Why does Hyperliquid have a deeper order book than CEX? Interpretation of Laolee behind 73% market share

In the first half of 2025, Hyperliquid went crazy in the decentralized perpetual contract market—TVL, open interest volume, and transaction volume all broke historical records. The HyperEVM ecosystem expanded like a snowball, Unit implemented spot trading, and local applications and Builder Codes were added like crazy. HYPE tokens are as stable as old dogs thanks to their unique repurchase mechanism and huge amount of income. HIP-3 also opens up sustainable market deployment permissions, giving more opportunities to spread money to the community. With the addition of a bunch of strategic partners and more assets on the chain, I think Hyperliquid’s growth potential in the second half of the year is about to take off. It is shaping this new wave of decentralized trading with its own hands.

Hyperliquid on-chain indicators: data doesn’t lie

TVL and capital inflows: Leeks vote with their feet

After the HYPE token was launched and the airdrop ended, I originally thought it was going to be cool. But what happened? Not only did users not leave, but starting from Q4 of 2024, Hyperliquid has experienced explosive growth. The wave of capital inflows in November reached a daily peak of more than US$50 million, and TVL soared from US$564 million to more than US$2 billion, a 269% increase in one quarter. This speed is more exciting than the market pin.

By the first half of 2025, Hyperliquid’s leading position in the field of decentralized perpetual contracts will be more stable. On June 30, the platform TVL reached US$3.5 billion, an increase of 70.8% from US$2.1 billion at the beginning of the year. Although March experienced a net outflow shock of US$590 million, the overall capital inflow is still strong, with an average weekly net inflow of US$58 million. What does this mean? The old leeks are all buying at the bottom to add to their positions.

Open interest volume and trading volume: crushing peers is not negotiable

From Q4 2024, when it first exceeded US$1 billion and rose to US$3.27 billion by the end of the year, Hyperliquid's open interest increased by approximately 227% in just a few months. Entering 2025, this number continues to soar and has now reached 15 billion US dollars, an increase of approximately 359% year-on-year at the end of 2024 - equivalent to 61% of ByBit, 105% of OKX and 120% of Bitget. It is a solid leader in the industry.

In terms of transaction volume, Q4 in 2024 will be about 13 billion US dollars per week. In the first half of 2025, it will jump directly to an average of 47 billion US dollars. In the week of May 12, it hit a record high of 78 billion US dollars. This wave of operations will make even CEX tremble.

The market share has also increased from 56% at the end of 2024 to more than 73% at the end of Q1 in 2025, indicating full dominance. The number of user addresses increased from 291,000 to more than 518,000, an increase of 78% in six months, corresponding to more than 53 billion US dollars in liquidated positions. The market activity and depth are extremely leveraged.

Data comparison between Hyperliquid and CEX: DEX is really tough this time

In the first half of 2025, Hyperliquid’s growth relative to centralized exchanges (CEX) is simply blinding:

Transaction volume accounted for 6.1%, an increase of 3.9 percentage points from January.
The proportion of open interest reached 17.8%, an increase of 12.3 percentage points from January.

Why so fierce? First of all, Hyperliquid has the lowest cost of trading spot and perpetual contracts in the ecosystem, and the depth of liquidity on the chain is sufficient. The order book depth of some assets is already comparable to that of leading CEXs. For example, during the launch of PUMP, the platform achieved the deepest market depth, highest trading volume, and tightest bid-ask spread - this was the first time in the history of DEX that old leeks directly called the experts.

Secondly, Hyperliquid has become the first choice platform for new coins. Since the Trump coin was launched, the platform has continued to be the first to launch perpetual contracts. This strategy has quickly attracted users and strengthened the perception that "Hyperliquid is the place to trade new coins." PUMP raised approximately US$500 million within 12 minutes of its launch. Hyperliquid is the first platform to launch spot and perpetual contracts at the same time. It also provides pre-trading opportunities. This ability to acquire users and liquidity is unparalleled.

Now, Hyperliquid has been able to match the leading CEX in terms of transaction speed, liquidity and user experience, while retaining the advantages of decentralization: permissionless access, on-chain transparency, and native composability, allowing any asset, position or transaction to be directly integrated with smart contracts, dApps or other protocols on HyperEVM. CEX cannot learn this method.

HLP: core liquidity engine and stable income, the secret of earning money

HLP (Hyperliquidity Provider) is the core liquidity engine of Hyperliquid. It provides USDC liquidity for order books, market making and automatic clearing. It also integrates various strategic income and provides users with non-directional exposure - simply put, it allows you to make money even while lying down.

HLP TVL grew significantly at the end of 2024, driven by the HYPE airdrop, from US$150 million at the end of November to more than US$400 million at the beginning of 2025, reaching a peak of US$512 million in May, remaining stable in the first half of the year, and finally closing at US$372 million. During the same period, HLP's net profit rose from US$50 million to US$68 million, and the average annualized return for users was approximately 11%. Despite the JELLY incident, net income in Q1 of 2025 is still 5.2%, with a decline of less than 3.5%. This ability to resist risks is more stable than many CEXs.

Unit: The key to the future of Hyperliquid, is spot trading going to take off?

