Hyperliquid Explained: HYPE Token, HyperEVM, and the Best Perps DEX (2026)

TL;DR

• Hyperliquid is the dominant decentralized perpetual futures exchange of 2026, running on its own purpose-built L1 with a fully on-chain central limit order book (CLOB) — not an AMM — and capturing roughly 60% of all decentralized perps volume.
• The November 29 2024 HYPE airdrop distributed 31% of supply to 94,000 historic users with zero insider or VC allocation, peaking at more than USD 10 billion in value and setting a new high-water mark for community-aligned token launches.
• HyperEVM launched February 18 2025, adding a fully EVM-compatible execution layer that shares consensus with the perps engine and lets Solidity developers tap into the deepest on-chain order book in crypto.
• The protocol is non-custodial and high-performance, but the JELLY incident, the bridge attack surface, and validator centralization remain the three biggest risks every trader must understand before deploying size.

Table of contents

• What is Hyperliquid?
• How Hyperliquid works
• HYPE token economics
• HyperEVM and the wider ecosystem
• History and timeline
• Key competitors and comparison table
• Hyperliquid in 2026 — current state
• Research and reports
• Use cases
• Risks and criticism
• How to trade on Hyperliquid
• FAQ
• Glossary

What is Hyperliquid? (definition)

Hyperliquid is a fully on-chain perpetual futures exchange that runs on its own application-specific layer-1 blockchain. Unlike automated-market-maker perpetual venues such as GMX v2 or Synthetix v3, Hyperliquid uses a central limit order book where every limit order, cancel, and fill is executed and settled directly on its L1 in roughly one second. The result is a trading experience that feels almost identical to a centralized exchange (CEX) — sub-second latency, deep books, advanced order types — while preserving self-custody, full transparency, and zero KYC.

The protocol was founded by Jeff Yan and a co-founder known publicly as Iliensinc, both formerly quantitative traders at firms including Hudson River Trading. They began building Hyperliquid in 2022 and launched the mainnet in 2023. From day one the team rejected outside venture capital funding, choosing instead to bootstrap with their own capital and on-chain trading revenue. That decision shaped every subsequent design choice — from the validator set to the airdrop allocation — and ultimately produced what is widely regarded as the most aligned token launch in DeFi history.

By Q1 2026 Hyperliquid had captured more than 60% of total decentralized perpetual futures volume across all chains, processed over USD 1 trillion in cumulative trading volume, and become the largest single source of on-chain derivative liquidity in the industry. It now competes head-to-head with mid-tier centralized exchanges on volume and depth while remaining fully non-custodial.

How Hyperliquid works (technical mechanics)

The Hyperliquid L1 and HyperBFT consensus

Hyperliquid L1 is a custom layer-1 blockchain built specifically to host an on-chain order book. It uses a HotStuff-inspired HyperBFT consensus algorithm, currently with a permissioned validator set of around 16 validators selected by the foundation, with a long-term roadmap toward fully permissionless staking. Block times sit at roughly 0.07-0.2 seconds, an order of magnitude faster than Cosmos appchains like dYdX v4, and median end-to-end order latency is 0.2-0.4 seconds — competitive with centralized venues such as Binance Futures.

The chain has two distinct execution environments that share the same consensus:

1. The perps engine (Hyperliquid L1 native). A purpose-built matching engine optimized for one job: running an order book. Every order, cancel, fill, liquidation, and funding payment is a first-class operation. There is no smart-contract overhead and no gas charged on order operations — the chain simply rate-limits per-account actions.
2. HyperEVM. An Ethereum-compatible execution layer launched on February 18 2025 that runs alongside the perps engine. Solidity contracts deployed to HyperEVM can read state from the perps L1 (mark prices, funding rates, open interest) and interact with deposits and withdrawals through precompiles.

This dual-VM design is what differentiates Hyperliquid from competitors. dYdX v4 has a custom Cosmos appchain but no general-purpose smart contract layer; GMX runs entirely on Ethereum L2s; Drift sits inside Solana. Only Hyperliquid offers a CEX-grade order book and an EVM in the same trust domain.

The on-chain CLOB and matching engine

Every market on Hyperliquid runs as an independent order book. Makers post limit orders that rest on-chain; takers match against the book. The matching engine processes orders in price-time priority just like a traditional exchange. Funding rates accrue every hour and are calculated from the spread between the perp mark and a Hyperliquid-curated oracle price. As of 2026 the engine supports roughly 130 perpetual markets, including BTC, ETH, SOL, all major L1/L2 native tokens, the leading memecoins, and a long tail of low-cap perps that are voted on by HYPE stakers.

