Hyperliquid's HYPE token climbed 5.25% to $75 on Friday before easing to around $73.84, after fresh quarterly data showed the derivatives platform ending the third quarter with a record $16.8 billion in open interest — a level that placed it ahead of Bybit, Kraken and OKX.

Record Open Interest

Open interest — the combined value of derivatives positions that have been opened but not yet closed — is a standard gauge of how much trading capital is committed to a venue. Hyperliquid closed the third quarter with $16.8 billion in open derivatives positions, an all-time high for the platform. The figure was nearly 80% higher than at the end of June, following a slower July, and moved Hyperliquid past Bybit, Kraken and OKX in open interest. According to a third-quarter report from the Hyperliquid Research Collective, the platform's share across itself and eight major exchanges rose to 11.7% from 9.6%.

3Q26 Hyperliquid Quarterly Report

Our Q3 report on Hyperliquid is out today.

On August 19, President Trump told a room of technology and crypto executives at the White House that the CFTC was working to bring Hyperliquid to the United States. Less than a month later, Kraken's… pic.twitter.com/hNdvozwe9M

— Hyperliquid Research Collective (HRC) (@HyperliquidR) November 12, 2026

Volume and User Growth

Native perpetuals volume climbed from $109.5 billion in July to more than $188 billion in September. Average daily traders reached a quarterly record of 65,161, up 20% from the second quarter.

Protocol revenue came in at $190.9 million, a 21.7% increase from the prior quarter, though it remained 36.5% below the level recorded in the third quarter of 2025 — meaning the quarter's record activity had not yet lifted revenue back to its year-earlier level.

Where the Revenue Came From

Trading and network activity produced $173.6 million, a 10.7% rise from the second quarter. The remaining $17.3 million came from USDC reserve income, a revenue stream that began on August 27. That reserve income accounted for nearly half of the quarter's revenue growth and gave the platform earnings that do not rely on trader fees.

Priority fees reached $9.6 million, roughly 3.3 times the second-quarter level. These are payments traders make to have their orders handled first.

Third-party applications earned $25 million in builder-code fees, a 50% increase. Those fees go to the teams that build trading tools on top of Hyperliquid.

Stock-Linked Perpetuals Drove Activity

Stock-linked perpetuals powered much of the quarter's growth: equity perps volume rose 161% to $153.8 billion, representing 58.8% of the $262 billion traded through HIP-3, the platform's framework that lets outside teams deploy and operate their own perpetual markets. Korean stocks helped lift those numbers. A July pricing incident involving SK hynix perpetuals led to $57.4 million in liquidations.

Trading on HIP-3 was also heavily concentrated: the venue trade[XYZ] handled 97.5% of its volume in September.

Buybacks, Big Traders and a Possible US Venue

The Assistance Fund spent about $148.7 million on HYPE buybacks in the third quarter, 5.7% more than in the second quarter. Because the average purchase price rose to $72.93, the fund bought 26.4% fewer tokens. It received its first payment in early October, leaving money available for fourth-quarter purchases, and questions were raised over whether some of that money could go toward drawing in more traders and developers.

Wintermute has become a heavy user of Hyperliquid's auctions for early access to order data. Bloomberg reported on Thursday that a wallet linked to the market maker won 76% of top-priority slot auctions over the past month, based on analysis from Loris Tools. The system lets traders see incoming orders and adjust positions before others are processed. Critics say it favors larger firms, while Wintermute calls it a transparent way to compete on speed.

On August 19, President Donald Trump told a room of technology and crypto executives at the White House that the CFTC was working to bring Hyperliquid to the United States. On September 16, Kraken's parent company, Payward, proposed using the US-regulated exchange Bitnomial to run a HIP-3 venue, a proposal that was still awaiting approval at the end of the quarter. Its fate, along with the auction-access debate and how the Assistance Fund deploys its newly received funding, is among the developments to follow as the new quarter unfolds.

Market Reaction

HYPE jumped 5.25% to $75 on Friday following the report's release, then eased to $73.84 by 15:06 UTC, according to CoinMarketCap. The token bounced from an intraday low below $70. Market capitalization stood near $18.67 billion, with 24-hour trading volume of about $1.11 billion, up 28.16%.