Hyperliquid Revolutionizes DeFi with Crypto Perps and Shared Liquidity

The concept that liquidity breeds liquidity is being put to the test by Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange that has gained popularity among traders, particularly those interested in perpetual futures or 'perps'. Launched in 2023 by Harvard classmates Jeff Yan and a pseudonymous developer known as iliensinc, Hyperliquid is leveraging its substantial volume and order book depth to provide firms with a unique opportunity: composability. This DeFi concept allows permissionless smart contracts to interlock seamlessly, much like financial LEGO blocks, giving rise to innovative tokenized products. Hyperliquid's Ethereum-compatible HyperEVM is directly connected to its high-performance HyperCore blockchain, enabling other applications to build upon the platform's shared liquidity. This means that wallets, exchanges, and other services can utilize Hyperliquid as a backend, offering perps trading and other features without having to fragment the liquidity. As more developers integrate with Hyperliquid, the platform's liquidity deepens, asset variety expands, and network effects intensify. Currently, hundreds of developers, including notable names such as MetaMask, Phantom wallet, and VALR, are using 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 the AWS of finance,' said Hyunsu Jung, CEO of Hyperion DeFi, a U.S.-listed treasury company focused on Hyperliquid's native token HYPE. According to Jung, 'the perps aspect is just one part of it; this is essentially a layer-one blockchain infrastructure providing liquidity and execution services.' Similar to AWS, builders maintain full control over their user interface and own their users, while Hyperliquid provides the underlying liquidity and execution. Builder code integrators can charge fees based on the notional size of their users' trades without developing the backend or maintaining liquidity. 'Builder codes enable integrators to focus on delivering exceptional user experiences, while Hyperliquid handles the backend for liquidity and execution,' said Sterling Barnett, business development lead at Hyperliquid Labs. For applications like MetaMask, which boasts over 100 million users worldwide, integrating with Hyperliquid's EVM module makes perfect sense. Since October 2025, MetaMask has offered its users self-custodial access to perps directly from the wallet. As a wallet, MetaMask has the advantage of streamlined fund transfers, allowing users to trade directly with the tokens they already hold. Hyperliquid handles matching, oracle, and margin engine tasks, freeing up MetaMask to focus on its core services. ' Matching orders is a challenging task, and Hyperliquid excels at it,' said Matthieu Saint Olive, Staff Product Manager at MetaMask. 'By routing orders directly to the Hyperliquid order book, MetaMask Perps offers some of the best liquidity and execution quality available.' MetaMask is witnessing growth beyond the crypto space, with commodities and equities gaining traction. 'Real-world-asset markets have grown from a small fraction of perp volume at the start of 2026 to roughly a quarter of it today,' Saint Olive noted. In terms of fees, MetaMask charges a flat 0.1% builder fee, with no hidden spread or execution costs. 'We believe transparency is a key advantage and are exploring innovative pricing models to make our economics a reason people choose MetaMask, not a source of friction,' Saint Olive added. It's notable that a large centralized exchange like VALR has opted to utilize Hyperliquid's perps order book for liquidity. Despite 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. 'Our volume is genuine; we don't engage in wash trading or any similar practices,' said Farzam Ehsani, CEO and co-founder of VALR. 'We saw Hyperliquid bringing together a significant amount of volume and market participants from around the world and thought, 'Why not tap into that?'' Looking ahead, as major players like Robinhood, Coinbase, and Intercontinental Exchange enter the perps market, opportunities for cross-venue arbitrage will emerge, according to Jung. 'Imagine maintaining one position on Robinhood and the other side of the position on Hyperliquid,' Jung said. 'With a significant amount of non-toxic flow from retail users, you'll be able to see more organic mechanisms for funding rates.'