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Exploring Hyperliquid: Innovation in the Perp DEX Landscape
Osgur Murphy O Kane
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Key Takeaways
10 min read
  • Hyperliquid is a highly performant L1 perpetuals DEX capable of 20k TPS. It has grown to regularly rank in the top 3 perp DEXs by volume thanks to its smooth UX, easy onboarding via its Arbitrum bridge, and wide range of popular tokens listed (over 100 at the time of writing).
  • Key features include hyperps which are essentially perp contracts for unlisted tokens e.g. ZRO (LayerZero). In addition, the community can deposit USDC into vaults where they can benefit from market making and liquidation strategies on the platform.
  • A points program is running until April, where 1m points are distributed each week. Participating in the protocol's various features earns users points.
  • The project remains in its infancy and is expected to decentralize its validator set later this year. It will be interesting to observe what effect, if any, this has on performance. In addition, a new consensus algorithm is being developed with the intention of bringing the protocol on par with CEXs. Whether or not the protocol can achieve these aims will be key in determining its future success.

Introduction

Hyperliquid is an L1 perp DEX (with an Arbitrum bridge) that is capable of 20k orders per second with a fully on-chain order book. It seeks to directly compete with CEXs in terms of user experience and cost and has become a notable player in the DEX space. It offers a very wide range of assets for leverage trading (101 as of 5 Jan 2024), combined with a CEX-like UX that makes it very attractive to degens.

It opened up a points program in November 2023 stated to last for 6 months (until April 2024). This has notably increased usage across all metrics on the exchange, and volumes have ranged from $190m - to almost $1b each day since 4 December 2023. Many expect an airdrop to be tied to this points program.

Hyperliquid’s...