Hyperliquid open interest has climbed back to $14.3 billion, putting the decentralized exchange within striking distance of its levels just before one of crypto’s most brutal trading days.
The figure, reached Sunday, is less than 3% below the $14.7 billion recorded on Oct. 10, 2025. That day ended very differently: Hyperliquid’s open interest plunged roughly 56%, falling to $6.5 billion in a single session.
Nearly a year later, the recovery looks less like a straight line and more like a changing cast of characters.
Hyperliquid open interest is rising, but the mix has changed
The first major leg of the rebound came from HIP-3, Hyperliquid’s framework for third-party markets. Its share of total open interest rose from 18% in March 2026 to more than 34% by August.
HIP-3 open interest itself reached a record above $4.44 billion in August. Over the previous six months, it accounted for about 30% of Hyperliquid’s $8.47 billion increase in total open interest.
But that story has started to turn.
Over the past three months, HIP-3 contributed just 15% of the increase in total open interest. In the last month alone, Hyperliquid’s overall open interest expanded by $3.57 billion while HIP-3 open interest dropped by $119 million.
Its share of total open interest has also fallen sharply, from 34% a month ago to 25% now.
That shift points toward a renewed appetite for Hyperliquid’s core crypto perpetual contracts rather than continued expansion in the markets created through HIP-3.
Two developments appear to have helped set that move in motion.
In mid-August, Coinbase began directing users of its Base App toward Hyperliquid, effectively adding a new retail route into the exchange. Around the same time, President Trump said the CFTC was working on a compliant way to bring Hyperliquid onshore.
For HYPE holders, though, the composition of that growth matters almost as much as the headline number.
HIP-3 builders can retain as much as half of the trading fees generated by the markets they launch. That creates a very different economic outcome from activity flowing through Hyperliquid’s own crypto perpetuals.
The difference shows up in the platform’s numbers. Hyperliquid’s gross revenue peaked at $457 million in the third quarter of 2025 before falling to $202 million in the second quarter of 2026.
Over the same period, purchases for the Assistance Fund declined from $290 million to $149 million.
The backdrop is notable because HIP-3 has been taking a larger slice of total open interest while revenue and fund purchases have moved lower.
Core crypto perpetuals, meanwhile, send roughly 97% of the fees they generate toward HYPE buybacks. In practical terms, that makes a dollar of open interest returning to those markets substantially more valuable to HYPE than a dollar coming from a builder-run HIP-3 market.
HYPE is taking notice
The market has responded accordingly.
HYPE was trading around $88 at the time of writing, a new all-time high, giving the token a market capitalization of nearly $20 billion. The price is up more than 50% this month.
That makes the latest Hyperliquid open interest surge more than a recovery statistic. It also reflects a change in where activity is coming from—and, by extension, how much of that activity can feed back into the economics surrounding HYPE.
After the violent reset of October 2025, Hyperliquid is back near its old open-interest peak. But the more interesting question may be what is powering the rebound this time.