Diversification of Revenue Sources for Hyperliquid, Increase in USDC Reserve Yield Reported

Key Points of This Article

• Revenue from HIP-3, USDC yields, and more
• Kraken and ICE also plan to establish markets on Hyperliquid

Progress in Revenue Diversification

Zach Pandl, head of research at the major U.S. cryptocurrency asset management firm Grayscale, released a report on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid (HYPE) on the 30th. He reported that the revenue sources have significantly diversified over the past year.

Pandl noted that despite the bear market over the past year, Hyperliquid generated approximately $105 million (about 16.5 billion yen) in revenue by September 2026, which is nearly the same level as the previous year (about $108 million). He stated that the background for the steady revenue is the diversification of the business.

According to the report, in mid-2025, trading fees from perpetual futures contracts of cryptocurrencies listed by the Hyperliquid team accounted for over 90% of revenue, but this proportion has now shrunk to about 64%. As Hyperliquid's business expands, the remaining revenue is now primarily derived from the following new areas:

• Perpetual futures by deployers (HIP-3)
• Builder code
• USDC reserve yields
• Spot trading, gas fees, auctions

Source: Grayscale{#caption-attachment-745798}

First, Hyperliquid has a mechanism that allows third parties (deployers) to list perpetual futures contracts for assets such as silver, crude oil, and stocks before IPOs. In this case, the third party receives up to half of the trading fees, while the remainder is distributed to the Hyperliquid protocol.

The builder code allows external wallets, user trading interfaces, and exchanges to add their own fees when routing orders to Hyperliquid.

Although Pandl did not mention it, Hyperliquid itself does not receive the fees added by external services to their users. External builders can charge Hyperliquid for the builder fees paid by users, which generates revenue for Hyperliquid, but it is not revenue that goes to Hyperliquid itself. However, Hyperliquid does earn the usual trading fees from such orders.

Next, regarding the stablecoin USDC, due to an agreement with Coinbase and Circle, 90% of the reserve income generated from approximately $6 billion (about 945 billion yen) worth of USDC held on Hyperliquid is returned to Hyperliquid through Coinbase.

Additionally, Hyperliquid generates revenue from cryptocurrency spot trading, gas fees in HyperEVM, priority fees, and ticker auctions for new token listings. Combined, these sources generated about $5 million (about 800 million yen) in revenue in September. Although the scale is small, it is a growing source of revenue.

Potential for Further Growth in a U.S. Regulatory-Compliant Market

Pandl pointed out that revenue from sources other than core fees (perpetual futures for self-listed cryptocurrencies) reached $38 million (about 6 billion yen) in September, doubling from the same period last year. He noted that especially the yields from reserves depend on asset balances and interest rates rather than trading volumes, making them a more stable source of revenue.

Furthermore, he continued that if U.S. traders can access Hyperliquid in a regulatory-compliant manner in the future, it could serve as a further growth driver.

For example, Payward, the parent company of the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, aims to be the first operator to develop a market under the regulation of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) with Hyperliquid's "HIP-3."

Additionally, ICE, which owns the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has announced plans to establish a regulatory-compliant perpetual futures market in the U.S. on Hyperliquid in partnership with Trade.xyz, an operator of HIP-3.