Hyperliquid Revolutionizes DeFi with Composable Liquidity

The concept of liquidity begetting liquidity is a fundamental principle in the financial world. Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange, has become a go-to platform for traders seeking to engage with perpetual futures or 'perps,' which are blockchain-based derivatives contracts that facilitate speculation on asset prices with leverage and no expiration date. Founded by Harvard classmates Jeff Yan and iliensinc, Hyperliquid has been live since the start of 2023 and is leveraging its robust order book to offer firms a unique value proposition: composability. This DeFi concept allows permissionless smart contracts to interlock seamlessly, much like LEGO blocks, to create novel tokenized financial products. Hyperliquid's Ethereum-compatible HyperEVM is directly connected to its high-performance HyperCore blockchain, enabling other applications to tap into the platform's shared liquidity without fragmenting it. This means that wallets, exchanges, and other apps can utilize Hyperliquid as a backend to offer perps trading and related services, effectively creating a network effect that deepens liquidity, expands asset variety, and compounds user benefits. With hundreds of developers, including prominent names like MetaMask and VALR, already integrating Hyperliquid's 'builder codes,' the platform has generated approximately $90 million in revenue, according to Flowscan. The growing community of developers and users is abuzz with praise for the platform. Hyunsu Jung, CEO of Hyperion DeFi, describes Hyperliquid as 'the AWS for finance,' highlighting its role as a layer-one blockchain infrastructure that provides liquidity and execution services, allowing builders to focus on delivering exceptional user experiences. Similar to AWS, builders maintain control over their users and interfaces while Hyperliquid handles the underlying liquidity and execution. The use of builder codes enables integrators to charge fees on the notional size of their users' trades without needing to develop or maintain the backend infrastructure. Sterling Barnett, business development lead at Hyperliquid Labs, notes that this approach enables integrators to offer best-in-class on-chain liquidity and institutional-grade infrastructure while earning fees on every trade. For apps like MetaMask, which boasts over 100 million users worldwide, integrating with Hyperliquid's EVM module is a strategic move. MetaMask has been offering its users self-custodial access to perps directly from the wallet since October 2025, streamlining fund transfers and enabling users to trade with the tokens they already hold. Matthieu Saint Olive, Staff Product Manager at MetaMask, highlights the benefits of this integration, including the ability to plug into MetaMask's money account, social login, and follow trading, while leaving Hyperliquid to handle matching, oracle, and margin engine tasks. Saint Olive notes that matching orders is a challenging task and that Hyperliquid excels in this area, making it an ideal partner for MetaMask. By routing orders directly to the Hyperliquid order book, MetaMask Perps offers some of the best liquidity and execution quality available. MetaMask is witnessing growth beyond crypto, with commodities and equities becoming increasingly popular, according to Saint Olive. In terms of fees, MetaMask charges a flat 0.1% builder fee, ensuring transparency and no hidden spreads. The exchange is exploring innovative pricing models to make its economics a key advantage. Interestingly, even large centralized exchanges like VALR are leveraging Hyperliquid's perps order book for liquidity requirements. Farzam Ehsani, CEO and co-founder of VALR, notes that despite building in-house infrastructure for perpetual futures, the exchange struggled to achieve sufficient volume and liquidity. By partnering with Hyperliquid, VALR can tap into the platform's vast volume and market participants from around the world. Looking ahead, the emergence of cross-venue arbitrage opportunities is expected to create new possibilities for traders. As Jung of Hyperion notes, maintaining positions on multiple platforms, such as Robinhood and Hyperliquid, can enable traders to capitalize on non-toxic flow and organic funding rate mechanisms.