HyperliquidHYPE

Hyperliquid is a decentralized exchange for perpetual futures that runs on its own layer-1 blockchain. Perpetual futures are derivatives contracts that track the price of an asset and have no expiry date. HYPE is the network's native token, used to pay fees on the HyperEVM environment and to stake. The project is led by Jeff Yan, who has a background in high-frequency trading, and a developer known as Iliensinc, who were classmates at Harvard. Its trading platform began operating in 2023, and according to the team, it was built without outside funding.

The Hyperliquid blockchain is built to run an exchange with onchain order books. It is secured by a custom proof-of-stake consensus protocol called HyperBFT, in which validators stake HYPE, and it is designed to confirm orders quickly.

The network has two main parts. HyperCore is the native trading engine, with order books for perpetual and spot markets. HyperEVM, which launched in February 2025, is a smart contract environment compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, so developers can build applications that run under the same consensus as the order books.

Hyperliquid is mainly used for trading perpetual and spot markets onchain, where every order and cancellation is recorded on the blockchain. Developers also use HyperEVM to build lending, trading and other DeFi applications, and HYPE is used for staking and for network fees.

HYPE has a maximum supply of 1 billion tokens. When the token launched on November 29, 2024, 31% of the supply, or 310 million HYPE, was distributed to eligible users in an airdrop. The project did not allocate tokens to private investors, centralized exchanges or market makers. Current circulating and total supply figures are shown at the top of this page.

HYPE began trading in November 2024 at a few dollars per token and rose sharply in the weeks after launch. The token set further records in 2025 and 2026, and you can see the full price history and the all-time high on the chart above.

Cointelegraph's Hyperliquid price index gives you the current HYPE to USD price and the numbers behind it: market cap, 24-hour volume, all-time high and year-to-date performance. Explore the price chart across six timeframes and use the HYPE to USD converter for quick calculations. HYPE is the token used to stake on the Hyperliquid network. For daily updates, see our Hyperliquid news page.