Hyperliquid Revolutionizes Crypto Perps in DeFi with Interoperable 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 Harvard alumni Jeff Yan and a pseudonymous developer known as iliensinc, Hyperliquid has been operational since the beginning of 2023. The platform is capitalizing on the depth and volume of its order book by introducing a concept akin to composability, which allows permissionless smart contracts to interlock seamlessly, much like the building blocks of new financial products. Hyperliquid's Ethereum-compatible HyperEVM is directly connected to its high-performance HyperCore blockchain. This setup enables other applications to build upon the platform's shared liquidity, rather than fragmenting it. As a result, 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. The more builders integrate with Hyperliquid, the deeper the liquidity, the broader the range of assets, and the more pronounced the network effects become. 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 collectively generated approximately $90 million in revenue, according to Flowscan. 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,' said Hyunsu Jung, CEO of Hyperion DeFi, the first U.S.-listed treasury company focused on Hyperliquid's native token, HYPE. 'While the perps aspect is impressive, Hyperliquid is essentially a layer-one blockchain infrastructure. The primary service offered is liquidity, ensuring that all markets function smoothly and allowing anyone to build upon them,' Jung explained in an interview. Similar to AWS for cloud infrastructure, builders on Hyperliquid own their user base 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 or maintain the backend infrastructure or liquidity. 'Builder codes enable integrators to focus on delivering exceptional user experiences, while Hyperliquid handles the backend for liquidity and execution,' said Sterling Barnett, business development lead at Hyperliquid Labs, via email. '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 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 connection, and fund transfers are streamlined, allowing users to trade directly with the tokens they already hold, according to Matthieu Saint Olive, Staff Product Manager at MetaMask. The integration enables MetaMask to plug into its money account, social login, and follow trading, leaving Hyperliquid to handle matching, the oracle, and the margin engine. 'Matching orders is a challenging task, and Hyperliquid excels at it, so we don't attempt to rebuild it,' said Saint Olive via email. 'By routing orders directly to the Hyperliquid order book, MetaMask Perps offers some of the best liquidity and execution quality available.' MetaMask is experiencing growth beyond the crypto space, with commodities and equities becoming increasingly popular, according to Saint Olive. 'Real-world-asset markets have expanded from a small fraction 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 transparent and disclosed upfront, with no hidden spread or execution costs. 'We believe that transparency is a significant advantage, and we're 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 notable that a large centralized exchange like VALR has chosen to utilize Hyperliquid's perps order book for its liquidity requirements. According to Farzam Ehsani, CEO and co-founder of VALR, the decision has proven to be beneficial. Despite initially building all the necessary infrastructure in-house, including risk and liquidation engines, the team at VALR struggled to achieve sufficient 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,' Ehsani said. 'We recognized that Hyperliquid was 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 more retail users are entering and exiting the market, you'll be able to see more organic mechanisms for funding rates.'