Order types include limit, market, stop-market, stop-limit, take-profit, trigger-on-mark, IOC, ALO (post-only), and reduce-only. Maker fees start at 0.015% and taker fees at 0.045%, with discounts that scale with 14-day volume; at the highest tiers the maker fee flips to a rebate. Maximum leverage is set per market: 50x on BTC and ETH, 20-25x on most majors, 5-10x on low-cap and memecoin perps.

HLP — Hyperliquid LP vault

HLP is the protocol's flagship liquidity vault and the on-chain market-maker of last resort. Users deposit USDC into HLP and the vault automatically runs market-making, liquidation-backstop, and funding-arbitrage strategies across every Hyperliquid market. Profits and losses are socialized to depositors. Historical net APY has ranged from roughly 10% to 40% annualized, although depositors take real drawdown risk during volatility events such as the JELLY incident.

Because HLP is a smart-contract vault rather than a privileged actor, anyone can deposit and earn the same risk-adjusted yield that traditionally accrues to centralized exchange market makers. This makes Hyperliquid one of the few protocols where retail liquidity providers compete on the same terms as professional market makers — a structural feature borrowed conceptually from GMX v1's GLP and v2's GM/GLV pools, but with an order book rather than an oracle-priced LP design.

Bridge architecture

Deposits and withdrawals flow through the Hyperliquid Bridge, a multi-sig contract on Arbitrum that mints/burns USDC representations on Hyperliquid L1. The bridge is currently the single largest attack surface and the largest concentrated honeypot in the protocol — typically holding more than USD 2 billion in USDC. The team has signalled migration toward a more decentralized validator set and additional source chains, but as of April 2026 the Arbitrum bridge remains the dominant on/off-ramp.

HYPE token economics

The HYPE token is the native asset of the Hyperliquid L1 and HyperEVM. Its design is simultaneously the most studied and the most copied token model of the 2024-2026 cycle.

Supply and distribution

• Total supply: 1,000,000,000 HYPE.
• Airdrop: 31.0% to 94,000 historic users on November 29 2024.
• Future emissions / community: 38.9% reserved for future user incentives, ecosystem grants, and validator rewards.
• Hyperliquid Labs core contributors: 23.8%, with multi-year linear vesting that begins in 2027-2028 — meaning insiders cannot sell until well after the community has had years of liquid trading.
• Foundation budget: 6.0%.
• HIP-2 / community grants: 0.3%.

Crucially, 0% of HYPE was sold to venture capital investors, private rounds, or strategic partners. This is unprecedented for a project that briefly traded above a USD 30 billion fully diluted valuation in 2025. The closest historical comparisons are early Bitcoin and Ethereum's pre-mine, but those launches happened years before today's institutional capital existed.

Utility

HYPE has five core utilities:

1. Gas. All HyperEVM transactions are paid in HYPE.
2. Staking and security. HYPE secures the L1; staked HYPE earns a share of perps fees and EVM gas.
3. Governance. Token holders vote on listings, parameter changes, and HIPs (Hyperliquid Improvement Proposals).
4. Fee accrual. A meaningful share of perps trading fees flows into the assistance fund and is used for ongoing buybacks. Through 2025 these buybacks alone consumed several hundred million dollars of perp revenue.
5. Builder code priority. Wallets and front-ends that integrate Hyperliquid attach a builder code to each order and earn a fee share. HYPE staking unlocks higher tiers.

The combination of revenue-funded buybacks plus deferred insider unlocks made HYPE one of the strongest-performing large-cap tokens of 2024-2025, although the price has been volatile.

HyperEVM and the wider ecosystem

The February 18 2025 launch of HyperEVM transformed Hyperliquid from a single-product perps DEX into a general-purpose smart-contract platform. Within twelve months of HyperEVM going live, the ecosystem accumulated more than 100 deployed protocols across lending, stablecoins, liquid staking, perps aggregation, and structured products.

Notable HyperEVM-native primitives include:

• Hyperunit — a tokenization layer that brings native assets such as BTC, ETH, and SOL onto Hyperliquid, where they can be used as spot and collateral assets.
• HyperEVM lending and stablecoin protocols that allow looped HYPE staking, leveraged HLP exposure, and synthetic dollar minting collateralized by HYPE and majors.
• Cross-VM perp aggregators that read order book state from the L1 and route orders programmatically — the first time on-chain order book composability has been possible at this performance level.

