Hyperliquid overtook Bybit, Kraken and OKX in open interest during the third quarter, according to the Hyperliquid Research Collective. Open interest — the notional value of outstanding derivatives positions — is a widely tracked gauge of leverage and activity, and the ranking shift stands out because Hyperliquid operates as a decentralized exchange while the venues it passed are centralized operators. The exchange's open interest reached $16.8 billion by September 30, nearly 80% above June levels, and peaked at $18.1 billion on September 22. Its share of combined open interest across Hyperliquid and eight major centralized exchanges rose to 11.7%, up from 9.6% in June.

Open Interest and Protocol Revenue Climb

Q3 protocol revenue reached $190.9 million, a 21.7% increase quarter over quarter, though it remained down 36.5% year over year. Trading and network revenue rose 10.7% to $173.6 million. An additional $17.3 million came from USDC reserve income accrued from August 27, which accounted for half of the quarterly revenue increase.

The Assistance Fund, Hyperliquid's vehicle for repurchasing HYPE, received its first payment in early October, making it available for fourth-quarter buybacks. During Q3, the fund spent $148.7 million on HYPE, 5.7% more than in Q2. It acquired 26.4% fewer tokens, however, as the average purchase price reached $72.93.

Equity Perpetuals Drive HIP-3 Activity

Equity perpetuals — derivatives contracts with no expiry date that carry leveraged exposure to underlying stocks — generated $153.8 billion in volume, up 161% from the previous quarter, representing 58.8% of HIP-3's $262 billion in quarterly volume. HIP-3 is Hyperliquid's framework for deployer-operated perpetuals markets, an arrangement that lets third parties run venues on the platform's infrastructure. Korean stocks contributed to the increase, though contracts tied to them exposed pricing risks outside local market hours, since the perps trade continuously while the underlying cash markets close. A July reference-price incident involving SK hynix perpetuals triggered $57.4 million in liquidations. Meanwhile, tradeXYZ handled 97.5% of HIP-3 volume in September, a concentration that shows how much of the framework's activity runs through a single deployer.

Native perpetuals volume rose 72% from July to September. As a result, HIP-3's share of total perpetuals volume fell from 51% in July to 25% in September, indicating that growth in the platform's native markets outpaced the newer framework.

Activity broadened across the platform. Daily traders averaged a record 65,161, up 20% quarter over quarter, while third-party apps earned $25 million in builder-code fees, a 50% increase. Coinbase, the U.S.-listed crypto exchange, also routed Base App perpetuals to Hyperliquid's order books, putting the platform's markets in front of Coinbase's consumer app audience.

Payward Outlines a Route to U.S. Access

U.S. access remained pending at quarter-end, keeping the venue off-limits to American traders even as its activity hit records. President Trump said on August 19 that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the U.S. derivatives regulator, was working to bring Hyperliquid to the United States.

On September 16, Payward, Kraken's parent company, announced plans for Bitnomial, a U.S.-regulated derivatives exchange, to operate a HIP-3 venue. Payward plans to use Hyperliquid infrastructure for its clients, but regulatory approval remained outstanding, and U.S. clients could not yet trade on the venue. Regulatory clearance is the gating item to watch in the fourth quarter.