Under Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 rules, builders must stake 500,000 Hyperliquid (HYPE) tokens to open a perpetual futures exchange, gaining control of market settings while putting their stake at risk.
Hyperion DeFi, Inc. said in a filing that HIP-3 went live in Oct. 2025. Hyperliquid’s protocol documentation allows one exchange for each qualifying stake. Its first three asset listings require no auction; additional listings generally go through a Dutch auction, adding a potential cost for builders expanding their markets.
A deployer chooses contract terms and oracle arrangements, sets oracle prices and leverage limits, and can halt and settle markets. Traders’ orders determine execution prices in Hyperliquid’s order books. The network provides the order-book and margining infrastructure, while builders make the decisions that shape their markets.
The tokens must remain staked for at least 183 days after deployment. Validators can vote to slash the stake for malicious market operation. Deployers may receive a configurable share of fees, but must commit capital and accept the risk of losing some of it. The staking and slashing rules are intended to protect market quality.
Perpetual futures have no fixed expiration date. To help track the referenced asset’s price, long and short traders exchange payments periodically. HIP-3 markets can reference equities, commodities and indexes without issuing those assets.
Deployment permission does not establish who can trade through a particular interface. In a joint SEC comment letter, the Hyperliquid Policy Center and XYZ Ltd. (trade[XYZ]) said trade[XYZ] does not offer markets to U.S. persons and uses geoblocking, wallet screening and related controls. Hyperliquid Labs co-founder and CEO Jeff Yan has argued that firms configuring markets should carry U.S. regulatory obligations, as EconoTimes previously reported on his position.
A separate U.S. decision concerned a different product. On May 29, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approved KalshiEX, LLC’s BTCPERP contract, tied to Bitcoin (BTC), for listing. That order did not approve HIP-3 markets. The CFTC also invited voluntary review submissions for proposed perpetual contracts tied to other assets, including precious metals and equity securities.