Unit was launched on February 14, 2025. It is the asset tokenization layer of Hyperliquid. It supports native deposits and withdrawals of multiple assets, and directly lists assets into the Hyperliquid spot market through the auction system - initially supporting BTC, and later expanded to ETH, SOL, FARTCOIN, PUMP, BONK, etc.

Since its launch, Unit TVL has reached US$800 million, second only to Kinetiq; the amount of assets traded through Unit in the first half of the year exceeded US$15 billion. However, Hyperliquid’s spot trading volume only accounts for 2% of the overall trading volume, which is far lower than the 15%–30% of most CEXs. What does this mean? Spot trading is still in the early stages, and there are plenty of opportunities. Old leeks can make plans in advance.

HyperEVM on-chain indicators: Ecological expansion cannot stop

HyperEVM will be launched in February 2025. This blockchain is compatible with EVM and is built directly on Hyperliquid’s infrastructure to support the deployment of smart contracts and decentralized applications.

TVL: Doubled in two months, this speed is incredible

Although TVL was less than US$50 million in early February, just two months after the mainnet was deployed (mid-April), TVL exceeded US$1 billion and reached US$2.08 billion on June 30, directly doubling - this growth is even stronger than the bull market.

Number of active addresses: users vote with actions

In the first half of 2025, HyperEVM's user activity has steadily increased, with an average daily active address of about 33,000, and the peak week in June exceeded 44,000. The transaction volume is also similar, with an average of about 208,000 transactions per day and a peak of 315,000 transactions.

In terms of economic performance, applications on HyperEVM generate an average of about US$1.927 million in fees per day, with the peak reaching US$4.855 million on May 21. The total fees so far have accumulated to US$256.2 million - this earning power makes CEX jealous.

HYPE Earnings and Buybacks: Token Value Stable as a Dog

Unlike most DeFi protocols, the Hyperliquid team does not take platform fees directly, and all income is divided between HLP and Assistance Fund. HLP is a community treasury that provides users with market-making income; Assistance Fund is priced in HYPE and serves as a liquidity reserve when needed. In recent months, about 92% of fees have gone to Assistance Fund, with the remaining 8% going to HLP.

Through the HYPE repurchase plan, the Assistance Fund uses its income to repurchase tokens in the spot market, directly supporting the price of HYPE and benefiting token holders. Since the beginning of 2025, Hyperliquid’s total revenue has reached US$406 million (annualized over US$810 million), making it one of the most profitable protocols in the crypto industry, second only to Tether and Circle. Q1 expenses rose from about US$1 million per day to an average of US$3 million, with a peak of more than US$5 million. The money printing machine was running at full capacity.

In addition, Assistance Fund can repurchase approximately 13% of the HYPE supply every year. As HIP-3 and builder codes (represented by Phantom) come online, Hyperliquid fees will increase, further strengthening the repurchase model and supporting the token value (at the time of writing, based on the past 30 days of data, the annualized revenue is approximately US$1 billion, and the price-to-earnings ratio based on the circulating supply is approximately 15).

Major events in the first half of Hyperliquid: Timeline review

January 2025: Hyperliquid expanded the number of validators to 27, launched the TRUMP perpetual contract, and the transaction volume exceeded 21 billion US dollars for two consecutive days-this popularity is comparable to the bull market.
February 2025: Unit went online, achieving native asset recharge of US$400 million, and spot trading volume reaching US$8.4 billion; HyperEVM was launched, and TVL reached US$2 billion.
March 2025: The Jelly incident caused HLP to lose US$12 million, and users were compensated - this crisis management is better than many CEXs.
May 2025: HIP-3 testnet allows the community to deploy a new sustainable market, and simultaneously launches Staking Tiers and new stablecoins USDe and USDT0.
June 2025: Many listed companies have incorporated HYPE into their corporate treasury. Hyperliquid’s annual revenue exceeds US$800 million, 97% of which is used for HYPE repurchase - with such repurchase intensity, it is difficult for the token not to rise.
July 2025: CoreWriter goes online to realize bidirectional writability between HyperCore and HyperEVM. Builder Codes integrates Phantom Perps. About 20,000 new users are added. Annual revenue is expected to be US$15 million to US$30 million.

Summary: Old Leek’s practical suggestions

In the first half of 2025, Hyperliquid’s leadership position in the decentralized perpetual contract market is as stable as Mount Tai. On-chain indicators are rising across the board, HyperEVM adoption is accelerating, and the local application ecosystem is expanding wildly. The HYPE token has performed steadily thanks to its unique repurchase mechanism and record-breaking income. The economic model of this protocol is unsustainable.

From a more macro perspective, Hyperliquid continues to open up new growth space by strengthening its liquidity and infrastructure advantages while promoting the development of HIP-3, CoreWriter and Builder Codes. With the addition of strategic partners such as Phantom and the rise of the HyperEVM native protocol, I think the growth potential of the network in the second half of the year is huge.

Among them, HIP-3 is the core driving force: any user holding 1 million HYPE can deploy a perpetual contract and get up to 50% of the transaction fee income without having to build infrastructure, Hyperliquid has it all. The integration of Phantom has begun to show results, and this alone is expected to bring about 2%–4% annualized cash flow growth. If more wallets or front-ends follow up, the potential will be even greater. As the U.S. SEC launches a new on-chain asset plan, Hyperliquid is expected to support more asset types and release more growth opportunities - this wave of dividends should not be missed by old leeks.

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