Hyperliquid Revolutionizes DeFi with Composability and Shared Liquidity

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.' Founded by Jeff Yan and a pseudonymous developer known as iliensinc, Hyperliquid has been live since early 2023 and is now capitalizing on the depth and volume of its order book by introducing a novel concept: composability. This DeFi concept allows permissionless smart contracts to seamlessly integrate, much like financial building blocks, thereby giving rise to new tokenized financial products. Hyperliquid's Ethereum-compatible HyperEVM is directly connected to its high-performance HyperCore blockchain, allowing other applications to build upon the platform's shared liquidity without fragmentation. In essence, applications such as wallets or even other exchanges can leverage Hyperliquid as a backend to offer perps trading and other services, resulting in a deeper liquidity pool, a broader range of assets, and amplified network effects. To date, hundreds of developers, including prominent names like MetaMask, Phantom wallet, and VALR, have utilized Hyperliquid's 'builder codes,' generating approximately $90 million in revenue. The platform has garnered significant praise from its growing user base. Hyunsu Jung, CEO of Hyperion DeFi, describes Hyperliquid as 'the AWS for finance,' emphasizing its role as a layer-one blockchain infrastructure that provides liquidity and execution. Jung notes that builders maintain control over the user interface and own their users, while Hyperliquid provides the underlying infrastructure. The 'builder codes' enable integrators to focus on delivering a superior user experience while Hyperliquid handles liquidity and execution. This approach allows integrators to charge fees on the notional size of their users' trades without having to develop or maintain the backend or liquidity. For instance, MetaMask, an Ethereum-based wallet with over 100 million users worldwide, has integrated Hyperliquid's EVM module, enabling users to access perps directly from their wallets since October 2025. The integration has streamlined fund transfers, allowing users to trade directly with the tokens they already hold. MetaMask's Staff Product Manager, Matthieu Saint Olive, highlights the benefits of this integration, stating that Hyperliquid excels at matching orders, which can be a challenging task. By routing orders directly to the Hyperliquid order book, MetaMask Perps offers superior liquidity and execution quality. Saint Olive also notes that MetaMask is witnessing growth beyond crypto, with real-world-asset markets now accounting for roughly a quarter of perp volume. In terms of fees, MetaMask charges a flat 0.1% builder fee, with no hidden spread or execution costs, ensuring transparency for traders. The exchange's CEO, Farzam Ehsani, has also opted to utilize Hyperliquid's perps order book for its liquidity requirements. Despite initially building its own infrastructure for perpetual futures, VALR struggled to achieve sufficient volume and liquidity. Ehsani acknowledges that Hyperliquid's vast volume and global market participants made it an attractive solution. Looking ahead, as major exchanges like Robinhood, Coinbase, and Intercontinental Exchange expand their perps offerings, opportunities for cross-venue arbitrage will emerge, according to Jung. This could lead to more organic mechanisms for funding rates, particularly when maintaining positions across multiple platforms.