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Key Takeaways
Hyperliquid generates about $600m~$900m in annualised revenue on 0.03% fees and funnels 97 % of it into HYPE buybacks.
Builder codes are a plug and play revenue stream: around 200 builders have earned ~$23m to date, with only a 100 USDC stake required.
HIP‑3 lets builders stake 1m HYPE to launch new markets and share up to 50% of the fees; CoreWriter gives smart contracts write access, burning gas along the way.
CEX perps pose short term competition, but Hyperliquid aims to be the backend liquidity layer for wallets and brokers, and institutions are already accumulating HYPE.
HYPE looking good here
*Special thanks to Bidencho for providing invaluable feedback on this report.
1. What drives Hyperliquid’s cash machine?
Hyperliquid’s revenue engine is very simple: charge low fees at massive scale and direct nearly all of the income into buybacks.
Perp contracts cost traders around 0.03% per trade (0.01% maker, 0.035% taker), while spot trades are slightly higher. For context, major CEXs such as Bybit and Binance charge about 0.055%/0.02% and 0.04%/0.02% (taker/maker) respectively.
Thanks to a custom L1 and matching engine, Hyperliquid delivers CEX level performance without gas fees, capturing a growing share of on‑chain trading. Live stats show daily perp volume often exceeds $10b with some days topping $15b (roughly 7~11% of Binance’s volume), and these figures have been steadily rising. At a 0.03% fee on $10b, Hyperliquid collects roughly $3m in gross fees per day.
Source: Hypeflows
But for a more conservative, finance friendly view we turn to DeFiLlama’s income statement: Hyperliquid generated $136.48m of revenue in Q1 2025 and $166.59m in Q2 2025, a 22% sequential increase.
That’s $303m in 1H, which annualizes to ~$606m, while DeFiLlama’s annualized run rate based on recent months is $923m. 97% of this revenue is used to buyback and burn HYPE, creating a constant, massive upward pressure on the token.
Essentially, Hyperliquid’s current revenue mix can be approximated as follows:
Needless to say Hyperliquid is already printing more cash than most crypto projects. Its existing fee base alone funds relentless buybacks and shrinks supply. The catalysts we outline below don’t just add a little extra; they turbocharge the flywheel, deepen liquidity and make HYPE structurally deflationary.
2. Builder codes turns liquidity into a platform business
Builder codes allow any frontend or app to plug into Hyperliquid’s orderbook and collect a fee on each execution. They work by attaching a unique builder address and fee parameter to every order; once a user approves a builder, the protocol automatically deducts that fee and pays it to the builder each time a trade executes. The fee is capped at 0.1% on perps and 1% on spot.
In effect, builders get immediate revenue without needing to operate their own exchange; Hyperliquid gets distribution and new volume.
Source: https://www.hypeburn.fun/builders
Some numbers:
Revenue share: The Hypeburn builders dashboard shows roughly $23 m has been paid out across builder code and referral fees. Against Hyperliquid’s current run rate of $606~923 m, that represents 2~4% of the gross fees traders pay. Crucially, those commissions don’t come out of the protocol’s own revenue: they’re carved off at the user level and go straight to the builders. In effect, the builder programme is an externally funded marketing spend that powers Hyperliquid’s viral growth loop without denting its bottom line.
Top builders: The largest builder, PVP Trade, has earned roughly $7m. A handful of others (including Axiom, Phantom, Okto, Insilico and Kinetiq) have each generated between $500k~$1m. Even at this early stage nearly 200 builders are live, demonstrating that numerous wallets and bots see value in routing order flow to Hyperliquid.
Builder ROI: With builder codes requiring only 100 USDC in the perps vault, the barrier to entry is trivial. A small bot capturing $10m/month at a 0.05% builder fee earns around $60k/year, while a large wallet routing $1b/month could make $6m/year. This explains why builders span everything from Telegram bots to wallets and dexes.
Builder codes are essentially a low cost distribution layer. Any wallet or app can plug into Hyperliquid’s liquidity and monetise trading activity. Less than two months after launch, nearly 200 builders have integrated builder codes, generating roughly $11 M in fees (at typical builder fee rates of 0.05~0.1 %, that implies roughly $11–20b of trading volume routed through Hyperliquid). With only a 100 USDC stake required and such an asymmetric payoff, we expect many more builders to onboard and, as those integrations scale, to deliver a meaningful uplift to protocol revenues.
3. HIP‑3 ushers in the era of markets as a service
HIP‑3 lets any builder stake 1m HYPE (~$45m at current prices) and win a Dutch auction to deploy a new perpetual market. The deployer chooses the underlying asset, oracle, leverage and fee structure, and can collect up to 50% of the trading fees.
To illustrate, suppose a builder launches a synthetic ETH/BTC ratio contract. If it attracts $100m in daily volume (about 1% of Hyperliquid’s current flow) the protocol’s 0.03% fee blend would throw off roughly $30k per day (~$11m per year). Half of that goes to the market operator and half to Hyperliquid. Now imagine a few more niche markets (e.g. a US equities perp, a memecoin basket, an L1 index). A handful of such listings doing even $50~100m a day could add tens of millions of dollars in incremental annual revenue to the protocol.
