Hyperliquid surges to $10 billion: open interest in derivatives sets new records
The decentralized derivatives market continues to show impressive momentum. Hyperliquid, one of the leading protocols for perpetual futures trading, has crossed a significant milestone — the open interest on the platform has exceeded $10 billion. This figure places Hyperliquid in third place among the largest derivatives trading venues, trailing only the giants of the centralized market.
A key driver of this growth has been the expansion of its toolkit. The protocol has successfully launched markets for traditional assets: stocks of major companies, commodities, and stock indices. Notably, about $4 billion of the total open interest comes from decentralized exchanges built by third-party developers under the HIP-3 initiative. This confirms the viability of the open ecosystem model.
Traders are actively using synthetic instruments. The daily trading volume for oil contracts and the Nasdaq 100 index consistently exceeds $100 million. The hype around pre-IPO markets is also noteworthy: ahead of the expected SpaceX listing, open interest in the corresponding contract reached $250 million.
An important strategic step was the full transition of the ecosystem to the USDC stablecoin. After integrating the USDH brand with support from Circle and Coinbase, USDC became the primary settlement asset. The partnership terms require issuers to stake native HYPE tokens and share protocol revenue from reserves. Hyperliquid will receive approximately 90% of the profits from Treasury bonds and repo transactions backing USDC on-chain. At current rates, this will generate around $160 million per year for the platform.
These additional revenues will be directed toward buying back and burning native HYPE tokens. The expected buyback volume is $450 million. According to the developers, this mechanism is intended to reduce the asset's supply and support its market value.
As a reminder, back in May, Hyperliquid's share of the perpetual futures market reached a record 6.63% of total turnover on centralized exchanges, amounting to $200 billion out of $3 trillion.
My comment: Hyperliquid demonstrates that DeFi derivatives can not only compete with CEXs but also offer unique products unavailable on traditional exchanges. The combination of high liquidity, innovative instruments, and a transparent token economy creates a strong foundation for further growth. However, it is worth closely monitoring the implementation of the buyback program — this will be a key test of the model's long-term sustainability.