Hyperliquid's RWA trading volume exceeds 50% with a 10% fee discount

Authors: Carlos & Toma

Compiled by Deep潮 TechFlow

DeepChain Overview: Hyperliquid’s TradeXYZ has captured the traditional finance perpetuals market by offering trading fees at a 90% discount (0.9 bps vs. 9 bps), with RWA trading volume surpassing 50% within two weeks. This “capture market share first, monetize later” strategy has proven successful: priority fee revenue has already exceeded 80% of direct trading fees from HIP-3, while the platform holds $5.7 billion in USDC earning interest. In the two weeks prior to the listing of Chinese chip stock CXMT, TradeXYZ predicted its opening price within a 2.6% margin of error, while traditional institutions’ forecast range was 45–75 yuan (a 66% error margin). This demonstrates that crypto-native infrastructure is not only capable of trading cryptocurrencies—it can also effectively price real-world assets.

Global risk assets tumbled on Monday, with Bitcoin closing down 2.4%, while stocks, gold, and oil also declined in sync—an uncommon synchronized drop.

Chart: Global risk assets declined in unison on July 27, comparing intraday movements of BTC, gold, Nasdaq 100, and S&P 500

The intensification of selling pressure comes against the backdrop of the Federal Reserve’s FOMC meeting this Wednesday. After inflation data came in below expectations two weeks ago, the probability of a rate hike on CME FedWatch dropped sharply, but has now climbed back to 40%. Following Monday’s close, Bloomberg reported that Citadel Securities viewed an “unexpected rate hike” as a real possibility, prompting accelerated selling.

Chart: CME FedWatch shows the probability of a July rate hike rising from 16.0% a week ago to 36.3%.

Looking at the sectors, only three indices rose on Monday: the 2025 Crypto Stocks Index (+1.6%), the Solana Ecosystem Index (+1.5%), and the Launchpad Index (+0.4%).

Chart: Daily performance ranking by sector; only the 2025 Crypto Stocks, Solana Ecosystem, and Launchpad indices rose.

The perpetual contract index (-6.1%) was among the largest decliners, primarily due to HYPE's sharp drop. Although Hyperliquid's exchange metrics (analyzed in detail by Carlos below) remain strong, HYPE is facing dual pressures from large-scale unstaking requests and regulatory concerns.

Chart: Pending unstaking volume for HYPE has surged, with approximately 7.4 million HYPE expected to unlock before next weekend.

Before next weekend, 7.4 million HYPE tokens (approximately $400 million) are expected to unlock, including allocations from funds such as Multicoin Capital. Although Multicoin clarified that these tokens will not be sold and are merely part of routine wallet management, HYPE is still experiencing selling pressure.

TradeXYZ successfully transitioned this week from pre-IPO price discovery to a live public market.

On July 14, TradeXYZ launched a pre-IPO market for SMIC, a Chinese chip manufacturer, ahead of its listing on the Shanghai STAR Market. For nearly two weeks prior to the stock’s public trading, Hyperliquid users gained exposure and continuously priced its anticipated market capitalization.

At open, the contract's implied price was approximately RMB 48.20, just 2.6% below CXMT’s opening price of RMB 49.50. Given that the pre-IPO public price prediction range was RMB 45–75, this strongly demonstrates the effectiveness of the perpetual contract as a real-time price discovery tool prior to the IPO.

More importantly, CXMT once again demonstrates that RWA is becoming central to Hyperliquid. For the second consecutive week, RWA has been the leading category by futures trading volume, accounting for over 50% of weekly trading volume.

Chart: Hyperliquid Perpetual Contract Trading Volume Composition, RWA Share Exceeds 50% for Two Consecutive Weeks

TradeXYZ also set a record of $3.76 billion in open interest on Sunday, bringing Hyperliquid's total open interest to $11.42 billion.

Chart: Hyperliquid's total open interest in perpetual contracts reached a new high of $11.42 billion, with significant contribution from Trade[XYZ]

It’s worth noting that the TradeXYZ market is still in growth mode, with a 90% reduction in protocol fees. The base taker fee is approximately 0.9 basis points, compared to the standard rate of 9 basis points. I don’t expect this to change in the short term. Traditional finance perpetuals are still in their early stages; liquidity attracts liquidity, and maintaining the platform’s leadership may be more valuable than maximizing near-term fee rates. Even after the growth phase ends, applying the full standard rate may be unreasonable for highly competitive equity and index markets.

Nevertheless, discounted trading fees do not indicate weak monetization potential for this initiative. The HIP-3 market also generates revenue through priority fees, as traders and market makers compete for low-latency and priority order packaging. On certain days, priority fee revenue has exceeded 80% of the direct trading fee revenue from HIP-3. Thus, Hyperliquid can monetize the growing RWA activity through its order sorting stack while maintaining low surface trading fees.

Chart: Hyperliquid's daily funding fee revenue has multiple times exceeded HIP-3 direct trading fee revenue.

More broadly, Hyperliquid is diversifying how users trade and how the protocol generates revenue. Native crypto perpetuals remain the core business, but HIP-3 has expanded trading volume to RWA assets, priority fees monetize execution and ordering competition, and approximately $5.7 billion in USDC held within the ecosystem creates another significant revenue stream through yield sharing.

Chart: Change in the supply of Hyperliquid ecosystem stablecoin (USDC), with HyperEVM funds rapidly increasing

CXMT is the latest evidence that this strategy is working: Hyperliquid is evolving from a crypto perpetuals exchange into infrastructure for broader financial markets. Shaunda will release an in-depth report on the growing importance of funding rates in the coming days—stay tuned.

Hyperliquid and Multicoin Capital submitted a comment letter supporting the CFTC’s proposed framework for prediction markets, arguing that event contracts fall under the Commission’s exclusive federal jurisdiction and should not be fragmented across state gambling regimes. The letter emphasized that Hyperliquid’s HIP-4 result contracts are fully collateralized on-chain instruments capable of enabling prediction markets without leverage or liquidations. The letter recommended two modifications to the final rule. First, the CFTC should formally adopt a settlement-based definition to determine when a contract “involves” gaming or other restricted activities, and provide additional examples. Second, regulators should publish their reasoning after each contract review, including when markets are permitted to proceed, so that builders can rely on a consistent body of regulatory precedent.