Open interest on Hyperliquid's HIP-3 platform reached an all-time high of $793 million on Monday. This figure marks an increase of 205 percent compared to the previous month, when open interest stood at $260 million.
HIP-3 has enabled permissionless creation of perpetual futures markets on the Hyperliquid blockchain since October 2025. Cumulative trading volume since launch amounts to $25 billion. Hyperliquid itself confirmed the record and pointed to a "surge in commodities trading" as the main driver. Meanwhile, the platform reports new all-time highs in HIP-3 open interest every week.
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Precious metals rally drives trading volume
The HIP-3 record coincides with historic price levels in precious metals. Gold broke through the $5,000 mark for the first time on January 25 and reached an intraday peak of $5,111 per ounce. At close, prices stood at $5,076. Silver simultaneously crossed the $100 threshold. As a result, gold has recorded a year-to-date performance of 17 percent in January 2026 alone.
Analysts describe the rally as a "debasement trade." Investors are fleeing fiat currencies and government bonds into hard assets. Geopolitical tensions, concerns about Federal Reserve independence, and ongoing tariff threats are amplifying the trend. Central banks are purchasing an average of 60 tons of gold per month, compared to 17 tons before 2022. Emerging market central banks are increasingly shifting their reserves away from dollar assets.
Major investment banks have raised their forecasts accordingly. Goldman Sachs expects $5,400 per ounce by December 2026. Bank of America sees $6,000 by spring 2026 as realistic. J.P. Morgan projects $5,000 in Q4 2026 but considers $6,000 possible long-term. UBS and Morgan Stanley are somewhat more conservative with estimates of $5,000 and $4,800 respectively.
TradeXYZ dominates the HIP-3 market
TradeXYZ, developed by the Hyperunit team, generates the majority of HIP-3 volume. Of the $25 billion total volume, more than $22 billion comes from the platform. TradeXYZ was the first deployer on HIP-3 and remains by far the largest player in the ecosystem.
Its flagship product XYZ100 tracks an index of the 100 largest U.S. non-financial companies. Market participants suspect the index mirrors Nasdaq 100 futures, but the exact composition is not fully documented. Currently, the contract shows $165 million in open interest and cumulative volume of $12.7 billion. Traders can use up to 20x leverage. And the market operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Silver perpetuals generate $3 billion in volume. Nvidia contracts account for $1.2 billion. On November 24, 2025, TradeXYZ reduced fees by 90 percent in "HIP-3 Growth Mode." Since then, the maximum fee has been below 0.009 percent. This likely accelerated volume growth further. The combination of low fees and high liquidity attracts both retail and institutional traders.
Permissionless market factory since October 2025
HIP-3 went live on the Hyperliquid mainnet on October 13, 2025. This upgrade transforms the platform from a single decentralized exchange (DEX) to a "permissionless market factory." Anyone can create new perpetual markets, provided they stake 500,000 HYPE tokens. At launch, this corresponded to a value of around $25 million.
The high entry barrier serves as spam protection and economic alignment. Deployers receive 50 percent of trading fees, and the protocol receives the other half. Users pay double the fees compared to validator-operated markets. This is because the deployer must operate and maintain the infrastructure themselves. Such a mechanism creates economic incentives for high-quality marketplaces.
Already in the first week after launch, HIP-3 achieved daily volume of $80 million and open interest of $70 million. Now, the mechanism opens access to traditional financial market assets such as equities, commodities, and currencies. These trillion-dollar markets previously had minimal on-chain presence. Hyperliquid is positioning itself as an infrastructure layer for tokenized real world assets (RWAs).
Hyperliquid expands market leadership
HIP-3 growth occurs against the backdrop of a dominant market position. Hyperliquid's total open interest across all markets stands at $9.6 billion. This represents a three-month high. As a result, the platform holds more open interest than all major competitors combined.
Aster, Lighter, Variational, edgeX, and Paradex together account for $7.3 billion. Hyperliquid alone holds $9.6 billion. The gap to the next largest competitor Aster at $2.8 billion is nearly fourfold. Weekly trading volume stands at $40.7 billion, monthly at approximately $166 billion. Hyperliquid controls roughly 70 percent of the entire decentralized perpetual futures market.
The user base grew to 1.4 million active participants. This represents an increase of 350 percent since 2024. Total value locked amounts to $4.4 billion. And growth shows no signs of slowing. While competitors lose volume, Hyperliquid continuously extends its lead.
Precious metals as a new DeFi segment
HIP-3 positions Hyperliquid as a bridge between traditional financial markets and decentralized infrastructure. Commodity perpetuals allow trading of gold, silver, and other precious metals without counterparty risk from centralized exchanges. The 24/7 availability eliminates trading halts of traditional markets. Traders can react to price movements even when CME or COMEX are closed.
This development reflects a broader trend. Institutional investors are seeking alternatives to traditional commodity exchanges. Decentralized platforms (DeFi) offer transparency, lower fees, and no trading interruptions. Still, the regulatory clarity that institutional investors typically demand is lacking. Hyperliquid operates largely outside traditional financial supervision.
The team behind TradeXYZ operates largely anonymously. Only the name "Shoku" is mentioned in community circles. Rumors about a connection to the Hyperliquid core team remain unconfirmed. Yet the platform has attracted billions in volume. Should the precious metals rally continue, interest in commodity perpetuals is likely to increase further. HIP-3 has established itself as the leading infrastructure for this emerging segment.
