Hyperliquid Revolutionizes Crypto Perpetuals in DeFi's 'Money LEGO' Ecosystem

The concept that liquidity attracts more 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 a pseudonymous developer known as iliensinc, Hyperliquid has been live since 2023 and is now capitalizing on its order book's depth and volume. The platform offers firms a unique concept known as composibility, a DeFi principle where permissionless smart contracts can interlock like building blocks, creating new tokenized financial products. Hyperliquid's Ethereum-compatible HyperEVM is directly connected to its high-performance HyperCore blockchain, allowing other applications to leverage the platform's shared liquidity without fragmenting it. This means that applications like wallets or even other exchanges can utilize Hyperliquid as a backend to offer perps trading and other services, resulting in deepened liquidity, expanded assets, and amplified network effects. The number of developers integrating with Hyperliquid has grown significantly, with big names like MetaMask, Phantom wallet, and VALR exchange now using the platform's 'builder codes'. According to Flowscan, these builders have generated approximately $90 million in revenue so far. A growing number of enthusiasts are praising the platform, with Hyunsu Jung, CEO of Hyperion DeFi, describing it as 'the AWS for finance'. Jung emphasized that Hyperliquid is more than just a perpetuals exchange; it's a layer-one blockchain infrastructure that provides liquidity and execution, allowing builders to focus on delivering a great user experience. Similar to AWS, builders using Hyperliquid own their users and have full control over the user interface, while the platform provides the underlying liquidity and execution. Integrators can charge fees based on the notional size of their users' trades without developing the backend or maintaining liquidity. For apps like MetaMask, integrating with Hyperliquid's EVM module makes sense, as it enables users to access perps directly from their wallets. Since October 2025, MetaMask has provided its users with self-custodial access to perps, streamlining fund transfers and allowing users to trade with the tokens they already hold. As a wallet, MetaMask has the advantage of not requiring a dApp connection, and its product manager, Matthieu Saint Olive, praises Hyperliquid's matching capabilities. By routing orders directly to the Hyperliquid order book, MetaMask Perps offers high-quality liquidity and execution. According to Saint Olive, MetaMask is seeing growth beyond crypto, with real-world-asset markets now accounting for roughly a quarter of perp volume. The platform charges a flat 0.1% builder fee, with no hidden spread or execution costs, ensuring transparency for traders. Even large centralized exchanges like VALR are leveraging Hyperliquid's perps order book for liquidity. Despite initially building their own infrastructure, including risk and liquidation engines, VALR's CEO and co-founder, Farzam Ehsani, found it challenging to achieve sufficient volume and liquidity. Looking ahead, the entry of major players like Robinhood, Coinbase, and Intercontinental Exchange into the perps market is expected to create opportunities for cross-venue arbitrage, according to Jung. This could enable traders to maintain positions on multiple platforms, leveraging non-toxic flow to generate organic funding rates.