Hyperliquid Revolutionizes DeFi with Composable Liquidity

The concept that liquidity breeds liquidity is being taken to the next level by Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange that has become a top choice for traders of perpetual futures, also known as 'perps'. Launched in 2023 by Harvard classmates Jeff Yan and iliensinc, Hyperliquid has harnessed the power of its robust order book to introduce a novel concept: composability, a DeFi principle where permissionless smart contracts can be combined like building blocks to create novel tokenized financial products. The platform's HyperEVM, compatible with Ethereum, connects directly to its high-speed HyperCore blockchain, allowing other applications to tap into Hyperliquid's shared liquidity rather than fragmenting it. This means that applications like wallets or exchanges can leverage Hyperliquid as a backend to offer perps trading and other services, effectively creating a network effect where liquidity deepens and the variety of assets expands as more builders integrate with the platform. Hundreds of developers, including prominent names like MetaMask and VALR, are now utilizing Hyperliquid's builder codes, generating approximately $90 million in revenue. The platform has garnered significant praise from its growing user base, with Hyunsu Jung, CEO of Hyperion DeFi, describing it as 'the AWS for finance', a layer-one blockchain infrastructure that provides liquidity and execution, allowing builders to focus on delivering exceptional user experiences. Similar to AWS, builders on Hyperliquid maintain control over their users and interfaces while the platform handles the underlying liquidity and execution. The use of builder codes enables integrators to charge fees on the notional size of their users' trades without needing to develop or maintain the backend or liquidity. For applications like MetaMask, integrating with Hyperliquid's EVM module has proven to be a strategic move, providing users with self-custodial access to perps directly from the wallet. The advantage of being a wallet lies in its ability to streamline fund transfers, allowing users to trade directly with the tokens they already hold. The partnership has yielded positive results, with MetaMask seeing growth beyond the crypto space into commodities and equities. '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', according to Matthieu Saint Olive, Staff Product Manager at MetaMask. In terms of fees, MetaMask charges a flat 0.1% builder fee, with no hidden spread or execution costs, ensuring transparency for traders. The company is actively exploring innovative pricing models to make its economics a key advantage. Even large centralized exchanges, like VALR, are now 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. Looking ahead, the prospect of major players like Robinhood, Coinbase, and Intercontinental Exchange entering the perps market is expected to create opportunities for cross-venue arbitrage, according to Jung. This could lead to more organic mechanisms for funding rates, particularly when combining positions across different platforms.