HIP‑3 also acts as a staking sink: each market requires 1m HYPE locked as collateral, tightening the float and amplifying the buyback loop.
Finally, HIP‑3 dovetails with builder codes and CoreWriter. A wallet like Phantom could spin up its own SOL perps, earn builder fees from order flow and capture up to half of the trading fees, while Hyperliquid benefits from the volume and locked HYPE. For web2 brokers such as Revolut or CashApp, HIP‑3 offers a turnkey way to launch regulated synthetic markets once they’ve acquired the required HYPE collateral, potentially a powerful driver of institutional adoption.
Source: ASXN
HIP-3 auction starts soon. Uptake may be gradual as builders assess the staking costs and gauge market demand. As Hyperliquid matures, however, demand for these new market slots should continue to grow.
4. CoreWriter unlocks defi on HyperEVM
HyperEVM went live in February 2025, initially offering only read access via read precompiles. CoreWriter, deployed on July 5 2025, adds write access. It allows smart contracts to place orders, move assets, stake, and interact with validators on HyperCore.
Why it matters:
Composable liquidity. DEXs, lenders, stablecoin issuers and vaults can now route transactions through HyperCore without going through a multisig. This means defi apps built on HyperEVM can tap the deep orderbook for hedging and liquidity. For example, Kinetiq, a liquid staking protocol, amassed ~$650m TVL in 2 weeks after launch. It needs CoreWriter to automate staking across validators and handle slashing events.
Transaction multiplier. CoreWriter doesn’t just create a new fee; it multiplies existing trading volume. Lending protocols can liquidate collateral through HyperCore, stablecoins can hedge exposures, and arbitrage bots can execute cross margin strategies, all of which drive more perps volume.
Gas revenue. While trading on HyperCore is gas free, smart contract calls on HyperEVM burn HYPE. With CoreWriter enabling more complex defi applications, Gas fees and hence HYPE’s burn rate could grow exponentially as the ecosystem matures.
HyperCore trading fees funnel into the AF(Assistance Fund) and IF(Insurance Fund) and are used to buyback HYPE daily, while HyperEVM gas fees are burned outright. CoreWriter drives the gas burn side directly (every smart contract call consumes HYPE) and by enabling liquidations, hedging and arbitrage, it can also lift trading volumes on HyperCore.
Aside from validator rewards and builder commissions, nearly every dollar of fee income ends up either funding buybacks or being burned, reinforcing the protocol’s deflationary flywheel.
Source: ASXN
5. Three loops drive the Hyperliquid flywheel
Hyperliquid’s flywheel rests on three reinforcing loops:
Liquidity & Execution: Custom L1 + HyperCore deliver deep order books and near instant finality. This attracts pro traders, generating billions in volume and hundreds of millions in fee revenue. Those fees fund relentless HYPE buybacks, tightening circulating supply and aligning incentives.
Builder distribution: Builder codes turn liquidity into a platform service. Wallets, bots and web2 apps integrate Hyperliquid to earn builder fees. Every integration boosts volume, and this distribution channel is virtually limitless and operates like an affiliate program on steroids.
Programmability & Expansion: CoreWriter and HIP‑3 unlock new markets and defi primitives. HIP‑3 decentralizes listing by letting builders stake HYPE to deploy markets; each one potentially throwing off millions in annual fees and locking up 1m HYPE. CoreWriter enables defi protocols to build on HyperEVM and pay gas fees in HYPE, creating a new revenue layer.
These loops compound: more liquidity → more builders → more markets and apps → more volume → more fees → more HYPE burned. CoreWriter only went live in July, and HIP‑3 auctions are imminent. Investors should focus on how many integrations and HIP‑3 markets go live, as each one materially increases revenue and buybacks.
6. An opportunity, not a threat
The competitive landscape is intensifying. In July 2025 Coinbase became the first U.S. exchange to offer CFTC regulated BTC, ETH perp futures, a move made possible by fresh regulatory clarity as long‑standing jurisdictional disputes between the SEC and CFTC were resolved. Robinhood soon followed with perps in the EU and tokenised stocks. This surge in compliant perps offerings is the biggest near term risk to Hyperliquid’s market share and partly explains the token’s recent underperformance, but it also presents a compelling entry point.
Source: X (@horndogdothl)
Hyperliquid’s revenue already outruns Ethereum at times, and the roadmap is packed with integrations and new markets. Unlike centralized venues, Hyperliquid isn’t constrained by its own UI or compliance stack. HIP‑3 turns it into a listing factory; builder codes let anyone distribute its liquidity; CoreWriter makes it programmable from any EVM contract.
The beauty of this architecture is that it can scale exponentially. The endgame isn’t to outcompete Binance on a handful of products but to become the “House of Finance,” i.e. the backend liquidity layer for wallets, brokers, and entirely new protocols. That structural advantage is a big part of why the current pullback looks like an opportunity rather than a warning.
Meanwhile, Web2 firms like Hyperion and SONN have already allocated hundred of million dollars to HYPE, signaling growing institutional interest. With the flywheel just beginning to spin, the opportunity to accumulate HYPE before the next phase of expansion is closing fast.
The time to buy $HYPE has never been better.
