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Hyperliquid’s RWA perps growth coincides with falling protocol revenue
Open interest topped $11 billion on July 13, but gross protocol revenue dropped about 43% from its third-quarter 2025 peak to roughly $202 million in the second quarter of 2026.
Hyperliquid saw a sharp rise in activity tied to real-world asset perps, with open interest climbing to just above $11 billion on July 13, its highest level in 2026. Over the prior 30 days, perpetual futures volume neared $178 billion, and Hyperliquid settled about 9% of all open perp positions worldwide, up from under 7% in late May, according to data cited by CoinDesk. Even as leverage demand grew, Hyperliquid’s revenue moved in the opposite direction. Gross protocol revenue peaked at roughly $357 million in the third quarter of 2025 and fell each quarter thereafter to nearly $295 million, about $217 million, and then roughly $202 million in the second quarter of 2026, the outlet reported, a 43% decline from the peak even as trade count increased. CoinDesk points to Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 fee-sharing change as a key driver of the gap between volume and revenue. Since October 2025, builders that stake 500,000 HYPE, worth about $28 million at current prices, can deploy their own perpetual futures markets on Hyperliquid’s order books and receive up to half of the trading fees. The builder-driven markets accounted for about 2% of Hyperliquid’s perp volume at the start of 2026, and then rose to roughly half. The outlet also said the pass-through is reflected in Hyperliquid’s financial statements, with cost of revenue rising from under 6% of gross revenue in the second quarter of 2025 to 18% a year later. It added that this system routes activity into tokenized RWA contracts that can settle in stablecoins, never expire, and keep trading through weekends when traditional exchanges are closed, helping drive record open interest in real-world asset perps to $3.6 billion this month.