Revolutionizing DeFi: Hyperliquid Takes Crypto Perpetuals to the Next Level

The concept that liquidity breeds liquidity is a fundamental principle in the world of finance. Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange, has become the go-to platform for traders seeking to engage with perpetual futures, also known as '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 has been live since the beginning of 2023 and is now capitalizing on its order book's volume and depth. The platform offers firms a unique concept known as composability, which is derived from decentralized finance (DeFi). This concept enables permissionless smart contracts to interlock like building blocks, creating new tokenized financial products. Hyperliquid's Ethereum-compatible HyperEVM is directly connected to its high-performance, homegrown HyperCore blockchain. This allows other applications to build on top of the platform's shared liquidity, rather than fragmenting it. In other words, applications such as wallets or even other exchanges can utilize Hyperliquid as a backend to offer perps trading and other services. As more developers integrate with Hyperliquid, the platform's liquidity deepens, and the variety of assets expands. This, in turn, creates a compounding effect, where the network effects become increasingly pronounced. Currently, hundreds of developers, including prominent names like MetaMask, Phantom wallet, and the South African exchange VALR, are utilizing Hyperliquid's 'builder codes.' These developers have generated approximately $90 million in revenue to date, according to Flowscan. The platform has garnered significant praise from its growing user base. Hyunsu Jung, CEO of Hyperion DeFi, has likened Hyperliquid to 'the AWS for finance,' emphasizing its role as a layer-one blockchain infrastructure that provides liquidity and execution. In a similar vein to AWS, builders on Hyperliquid own their users and have full control over the user interface, while the platform provides the underlying liquidity and execution. Integrators of builder codes can charge fees based on the notional size of their users' trades without having to develop the backend or maintain liquidity. The Hyperliquid Labs business development lead, Sterling Barnett, noted that '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 best-in-class on-chain liquidity and institutional-grade infrastructure, while earning fees on every trade. For applications like MetaMask, which boasts over 100 million users worldwide, integrating with Hyperliquid's EVM module is a logical step. 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 (dApp) 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, stated that 'matching orders is genuinely hard, and Hyperliquid is excellent at it, so we don't try to rebuild it.' 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 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, which is disclosed upfront with no hidden spread or execution costs. This transparency is seen as a major advantage, and the company is exploring more innovative pricing models to make its economics a key differentiator. It's noteworthy that even large centralized exchanges are turning to Hyperliquid for liquidity requirements. The South Africa-based exchange VALR, which is ranked among the largest exchanges in Africa, has opted to utilize Hyperliquid's perps order book. Despite initially building its own infrastructure, including risk and liquidation engines, the team at VALR found it challenging to achieve sufficient volume and liquidity for their perpetual futures. According to CEO and co-founder Farzam Ehsani, the decision to integrate with Hyperliquid was driven by the platform's ability to bring together a huge amount of volume and market participants from around the world. Looking ahead, as major players like Robinhood, Coinbase, and Intercontinental Exchange enter the perps market, there will be opportunities for cross-venue arbitrage, according to Jung of Hyperion. This could involve maintaining positions on multiple platforms, such as Robinhood and Hyperliquid, and leveraging the non-toxic flow of retail users to create more organic mechanisms for funding rates.