In the world of DeFi perpetual contracts, Hyperliquid has become the undisputed leader. With over 80% market share and daily trading volumes above $30B, it has left competitors far behind. By delivering CEX-level speed and depth entirely on-chain, Hyperliquid poses a serious challenge to traditional centralized exchanges.

Its success boils down to three core pillars:

• On-chain order book (CLOB): true matching, ultra-low slippage.

• Custom Layer-1 blockchain: solves latency and throughput, supports high-frequency cancel/replace orders.

• HLP Vault mechanism: transforms market-making into a public utility, boosting overall liquidity.

Hyperliquid was founded in 2020 by former Harvard student Jeff Yan and the anonymous developer iliensinc, and officially launched in 2023. The team includes talent from Caltech, MIT, and top HFT firms like Citadel and Hudson River Trading.

Their market-making experience revealed major flaws in DeFi platforms at the time: poor design, instability, and weak UX. So they self-funded (without VC money) to build Hyperliquid with the vision of bringing CEX-like speed and depth to on-chain order books while preserving DeFi transparency and self-custody.

• HQ: Singapore

• Early deployment: Arbitrum

• 2023: launched proprietary Hyperliquid L1

• 2024: issued governance token HYPE, airdropping 31% to early users

Hyperliquid’s custom consensus, HyperBFT, enables 0.2–0.9s confirmations and slippage below 0.01%—good enough for HFT and large-scale order activity.

Dual execution layers: HyperCore + HyperEVM

• HyperCore: core matching engine for perps/spot, handling up to 200k orders per second.

• HyperEVM: Ethereum-compatible smart contracts, using a dual-block design (fast small blocks + larger slower blocks) to balance speed with complex logic.

This layered approach lets Hyperliquid combine CEX performance with EVM openness.

• Full on-chain CLOB: orders, matching, and settlement happen transparently on-chain.

• HLP Vault: unlike AMMs with automated price curves, HLP is a pooled liquidity + order book model.

How it works:

• Users deposit funds to share in market-making profits.

• In liquidations, HLP backstops risk and prevents bad debt.

• This shifts market-making from being a privilege of a few institutions to a community-owned public good.

HYPE Token

• Max supply: 1B

• Airdropped: 31% to early users (Nov 2024)

• Future incentives: 39% reserved

• Community fund: 23.8%, unlocking over 3 years starting Nov 2025

As of August 2025:

• Circulating supply: ~334M

• Market cap: $15.3B

• Token distribution is transparent and community-oriented, supporting long-term growth.

• Perp market share: >80%

• Daily volume: $27–30B, far ahead of other DeFi platforms

• Protocol revenue: $5.57M in the last 30 days—ranked #3 across all chains, surpassing Tron, Solana, and even staking giant Lido.

• Slippage: just 15% of Uniswap’s level (much lower).

• TVL & market cap: quintupled in only 5 months.

• Open interest: has surged since the first airdrop and continues climbing.

Since April 2025, with the HYPE token live and liquidity mechanisms maturing, Hyperliquid has seen exponential growth in both trading volume and users. Its scale is now large enough to absorb most of the global DeFi perp demand.

At this point, Hyperliquid’s true competition is no longer other DEXs—it’s the CEX giants.

In the world of DeFi perpetual contracts, Hyperliquid has become the undisputed leader. With over 80% market share and daily trading volumes above $30B, it has left competitors far behind. By delivering CEX-level speed and depth entirely on-chain, Hyperliquid poses a serious challenge to traditional centralized exchanges.

Its success boils down to three core pillars:

• On-chain order book (CLOB): true matching, ultra-low slippage.

• Custom Layer-1 blockchain: solves latency and throughput, supports high-frequency cancel/replace orders.

• HLP Vault mechanism: transforms market-making into a public utility, boosting overall liquidity.

Hyperliquid was founded in 2020 by former Harvard student Jeff Yan and the anonymous developer iliensinc, and officially launched in 2023. The team includes talent from Caltech, MIT, and top HFT firms like Citadel and Hudson River Trading.

Their market-making experience revealed major flaws in DeFi platforms at the time: poor design, instability, and weak UX. So they self-funded (without VC money) to build Hyperliquid with the vision of bringing CEX-like speed and depth to on-chain order books while preserving DeFi transparency and self-custody.

• HQ: Singapore

• Early deployment: Arbitrum

• 2023: launched proprietary Hyperliquid L1

• 2024: issued governance token HYPE, airdropping 31% to early users

Hyperliquid’s custom consensus, HyperBFT, enables 0.2–0.9s confirmations and slippage below 0.01%—good enough for HFT and large-scale order activity.

Dual execution layers: HyperCore + HyperEVM

• HyperCore: core matching engine for perps/spot, handling up to 200k orders per second.

• HyperEVM: Ethereum-compatible smart contracts, using a dual-block design (fast small blocks + larger slower blocks) to balance speed with complex logic.

This layered approach lets Hyperliquid combine CEX performance with EVM openness.

• Full on-chain CLOB: orders, matching, and settlement happen transparently on-chain.

• HLP Vault: unlike AMMs with automated price curves, HLP is a pooled liquidity + order book model.

How it works:

• Users deposit funds to share in market-making profits.

• In liquidations, HLP backstops risk and prevents bad debt.

• This shifts market-making from being a privilege of a few institutions to a community-owned public good.

HYPE Token

• Max supply: 1B

• Airdropped: 31% to early users (Nov 2024)

• Future incentives: 39% reserved

• Community fund: 23.8%, unlocking over 3 years starting Nov 2025

As of August 2025:

• Circulating supply: ~334M

• Market cap: $15.3B

• Token distribution is transparent and community-oriented, supporting long-term growth.

• Perp market share: >80%

• Daily volume: $27–30B, far ahead of other DeFi platforms

• Protocol revenue: $5.57M in the last 30 days—ranked #3 across all chains, surpassing Tron, Solana, and even staking giant Lido.

• Slippage: just 15% of Uniswap’s level (much lower).

• TVL & market cap: quintupled in only 5 months.

• Open interest: has surged since the first airdrop and continues climbing.

Since April 2025, with the HYPE token live and liquidity mechanisms maturing, Hyperliquid has seen exponential growth in both trading volume and users. Its scale is now large enough to absorb most of the global DeFi perp demand.

At this point, Hyperliquid’s true competition is no longer other DEXs—it’s the CEX giants.