Hyperliquid has overtaken Bybit, Kraken and OKX in open interest for the first time. The decentralized exchange closed the third quarter with a record $16.8 billion in open futures positions.
Open interest is the sum of all positions that traders have not yet closed. The larger it is, the deeper the platform's liquidity. Hyperliquid operates without a central operator: trades go through the blockchain.
Why this matters to traders. Perpetual contract liquidity is shifting to a platform where execution is also affected by an auction for access to data.
How much have volumes grown?
Since the end of June, open interest has added almost 80%. Hyperliquid's share among itself and the eight largest exchanges rose to 11.7% from 9.6% three months earlier.
Every ninth open perpetual futures position in this group of platforms now lives on Hyperliquid.
- $109.5 billion in July - perpetual futures turnover
- $188 billion in September - the same turnover two months later
- 65,161 people - average daily number of traders, a quarterly record
- +161%, to $153.8 billion - stock futures, which surpassed commodity contracts within HIP-3
HIP-3 is a mechanism that allows third-party teams to launch their own futures on the exchange.
What about the protocol's money?
Revenue grew 21.7% for the quarter and reached $191 million. This amount includes $17.3 million in income from USDC reserves.
The reserves are placed by Coinbase, which acts as Hyperliquid's treasury operator.
Key point: year over year, revenue is still 36.5% lower. A quarterly record in positions does not cancel out an annual decline in money.
Who gets the speed advantage?
Bloomberg reported that market maker Wintermute won 76% of auctions over the past month for the priority slot of access to trading data. The calculation was made by Loris Tools.
- What the slot provides. The ability to see incoming orders before others and manage to adjust a position.
- Critics' complaint. They call this an advantage for large players.
- Wintermute's response. The company called it "a transparent way to compete for speed".
What does this mean for traders?
The shift is practical: perpetual contract liquidity is moving to a platform where execution also depends on who bought priority access to data.
If you trade crypto with someone else's capital, check the terms in advance: you can find a challenge to match the market and see which assets are allowed in the prop firm catalog.
Do you trade perpetual futures?
$16.8 billion in open interest is not built up by retail deposits, but by those working with someone else's nominal capital. Here everything comes down to the program's rules. Some prop firms do not offer crypto at all, some limit leverage on perpetual contracts. Some list only BTC and ETH, while altcoins are closed. Plus the clause on holding a position overnight - in a 24/7 market it matters more than the profit share. These lines are worth reading before paying for an evaluation.