Odaily Planet Daily reports that Hyperliquid’s RWA perpetual futures trading is growing rapidly, yet platform revenue continues to decline, creating a divergence between record trading volumes and shrinking platform retained income. Data shows that Hyperliquid’s open interest reached approximately $11 billion on July 13, setting a new high for 2026, with perpetual futures trading volume over the past 30 days nearing $178 billion and its share of global perpetual futures open interest rising to around 9%. Meanwhile, Hyperliquid’s protocol revenue has declined for four consecutive quarters, dropping from approximately $357 million in Q3 2025 to about $202 million in Q2 2026—a decline of roughly 43% from its peak.
Analysis suggests that one of the main reasons is the HIP-3 mechanism, which allows external developers who stake 500,000 HYPE to create their own perpetual futures markets and receive up to 50% of the trading fees. At the beginning of 2026, markets deployed by developers accounted for only about 2% of Hyperliquid’s perpetual trading volume; this has now risen to approximately half, indicating that an increasing share of trading revenue is being allocated to external developers.
Since approximately 97% of Hyperliquid’s trading fees are used to repurchase HYPE, a decline in platform revenue directly translates to reduced repurchase volume. As of Friday, the HYPE price stood at around $55, representing a roughly 28% decline from its all-time high of approximately $77 on June 16. Meanwhile, core contributors unlocked nearly 10 million HYPE on August 6, valued at approximately $550 million at the then-current price, with further unlock schedules continuing through 2027.
Overall, Hyperliquid's trading activity continues to grow rapidly, but the revenue diversion from HIP-3 is weakening the platform’s own profit growth and HYPE buyback support, and the prosperity of the RWA business has not yet fully translated into increased returns for HYPE holders. (CoinDesk)