Hyperliquid's HIP-3 Upgrade Opens Door to Equity Perpetuals

Anticipated launch: Two weeks ago, Hyperliquid, crypto’s leading decentralized trading platform, activated its long-awaited HIP-3 upgrade. The update made Hyperliquid the first protocol to let anyone permissionlessly deploy onchain perpetual markets, enabling futures contracts that trade without expiry for any asset, including crypto, equities, and commodities. This week, those markets were integrated into Hyperliquid’s official frontend, giving global users with smartphones direct price exposure to U.S. equities such as TSLA and NVDA.

• Why it matters: Hyperliquid’s expansion reflects a broader shift in modern finance as siloed trading environments begin to merge into unified platforms, allowing crypto and traditional assets to trade side by side. By expanding beyond crypto perpetuals, where Hyperliquid holds roughly 75% of open interest across decentralized exchanges, the platform reinforces its broader ambition to become a blockchain that “houses all of finance”.

Small beginnings: Since HIP-3 went live, six equity perps have been listed on the platform, featuring popular stocks such as TSLA, NVDA, and HOOD. Of those, only a market tracking the Nasdaq has begun trading, attracting roughly $65 million in open interest, representing about 0.8% of Hyperliquid’s total OI.

High entry bar: One reason for the rather slow start may be the significant financial commitment required to launch a new market. Deployers must stake 500,000 $HYPE (about $22 million at current prices) as security. This deposit discourages bad behavior, since market operators control key parameters such as oracles, margin, and liquidation rules. If they act maliciously or make harmful changes, the bond is slashed and the tokens are burned.

Lacking demand? According to Sam Ruskin, Research Analyst at Messari, the muted launch could also be attributed to limited demand for equity perps:

• “Equity perpetuals have been speculated as the inevitable next frontier for onchain markets, yet there is currently little data to support this in the near term. Ostium, a popular perp DEX for RWAs, does an average of $1.8 million daily perp volume for stocks compared to $44.3 million in crypto perpetuals volume, suggesting weak demand.”

Too early to tell? Despite these numbers, Dylan Bane, another Senior Research Analyst at Messari, suggests that equity perps may simply need more time: "Crypto native users don’t really see the appeal yet because they didn’t come here for equities. Non-crypto users either don’t understand [perpetuals], don’t know [they] exist, or see it as too high risk compared to broker services. Seems like it might just be the early innings and we just need a little patience."

What's next: In the coming weeks, more projects are expected to launch new markets leveraging HIP-3, including those for pre-IPO companies, various yield products, and prediction markets.