Hyperliquid

HYPE secures Hyperliquid, a blockchain built around an on-chain exchange for leveraged perpetual futures.

Hyperliquid is a blockchain designed to run a trading exchange entirely on-chain. Its core, HyperCore, keeps order books for perpetual futures (contracts with no expiry that let traders bet on prices with leverage) and for spot trading, and records every order and position on-chain. A second layer, the HyperEVM, runs Ethereum-style smart contracts secured by the same consensus. HYPE is the network's native token: holders stake it with validators, it pays gas on the HyperEVM, and it gives trading-fee discounts.

HYPE launched on 29 November 2024 with a maximum supply of 1 billion. At genesis 31% was airdropped to past users, 38.89% was reserved for future emissions and community rewards, 23.8% went to core contributors (locked until November 2025, now vesting monthly) and 6% to the Hyper Foundation. No tokens went to venture investors or market makers. Staking rewards are paid from the emissions reserve.

Almost all of Hyperliquid's activity is leveraged derivatives trading: on 27 September 2026 perpetuals were about 97% of volume on its main exchange, with about $13 billion of open interest. Trading fees go to the HLP vault, market deployers and the Assistance Fund, which automatically converts fees into HYPE that is treated as burned; the fund held about 47.5 million HYPE. The platform also offers interest-based borrowing of stablecoins against HYPE.

Hyperliquid Labs develops the protocol and the Hyper Foundation oversees governance and ecosystem growth. About 35 validators secure the network, but the five Hyper Foundation validators held about 48% of staked HYPE in September 2026, and the node software is distributed as closed binaries. In the US, HYPE is held by spot ETFs launched in May 2026, although Hyperliquid's own interface is closed to US users.