Hyperliquid’s Open Interest Nears Pre-Crash Levels as HYPE Hits Record High

Hyperliquid’s total open interest reached $14.3 billion on Sunday, coming within 3% of levels seen just before an infamous crash in October 2025, when open interest plunged 56% in a single day from $14.7 billion to $6.5 billion. The recovery has unfolded in two distinct phases over the following months.

Shifting Composition Between Core Perps and HIP-3

Early growth was driven largely by HIP-3, a segment whose share of total open interest expanded significantly between March and August of this year, briefly surpassing a third of total activity. More recently, that trend has reversed, with HIP-3’s share falling even as Hyperliquid’s overall open interest continued climbing, driven partly by new retail access through a major exchange integration and discussions around bringing Hyperliquid into US regulatory compliance.

Revenue Dynamics Favor Core Trading Over Builder Markets

Because Hyperliquid’s core trading routes nearly all generated fees into HYPE token buybacks, a dollar of activity on core markets carries more value for the token than the same dollar arriving through builder deployed markets like HIP-3. That dynamic has coincided with HYPE reaching an all-time high near $88, pushing its market capitalization to nearly $20 billion and marking a gain of more than 50% this month.