Hyperliquid "Invades" Wall Street: On-Chain Whale Paradise Faces Direct Compliance Pressure

On-Chain Finance Narratives Are Rapidly Going Global

In less than a week, multiple mainstream media outlets have turned their attention to Hyperliquid. This Perp DEX, originally focused on crypto derivatives, is entering its “breakout moment,” with decentralized pricing becoming a hot topic on Wall Street. As on-chain trading volume continues to grow, balancing decentralized innovation with regulatory compliance is becoming an unavoidable challenge.

HIP-3 Invades Mainstream Finance: Hyperliquid Is a Whale Paradise

As a leading Perp DEX, Hyperliquid is steadily widening its lead over competitors and gradually becoming an emerging infrastructure force in mainstream financial markets.

According to DeFiLlama data, as of March 16, Hyperliquid’s monthly trading volume reached $173.42 billion, far surpassing similar platforms.

Trading in RWA (Real-World Assets) has recently become a major growth driver for Hyperliquid. Platform data shows that in the past 24 hours alone, perpetual contract trading volume hit $5.4 billion, with HIP-3 segment contributing about 21.3% (around $1.15 billion).

HIP-3 deploys perpetual futures markets for commodities, stock indices, and other asset classes. Among these traditional assets on HIP-3, WTI crude oil, silver, Brent crude, and XYZ100 are the most in demand and active, with WTI crude oil’s daily trading volume accounting for over 35% of the total.

Behind the rapid expansion of trading volume are large whales flooding into Hyperliquid, which now has over 1.729 million global users. According to further analysis by Hyperliquid Hub, a data service for Hyperliquid’s ecosystem, the total trading volume has reached an astonishing $4.11 trillion, with the top 100 addresses contributing over $3.34 trillion—81.3% of total volume. The top 200 addresses account for nearly 98.81%, with the remaining addresses only about 1.19%.

This indicates that Hyperliquid is not a playground for retail traders but is dominated by a small number of well-funded, highly active traders, including institutions, whales, high-frequency traders, and professional market makers.

Furthermore, the number of independent traders on HIP-3 has exceeded 1.85 million (note: the same wallet connected on different days counts as separate wallets). In the past month alone, over 810,000 new traders have joined, further confirming the demand for tokenized assets trading.

The recent surge in HIP-3 activity is directly linked to the US-Iran conflict, making Hyperliquid a new hub for macro trading worldwide. Mainstream media outlets like Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, and Fortune have recently reported on Hyperliquid’s crude oil contracts, citing them as relevant price references. They noted that before CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) opened on Monday, Hyperliquid had already completed price discovery over the weekend, becoming a real-time window for global macro assets.

By seizing pricing power over TradFi, filling liquidity gaps, and addressing macro hedging needs, Hyperliquid is truly beginning to “invade” mainstream financial markets.

Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise, also stated that the US-Iran incident has made the 24/7 crypto market a focus of attention. Previously, if a major geopolitical shock occurred on Sunday morning, investors would wait until the US futures market opened at 6 pm on Sunday (Eastern Time) to gauge its impact. Now, they can directly turn to around-the-clock on-chain trading platforms to execute trades in real time. The shift of finance onto the blockchain is an irreversible trend—like a ball rolling downhill, unstoppable and faster than expected. However, participating in on-chain markets still involves barriers, including familiarity with wallets, stablecoins, and platforms like Hyperliquid and Uniswap. (Related reading: Beyond Wall Street Time, Traditional Asset Pricing Power Shifts to the Chain)

In response to this rapid growth of on-chain finance, traditional players like Nasdaq and CME are also beginning to develop tokenized trading businesses to seize future market opportunities.

Crypto Perpetual Futures May Launch in the US Next Month: Hyperliquid Faces Regulatory Challenges

Since last year, the liquidity of the Perp DEX market has seen significant explosive growth.

CoinGecko’s recent report indicates that by 2025, DEX perpetual contracts will soar to $6.7 trillion, a 346% increase from the previous year, while CEX holdings have decreased by 20.8%. This trend is driven by the rise of perpetual DEXs like Hyperliquid and Lighter, reflecting a large-scale capital shift from centralized exchanges to DEXs.

The gradually clearer regulatory environment is further expanding the development space for perpetual contracts, encouraging more mainstream capital to enter this field. Recently, CFTC Chairman Mike Selig publicly discussed the regulatory progress of crypto perpetual futures and prediction markets. He stated that the CFTC is working to introduce real perpetual futures in the US and expects to announce relevant policies within about a month to attract liquidity back to the US and provide better investor protections. Selig also pointed out that due to regulatory uncertainty in the past, much liquidity flowed overseas, and the CFTC is working with SEC Chair Paul Atkins on Project Crypto to coordinate digital asset regulation reforms.

However, clearer regulation could also lead to another outcome. If compliance requirements break the permissionless, trustless nature of on-chain trading, the core appeal of Perp DEXs may diminish significantly, facing competition from compliant crypto platforms and traditional financial institutions.

For many users, besides incentives, self-custody, capital efficiency, and hedging needs, the absence of KYC remains a key reason for capital to flow into on-chain trading.

For example, on-chain analyst Eye previously noted that some institutional traders active on Hyperliquid showed clear discomfort after their wallets were identified, even pressuring analysts to stop disclosing information, likely due to concerns over potential losses being exposed.

If Hyperliquid aims to be recognized as a legitimate participant in the new financial system, it may have to accept and comply with relevant regulations. Especially given past controversies involving token manipulation and insider trading, regulatory pressure is likely to increase further.

To address these challenges, Hyperliquid established the Hyperliquid Policy Center in Washington, D.C., in February, with veteran crypto lawyer Jake Chervinsky serving as its first CEO. The center aims to create legal pathways for DeFi adoption in the US, helping Congress and federal agencies understand DeFi’s underlying technology and providing expert support for regulatory rulemaking.

Chervinsky stated that the current regulatory framework was built in a “simulation era” and is ill-equipped to cover new types of decentralized protocols. One of the center’s primary tasks is to develop a legal framework for perpetual contracts. To support its operations, Hyperliquid’s associated foundation has donated 1 million platform native tokens, HYPE (currently worth about $28 million), to fund the center.

Hyperliquid co-founder Jeff Yan emphasized in a recent interview that he hopes the platform “will always be used,” rather than fading away with market hype. He also distinguished Hyperliquid Labs from the Hyperliquid platform and ecosystem, aiming to make Hyperliquid a neutral financial platform that provides sustainable infrastructure for on-chain perpetual contracts and DeFi development.

As DeFi seeks to challenge traditional finance, compliance has become a prerequisite for unlocking larger markets. This is not only a test for Hyperliquid but also a reality that other DEXs and the entire DeFi sector must face.