Hyperliquid: a blockchain built around a perpetual futures exchange
HyperCore order books, the HyperEVM and the HYPE token
Hyperliquid is a layer-1 blockchain built to run trading in perpetual futures, derivatives with no expiry date, directly on-chain. HYPE is its native coin, used for fees, staking and governance.
1. What it is and who built it
Hyperliquid is developed by Hyperliquid Labs, led by co-founder Jeff Yan, formerly of the trading firm Hudson River Trading. The team says it took no outside venture capital. From around 2023 it became known for a perpetual futures exchange built on an order book, which matches buy and sell orders.
Most decentralized exchanges are smart contracts on general-purpose chains such as Ethereum; Hyperliquid builds the exchange into the chain itself. Orders, cancellations and liquidations are all recorded on-chain, at speeds meant to approach a centralized exchange. On the Crypto Nation map, HYPE is the city-hall tower of HyperEVM City, as that chain’s native coin.
2. HyperCore, HyperEVM and HYPE
The chain uses HyperBFT, a consensus algorithm adapted from the HotStuff family. HyperCore handles order books, margin and liquidations, while the HyperEVM runs Ethereum-style smart contracts under the same consensus. The HyperEVM opened on mainnet in February 2025, letting lending, stablecoin and other apps tap the exchange’s liquidity.
HYPE was first distributed on November 29, 2024, when 31% of the one-billion maximum supply was airdropped to early users. It pays for validator staking, HyperEVM gas and governance votes, and most trading fees go to an Assistance Fund that buys HYPE on the market. The HLP vault lets users deposit funds into the exchange’s market making.
3. Ecosystem and milestones
In September 2025 validators chose Native Markets to issue USDH, a Hyperliquid-native stablecoin. In October 2025 HIP-3 went live, letting any builder who stakes 500,000 HYPE launch new perpetual markets. Earlier upgrades added a token standard (HIP-1) and automatic liquidity for new tokens (HIP-2).
Lending markets, liquid staking and decentralized exchanges have since appeared on the HyperEVM. Margin is mostly USDC, which for a long time arrived through a validator-secured bridge from Arbitrum. In 2025 some listed companies announced plans to hold HYPE as a treasury asset.
4. Things to know
Hyperliquid has far fewer validators than chains such as Ethereum, and the team’s strong influence fuels decentralization debates. In March 2025, after an apparent manipulation attempt on the JELLY market, validators quickly delisted it and set a settlement price, prompting criticism that rules could change when convenient. That month a giant leveraged position also cost the HLP vault money, and maximum leverage was cut.
High-leverage derivatives can wipe out a deposit within minutes. In the October 10, 2025 crash, auto-deleveraging (ADL), which trims even profitable positions to absorb losses, was triggered on a large scale. Dependence on the bridge and validator signatures, and differing national derivatives rules, are also worth weighing.
Written from information public up to October 2026. It does not recommend or rate any coin and is not investment advice. If something is wrong, please tell us through the contact page.