Hyperliquid Revolutionizes Crypto Perpetuals in DeFi's Ecosystem

The concept that liquidity breeds liquidity is particularly relevant in the context of Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange that has gained popularity among traders, especially those interested in perpetual futures or 'perps.' These blockchain-based derivatives contracts allow users to speculate on asset prices with leverage and no expiration date. Founded by Harvard alumni Jeff Yan and a pseudonymous developer known as iliensinc, Hyperliquid launched in 2023 and has been capitalizing on its order book's volume and depth by offering a unique concept: composability. This DeFi concept involves permissionless smart contracts that can be combined like LEGO blocks, creating the foundation for new tokenized financial products. Hyperliquid's Ethereum-compatible HyperEVM is directly connected to its high-performance, homegrown HyperCore blockchain. This setup allows other applications to build upon the platform's shared liquidity without fragmenting it. Essentially, applications such as wallets or even other exchanges can integrate with Hyperliquid, utilizing it as a backend to offer perps trading and other services. As more developers integrate with Hyperliquid, the platform experiences deepening liquidity, an expanding variety of assets, and compounding network effects. Currently, hundreds of developers, including prominent names like MetaMask, Phantom wallet, and the South African exchange VALR, are utilizing Hyperliquid's 'builder codes.' These builders have generated around $90 million in revenue, according to Flowscan. Hyunsu Jung, CEO of Hyperion DeFi, praises the platform, stating, 'Hyperliquid is not just a perpetuals exchange; it's more like the AWS for finance.' Jung highlights that the platform offers a layer-one blockchain infrastructure, providing liquidity and execution services, allowing builders to focus on the user interface and experience. Similar to AWS, builders maintain control over their users and the user interface, while Hyperliquid provides the underlying liquidity and execution. Integrators of builder codes can charge fees based on the notional size of their users' trades without needing to develop the backend or maintain liquidity. Sterling Barnett, business development lead at Hyperliquid Labs, notes, 'Builder codes enable integrators to focus on delivering a great user experience, while Hyperliquid serves as the backend for liquidity and execution.' This allows integrators to offer their users high-quality, on-chain liquidity and institutional-grade infrastructure, earning fees on every trade. For applications like MetaMask, integrating with Hyperliquid's EVM module makes sense. MetaMask, with over 100 million users worldwide, has provided its users with self-custodial access to perps directly from the wallet since October 2025. Being a wallet offers the advantage of streamlined fund transfers, allowing users to trade directly with the tokens they already hold. Matthieu Saint Olive, Staff Product Manager at MetaMask, explains that Hyperliquid handles matching, the oracle, and the margin engine, while MetaMask focuses on the user experience. Saint Olive praises Hyperliquid's order matching capabilities, stating, 'Matching orders is genuinely hard, and Hyperliquid is excellent at it.' By routing orders directly to the Hyperliquid order book, MetaMask Perps offers high-quality liquidity and execution. MetaMask has seen growth beyond crypto, with commodities and equities becoming increasingly popular. According to Saint Olive, 'Real-world-asset markets have gone from a small slice of perp volume at the start of 2026 to roughly a quarter of it today.' In terms of fees, MetaMask charges a flat 0.1% builder fee, with no hidden spread or execution costs. Saint Olive emphasizes the importance of transparency, stating, 'We think that transparency is the real advantage, and we're actively exploring more innovative pricing models.' Even large centralized exchanges, like South Africa-based VALR, have opted to utilize Hyperliquid's perps order book for liquidity. Despite initially building their own infrastructure for perpetual futures, the team at VALR found it challenging to achieve sufficient volume and liquidity. Farzam Ehsani, CEO and co-founder of VALR, notes that the decision to integrate with Hyperliquid was driven by the platform's ability to bring together a large amount of volume and market participants from around the world. Looking ahead, the entry of major players like Robinhood, Coinbase, and Intercontinental Exchange into the perps market is expected to create opportunities for cross-venue arbitrage. According to Jung, this will enable the emergence of more organic mechanisms for funding rates, particularly when maintaining positions across multiple platforms.