ExchangeLearning
|4 min ReadFrom Airdrop to $1.5 Trillion: The Hyperliquid Story
Carter Hayes
Senior Analyst
Published
Jan 16, 2026
Hyperliquid did not “show up” in 2025. It took the year by force. After closing 2024 with a headline airdrop, it ended 2025 as a breakout venue that Bankless says ranked No. 4 in crypto revenue, generated more than $650 million, and at times captured roughly 70% of perp volume.
The 2025 playbook: list fast, build infra, route flow
The early tell was speed. In January, when TRUMP launched, Hyperliquid listed perps almost immediately, reinforcing the idea that it is the first stop for pre-launch and newly hot assets.
In February came HyperEVM, a general smart contract layer built on top of HyperCore. The pitch in the article is simple: HyperEVM grew without a top-down incentive machine, then found product pull later as traders and builders started to care about the exchange engine and the chain working together.
By May, Bankless says Hyperliquid commanded 70% of all onchain perps volume. With the broader market back, total volume is described as climbing to $1.5 trillion. HyperEVM traction followed, with TVL cited as rising from $350 million in April to $1.8 billion by mid-June.
Builder codes, stablecoin politics, and the first cracks
In Q3, the story shifts from “great product” to “distribution machine.” Phantom integrated Hyperliquid via builder codes, followed by Rabby and MetaMask, plus a wave of mobile trading apps. Bankless cites partners earning nearly $50 million in fees while routing $158 billion in volume.
September brought the USDH bidding war, which doubled as a public signal of how valuable Hyperliquid’s rail had become. The article says Hyperliquid held about 8% of Circle’s USDC supply in its bridge and was effectively leaking roughly $100 million a year in yield to a competitor, while a native stablecoin could redirect up to $200 million in annual revenue back into its own ecosystem.
It also marked the moment the field got louder. Aster and Lighter launched with aggressive airdrop campaigns, and the piece cites Hyperliquid’s market share fragmenting to 17.1% at the time of writing.
The 2026 stress test: decentralize listings, survive ADL, defend the edge
In October, HIP-3 went live, opening permissionless listings on HyperCore. The article frames it as a decentralization step and a growth lever, with a high bar to participate: staking 500,000 HYPE to deploy custom markets. That expansion arrived as the token fell nearly 50% from its mid-September peak, with competition, market conditions, and two internal issues in focus.
First was an ADL event on October 10. ADL, automatic deleveraging, is the mechanism that forcibly reduces profitable positions when the system needs to rebalance after bad debt. Bankless says Hyperliquid triggered auto-deleveraging more than 40 times in a 12-minute span. The platform stayed solvent, but the argument is that confidence still takes damage when winners get cut back in the middle of chaos.
Second was the start of team token unlocks in November. The article says selling was limited, with 23% going to OTC desks and 40% re-staked, yet the pace of future unlocks remained unclear, which it suggests clashes with the protocol’s reputation for transparency.
The end-state is clear: 2025 was the breakout, 2026 is the proving ground. Onchain rivals can buy volume with incentives, and offchain giants like Coinbase and Robinhood are moving deeper into perps. Hyperliquid’s bet is that product, integrations via builder codes, and community-driven expansion like HIP-3 can keep winning even when the easy growth phase is over.
Disclaimer: This document is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views expressed in this document are not, and should not be taken as, investment advice or recommendations. Recipients should do their own due diligence, taking into account their specific financial circumstances, investment objectives and risk tolerance, which are not considered here, before investing. This document is not an offer, or the solicitation of an offer, to buy or sell any of the assets mentioned.