Hyperliquid Revolutionizes Crypto Perpetuals with DeFi's Modular Approach

The concept that liquidity breeds liquidity is particularly relevant in the context of Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange that has garnered significant attention from traders, especially those interested in perpetual futures or 'perps.' These blockchain-based derivatives contracts enable 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 has been live since the start of 2023 and is capitalizing on the depth and volume of its order book by introducing a concept akin to composability. This DeFi concept allows permissionless smart contracts to interlock seamlessly, much like LEGO blocks, forming the foundation of novel tokenized financial products. Hyperliquid's Ethereum-compatible HyperEVM is directly connected to its high-speed, homegrown HyperCore blockchain. This setup enables other applications to build upon the platform's shared liquidity, rather than fragmenting it. Essentially, applications such as wallets or even other exchanges can utilize Hyperliquid as a backend to offer perps trading and other services, enhancing the overall trading experience. 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 the South African exchange VALR, are utilizing Hyperliquid's 'builder codes' system. According to Flowscan, these builders have generated approximately $90 million in revenue thus far. The platform has garnered significant praise from its growing user base. 'Hyperliquid is more than just a perpetuals exchange; it's akin to the AWS for finance,' stated Hyunsu Jung, CEO of Hyperion DeFi, the first U.S.-listed treasury company focused on Hyperliquid's native token, HYPE. 'The perpetuals aspect is notable, but this is essentially a layer-one blockchain infrastructure. The primary service offered is liquidity, ensuring that all markets function optimally and allowing anyone to build upon them,' Jung explained in an interview. Similar to AWS for cloud infrastructure, builders on Hyperliquid maintain ownership of their users and full control over the user 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 the backend or maintain liquidity. 'Builder codes enable integrators to focus on delivering exceptional user experiences, while Hyperliquid serves as the backend for liquidity and execution,' stated Sterling Barnett, business development lead at Hyperliquid Labs, via email. 'Integrators can offer their users top-notch on-chain liquidity and institutional-grade infrastructure, earning fees on every trade.' For an application 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 its users with self-custodial access to perps directly from the wallet. As a wallet, MetaMask has the advantage of not requiring a decentralized app connection, and fund transfers are streamlined, allowing users to trade directly with the tokens they already hold, according to Matthieu Saint Olive, Staff Product Manager at MetaMask. The integration enables MetaMask to plug into its money account, social login, and follow trading, leaving Hyperliquid to handle matching, the oracle, and the margin engine. 'Matching orders is genuinely challenging, and Hyperliquid excels at it, so we don't attempt to rebuild it,' Saint Olive said via email. 'By routing orders directly to the Hyperliquid order book, MetaMask Perps offers some of the best liquidity and execution quality available anywhere.' MetaMask is witnessing growth beyond the crypto space, with commodities and equities gaining traction, according to Saint Olive. 'Real-world-asset markets have evolved from a small fraction of perp volume at the start of 2026 to roughly a quarter of it today,' he noted. In terms of fees, MetaMask charges a flat 0.1% builder fee, disclosed upfront, with no hidden spread and nothing buried in execution, allowing traders to verify exactly what they paid. 'We believe that transparency is a significant advantage, and we're actively exploring more innovative pricing models, as we want the economics to be a reason people choose MetaMask, not a source of friction,' Saint Olive added. It's interesting to note that a large centralized exchange, VALR, has opted to rely on Hyperliquid's perps order book for liquidity requirements. This decision has proven beneficial for the South Africa-based exchange, ranked among the largest in Africa with close to two million retail customers and about 2,000 corporate institutional customers, according to the exchange's CEO and co-founder, Farzam Ehsani. Initially, VALR built all the necessary infrastructure in-house, including risk and liquidation engines, Ehsani said. However, despite the effort invested in launching perpetual futures, the team struggled to achieve the desired volume and liquidity. 'Our volume is our volume; we are truthful and transparent and don't engage in wash trading or similar practices. We recognized that Hyperliquid was bringing a substantial amount of volume and market participants from around the world together and thought, 'Why not plug into that?' Ehsani said in an interview. Looking ahead, as major players like Robinhood, Coinbase, and Intercontinental Exchange expand their perps offerings, opportunities for cross-venue arbitrage will emerge, according to Jung of Hyperion. 'Imagine maintaining one position on Robinhood, for example, and the other side of the position on Hyperliquid,' Jung said. 'With a significant amount of non-toxic flow, which occurs when retail users are simply entering and exiting the market, you'll be able to see more organic mechanisms for funding rates.'