Hyperliquid Revolutionizes DeFi with Composable Liquidity

The notion that liquidity breeds liquidity is particularly relevant in the context of Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange that has garnered significant attention among traders, especially those interested in perpetual futures or 'perps'. Founded by Harvard alumni Jeff Yan and a pseudonymous developer known as iliensinc, Hyperliquid has been live since the beginning of 2023 and has capitalized on the depth and volume of its order book by introducing a concept akin to composability. This DeFi concept allows permissionless smart contracts to interlock seamlessly, much like financial building blocks, giving rise to novel tokenized products. The HyperEVM, compatible with Ethereum, directly connects to Hyperliquid's high-performance HyperCore blockchain, allowing other applications to leverage the platform's shared liquidity without fragmenting it. Essentially, applications such as wallets or even other exchanges can utilize Hyperliquid as a backend, enabling them to offer perps trading and other services. As more developers integrate with Hyperliquid, the platform's liquidity deepens, the variety of assets expands, and network effects intensify. Currently, hundreds of developers, including prominent names like MetaMask, Phantom wallet, and the South African exchange VALR, are utilizing Hyperliquid's 'builder codes', generating approximately $90 million in revenue. The platform has garnered significant praise from its growing user base. 'Hyperliquid is more than just a perpetuals exchange; it's akin to AWS for finance,' said Hyunsu Jung, CEO of Hyperion DeFi, a U.S.-listed treasury company focused on Hyperliquid's native token HYPE. Jung emphasized that Hyperliquid provides a layer-one blockchain infrastructure, where the primary service offered is liquidity, and builders can create products on top of it. Similar to AWS, builders maintain control over their users and interface, while Hyperliquid handles the underlying liquidity and execution. 'Builder codes allow integrators to focus on delivering exceptional user experiences, while Hyperliquid serves as the backend for liquidity and execution,' said Sterling Barnett, business development lead at Hyperliquid Labs. For applications like MetaMask, integrating with Hyperliquid's EVM module is a strategic move. Since October 2025, MetaMask has enabled its users to access perps directly from their wallets. Matthieu Saint Olive, Staff Product Manager at MetaMask, highlighted the advantages of this integration, including streamlined fund transfers and the ability for users to trade directly with their existing tokens. 'Hyperliquid excels at matching orders, so we don't attempt to replicate this functionality,' said Saint Olive. 'By directly routing orders to the Hyperliquid order book, MetaMask Perps offers exceptional liquidity and execution quality'. According to Saint Olive, MetaMask is witnessing growth beyond the crypto space, with real-world asset markets accounting for a significant portion of perp volume. When it comes to fees, MetaMask charges a transparent 0.1% builder fee, with no hidden spreads or execution costs. Even large centralized exchanges, such as South Africa-based VALR, are leveraging Hyperliquid's perps order book for liquidity. Despite initially building their own infrastructure, including risk and liquidation engines, the team at VALR found it challenging to achieve sufficient volume and liquidity for their perpetual futures. 'Instead of competing with Hyperliquid, we decided to plug into their vast volume and global market participants,' said Farzam Ehsani, CEO and co-founder of VALR. As the DeFi landscape continues to evolve, opportunities for cross-venue arbitrage will emerge, according to Jung. 'When major players like Robinhood and Coinbase enter the perps market, there will be opportunities for traders to capitalize on price discrepancies across different venues'.