The Dark Horse Journey of Hyperliquid: Insights into the Rise Logic of the On-Chain Derivatives Dominator | Gate Research Institute This summary is generated by AI. Hyperliquid occupies 80% of the market share in the on-chain futures market, driving the expansion of the derivatives market. Despite facing attacks, the platform's TVL has rebounded to $478 million, with a trading volume reaching $1.98 trillion. Its liquidity is primarily driven by whale funds, and the user experience is close to that of a centralized exchange. The HYPE token airdrop strategy successfully attracts a large number of users, driving the expansion of the platform ecosystem. Summary • Market share gap leads to rapid growth driving industry expansion: Hyperliquid's market share in the on-chain futures market reaches 80%, far exceeding the second place. This leading position strongly promotes the expansion of the entire on-chain derivatives market, with DEX's market share in global futures trading increasing from 2.7% at the beginning of 2024 to 8.22% in July 2025. • Core platform data remains strong: Despite experiencing protocol attacks, Hyperliquid's TVL has rebounded to $478 million (as of July 17, 2025), with cumulative derivatives trading volume exceeding $1.98 trillion, a single-day peak of $18.9 billion, and an annual income of approximately $850 million, ranking among the top in on-chain protocols. • Whale funds dominate liquidity: Hyperliquid's core liquidity is driven by a few high-net-worth users. 118 wallets with over $50 million (Leviathan) collectively hold positions worth up to $6.82 billion, and large wallets (such as Tidal Whale and Leviathan) have significantly higher position opening activity than retail investors, with over 87% and 92% respectively maintaining open positions. • On-chain CEX-level experience: Hyperliquid achieves a CEX-like millisecond trading experience through its self-developed high-performance Layer 1 chain and native on-chain order book, combined with user experience optimizations such as no Gas mode and fee-free open orders, while maintaining complete on-chain verifiability. It successfully attracts top professional market makers and quantitative institutions with an open matching API, local simulation matching sandbox, up to 50x leverage, and extremely low fees (maker 0.01%, taker 0.035%). • HYPE airdrop ignites user growth and unique growth flywheel: Hyperliquid's HYPE token genesis airdrop totals $620 million, attracting 94,000 addresses to participate. In the two days following the airdrop, approximately 14,619 new addresses were added, far exceeding the previous monthly total, fully confirming the immense success of its points strategy. This success is built on a precise "anti-VC" narrative, high leverage, extreme fees, and the HIP-1 auction mechanism, creating a strong user growth and market recognition system. • The "living advertisement" effect of whales: The transparency of on-chain position opening information makes whale positions visible, allowing well-known traders like James Wynn to publicly disclose large holdings, attracting follow-up funds and forming a positive feedback loop of "position-emotion-price." • Strategic expansion and token utility enhancement: The launch of HyperEVM successfully attracts a large number of DeFi projects for deployment. This not only expands the application scenarios of the HYPE token (such as paying Gas fees, borrowing, staking, etc.) but also brings more fee income, forming a virtuous cycle between HYPE value and platform ecosystem expansion. (Click below to obtain the full report) Gate Research Institute is a comprehensive blockchain and cryptocurrency research platform that provides readers with in-depth content, including technical analysis, hot insights, market reviews, industry research, trend forecasts, and macroeconomic policy analysis. Disclaimer: Investing in the cryptocurrency market involves high risks, and users are advised to conduct independent research and fully understand the nature of the assets and products they purchase before making any investment decisions. Gate does not take responsibility for any losses or damages resulting from such investment decisions.