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

The concept that liquidity attracts liquidity is being put to the test by Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange that has gained popularity among traders, particularly those interested in perpetual futures or 'perps.' These blockchain-based derivatives contracts allow users to speculate on asset prices with leverage and no expiration date. Founded by Harvard classmates Jeff Yan and a pseudonymous developer known as iliensinc, Hyperliquid launched in 2023 and is capitalizing on its order book volume and depth by offering firms a unique concept: composibility. This DeFi concept involves permissionless smart contracts that can be combined like building blocks, creating new tokenized financial products. Hyperliquid's Ethereum-compatible HyperEVM connects directly to its high-performance HyperCore blockchain, allowing other applications to build upon the platform's shared liquidity rather than fragmenting it. This means that applications like wallets or other exchanges can utilize Hyperliquid as a backend to offer perps trading and other services, resulting in deeper liquidity, expanded assets, and compounding network effects. The platform has attracted hundreds of developers, including prominent names like MetaMask, Phantom wallet, and South African exchange VALR, who are using Hyperliquid's 'builder codes' system. This system has generated approximately $90 million in revenue, according to Flowscan. A growing number of proponents are praising the platform, with Hyunsu Jung, CEO of Hyperion DeFi, describing Hyperliquid as 'the AWS for finance.' Jung emphasized that the platform is not just a perpetuals exchange but a layer-one blockchain infrastructure that provides liquidity and execution, allowing builders to focus on delivering a great user experience. Similar to AWS, builders maintain control over their users and user interface, while Hyperliquid provides the underlying liquidity and execution. Builder code integrators can charge fees on the notional size of their users' trades without developing the backend or maintaining liquidity. Sterling Barnett, business development lead at Hyperliquid Labs, noted that 'builder codes enable integrators to focus on what they do best – delivering a great user experience – while Hyperliquid serves as the backend for liquidity and execution.' For apps like MetaMask, which reports over 100 million users worldwide, integrating with Hyperliquid's EVM module makes sense. MetaMask has provided users with self-custodial access to perps directly from the wallet since October 2025. As a wallet, MetaMask has the advantage of streamlined fund transfers, allowing users to trade directly with the tokens they already hold. Matthieu Saint Olive, Staff Product Manager at MetaMask, explained that the platform plugs into MetaMask's money account, social login, and follow trading, leaving Hyperliquid to handle matching, the oracle, and the margin engine. Saint Olive emphasized that 'matching orders is genuinely hard, and Hyperliquid is excellent at it, so we don’t try to rebuild it.' By routing orders straight to the Hyperliquid order book, MetaMask Perps offers some of the best liquidity and execution quality available. MetaMask is seeing growth beyond crypto, with real-world asset markets expanding from a small slice of perp volume to roughly a quarter of it today. The platform charges a flat 0.1% builder fee, disclosed upfront, with no hidden spread and nothing buried in execution. Even large centralized exchanges like South Africa-based VALR are handing over liquidity requirements to Hyperliquid's perps order book. VALR, ranked among the largest exchanges in Africa, has found that taking the Hyperliquid route has proven to be a good option. Looking ahead, when major players like Robinhood, Coinbase, and Intercontinental Exchange enter the perps market, there will be opportunities for cross-venue arbitrage, according to Jung. This could lead to more organic mechanisms for funding rates, as retail users enter and exit the market.