Hyperliquid Revolutionizes DeFi with Composable Liquidity

The concept that liquidity generates more 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'. Founded by Harvard classmates Jeff Yan and iliensinc, Hyperliquid has been live since early 2023 and is now capitalizing on its order book's depth and volume by introducing a concept known as 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-speed, homegrown HyperCore blockchain, allowing other applications to build upon the platform's shared liquidity rather than fragmenting it. In essence, applications such as wallets or even other exchanges can utilize Hyperliquid as a backend, enabling them to offer perps trading and other services without having to develop their own infrastructure. As more developers integrate with Hyperliquid, the platform's liquidity deepens, the variety of assets expands, and network effects intensify. Currently, hundreds of developers, including prominent names like MetaMask, Phantom wallet, and VALR, are utilizing Hyperliquid's 'builder codes', generating approximately $90 million in revenue. The platform has garnered significant praise from its growing user base. 'Hyperliquid is more than just a perpetuals exchange; it's akin to AWS for finance,' stated Hyunsu Jung, CEO of Hyperion DeFi. 'The perps aspect is notable, but this is essentially a layer-one blockchain infrastructure providing liquidity and execution, allowing anyone to build upon it.' Similar to AWS, builders maintain control over their users and interface while Hyperliquid provides the underlying liquidity and execution. Integrators of builder codes can charge fees based on the notional size of their users' trades without needing to develop or maintain their own backend 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. 'Integrators can offer their users top-notch on-chain liquidity and institutional-grade infrastructure, earning fees on every trade.' For applications like MetaMask, which boasts over 100 million users worldwide, integrating with Hyperliquid's EVM module is a strategic move. Since October 2025, MetaMask has provided users with self-custodial access to perps directly from the wallet. As a wallet, MetaMask has the advantage of streamlined fund transfers, allowing users to trade directly with their existing tokens. 'Matching orders is genuinely challenging, and Hyperliquid excels at it, so we don't attempt to rebuild it,' said Matthieu Saint Olive, Staff Product Manager at 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 the crypto space, with real-world asset markets now accounting for roughly a quarter of perp volume. In terms of fees, MetaMask charges a flat 0.1% builder fee with full transparency and no hidden spread. It's notable that a large centralized exchange like VALR has opted to utilize Hyperliquid's perps order book for liquidity. Despite initially building their own infrastructure, including risk and liquidation engines, the team at VALR found it challenging to achieve sufficient volume and liquidity for their perpetual futures. 'We saw Hyperliquid bringing together a vast amount of volume and market participants from around the world and thought, 'Why not plug into that?' ' said Farzam Ehsani, CEO and co-founder of VALR. Looking ahead, the emergence of cross-venue arbitrage opportunities is anticipated as major players like Robinhood and Coinbase enter the perps market.