GUIDE: What is Hyperliquid HYPE?
Hyperliquid is a blockchain created to do something that for years seemed impossible on-chain: a futures exchange with an order book as fast as a centralized one. HYPE is its native token. Here we explain how it works, where it comes from, and why it has become one of the most talked-about projects in the market.
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The origin: high-frequency traders building on-chain
Hyperliquid was founded by Jeff Yan, a Harvard mathematician who had worked at Hudson River Trading, one of the best-known high-frequency trading firms in the United States. After the collapse of FTX in 2022, his team set out to create an alternative where users would not have to entrust their funds to a company.
The exchange began operating in 2023 and grew rapidly among perpetual futures traders, contracts without an expiration date that allow betting on price increases or decreases with leverage. A feature that drew significant attention is that the project was funded without external venture capital.
On November 29, 2024, the HYPE token was launched with one of the largest airdrops in history: around 31% of the total supply was distributed for free to users who had traded on the platform, without reserving a portion for private investors.
How Hyperliquid works internally
Hyperliquid is its own Layer 1 blockchain. It uses a proof-of-stake consensus called HyperBFT, optimized to confirm trades in fractions of a second, which is essential when the main product is a trading market.
The network has two parts. HyperCore contains the trading engine: a fully on-chain order book, where every order, cancellation, and liquidation is recorded and verifiable. HyperEVM, activated in 2025, is an Ethereum-compatible environment where other developers can create applications that connect directly with that liquidity.
The exchange charges fees for each trade. A significant part of that revenue is used to automatically buy HYPE on the market, a buyback mechanism that links platform activity with token demand. Users can also deposit funds into vaults that act as market makers and distribute profits and losses.
Speed has trade-offs. The number of validators is small compared to networks like Ethereum, and in 2025 there were episodes of manipulation in low-liquidity markets that forced validators to intervene, opening the debate on how decentralized the network truly is.
What HYPE is used for and how to invest
HYPE is used for staking and securing the network, paying fees on HyperEVM, obtaining trading discounts, and participating in protocol governance. The maximum supply is one billion tokens, and buybacks continuously reduce the amount available on the market.
You can buy HYPE on exchanges that list it or directly on Hyperliquid with your own wallet. If you prefer to do it through the stock market, Hyperliquid ETPs are already listed in Europe, such as those from Virtune and other issuers, which can be bought from a standard brokerage account.
As an investment, HYPE is a young and highly volatile asset, whose value largely depends on the platform's trading volume and competition with other exchanges. Perpetual futures with leverage can cause you to lose your entire investment in minutes. Invest only what you can afford to lose.
If you prefer to invest from your brokerage account, in our database you will find cryptocurrency ETPs and ETFs from around the world, sorted by fee.
View Hyperliquid and other cryptocurrency ETPs