Hyperliquid's 11 employees support the decentralized Binance with an annual revenue of $1.1 billion

Jessy, Golden Finance

According to DeFiLlama data, the Hyperliquid protocol generated approximately $95.63 million in revenue over the past 30 days, with an estimated annualized revenue of $1.147 billion. With a team of only 11 people, their average annual revenue exceeds $100 million, earning them the title of "one of the companies with the highest per capita revenue in the world" by foreign media.

In the crypto industry, Hyperliquid's story is remarkable for catching up with and even surpassing established decentralized perpetual trading protocols in such a short period of time.

What is Hyperliquid? A "CEX disguised as a DEX."

Hyperliquid's growth rate is astonishing. Since its launch in 2023, it has invested almost no significant marketing budget and relied little on the backing of prominent venture capital firms. Yet, relying on word-of-mouth and product experience, it has quickly attracted a large user base, rapidly increasing its trading volume to a scale comparable to that of centralized exchanges. Founder Jeff stated in a recent interview that the team rejected venture capital from the outset, insisting on self-funding and focusing on product and technology development with a minimal team. He believes this minimalist approach allows the project to maintain true independence and community-building, eliminating the need to cater to the short-term interests of investors and fostering a greater sense of user engagement and trust. Technically, Hyperliquid differs fundamentally from most DeFi protocols on the market. It isn't built on public blockchains like Ethereum or Cosmos. Instead, Hyperliquid Chain, a high-performance blockchain designed from the ground up for derivatives trading, was developed from scratch. This public blockchain utilizes the Tendermint consensus algorithm. This chain is deeply optimized for matching and clearing, offering fast block confirmations and high throughput, meeting the demands of high-frequency matching and supporting the high-frequency operations of professional traders. Hyperliquid has also fully integrated the order book model common on centralized exchanges onto the blockchain. User orders, order cancellations, and matching are all recorded in real time on the blockchain, preserving the liquidity and depth of centralized exchanges while ensuring transparency and verifiability. To ensure fund security and system stability, Hyperliquid has designed an on-chain margin and liquidation mechanism that monitors user leverage levels in real time and triggers liquidations immediately if risk becomes excessive. This logic is highly similar to centralized platforms like Binance and OKX, but is fully transparently executed through on-chain contracts. In explaining the product concept, Jeff stated, "We want the trading experience on Hyperliquid to be as smooth as the best centralized exchanges, while remaining fully decentralized, transparent, and censorship-resistant." If Hyperliquid's early highlight was perpetual contract trading, its long-term ambition is to become an open ecosystem. Through the Hyperliquid (HIP) upgrade proposal, Hyperliquid plans to gradually introduce a governance token and an on-chain stablecoin, hUSD, and ultimately open up to a complete Layer 1, allowing developers to deploy applications such as lending, asset issuance, and more derivatives on its chain. This means that Hyperliquid is evolving from a "single product (perpetual contracts)" to a "full-stack DeFi infrastructure." How has it surpassed established perpetual exchanges like dYdX? By the end of 2024, Hyperliquid's perpetual contract trading volume and revenue had surpassed dYdX, with over 70% market share in the DeFi derivatives market. How has Hyperliquid quickly become the highest-grossing DeFi protocol, surpassing established competitors like dYdX and GMX? First and foremost, user experience is key. For a long time, the biggest pain points of decentralized exchanges have been insufficient speed and depth. While GMX, an AMM model, is simple, it suffers from significant slippage in large trades, making it difficult for professional traders to meet their needs. While dYdX utilizes an order book, it is limited by the performance of general-purpose chains, and its transaction response speed consistently lags behind centralized exchanges. Hyperliquid runs an on-chain order book directly on its proprietary blockchain, combining performance and transparency, achieving for the first time a level of fluidity approaching that of centralized exchanges. This difference in experience has rapidly made it popular among traders. Furthermore, Hyperliquid's strategy and culture differ from those of its competitors. dYdX is a star project heavily backed by venture capital, and its approach, from product iteration to token economics, inevitably bears traces of capital orientation. Hyperliquid, on the other hand, maintains no venture capital or centralized exchange support, prioritizing organic community growth. For users, this purity has become a new foundation of trust. More importantly, Hyperliquid utilizes technology and mechanisms to minimize the risk of bad debt. On-chain margin and liquidation mechanisms reduce systemic risk, encouraging large capital users to migrate. As trading volume continues to grow, Hyperliquid's revenue has naturally soared. Today, Hyperliquid's perpetual contract trading volume and revenue have surpassed dYdX, capturing a majority share of the decentralized derivatives market. While Hyperliquid has demonstrated impressive growth, it is not without its hidden dangers. First, regulatory risk looms large over the decentralized derivatives market. High leverage and perpetual contracts are inherently sensitive, and if countries introduce stricter regulations on DeFi derivatives in the future, Hyperliquiquid is likely to be affected. Second, over-reliance on a small team is a double-edged sword. While a minimalist structure of 11 people brings efficiency and purity, it also means insufficient manpower to simultaneously address security, compliance, and ecosystem expansion. The team's ability to respond will be severely tested if a technical vulnerability or hacker attack occurs.