Hyperliquid's Open Interest Climbs to $14.7 Billion, Approaching Level Seen Before Last Year's Crash

The number that matters: $14.669 billion

Hyperliquid's total open interest reached $14.669 billion as of September 10, according to CryptoRank, which cited DeFiLlama data. That's the highest reading since October 2025 and puts the decentralized exchange within roughly 3% of the $14.7 billion level it held right before the so-called "10/10 crash" on October 10, 2025, according to BigGo Finance and Bloomingbit, both citing reporting from The Block.

That crash was brutal. Open interest plunged 56% in a single trading session, falling from $14.7 billion to $6.5 billion, according to CoinCodex. It bottomed even lower in February 2026, around $4.76 billion, per CryptoRank, before climbing back roughly 210% over the following months.

HYPE hits a record, but the sourcing on the exact number varies

The platform's native token, HYPE, is having its best month in a while. CoinCodex reported the token hit an all-time high of $89.63 on September 6, up more than 50% for the month. Bloomingbit and BigGo Finance, both citing The Block, put the record closer to $88, with HYPE's market capitalization nearing $20 billion. Either way, HYPE is at record territory as of that date.

Where the money is actually coming from now

The composition of the rebound has shifted. HIP-3, a framework that lets outside developers build their own perpetual futures markets on Hyperliquid's infrastructure, drove much of the earlier recovery. Its share of total open interest rose from 18% in March 2026 to more than 34% in August, hitting a record $4.44 billion, according to Bloomingbit.

That's now reversing. Over the past three months, HIP-3 accounted for only about 15% of new open-interest growth. In the past 30 days alone, total open interest rose $3.57 billion while HIP-3 positions actually fell by $119 million, dropping its share of the total to roughly 25%, per BigGo Finance and Bloomingbit.

This shift matters for HYPE holders specifically. HIP-3 builders can keep up to half the trading fees generated on markets they deploy. Core crypto perpetual markets, by contrast, route close to 97% of fees toward HYPE buybacks through Hyperliquid's Assistance Fund, according to BigGo Finance. A dollar of activity moving back into core markets does more for token buybacks than a dollar sitting in a builder-run HIP-3 market.

Two named catalysts: Coinbase and Trump

The Block, cited by both Bloomingbit and CoinCodex, points to two specific developments behind the shift back to core markets. Coinbase began routing users of its Base app to Hyperliquid starting in mid-August. Separately, President Donald Trump said the Commodity Futures Trading Commission was working on a plan to bring Hyperliquid into the U.S. market in a way that complies with regulation, according to the same reporting. No formal CFTC rule or timeline has been announced in these sources. It's a statement of intent from Trump, not a completed regulatory action.

An analyst cited by BigGo Finance also attributed nearly $150 billion in cumulative trading volume on Hyperliquid to Jump Trading since December 2025, close to 8% of total exchange activity. This is a sign that large trading firms, not just retail, are driving volume.

Real-world-asset perpetuals

Hyperliquid's own account, @HyperliquidX, announced on August 28, 2026 that open interest in its real-world-asset perpetuals hit an all-time high of $3.6 billion, then about 33% of the platform's total $11 billion open interest at that time, according to KuCoin. Two days earlier, on August 26, Hyperliquid activated its AQAv2 reserve yield program, which directs roughly 90% of yield generated on $6.74 billion in USDC deposits toward HYPE buybacks. Zach Pandl of Grayscale has pointed to Hyperliquid's growth as positioning it as a genuine competitor to Binance in the perpetual futures market, per Crypto Briefing.

The risk calculus

Critics of leveraged derivatives platforms have a fair point here: open interest climbing back near a level that preceded a 56% single-day wipeout is not automatically good news. Hyperliquid's own chart analysis, cited by KuCoin, acknowledges that elevated open interest historically correlates with higher volatility risk, and that large liquidations become more impactful the higher OI climbs. Overleveraged positioning at or near an all-time-high OI level, in the platform's own words, "warrant[s] disciplined risk management."

Whether the current composition—more core-market activity, less HIP-3 leverage—makes the system more resilient than it was on October 10, 2025, is an open question none of the available reporting answers definitively. Open interest either will or will not break through the old $14.7 billion ceiling in the weeks ahead.