The Hyperliquid Foundation (company:hyperliquid-foundation) and Hyperliquid Labs (company:hyperliquid-labs) jointly steward the chain, but the open EVM has attracted independent teams including former contributors from Aave, Compound, and Uniswap ecosystems.

History / timeline

• 2022 (Q4) — Jeff Yan and Iliensinc begin building Hyperliquid in private. No VC pitch deck circulates.
• 2023 (June) — Hyperliquid mainnet launches with a closed-beta perps order book on a custom L1.
• 2023 (Q3-Q4) — Public mainnet opens; first points program begins, kicking off the longest pre-airdrop campaign in DeFi history.
• 2024 (Q1-Q3) — Daily volume routinely exceeds USD 1-3 billion; protocol overtakes dYdX as the largest decentralized perps venue by volume.
• 2024 (November 29) — HYPE airdrop distributes 31% of supply to 94,000 users. Token opens at roughly USD 2 and rallies to USD 35+ within weeks.
• 2025 (February 18) — HyperEVM launches.
• 2025 (March) — JELLY incident; HLP takes a temporary loss; governance delists the asset and tightens listing thresholds.
• 2025 (Q2-Q4) — Volume share consolidates above 60% of all decentralized perps. HyperEVM ecosystem grows to 100+ protocols.
• 2026 (Q1) — Q1 2025 share printed by the protocol confirms cumulative volume above USD 1 trillion. Foundation announces validator decentralization roadmap.
• 2026 (Q2) — Pacifica and other on-chain CLOB challengers begin gaining share on Solana, but Hyperliquid retains majority of the market.

Key players (entities and research backlinks)

• Hyperliquid Foundation — Cayman-based foundation that holds protocol IP, runs grants programs, and stewards token economics.
• Hyperliquid Labs — Core engineering studio behind the L1 client, EVM, and product.
• Jeff Yan — Co-founder, former HRT quant, public face of the project.
• Iliensinc — Pseudonymous co-founder, primary engineering lead.
• dYdX Trading / dYdX Foundation — Operators of the largest competing on-chain perps platform until 2024; pivoted to Cosmos appchain (dYdX v4) in 2023, sunset v3 in 2024-2025.
• GMX DAO — Governance of the original LP-as-counterparty perps model on Arbitrum and Avalanche; pioneered GLP and esGMX.
• Drift Labs — Solana-native perps with JIT auctions.
• Vertex Protocol team — Operators of Vertex Edge, a hybrid CLOB-AMM stack across multiple chains.
• Aevo team — Spun out of Ribbon Finance (rebrand), Aevo specializes in options and perps on its own appchain.
• Synthetix — Long-running synthetic perps platform; Synthetix v3 underpins multiple front-ends.

Hyperliquid in 2026 — current state, market data

As of April 2026:

• 24h perps volume: USD 8-15 billion typical days, USD 25 billion+ on volatility events.
• Cumulative perps volume: more than USD 1 trillion since launch.
• Decentralized perps market share: 60-65% across all chains.
• Total open interest: USD 4-6 billion across 130+ markets.
• HLP TVL: roughly USD 600 million.
• HyperEVM TVL: more than USD 4 billion across 100+ protocols.
• HYPE staked: approximately 35% of circulating supply.
• Validators: 16 active, with public roadmap to expand to 64+ permissionless slots.
• Bridge holdings: USD 2-3 billion in USDC on Arbitrum.

These numbers make Hyperliquid the single largest DeFi protocol by daily revenue, ahead of Uniswap, Aave, and Lido.

Research and reports

The rise of on-chain perpetual futures has attracted growing academic and industry research:

• Messari's State of DeFi 2024 tracked the inflection point at which Hyperliquid overtook dYdX in monthly volume.
• The Delphi Digital Annual Report 2025 devoted a full chapter to "the perp DEX wars" and modeled HYPE's revenue-to-buyback flywheel.
• Nansen's DeFi Report 2024 showed that fewer than 5% of Hyperliquid airdrop recipients sold their full allocation in the first 90 days, an unusually low sell pressure compared with comparable airdrops.
• DefiLlama's 2024 DeFi review documented the migration of perps volume from CEX-affiliated platforms to fully on-chain venues.
• Flashbots' "MEV and the limits of scaling" discusses the implications of single-sequencer order books such as Hyperliquid for MEV minimization.
• Flashbots' research on FHE blind arbitrage is cited in Hyperliquid's roadmap discussions on private order flow.
• The BIS Quarterly Review on AMMs (2021) provides historical context for why CLOBs reasserted their advantage over AMMs in derivatives.
• The IOSCO DeFi final report (2023) is the most-cited regulatory analysis of decentralized derivatives venues and is often referenced in Hyperliquid governance debates.

