Hyperliquid launches HIP-3 revolution: evolving from Perp DEX to composable "Decentralized Finance Lego"

The decentralized derivatives exchange Hyperliquid, after experiencing an astonishing rise this year, recently launched the HIP-3 upgrade. This move not only expands it from a traditional perpetual futures (Perpetual Swap, abbreviated as Perp) decentralized exchange (DEX) to a brand new, composable decentralized finance (DeFi) Lego ecosystem, but will also change the way traditional finance interacts with blockchain. HIP-3 innovatively applies perpetual futures tools to unprecedented on-chain assets such as Pre-IPO equity, traditional stocks, and computing power resources, triggering widespread attention in the industry.

HIP-3 Ecosystem: A Permissionless Financial Testing Ground that Rejects VCs

The biggest feature of the HIP-3 ecosystem lies in its adherence to Decentralization, completely returning to the spirit of “cypherpunk” and rejecting the intervention of VC capital. Most projects within the ecosystem are in the testnet phase, team members often use aliases, and financing relies on self-raised funds. This characteristic not only endows these projects with higher innovation but also makes the traits of Decentralization more distinct, turning HIP-3 into an innovative experimental field not controlled by traditional financial capital.

Expansion of HIP-3 Applications: From Perptual Futures to Real World Assets

One of the core innovations of HIP-3 is the expansion of the application of Perptual Futures to the realm of traditional real-world assets (RWA), specifically involving the following aspects:

1. Pre-IPO Private Equity: Ventuals

Ventuals is an innovative project within the HIP-3 ecosystem, focusing on perpetual futures trading of private Pre-IPO companies. The platform allows users to trade equity derivatives of unlisted companies such as SpaceX or OpenAI, and supports up to 10x leverage. Ventuals utilizes self-funding and optimistic oracle mechanisms, providing a decentralized pre-IPO market where users can engage in high-leverage trading in a decentralized trading environment.

2. Traditional Stocks and Commodities: Unit, Hyperbolic, Ddot

• Unit: As one of the representative projects of HIP-3, Unit aims to bring stock derivatives of traditional stocks (such as Tesla, Google, etc.) to the decentralized platform through innovations in the perpetual futures market. Unit is actively promoting the construction of the perpetual futures market for mainstream American stocks, breaking the limitations of traditional stock markets.
• Hyperbolic and Ddot: These two projects focus on derivatives trading of commodities, involving traditional commodity markets such as oil, gold, and natural gas. They plan to create a decentralized commodity exchange through the HIP-3 architecture, promoting the on-chain transformation of traditional commodity markets.

3. Computing Power Resources and Yield: Global Compute Index and Nunchi

• Global Compute Index: This is the world's first computation perpetual futures project based on HIP-3, focused on providing derivatives trading of cloud computing resources. Users can trade futures contracts for cloud GPU computing, turning computing power resources into tradable on-chain assets.
• Nunchi: Focused on yield-targeted Perptual Futures, aimed at converting yield and interest rate spreads into tradable perpetual derivations. This innovation provides a decentralized and transparent alternative for traditional yield management.

Core Components of the Ecosystem and TVL Leaders

Although the HIP-3 ecosystem is still in its early stages, some projects have already demonstrated significant market influence, ranking high in Total Value Locked (TVL). Here are some core projects and their TVL performance:

1. Liquidity Staking and Lending Giants: Kinetiq Exchange and Felix

• Kinetiq Exchange ($1.9 billion TVL): As the project with the highest TVL in the HIP-3 ecosystem, Kinetiq focuses on liquid staking protocols, allowing users to stake HYPE tokens and earn kHYPE. kHYPE can be used as collateral for HIP-3 Perptual Futures, significantly lowering the trading threshold. Kinetiq's Launch platform also allows teams to deploy their own perpetual futures exchange by crowdfunding kHYPE staking pools.
• Felix ($300 million TVL): Felix is a decentralized lending and CDP platform based on HyperEVM, where users can collateralize loans with assets like HYPE or uBTC and mint the stablecoin feUSD. Felix employs a variable interest rate model, providing flexible lending options, making it an important lending platform in the HIP-3 ecosystem.

2. Spot and Trading Frontend: Unit, Based, Liquid, and Aura

• Unit ($831 million TVL): As the largest spot asset deployer on Hyperliquid, Unit focuses on spot tokenization and enriches the trading targets of HIP-3 by providing native spot supplements. Unit's spot trading platform offers users a more diversified range of investment options.
• Based: Based is the first front-end exchange to support the HIP-3 market. In addition to offering spot and Perptual Futures trading, it has also launched Based Streams live broadcast service, which socializes and entertains the trading process, enhancing community engagement.
• Liquid and Aura: Liquid is an action-first trading application that lowers the entry barrier for users by simplifying the wallet registration process. Aura, on the other hand, is a social crypto application that integrates Hyperliquid, aiming to transform trading into community activities and enhance community interaction through asset tracking and exploring new token features.

3. Infrastructure and Volatility Products: Volmex and Sekai

• Volmex: has brought volatility products to the HIP-3 ecosystem, including the Bitcoin and Ethereum panic indices (BVIV/EVIV), and plans to launch volatility perpetual futures. This provides users with a new way to manage market risk.
• Sekai: Sekai is an LST protocol aimed at solving the high barrier of entry of 500,000 HYPE for HIP-3 deployers, allowing projects, communities, and institutions to easily create LST assets on HyperEVM.

4. Liquidity Support and Cross-Exchange Token Issuance: Flow DEX

Flow DEX provides liquidity support for Hyperliquid, enhancing on-chain depth, attracting institutional funds, and supporting cross-exchange token issuance. The addition of Flow DEX makes the entire ecosystem more mature and liquidity richer.

Conclusion

Hyperliquid's HIP-3 upgrade is a disruptive strategic layout that transforms the decentralized perpetual futures trading platform into an infinitely scalable DeFi financial infrastructure. By applying perpetual futures tools to real-world assets such as traditional stocks, Pre-IPO equity, and computing power, Hyperliquid is unleashing tremendous innovative potential. Permissionless, decentralized, and VC-averse community-driven innovation not only reshapes the competitive landscape of decentralized derivatives but also provides a new paradigm for expanding the boundaries of crypto finance.

Disclaimer: This article is for news information only and does not constitute any investment advice. The cryptocurrency market is highly volatile, and investors should make decisions cautiously.