Hyperliquid Revolutionizes DeFi with Composability and Shared Liquidity

The concept that liquidity breeds liquidity is particularly relevant for Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange that has gained popularity among traders, especially those interested in perpetual futures or 'perps'. Founded by Harvard alumni Jeff Yan and the pseudonymous developer iliensinc, Hyperliquid launched in 2023 and has capitalized on the depth and volume of its order book by introducing a concept akin to composability. This DeFi concept enables permissionless smart contracts to interlock seamlessly, much like LEGO blocks, forming the foundation of novel tokenized financial products. Hyperliquid's Ethereum-compatible HyperEVM is directly connected to its high-speed, proprietary HyperCore blockchain. This setup allows other applications to build upon the platform's shared liquidity, rather than fragmenting it. In essence, applications such as wallets or even other exchanges can utilize Hyperliquid as a backend, offering perps trading and other services without having to develop their own infrastructure. As more developers integrate Hyperliquid into their systems, the platform's liquidity deepens, the array 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 leveraging Hyperliquid's 'builder codes' system, which has generated 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,' stated Hyunsu Jung, CEO of Hyperion DeFi, a U.S.-listed treasury company focused on Hyperliquid's native token, HYPE. 'The perps aspect is impressive, but what we're really dealing with here is a layer-one blockchain infrastructure. The primary service offered is liquidity, ensuring that all markets function seamlessly and allowing anyone to build upon them,' Jung explained in an interview. Similar to AWS in the context of cloud infrastructure, builders on Hyperliquid maintain ownership of their users and have full control over the user interface. Meanwhile, Hyperliquid provides the underlying liquidity and execution, enabling builder code integrators to charge fees based on the notional size of their users' trades without having to develop and maintain their own backend or liquidity. 'Builder codes enable integrators to focus on delivering exceptional user experiences, while Hyperliquid serves as the backend for liquidity and execution,' stated Sterling Barnett, business development lead at Hyperliquid Labs. 'Integrators can offer their users top-notch on-chain liquidity and institutional-grade infrastructure, earning fees on every trade.' For an application like MetaMask, which boasts over 100 million users worldwide, integrating with Hyperliquid's EVM module is a strategic move. Since October 2025, MetaMask has provided its users with self-custodial access to perps directly from the wallet. As a wallet, MetaMask has the advantage of not requiring a decentralized app connection, and fund transfers are streamlined, allowing users to trade directly with the tokens they already hold. Matthieu Saint Olive, Staff Product Manager at MetaMask, noted that Hyperliquid handles matching, oracle, and margin engine tasks, freeing MetaMask to focus on its core competencies. 'Matching orders is a challenging task, and Hyperliquid excels at it. Therefore, we don't attempt to recreate it,' Saint Olive stated. 'By routing orders directly to the Hyperliquid order book, MetaMask Perps offers some of the best liquidity and execution quality available.' According to Saint Olive, MetaMask is witnessing growth beyond the crypto sphere, 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,' he said. In terms of fees, MetaMask charges a flat 0.1% builder fee, with no hidden spread or execution costs, allowing traders to verify exactly what they paid. 'We believe transparency is a significant advantage and are actively exploring innovative pricing models to ensure that our economics are a reason users choose MetaMask, not a source of friction,' Saint Olive added. It's noteworthy that a large centralized exchange like VALR has opted to utilize Hyperliquid's perps order book for its liquidity requirements. Having started by offering spot market, spot margin, and perpetuals, the VALR team built their infrastructure in-house, including risk and liquidation engines. However, they found it challenging to achieve significant volume and liquidity for their perpetual futures. 'Our volume is our volume; we are truthful and transparent and don't engage in wash trading or similar practices,' stated Farzam Ehsani, CEO and co-founder of VALR. 'We saw Hyperliquid bringing together a substantial amount of volume and market participants from around the world and thought, 'Why not plug into that?' ' Looking ahead, as major players like Robinhood, Coinbase, and Intercontinental Exchange expand their perps offerings, opportunities for cross-venue arbitrage will emerge, according to Jung of Hyperion. 'Imagine maintaining one position on Robinhood, for example, and the other side of the position on Hyperliquid,' Jung said. 'With a significant amount of non-toxic flow, which occurs when retail users enter and exit the market, you'll be able to see more organic mechanisms for funding rates.'