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|8 min ReadHyperliquid breaks records and rewrites the onchain trading playbook
Lucca Menezes
Senior Analyst
Published
Jan 16, 2026
FAQ
1) What is Hyperliquid and how is it different?
Hyperliquid is an onchain exchange and L1 blockchain using HyperBFT HotStuff consensus. It targets about 200k TPS with permissionless validators and ships upgrades fast.
2) How does the HYPE token gain value?
The protocol directs 99 percent of trading fee revenue to buy HYPE on the open market, while Ready-For-Sale supply is near lows.
3) What key metrics show Hyperliquid’s growth?
More than $3.13 trillion lifetime volume, roughly 14 percent of Binance weekly perps share at a peak and about 7 percent spot share in late August. Cited annualized revenue above $1.5 billion with an 11-person team.
From anomaly to engine: the underlying
Hyperliquid’s year is not subtle. New highs across volume, users, and revenue came again and again. The pitch is simple. This venue is the biggest threat to centralized exchanges since electronic trading began, and it intends to do to old venues what the internet did to information. Builders see it. There are now hundreds of teams building on Hyperliquid, from @kinetiq_xyz to retail apps and DeFi across the stack. Critics complain about closed source code, no grants, and a team that refuses to play politics. That is the point. The team does not hand out favors, and it ships.
The architecture is the difference. Most chains host apps built on top. Hyperliquid is centered on a flagship trading venue that informed the chain’s design. It started on Tendermint, then moved to a custom HotStuff implementation called HyperBFT in May 2024. HyperBFT was announced in April 2024 and hit mainnet within two weeks. No tours, no media pageantry. The result is a chain built for throughput, with 200k transactions per second. Permissionless validators arrived in late 2024 with 11 at launch, growing to 24 including 5 foundation validators.
@asxn_r published the strongest public dive on HyperBFT to date. Read it here: https://newsletter.asxn.xyz/p/hyperliquid-the-hyperoptimized-order
A snapshot from early days shows the culture. The builders talked shop in January 2023, then kept shipping.
Discovery stories repeat. A low-view podcast with @chameleon_jeff helped pull in new builders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqCksxcX49w. Perps DEXs were not new. A perps DEX on its own custom chain was new. The founders’ HFT literacy and straight talk landed with curious traders like @0xmagnus.
Hyperliquid runs like a high-pressure, high-trust cult in the best sense. Turbo capitalist, risk on, clear rules. No venture checks. Those who wanted exposure had to buy in the open market. No LP deals and no paid market makers, yet deep liquidity formed anyway. No leaks. Announcements drop for everyone at once through official channels. The team stays allergic to insider privilege.
A hardline treasury theory: burn the remaining HYPE
The big treasury question sits over the community. Two “seasons” happened. What about the remaining HYPE? One clean thesis says the best move is to burn it, either gradually or at once. That sends value to existing holders pro rata without distorting behavior. Think BNB burns, minus the scandals. If you want upside, you buy HYPE. Simple.
There are rebuttals. A full burn could lift the team’s allocation share unless it is trimmed to match the roughly 25 percent that is circulating. The team could also keep tokens for ecosystem incentives to crush rival products and chains. Or split the difference, burn a slice and fund growth with the rest. Or wait for the right moment. Here is the twist. Whether the burn happens or not may not even matter for the core bet. HYPE can still win if the system keeps compounding.
Numbers that bend the market
The scoreboard is blunt. In late September, Hyperliquid captured about 14 percent of Binance’s weekly volume. Source: https://dune.com/uwusanauwu/perps
The dent in spot grew too. In late August, the share touched about 7 percent, helped by @hyperunit, which makes spot BTC trading on Hyperliquid the cheapest route in specific cases. Data: https://dune.com/uwusanauwu/perps
Supply tells its own story. Despite a market dip, Ready-For-Sale HYPE sits near cycle lows. https://www.skewga.com/hyperliquid/supply_shock by @skewga_hyper
On HyperEVM, HYPE usage plus the Assistance Fund keeps climbing. The protocol plows 99 percent of trading fee revenue into HYPE, a relentless bid that strengthens the onchain loop. https://www.skewga.com/hyperliquid/supply_shock by @skewga_hyper
The multiple tightens as supply thins. SWPE is at its low. Thirty-day EMA revenue is near an all-time low for the multiple and an all-time high for revenue respectively, a combo that points to shrinking float and growing demand. https://www.skewga.com/hyperliquid/multiple_revenue by @skewga_hyper
The reflexivity is ruthless. Lower price plus higher volatility means more fees. More fees means the protocol buys more HYPE. At today’s revenue and price, the Assistance Fund could buy the entire RFS supply in 1.29 years. https://www.skewga.com/hyperliquid/heatmap by @skewga_hyper
Trillions, a tiny team, and a blunt message to Wall Street
The venue has already processed more than $3.13 trillion in lifetime volume. The world’s financial markets sit in the hundreds of trillions. That goal sounds impossible. It is also the target. In a TBPN sit-down, Jeff was asked how big Hyperliquid could get. He did not grin. He answered like a builder who expects to be judged by execution, not slogans.
“If Hyperliquid succeeds, in the good case it’s something that doesn’t exist yet in the world.”
The operating leverage is wild. The team has 11 people. Annualized revenue is above 136 million in profit per employee. The network advances weekly with short maintenance windows. HIP-3, CoreWriter, and other upgrades rolled out without fuss. Builders and traders have piled into the same arena. The chain hosts the fastest onchain trading venue and a growing DeFi set. Wall Street cares about cash flows, and retail chases them too. Put the two together and you get a simple path.
The author calls a number. More than $2,000 per HYPE between now and 2028. The claim is bold. The math behind the system is bolder. He who HYPE wins.
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.