Revolutionizing DeFi: Hyperliquid Takes Crypto Perpetuals to New Heights

The concept that liquidity breeds liquidity is a fundamental principle in the world of finance. Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange, has emerged as a top choice for traders, particularly those interested in perpetual futures or 'perps,' which are blockchain-based derivatives contracts that 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 early 2023 and has been capitalizing on its robust order book by offering a unique concept known as composability. This concept, derived from decentralized finance (DeFi), enables permissionless smart contracts to seamlessly integrate, much like LEGO blocks, to create new 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, providing perps trading and other services. As more developers integrate with Hyperliquid, the platform's liquidity deepens, the variety of assets expands, and network effects become more pronounced. Currently, hundreds of developers, including prominent names like MetaMask, Phantom wallet, and the South African exchange VALR, are utilizing Hyperliquid's system of 'builder codes,' generating approximately $90 million in revenue, according to Flowscan. The platform has garnered significant praise from its growing user base. Hyunsu Jung, CEO of Hyperion DeFi, describes Hyperliquid as 'not just a perpetuals exchange, but more like the AWS for finance.' Jung highlights that the platform provides a layer-one blockchain infrastructure, offering liquidity and execution services, allowing builders to focus on delivering a superior user experience. Similar to AWS, builders maintain control over their users and user interface, while Hyperliquid provides the underlying liquidity and execution. The 'builder codes' enable integrators to charge fees based on the notional size of their users' trades without requiring backend development or liquidity maintenance. Sterling Barnett, business development lead at Hyperliquid Labs, notes that 'builder codes allow integrators to focus on what they do best, delivering a great user experience, while Hyperliquid serves as the backend for liquidity and execution.' For applications like MetaMask, integrating with Hyperliquid's EVM module provides a seamless experience, offering self-custodial access to perps directly from the wallet. MetaMask has been utilizing Hyperliquid's services since October 2025, providing its users with streamlined fund transfers and the ability to trade directly with the tokens they already hold. Matthieu Saint Olive, Staff Product Manager at MetaMask, highlights the benefits of this integration, stating that 'matching orders is genuinely hard, and Hyperliquid is excellent at it, so we don't try to rebuild it.' 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, with no hidden spread or execution costs, providing transparency and verifiability for traders. The company is actively exploring innovative pricing models to further enhance the user experience. Even large centralized exchanges, such as South Africa-based VALR, are leveraging 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. By integrating with Hyperliquid, VALR has been able to tap into a vast pool of global market participants, increasing their overall trading volume. Looking ahead, as major players like Robinhood, Coinbase, and Intercontinental Exchange enter the perps market, opportunities for cross-venue arbitrage will emerge, according to Jung. This will enable users to maintain positions on multiple platforms, such as Robinhood and Hyperliquid, and capitalize on non-toxic flow, ultimately leading to more organic mechanisms for funding rates.