1. Why HIP-3 Matters
HIP-3 turns Hyperliquid from a perp-DEX into permissionless financial Lego. Anyone can now spin up a perp market on anything—pre-IPO shares, GPU compute, commodity volatility, even funding-rate spreads—without asking VCs or DAOs for permission. Twenty-odd apps are already live on test-net, most boot-strapped and pseudonymous, exactly the environment that produced the last cycle’s 100× winners. Below are the verticals and the names traders are whispering about.

2. Front-Ends: The New “Broker” Wars

• Based – Super-app with 40× leverage, Visa card and Twitch-style “Based Streams” where influencers trade live and viewers tip USDC. First HIP-3 frontend to list the XYZ100 memecap index; USD 35 m volume in 24 h on day-1. Mobile apps due mid-2025.

• Liquid – Mobile-first, non-custodial, 100× leverage, e-mail login via Privy. Already in the iOS App Store; perfect on-ramp for normies.

• Aura – “Trading is social” angle: share PnL, copy-trade friends, group DM rooms. If Web3 social ever pops, Aura owns the order-flow.

3. Liquid Staking & Money-Markets (The Yield Layer)

• Kinetiq – Largest single pool on HIP-3 (USD 1.9 bn TVL). Stake HYPE → get kHYPE, then use kHYPE as collateral for perps. Launch-pad function lets new DEXs crowdfund liquidity instead of begging VCs.

• Felix – Liquity-style CDP fork on HyperEVM; mint feUSD against HYPE/uBTC. USD 300 m TVL, variable-rate loans, no governance token yet = possible retro-drop.

4. Novel Perp Markets (Real-World & Exotic Underlyings)

• Unit – Tokenized spot + equity perps. Already cleared TSLA, GOOG, NVDA perps on main-net; team ex-Jump/HRT. USD 831 m TVL, deepest on-chain inventory of spot BTC/ETH/SOL.

• Ventuals – Pre-IPO company perps (SpaceX, OpenAI, ByteDance). 10× leverage, optimistic oracle, self-funded via “Sekai Kappas” NFT sale. Test-net Oct-16 → main-net Q1-26; no VC allocation.

• Volmex – BTC/ETH “VIX” (BVIV/EVIV indices) → trade pure volatility. Institutional pedigree; vol perps launch next month.

• Nunchi – “Funding-rate of funding-rate” meta-perps. First product: FR-perp that tracks Hyperliquid’s own funding payments—perfect hedge for basis-traders.

• Hyperbolic & Ddot – Commodity perps (oil, gold, nat-gas) and physical commodity markets respectively. First on-chain exposure to spot energy/crops.

5. Infra & Pick-And-Shovel Plays

• Global Compute Index – Real-time GPU price feed (H100, A100, H200). Building the first compute perp; data oracle already live, trades go live Q4.

• Sekai – LST factory: plug in any validator set, mint branded LSTs. Solves HIP-3’s 500 k HYPE deployment barrier; airdrop rumours swirl around early minters.

• Flow DEX – Institutional OTC desk + cross-exchange market-maker. Provides hidden liquidity to every HIP-3 book; earns spread and possible token allocation when it finally decentralizes.

6. Long-Tail Bets (High-Risk / Narrative Alpha)

• Hyperbet – On-chain casino (slots, sports, prediction) built on HyperEVM. Gambling is crypto’s oldest PMF; if it ships provably-fair code and revenue share, token could re-rate quickly.

• OnlyVibes – Paid Telegram-style alpha group wrapped as an NFT. Social tokens have died a dozen deaths, but attention is attention; if they cross-subsidise PnL leaderboards it could become the de-facto trading lounge of HIP-3.

7. How To Hunt

1. TVL is not everything – Unit, Kinetiq and Felix are already “priced-in” by smart-money flow.

2. Watch test-net volumes – Ventuals’ pre-IPO cohort and Global Compute’s GPU perp are generating > USD 100 m daily paper volume; that is the early signal that seed-round valuations may be mis-priced.

3. No token yet = potential retro – Sekai, Flow, Volmex and Nunchi have not released governance tokens; main-net launches are slated before 2026.

4. Narrative timing – Real-world-assets (RWA), AI compute, and volatility trading are the three themes institutions have openly telegraphed for 2026 allocations. HIP-3 has functional perps in all three buckets while Ethereum L2s are still on Power-Point.

8. Bottom Line
HIP-3 is still a sandbox, but the toys inside are already producing measurable traction. If Hyperliquid keeps its no-VC ethos, the first wave of tokens will mostly hit the open market via community claims—not private rounds. That means the next 100× move is unlikely to come from chasing Kinetiq’s TVL leaderboard; it will come from quietly staking the underlyings, test-trading the exotic markets, and waiting for the retro-drop that turns early users into early shareholders.

