Hyperliquid Marks a Breakout Year as Community-Built DeFi Scales Rapidly

Source: CryptoTale Original Title: Hyperliquid Marks a Breakout Year as Community Built DeFi Scales Rapidly Original Link: Hyperliquid recorded decisive expansion across decentralized derivatives markets in 2025, driven by community-led development and infrastructure upgrades. The activity centered on its custom Layer 1 network throughout 2025, involving core contributors, builders, and traders worldwide.

Infrastructure Expansion Anchored 2025 Growth

At the start of 2025, Hyperliquid operated primarily as a decentralized perpetuals venue with limited external integrations. However, the February HyperEVM launch shifted the platform toward a broader execution environment. The release enabled EVM-compatible applications through HyperCore composability, using precompiles and CoreWriter tooling.

Hyperliquid introduced a fully permissionless validator set during the year, expanding network participation while preserving sub-second finality through the HyperBFT consensus mechanism. The platform handled trades as fast as a centralized exchange while keeping the order book fully on-chain.

Spot assets were brought onto Hyperliquid, expanding available infrastructure and supporting spot trading. Developers could launch markets independently without needing central approval. Hyperliquid also integrated native USDC and introduced portfolio margining in pre-alpha form, providing traders greater flexibility while keeping trades free of gas fees.

By the end of 2025, Hyperliquid reported total trading volume exceeding $2.3 trillion. Daily trading peaked at $32 billion, and total value locked reached $6 billion.

Market Share Gains and Economic Metrics

Hyperliquid ended up handling more than 70% of all decentralized perpetuals trading volume in 2025. Monthly volumes reached hundreds of billions, occasionally surpassing volumes reported by major centralized platforms.

Active users increased from roughly 300,000 in 2024 to about 1.4 million in 2025. Open interest climbed from $4 billion to $16 billion during the same period.

Hyperliquid reported 24-hour protocol revenue reaching $20 million in 2025, up from $3.5 million previously. Annualized revenue exceeded $800 million, with 97% allocated toward HYPE token buybacks. The platform operated without external venture funding, with all protocol fees returned to the community. Over 70% of HYPE tokens were distributed through airdrops and rewards.

Governance milestones included Native Markets winning the USDH governance vote, leading to USDH issuance on Hyperliquid, and the Assistance Fund HYPE allocation being officially burned.

Builder Activity and Governance Expansion

Builder participation expanded throughout the year. Average daily volume rose from $2 billion early in 2025, peaking near $17 billion during August and September before stabilizing near $5 billion.

Hyperliquid listed the TRUMP perpetual on January 18, followed by MELANIA on January 19. HyperUnit became the first third-party team building on HyperCore, launching spot BTC on February 14.

The HyperEVM launch on February 18 enabled developers to build applications for advanced users. Wallet support grew to include Phantom, MetaMask, Rabby, and Rabby-based interfaces, with hl.xyz remaining the main frontend.

Governance expanded with HIP-3, allowing teams to deploy perpetual markets without permission. The upgrade extended markets beyond crypto to equities, commodities, and forex, making listings more decentralized. Hyperliquid also rolled out Hypurr NFTs and added staking benefits, letting stakers receive fee discounts and deploy markets without approval. The year saw steady growth in trading, users, revenue, and developer activity, driven by platform upgrades and decentralized governance.