Hyperliquid Expands Into Real-World Markets: HIP-3, HIP-4, and What Comes Next

Key Takeaways

• Hyperliquid's HIP-3 protocol enables anyone to create perpetual futures markets for any asset class.
• Silver perpetual contracts alone generated approximately $6.5 billion ($4.09 billion USD) in a single day, demonstrating real demand for onchain commodity access
• Unlike traditional commodity exchanges, Hyperliquid runs 24/7, giving traders continuous access to gold and silver markets even on weekends
• HIP-4 is in development and would introduce fully collateralised outcome contracts, enabling prediction markets and options-style derivatives
• Hyperliquid token buybacks continue to be a significant driver to the protocol with 97% of fees directed toward repurchasing HYPE on the open market

A Platform Moving Beyond Crypto

Hyperliquid is a decentralised exchange built on its own Layer-1 blockchain, designed specifically for high-frequency trading. Unlike most decentralised platforms that rely on general-purpose networks, Hyperliquid maintains a fully onchain order book, where every trade, price update, and liquidation is verifiable on the blockchain.

Built by an eleven-person team without venture capital funding, the platform launched in 2023 and has grown to capture over 70% of global volume for decentralised perpetual futures (perps). Perps are derivative contracts that let traders gain exposure to an asset's price without an expiry date or holding the asset itself, and they can do so using varying amounts of leverage.

The platform's native token, HYPE, sits at the centre of a fee redistribution model that directs nearly all protocol revenue back into market support.

HIP-3: Permissionless Access to Real-World Assets

HIP-3 is a protocol upgrade that allows third-party builders to list and manage their own perpetual futures markets on Hyperliquid. Any asset class can be listed, from crypto to commodities to equity indices, enabling rapid expansion into real-world assets previously absent from onchain derivatives.

Recently, HIP-3 markets recorded over $8.3 billion ($5.2 billion USD) in a single day, the highest since HIP-3 launched in late 2025. Precious metals drove the surge. Silver perpetual futures represent roughly 68% of all HIP-3 activity that session. Gold has also become one of the five most actively traded instruments on the platform.

Daily Trading volume on HIP-3 Markets on Hyperliquid (source)

Traditional commodity exchanges operate on fixed weekday schedules and close on weekends. Hyperliquid runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When gold and silver recently soared in price, traders could react immediately at any hour. The sharp correction that followed, with metals generating further activity (and fees) as participants repositioned around the clock.

Open interest (the total value of open positions) across HIP-3 markets reached a record $1.7 billion ($1.06 billion USD) at peak. Gold and silver trading on Hyperliquid has already reached significant global volumes after only a few months.

HIP-4: Outcome Contracts and Prediction Markets

Hyperliquid recently announced HIP-4, a proposal to introduce outcome-based contracts to the platform. Where HIP-3 opened the door to permissionless commodity and equity derivatives, HIP-4 would add a fundamentally different product type.

Outcome contracts are fully collateralised positions that settle at a fixed price within a defined range. They carry no margin requirements or liquidation risk, with maximum loss limited to the capital allocated upfront. This structure enables options-style derivatives and prediction markets in which participants take positions on future events with known downside.

Prediction markets have seen significant global growth, with industry estimates placing current annual revenue at over $4.8 billion ($3 billion USD) and projections pointing toward $16 billion ($10 billion USD) by 2030. HIP-4 is currently in testnet, with an initial curated set of markets to be launched by the team before permissionless listing opens to builders.

Hyperliquid announces HIP-4 proposal (source)

An Ecosystem Building on Hyperliquid

Hyperliquid functions as shared infrastructure rather than just an exchange. The system allows any external application to route trades through Hyperliquid's order books and earn a portion of the fee revenue. This has attracted a growing base of third-party products built on top of the protocol.

Wallet providers have integrated perpetual trading directly into their interfaces using builder codes, giving users access to Hyperliquid markets without visiting the exchange. Phantom, a popular Solana ecosystem wallet, and Rabby both integrated via this mechanism.

HyperEVM, an Ethereum-compatible execution environment operating alongside the trading platform, allows developers to deploy smart contracts and decentralised applications that interact natively with Hyperliquid's liquidity. This enables composable financial products that treat the exchange as a base layer rather than a separate service.

The Assistance Fund receives 97% of all protocol fees and uses this capital to purchase HYPE on the open market. Daily protocol revenue has routinely exceeded $7.9 million ($5 million USD), providing a consistent counterweight to new supply. As trading activity grows, so does the fee pool available for open-market support.

Risks and Considerations

Permissionless market creation introduces concentration risk. In peak sessions, a single builder accounted for roughly 90% of HIP-3 volume, and silver perpetuals drove the majority. This amplifies performance during boom periods but creates vulnerabilities when specific markets slow. The recent metals correction resulted in large forced liquidations across thousands of accounts, a reminder that onchain leverage carries the same downside risks as any leveraged derivatives environment.

Hyperliquid also operates with a comparatively small validator set, a deliberate performance tradeoff that introduces centralisation compared to more distributed networks. As HIP-4 products go live and the ecosystem expands, this infrastructure will face greater scrutiny.

Summary

Hyperliquid has grown from a crypto derivatives venue into a broad financial infrastructure layer. HIP-3 has demonstrated strong demand for onchain access to commodities like gold and silver, with its 24/7 availability offering a clear structural advantage over traditional exchanges with fixed trading hours.

HIP-4's proposed outcome contracts would add options-style and prediction market capabilities to an already significant product suite. Combined with a builder ecosystem, routing external applications through the same infrastructure, and a buyback model that is unlike any other in crypto. Hyperliquid has made a credible case as a long-term settlement layer for a much wider range of financial instruments.