Use cases / examples

1. Pure speculation. A retail trader bridges USDC, sets 10x leverage on BTC, and trades momentum during a Federal Reserve announcement. The on-chain CLOB executes orders sub-second with no centralized account.
2. Delta-neutral basis trade. A treasury team longs ETH spot on a CEX and shorts equivalent ETH-PERP on Hyperliquid to capture funding rate yield, settled fully on-chain with auditable risk.
3. HLP yield farming. A DAO treasury allocates idle USDC to HLP and earns 15-30% APY in exchange for accepting drawdown risk.
4. Builder-code distribution. A Telegram trading bot integrates Hyperliquid's API, attaches its builder code, and earns a fee share on every trade routed through the bot — building a viable business without running matching infrastructure.
5. HyperEVM looping. A sophisticated user posts staked HYPE as collateral on a HyperEVM lending market, borrows USDC, deposits to HLP, and farms the spread — all in one composable on-chain stack.

Risks and criticism

Hyperliquid is the strongest-performing perp DEX in history, but it is not risk-free:

• The JELLY incident (March 2025). A coordinated short squeeze on the JELLY perp briefly forced HLP into eight-figure unrealized losses before validators voted to delist the market. The episode raised legitimate concerns about (a) the asymmetric information advantage that can be exploited against a passive on-chain market maker, (b) governance intervention being used to bail out a vault, and (c) the centralization implied by a small validator set being able to act in real time.
• Validator centralization. The current 16-validator permissioned set is a deliberate trade-off for performance. It also means the chain currently has fewer fault tolerances than larger validator sets such as Ethereum or Cosmos Hub. The roadmap to permissionless staking is public but not yet executed as of April 2026.
• Bridge risk. The Arbitrum bridge holds the majority of protocol assets and is a large concentrated honeypot. Multi-sig design is well-audited but not bullet-proof.
• Listing risk. Low-cap perps with thin spot liquidity can suffer oracle manipulation. Despite tighter post-JELLY listing rules, the long tail of perps remains the riskiest area for both LPs and traders.
• Regulatory uncertainty. While Hyperliquid is non-custodial, US persons are technically restricted from the front-end. The IOSCO DeFi final report and ongoing CFTC and SEC scrutiny of decentralized perps create medium-term regulatory tail risk.
• HLP drawdowns. Even in normal markets HLP can experience double-digit weekly drawdowns during sudden volatility regimes. It is not a stable yield product.

Key competitors and comparison table

Hyperliquid leads on volume, market share, fee competitiveness, and overall product polish. dYdX has the longest historical track record but lost share to Hyperliquid through 2024-2025 (dYdX volume drop). GMX remains the dominant LP-as-counterparty model; Drift dominates Solana; Vertex and Aevo target niche multi-chain segments; Synthetix is the longest-running synthetic perps protocol.

How to trade on Hyperliquid (step-by-step)

1. Get USDC on Arbitrum. Buy or bridge USDC to your wallet on Arbitrum. You will need at least USD 50-100 to overcome bridge gas economics.
2. Visit the official Hyperliquid front-end at app.hyperliquid.xyz (always confirm the URL via the official Hyperliquid Foundation channels).
3. Connect your wallet. MetaMask, Rabby, or any EVM wallet works. Hardware wallets are strongly recommended for any size above test capital.
4. Deposit USDC. Use the bridge UI to move USDC from Arbitrum to Hyperliquid L1. Deposits typically confirm in under a minute.
5. Choose a market. Start with BTC-PERP or ETH-PERP — both have the deepest books and tightest spreads.
6. Set leverage and order type. New users should start with 2-5x. Use limit orders to earn maker rebates and avoid taker fees.
7. Place the order. Submit, watch fill, and monitor liquidation price.
8. Manage risk. Always set a stop-loss. Reduce-only orders ensure you do not accidentally flip direction.
9. Withdraw. Withdrawals settle through the bridge back to Arbitrum in roughly 5-10 minutes.
10. (Optional) Earn yield. Deposit a portion of capital to HLP, stake HYPE for fee accrual, or run a market-making strategy via the API.

