Growth Breakdown: Hyperliquid — From Post-TGE Low to 1.4M Users & $5B TVL

This article fully dissects its growth path, including four core drivers: Points-based real trading incentives, massive community airdrops, an L1 high-performance moat, and the HIP-3 permissionless mechanism capturing the RWA liquidity dividend. The goal is to distill a replicable methodology to help founders, product teams, and operators design their own flywheels under similar conditions.

After its TGE on November 29, 2024, Hyperliquid experienced a period of market downturn. Starting in the second half of 2025, user numbers rapidly grew from around 300K to 1.4M+. TVL peaked above . In 2025, total notional trading volume reached $2.6T, surpassing Coinbase during the same period. After HIP-3 launched on October 13, 2025, RWA perps (tokenized traditional assets such as U.S. stock indices and commodities) accounted for over 35% of platform trading volume. Open Interest briefly exceeded $1.4B, directly driving a full reversal in platform metrics.

Project Background and Timeline

Hyperliquid is a high-performance L1 chain focused on fully on-chain order book perpetual futures DEX, built by traders for traders. The platform emphasizes no VC involvement, no company revenue extraction, and full fee return to the community. Its core advantage lies in CEX-level trading speed combined with decentralized execution.

In the early stage, Hyperliquid accumulated seed users through its Points program. Points launched in November 2023, distributing 1M points weekly, strictly rewarding real trading and deposit behavior while preventing wash trading. This mechanism attracted a large number of professional traders, laying a high-quality user foundation for subsequent growth. At that time, the platform was still small in scale, but retention and trading depth were already leading peers.

On November 29, 2024, TGE was completed, accompanied by a massive HYPE airdrop. Over 94,000 users received approximately 31% of total HYPE supply. The average allocation was worth tens of thousands of dollars per user. There was no VC dilution; over 76% of supply went directly to the community. After TGE, users briefly approached 300K, but the market soon entered a downturn. Overall crypto trading activity declined, HYPE prices retraced, and trading volume fell.

In 2025, Hyperliquid continued iterating product capabilities. The launch of HyperEVM, validator openness, and native USDC integration improved ecosystem compatibility and user experience. Despite external pressure, the strong base of professional traders maintained stable trading volume.

On October 13, 2025, HIP-3 was officially activated, marking a major turning point. The proposal allows qualified builders to deploy their own perpetual markets by staking 500K HYPE. After HIP-3 launched, the RWA perps market rapidly expanded, mainly covering U.S. stock indices (e.g., S&P 500, Nasdaq 100), individual stocks (e.g., TSLA, AAPL, NVDA), and commodities (e.g., WTI crude oil, gold). The builder trade.xyz dominated over 90% of HIP-3 Open Interest.

From Q4 2025 to early 2026, the combination of RWA liquidity tailwinds and the HIP-3 mechanism drove explosive platform growth. Users reached 1.4M, TVL peaked above $5B, daily volume repeatedly exceeded $30B, and annual notional volume reached . HIP-3 markets peaked at over $1.4B in Open Interest. Platform daily fee revenue peaked at several million dollars, which was used for HYPE buybacks and burns, further reinforcing the positive cycle.

Full Growth Data Overview

Hyperliquid’s growth curve shows a clear transition from downturn to breakout. Around the end of 2024, user count was approximately 300K. During the 2025 slowdown, metrics fluctuated mildly. With HIP-3 activation, the platform achieved roughly 367% growth, reaching 1.4M active users by end of 2025.

TVL grew from early hundreds of millions to a peak above . Open Interest increased 300% in 2025. Full-year perp trading volume reached $2.6T, far exceeding Coinbase’s同期 level. HIP-3 contributed over 35% of total platform volume, becoming the strongest growth engine.

In retention terms, professional traders demonstrated strong stickiness. The RWA markets attracted users with traditional finance backgrounds, many of whom traded on-chain for the first time. Geographic distribution evolved from primarily crypto-native users to a more diversified base. Platform revenue comes mainly from trading fees, all of which return to the community, forming a healthy loop.

Core Growth Breakdown

Hyperliquid’s success stems from four mutually reinforcing drivers.

