Hyperliquid Revolutionizes Crypto Perpetuals in DeFi's Financial Building Blocks

The concept that liquidity breeds liquidity is being put to the test by Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange that has become a top choice for traders of perpetual futures, also known as 'perps'. Founded by Harvard classmates Jeff Yan and iliensinc, Hyperliquid has been live since the start of 2023 and is now capitalizing on the depth and volume of its order book by offering other firms the ability to integrate with its shared liquidity. This concept, known as composability, allows permissionless smart contracts to work together seamlessly, creating new tokenized financial products. Hyperliquid's Ethereum-compatible HyperEVM is connected to its high-speed HyperCore blockchain, enabling other applications to build on top of the platform's shared liquidity. This allows wallets and other exchanges to utilize Hyperliquid as a backend, providing perps trading and other services without having to fragment the liquidity. As more developers integrate with Hyperliquid, the platform's liquidity deepens, and the variety of assets expands. Currently, hundreds of developers, including big names like MetaMask and Phantom wallet, are using Hyperliquid's system, generating over $90 million in revenue. According to Hyunsu Jung, CEO of Hyperion DeFi, 'Hyperliquid is not just a perpetuals exchange, it's more like the AWS for finance'. The platform provides a layer-one blockchain infrastructure, offering liquidity and execution services, while builders own their users and control the user interface. Similar to AWS, Hyperliquid provides the underlying infrastructure, while builders focus on delivering a great user experience. This allows integrators to charge fees on the notional size of their users' trades without having to develop the backend or maintain liquidity. For example, MetaMask, a popular Ethereum-based wallet, has integrated with Hyperliquid's EVM module, providing its users with self-custodial access to perps. This integration allows MetaMask to focus on delivering a great user experience, while Hyperliquid handles the backend and execution. Other major players, such as VALR, a large centralized exchange in Africa, have also integrated with Hyperliquid, taking advantage of the platform's liquidity and execution quality. As the market continues to grow, opportunities for cross-venue arbitrage are expected to emerge, according to Jung. Looking ahead, as more major players enter the perps market, Hyperliquid is well-positioned to provide the necessary infrastructure and liquidity, enabling builders to focus on delivering innovative financial products and services.