FAQ

What is Hyperliquid?

Hyperliquid is a decentralized perpetual futures exchange that runs on its own purpose-built layer-1 blockchain. It uses an on-chain order book (CLOB) rather than an automated market maker, giving it a CEX-like trading experience while preserving self-custody and full transparency. The protocol launched in 2023, distributed its HYPE token in late 2024 in what is widely considered the largest airdrop in crypto history, and as of Q1 2026 captures roughly 60% of all decentralized perps volume globally.

Who founded Hyperliquid?

Hyperliquid was founded by Jeff Yan and a co-founder publicly known as "Iliensinc," with engineering and quant backgrounds at Hudson River Trading and Citadel. The team has been notable for refusing all venture capital funding, bootstrapping the protocol with its own capital and on-chain revenue. The Hyperliquid Foundation now stewards the chain and HYPE token, while a small group of core engineers continue building the L1, the HyperEVM, and ancillary products like Hyperunit and HLP.

What is the HYPE token used for?

HYPE is the native asset of the Hyperliquid L1. It is used to pay gas on HyperEVM, secure the network through staking, vote in governance, accrue protocol revenue (a portion of perps fees flows to staked HYPE and the assistance fund), and participate in priority features such as builder codes. HYPE was distributed via a November 29 2024 airdrop to roughly 94,000 users with no insider or VC allocation up front, making the token one of the most community-aligned launches in DeFi history.

How big was the HYPE airdrop?

The HYPE airdrop on November 29 2024 distributed 31% of total supply to 94,000 historic users of the protocol. At launch-day prices it was worth roughly USD 1.6 billion, but by early 2025 the same allocation peaked above USD 10 billion in market value, making it the largest single token distribution in crypto history measured at peak FDV. No tokens were sold to private investors or VCs, an unprecedented structure for a project of its size.

What is HyperEVM?

HyperEVM is a fully Ethereum-compatible execution layer that launched on February 18 2025 alongside the existing Hyperliquid L1 perps engine. It allows Solidity developers to deploy ERC-20 tokens, lending markets, and other DeFi primitives that can read state from and interact with Hyperliquid's on-chain order book. HyperEVM uses HYPE as its gas token and shares consensus with the perps L1, giving builders direct access to the deepest on-chain perps liquidity in crypto.

What was the JELLY incident?

In March 2025 a trader executed a coordinated short squeeze on the low-cap JELLY perpetual market, briefly forcing HLP (the protocol-owned market-maker vault) into a large mark-to-market loss before validators intervened to delist the asset. The episode prompted Hyperliquid to tighten listing criteria, raise circuit-breaker thresholds, and cap exposure of HLP per market. It is the most widely cited risk event in Hyperliquid's history and a reminder that on-chain CLOBs still face oracle and listing-governance risks similar to those on centralized venues.

How does Hyperliquid compare to dYdX, GMX, and Drift?

Hyperliquid uses an on-chain CLOB on a custom HotStuff-based L1, dYdX v4 uses an off-chain order book with on-chain settlement on a Cosmos appchain, GMX v2 uses a multi-asset oracle-priced pool model on Arbitrum and Avalanche, and Drift runs a hybrid JIT auction order book on Solana. Hyperliquid leads in volume and market share, dYdX leads in cumulative historical volume across versions, GMX pioneered the LP-as-counterparty model, and Drift offers the deepest Solana-native experience. See the comparison table above for fees, leverage caps, and market coverage.

How do I start trading on Hyperliquid?

Bridge USDC from Arbitrum to Hyperliquid using the official bridge, connect a wallet such as MetaMask or Rabby, deposit collateral, and choose a perpetual market. Set leverage (up to 50x on majors), pick limit or market order, and submit. All orders rest on the on-chain CLOB. To earn yield, you can deposit into the HLP vault, stake HYPE, or run a market-making strategy via the API. Always start with small size and test order types on testnet before risking real capital.

Is Hyperliquid safe?