First: Pre-TGE Points Program

Starting in 2023, weekly point rewards targeted real trading activity, using multi-season design and strict anti-wash mechanisms. The core principle was rewarding deep usage behavior, accumulating high-value professional traders as seed users. These users provided stable trading depth during downturns. The replicable insight: design incentive systems that prioritize real contribution to form a high-quality early community.

Second: Massive Community Airdrop at TGE

In November 2024, HYPE was distributed directly to 94,000 users, with substantial average value and zero VC allocation. Airdrop recipients became natural promoters, organically sharing the platform through real usage. With no paid marketing budget, viral distribution permanently brought trading volume to the platform. The key lesson: convert early users into long-term evangelists through meaningful value delivery.

Third: Product-Level Competitive Moat

Hyperliquid L1 provides up to 200K TPS-level speed, fully on-chain order books, cross-margin capability, and low-latency execution. These features maintained professional trader loyalty even during market downturns. HyperEVM and other upgrades further expanded ecosystem compatibility. The replicable principle: always design products around heavy users’ needs.

Fourth: HIP-3 Permissionless Mechanism + RWA Timing

After launching in October 2025, builders could stake 500K HYPE to deploy markets and earn 50% fee share. This design significantly reduced cold-start barriers for new markets. RWA perps captured liquidity tailwinds in traditional assets during 2025–2026. U.S. indices and commodities became dominant trading pairs. HIP-3 generated significant volume and OI, forming a flywheel: more markets → more liquidity → more users → more fees → HYPE buybacks. The key replicable factor is preparing permissionless infrastructure ahead of external opportunity windows.

Marketing and Distribution Strategy Deep Dive

Hyperliquid’s marketing relies on mechanism-driven growth rather than paid ads.

During the Points phase, community engagement was built through incentives and leagues. After TGE, the 94K beneficiaries became primary distribution forces, organically spreading real experiences across X, Discord, and Telegram. The referral system further amplified growth. After HIP-3 launch, each builder brought their own traffic and liquidity. New markets used Growth Mode with reduced early fees to accelerate cold start.

Overall marketing budget was near zero. The core strategy was designing mechanisms that turned users into promoters. Quantitatively, airdrop users showed strong retention. RWA products attracted new user segments, including traditional finance participants who entered on-chain trading for the first time.

Challenges, Downturn Period, and Risk Review

After TGE, #HYPE price retraced and overall crypto trading volume declined. Competition in the perp sector intensified, creating market share pressure. Hyperliquid relied on a high-quality user base and continuous iteration rather than subsidies to survive the downturn.

HIP-3 spam risks are controlled via staking requirements, but regulatory uncertainty and liquidity dependency remain potential challenges. Growth ceilings may depend on RWA market enthusiasm, requiring ongoing innovation in market types.

Competitive Landscape and Differentiation

Within decentralized perps, Hyperliquid occupies a unique position. As an L1 + permissionless perp “exchange factory,” it differentiates through speed, fee-sharing, and RWA support. Compared to GMX and dYdX, its fully on-chain order book and builder economy are more open. Compared to centralized exchanges, it offers 24/7 non-custodial trading and community revenue distribution.

Future Outlook

In an optimistic scenario, sustained RWA momentum and new features such as HIP-4 could maintain high growth. In a neutral scenario, the platform retains its leadership in perps. In a bearish scenario, it must navigate regulatory or liquidity shifts.

Actionable recommendations for readers:

- In early stages, prioritize real-behavior incentive systems to accumulate high-quality users.

- Design airdrops to deliver meaningful value, driving organic propagation.

- Build permissionless mechanisms early to prepare for external tailwinds.

- Iterate products around heavy-user pain points.

- Monitor external liquidity windows and launch matching products promptly.

Conclusion

Through Points incentives, airdrop-driven distribution, an L1 product moat, and the HIP-3 RWA flywheel, Hyperliquid completed a full transition from stagnation to explosive growth. This is a highly instructive and striking case study.

Downturns are not fatal. What determines success is mechanism design, real user value creation, and precise capture of external liquidity opportunities.

Discussion is welcome. Follow this series for ongoing updates as we continue dissecting practical Web3 growth strategies.