able not only to attract market attention quickly but also to take significant positions. One of such projects is the Hyperliquid platform.
What Hyperliquid is
Hyperliquid is a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange built on its own layer-one blockchain. The project’s main network and the decentralized exchange itself launched in June 2023.
Crypto derivatives are financial instruments whose value depends on the price of a cryptocurrency. These instruments include futures*, perpetual contracts, options*, and swaps*.
* Future — a contract in which the parties agree to buy or sell an asset in the future at a predetermined price and on a specific date.
* Option — a contract that gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an asset at a predetermined price before a certain date or at a specific moment.
* Swap — an agreement between parties to exchange assets, interest rates, or cash flows under predetermined conditions, often used for risk management or speculation.
Although Hyperliquid operates on a blockchain, in terms of usability, it resembles centralized trading platforms. To trade, users need to deposit funds into a special exchange wallet, after which they can execute trades.
At the same time, transactions themselves are executed directly on the blockchain. Unlike many centralized services, the platform does not require mandatory identity verification (KYC, Know Your Customer).
The growth of Hyperliquid’s popularity is explained by several advantages:
- high transaction processing and order execution speed;
- the ability to trade with leverage*;
- the presence of advanced risk-management tools, including stop-loss* orders (automatic closing of a trade in case of loss) and take-profit* orders (automatic profit fixation on a trade).
* Leverage allows traders to control a larger position than their own capital. For example, using 10× leverage with $100, a trader can open a $1,000 position. This increases potential profit but also increases risks.
* Stop-loss — an automatic exchange order that closes an open position when the asset price reaches a predefined loss level. This tool helps traders limit potential losses and reduce risks, especially when trading with leverage.
* Take-profit — an automatic order that closes a position when a specified price level is reached in order to lock in profit from a trade. A trader sets the desired profit level in advance, and when the asset price reaches that point, the position is automatically closed. This allows profits to be secured without constantly monitoring the market.
As of October 2025, the daily trading volume on Hyperliquid exceeds $9 billion. By this metric, the platform ranked sixth among crypto exchanges, уступая лишь Binance, OKX, ByBit, Bitget и Coinbase.
Interestingly, the project team achieved these results without attracting venture investments*.
* Venture investments are funds invested by venture capital firms or private investors in new and promising startups at early stages of development with the expectation of high growth and profit in the future, but with an increased level of risk.
In addition, Hyperliquid ranks first in trading volume among all exchanges operating directly on a blockchain. For comparison, the largest decentralized exchange, Uniswap, shows a daily volume of about $3.6 billion.
How the Hyperliquid platform works
Most well-known decentralized exchanges, such as Uniswap, PancakeSwap, Balancer, and Curve, operate on existing blockchain platforms such as Ethereum or the BNB Smart Chain.
Hyperliquid took a different approach, developing its own infrastructure.
The key element of the platform is a high-performance engine. It ensures fast trade settlement and operational transparency. According to the developers, the system can process up to 200,000 orders per second.
The second important component is its own virtual machine built on the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Thanks to this, Hyperliquid smart contracts (programs on the blockchain that execute the terms of a transaction) are compatible with the Ethereum ecosystem.
The foundation of the entire system is the proprietary Hyperliquid blockchain. It uses a consensus mechanism that is a modification of the Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) algorithm. Similar models are used in blockchains such as Cardano, BNB Chain, and Neo.
Exchange functions and capabilities
Hyperliquid supports spot trading (transactions with immediate delivery of the asset) and perpetual futures contracts with leverage up to 50×.
The platform offers more than 170 futures instruments, including popular cryptocurrencies and meme tokens (humorous cryptocurrencies inspired by internet memes) — for example, Pudgy Penguin (PENGU), Fartcoin (FARTCOIN), and dogwifhat (WIF) — as well as new projects such as Pump. fun (PUMP).
In addition to standard trading, users have access to additional features:
- deposits for earning passive yield;
- staking* (freezing cryptocurrency to support blockchain operation) of the HYPE token;
- a portfolio manager for tracking assets and open positions;
- subaccounts (additional accounts within a single profile for separating operations) and multisignature (transaction confirmation by multiple keys or users) to increase account security.
* Staking is the process of locking (freezing) cryptocurrency in a blockchain network to participate in transaction validation and maintain network operations, for which users receive rewards in the form of additional cryptocurrency.
To start using the platform, you need to connect an Ethereum-compatible crypto wallet, for example, MetaMask, Rabby, OKX Wallet, or Zerion. After that, you can deposit supported cryptocurrencies and start trading.
Criticism and controversial situations around Hyperliquid
Despite its rapid growth and high popularity, Hyperliquid has also faced criticism from the crypto community.
One of the most discussed cases was the incident involving the meme token JELLYJELLY (a cryptocurrency inspired by an internet meme).
A large trader opened a short position* worth about $8 million. Later he removed the collateral and simultaneously opened long positions* on other exchanges, which led to an increase in the token’s price.
* Short position — a trade in which a trader profits from a decline in the price of an asset. To do this, the trader sells the asset at the current price, expecting the buy it back later at a lower price.
* Long position — a trade in which a trader buys an asset expecting its price to increase in order to sell it later at a higher price and make a profit.
As a result, the platform incurred unrealized losses of approximately $12 million.
The Hyperliquid team intervened and temporarily halted trading of JELLYJELLY. This caused a wave of criticism from users who considered the exchange’s actions inappropriate. Some experts called such decisions unethical and questioned the transparency of the team’s operations.
Ultimately, the exchange avoided losses and recorded a profit of about $700,000, although affected users were later compensated for their losses.
Cryptocurrency HYPE
The native cryptocurrency of the platform, HYPE, was launched in November 2024. A significant portion of the coins was distributed through a free airdrop among active ecosystem users.
In total, 28% of the supply was distributed, amounting to 1 billion tokens.
In 2025, HYPE became one of the fastest-growing crypto assets. By October, the token price had increased by more than 95% since the beginning of the year.
As of March 2026, with a market capitalization of about $7.85 billion, HYPE ranks 13th among all cryptocurrencies and second among exchange tokens.
One of the growth factors was the automatic token buyback model. The Hyperliquid team directs about 93% of the platform’s revenue to buying back HYPE from the market.
According to ASNX, by September 2025, more than 30 million tokens worth approximately $1.7 billion had been bought back.
At the same time, in August 2025, the exchange reported record revenue of more than $100 million, 23% higher than the previous month.