Hyperliquid Expands DeFi's 'Money LEGO' Ecosystem with Crypto Perpetuals

The concept that liquidity generates more liquidity is a fundamental principle. Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange, has become the go-to platform for traders seeking to engage with perpetual futures, also known as 'perps,' which are blockchain-based derivative contracts allowing 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 launched in 2023 and has been capitalizing on its order book's volume and depth by offering firms a unique concept: composability, a DeFi concept where permissionless smart contracts can be combined like LEGO blocks to create new financial products. Hyperliquid's Ethereum-compatible HyperEVM connects directly to its high-speed HyperCore blockchain, enabling other applications to build upon the platform's shared liquidity rather than fragmenting it. As a result, applications such as wallets or other exchanges can utilize Hyperliquid as a backend to offer perps trading and other services. With more developers integrating Hyperliquid, liquidity deepens, assets expand, and network effects intensify. Hundreds of developers, including notable names like MetaMask, Phantom wallet, and VALR, have generated approximately $90 million in revenue using Hyperliquid's 'builder codes' system. Hyunsu Jung, CEO of Hyperion DeFi, praises Hyperliquid, stating it's 'not just a perpetuals exchange, but more like the AWS for finance,' providing a layer-one blockchain infrastructure that offers liquidity and execution. Similar to AWS, builders own their users and control the user interface, while Hyperliquid provides the underlying liquidity and execution. Builder code integrators charge fees based on the notional size of their users' trades without developing the backend or maintaining liquidity. Sterling Barnett, business development lead at Hyperliquid Labs, notes that 'builder codes allow integrators to focus on delivering a great user experience, while Hyperliquid serves as the backend for liquidity and execution.' For apps like MetaMask, integrating with Hyperliquid's EVM module makes sense, as it provides self-custodial access to perps directly from the wallet. MetaMask has given its users direct access to perps 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, notes 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 high-quality liquidity and execution. 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. In terms of fees, MetaMask charges a flat 0.1% builder fee, disclosed upfront, with no hidden spread. It's surprising to see a large centralized exchange like VALR handing over liquidity requirements to Hyperliquid's perps order book. However, taking the Hyperliquid route has proven beneficial for VALR, which struggled to gain volume and liquidity with its in-house perpetual futures. Farzam Ehsani, CEO and co-founder of VALR, notes that despite building all the infrastructure in-house, including risk and liquidation engines, it was difficult to get volume and liquidity. 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 will enable users to maintain positions on multiple platforms, creating organic mechanisms for funding rates.