1. Why HIP-3 Matters
HIP-3 turns Hyperliquid from a perp-DEX into permissionless financial Lego. Anyone can now spin up a perp market on anything—pre-IPO shares, GPU compute, commodity volatility, even funding-rate spreads—without asking VCs or DAOs for permission. Twenty-odd apps are already live on test-net, most boot-strapped and pseudonymous, exactly the environment that produced the last cycle’s 100× winners. Below are the verticals and the names traders are whispering about.

2. Front-Ends: The New “Broker” Wars

• Based – Super-app with 40× leverage, Visa card and Twitch-style “Based Streams” where influencers trade live and viewers tip USDC. First HIP-3 frontend to list the XYZ100 memecap index; USD 35 m volume in 24 h on day-1. Mobile apps due mid-2025.

• Liquid – Mobile-first, non-custodial, 100× leverage, e-mail login via Privy. Already in the iOS App Store; perfect on-ramp for normies.

• Aura – “Trading is social” angle: share PnL, copy-trade friends, group DM rooms. If Web3 social ever pops, Aura owns the order-flow.

3. Liquid Staking & Money-Markets (The Yield Layer)

• Kinetiq – Largest single pool on HIP-3 (USD 1.9 bn TVL). Stake HYPE → get kHYPE, then use kHYPE as collateral for perps. Launch-pad function lets new DEXs crowdfund liquidity instead of begging VCs.

• Felix – Liquity-style CDP fork on HyperEVM; mint feUSD against HYPE/uBTC. USD 300 m TVL, variable-rate loans, no governance token yet = possible retro-drop.

4. Novel Perp Markets (Real-World & Exotic Underlyings)

• Unit – Tokenized spot + equity perps. Already cleared TSLA, GOOG, NVDA perps on main-net; team ex-Jump/HRT. USD 831 m TVL, deepest on-chain inventory of spot BTC/ETH/SOL.

• Ventuals – Pre-IPO company perps (SpaceX, OpenAI, ByteDance). 10× leverage, optimistic oracle, self-funded via “Sekai Kappas” NFT sale. Test-net Oct-16 → main-net Q1-26; no VC allocation.

• Volmex – BTC/ETH “VIX” (BVIV/EVIV indices) → trade pure volatility. Institutional pedigree; vol perps launch next month.

• Nunchi – “Funding-rate of funding-rate” meta-perps. First product: FR-perp that tracks Hyperliquid’s own funding payments—perfect hedge for basis-traders.

• Hyperbolic & Ddot – Commodity perps (oil, gold, nat-gas) and physical commodity markets respectively. First on-chain exposure to spot energy/crops.

5. Infra & Pick-And-Shovel Plays

• Global Compute Index – Real-time GPU price feed (H100, A100, H200). Building the first compute perp; data oracle already live, trades go live Q4.

• Sekai – LST factory: plug in any validator set, mint branded LSTs. Solves HIP-3’s 500 k HYPE deployment barrier; airdrop rumours swirl around early minters.

• Flow DEX – Institutional OTC desk + cross-exchange market-maker. Provides hidden liquidity to every HIP-3 book; earns spread and possible token allocation when it finally decentralizes.

6. Long-Tail Bets (High-Risk / Narrative Alpha)

• Hyperbet – On-chain casino (slots, sports, prediction) built on HyperEVM. Gambling is crypto’s oldest PMF; if it ships provably-fair code and revenue share, token could re-rate quickly.

• OnlyVibes – Paid Telegram-style alpha group wrapped as an NFT. Social tokens have died a dozen deaths, but attention is attention; if they cross-subsidise PnL leaderboards it could become the de-facto trading lounge of HIP-3.

7. How To Hunt

1. TVL is not everything – Unit, Kinetiq and Felix are already “priced-in” by smart-money flow.

2. Watch test-net volumes – Ventuals’ pre-IPO cohort and Global Compute’s GPU perp are generating > USD 100 m daily paper volume; that is the early signal that seed-round valuations may be mis-priced.

3. No token yet = potential retro – Sekai, Flow, Volmex and Nunchi have not released governance tokens; main-net launches are slated before 2026.

4. Narrative timing – Real-world-assets (RWA), AI compute, and volatility trading are the three themes institutions have openly telegraphed for 2026 allocations. HIP-3 has functional perps in all three buckets while Ethereum L2s are still on Power-Point.

8. Bottom Line
HIP-3 is still a sandbox, but the toys inside are already producing measurable traction. If Hyperliquid keeps its no-VC ethos, the first wave of tokens will mostly hit the open market via community claims—not private rounds. That means the next 100× move is unlikely to come from chasing Kinetiq’s TVL leaderboard; it will come from quietly staking the underlyings, test-trading the exotic markets, and waiting for the retro-drop that turns early users into early shareholders.