Hyperliquid is posting record derivatives activity while keeping a smaller share of the fees generated on its platform. Open interest rose to just above $11 billion on July 13, the highest level for 2026, and 30-day perpetual futures volume reached nearly $178 billion, according to the source article.

At the same time, gross protocol revenue has declined for four straight quarters. DefiLlama data cited in the report shows revenue peaked at about $357 million in the third quarter of 2025, then fell to roughly $295 million, around $217 million and about $202 million in the second quarter of 2026, even as trading activity continued to grow.

Fee sharing is reshaping the economics

The shift is tied to Hyperliquid Improvement Proposal 3, or HIP-3. Since October 2025, users willing to stake 500,000 HYPE, worth about $28 million at current prices, have been able to launch their own perpetual futures markets on Hyperliquid’s order books and keep up to 50% of the trading fees those markets produce.

At the start of 2026, builder-deployed markets represented about 2% of Hyperliquid’s perpetual volume. They now account for roughly half. As those markets expanded, a larger portion of fees was passed through to outside builders instead of remaining with the protocol.

Costs rise as volume grows

The change is visible in the platform’s cost structure. The report says cost of revenue, which includes fees shared with builders, market makers and Hyperliquid’s own liquidity vault, was less than 6% of gross revenue in the second quarter of 2025. By the second quarter of 2026, that figure had climbed to 18%.

Builder code fees also contributed to the pass-through effect. Front ends such as Phantom charge those fees for order routing, and in the second quarter they added about $16 million to revenue while creating roughly the same amount of cost, meaning the income did not stay with Hyperliquid.

RWA perps are driving the new demand

A major reason traders are using builder markets is the range of contracts now available. The article says real-world-asset perpetuals tied to instruments such as crude oil, gold, Nvidia, Tesla, a Nasdaq-100 tracker and pre-IPO companies like SpaceX reached a record $3.6 billion in open interest this month, surpassing bitcoin as Hyperliquid’s largest market by that measure.

From July 13 to July 19, tokenized stocks and commodities generated $25 billion in volume, or 52% of the weekly total, outpacing crypto perpetuals for the first time. These products settle in stablecoins, do not expire and trade over the weekend, giving users access to leveraged exposure at times when traditional exchanges are closed.

Concentration and token implications

That growth appears heavily concentrated. Trade.xyz accounts for more than 90% of all HIP-3 open interest, according to the report, leaving Hyperliquid’s recent gains dependent on one deployer’s oracle design, margin parameters and risk controls. The article points to a Monday incident in which a single trade on a thin Korean pre-market venue sent Trade.xyz’s SK Hynix contract down 19% and triggered liquidations that the firm later agreed to reimburse.

The revenue slowdown matters for HYPE because Hyperliquid directs about 97% of trading fees to its Assistance Fund, which buys HYPE on the open market and retires it. The fund has removed about 44.5 million HYPE from total supply so far, but the amount it can buy back falls when earnings fall. The article says the fund bought nearly $290 million of HYPE in the third quarter of 2025 versus roughly $149 million in the second quarter of 2026.

What to watch next

The source article says Hyperliquid booked about $45 million in gross revenue in the first four weeks of the third quarter. If that pace continues, quarterly revenue would land near $150 million, which would mark a fourth straight decline despite elevated trading activity.

Other pressure points cited in the report include nearly 10 million HYPE unlocked to core contributors on Aug. 6, the first weekly outflow from spot HYPE ETFs in the week to July 17, and fresh competition from Robinhood Chain in decentralized trading. For now, the key confirmed question is whether Hyperliquid can maintain its volume growth while keeping enough of the fee stream to support the exchange economics tied to HYPE.

Source: www.coindesk.com