Hyperliquid is non-custodial and audited, but it is still early-stage software and carries smart-contract, validator-set, and oracle risks. The HLP vault has experienced volatile drawdowns, including the JELLY incident. The bridge is currently the single largest attack surface and holds the majority of protocol TVL. Use only capital you can afford to lose, prefer hardware wallets for withdrawal signing, and avoid leverage above what your collateral can comfortably absorb in a fast move.

What are builder codes on Hyperliquid?

Builder codes let third-party front-ends route order flow to Hyperliquid and earn a share of the trading fee. Wallets, terminals, and AI agents can integrate the API, attach a builder code on each order, and capture revenue without running their own matching engine. This model has produced a cottage ecosystem of Hyperliquid trading dashboards, Telegram bots, mobile apps, and copy-trading tools, expanding distribution well beyond the official front-end.

Glossary

• CLOB (central limit order book) — A traditional order-matching system in which makers post limit orders and takers cross the spread; the market structure used by Hyperliquid and most centralized exchanges.
• Perpetual futures (perp) — A derivative contract with no expiry, anchored to spot via a periodic funding rate.
• Funding rate — A small periodic payment between longs and shorts that keeps the perp price aligned with the spot oracle.
• HLP — Hyperliquid LP vault; protocol-owned market maker and liquidation backstop.
• HyperBFT — Hyperliquid's custom Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus algorithm, inspired by the HotStuff family of protocols.
• HyperEVM — The Ethereum-compatible execution layer launched February 18 2025.
• Builder code — Optional fee-share identifier embedded in orders to credit third-party front-ends.
• JELLY incident — March 2025 short squeeze that forced HLP losses and triggered governance intervention on a low-cap perp.
• Bridge — The Arbitrum multi-sig contract that mints/burns USDC representations on Hyperliquid L1.
• Open interest (OI) — The total notional value of open positions in a market.
• Maker rebate — Negative trading fee paid to liquidity providers who post resting orders.
• Mark price — The fair-value price used to compute funding and liquidations, derived from a mix of spot oracles and the order book mid.

Related reading (internal links)

• What is DeFi? The 2026 Guide
• Ethereum Layer 2 Networks (2026)
• Stablecoins Explained (2026)
• Curve Finance: StableSwap, crvUSD, veCRV, and the Curve Wars (2026)
• Pendle Finance Explained: PT, YT, and Yield Tokenization (2026)
• What is Ethereum? The 2026 Guide

Related guide

This guide covers the HYPE token, HyperEVM, and trading the perps DEX. For the consensus and architecture deep dive (HyperBFT, the on-chain CLOB, and the JELLY incident), see Hyperliquid Perp DEX: HyperBFT & the On-Chain CLOB (2026).

Related comparisons

• Compare: Hyperliquid vs dYdX
• Compare: Hyperliquid vs Drift
• Compare: Hyperliquid vs Vertex
• Compare: Hyperliquid vs Aevo
• Compare: Hyperliquid vs Lyra
• Compare: Hyperliquid vs Synthetix
• Compare: GMX vs Hyperliquid

Sources and further reading

• Hyperliquid official documentation — https://hyperliquid.gitbook.io/hyperliquid-docs/
• Hyperliquid Foundation — https://hyperfoundation.org
• DefiLlama — Hyperliquid protocol page — https://defillama.com/protocol/hyperliquid
• CoinGecko — HYPE token — https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/hyperliquid
• dYdX official site — https://dydx.exchange
• GMX official site — https://gmx.io
• Drift Protocol — https://drift.trade
• Vertex Protocol — https://www.vertexprotocol.com/
• Aevo — https://aevo.xyz
• Synthetix — https://synthetix.io
• IOSCO DeFi final report (2023) — https://www.iosco.org/library/pubdocs/pdf/IOSCOPD754.pdf
• BIS Quarterly Review on AMMs (December 2021) — https://www.bis.org/publ/qtrpdf/r_qt2112v.htm
• Flashbots Research — https://writings.flashbots.net/
• US CFTC — https://www.cftc.gov/
• Messari State of DeFi 2024 — https://messari.io/research
• Delphi Digital Annual Report 2025 — https://members.delphidigital.io/

About the author

DeFi Intel Research is a crypto-native research desk publishing institutional-grade DeFi and on-chain market analysis. The team has been actively trading on Hyperliquid since the 2023 closed beta and operates production market-making infrastructure across multiple perp DEXes. We hold and have held HYPE; nothing in this article is financial advice. See /about for full author bios and disclosures.

Last updated: 2026-04-26