HIP-3 turns market creation into something anyone with enough stake can do, rather than something only the exchange decides.
Before HIP-3, the perpetual markets available on Hyperliquid were determined through the platform's own listing process.
HIP-3 opened that up: independent teams, called builders or deployers, can launch new perpetual markets that settle natively on Hyperliquid's shared order book and liquidity.
One analyst framing that stuck: HIP-3 makes Hyperliquid behave "more like Amazon Web Services than a stock exchange."
It is infrastructure other people build on top of, not just a fixed menu of markets.
How HIP-3 Works
The framework has a few defining pieces:
Staking to deploy. To launch markets under HIP-3, a builder stakes a large amount of HYPE, Hyperliquid's token (500,000 HYPE, worth roughly $25 million at launch). This ties market creation to real economic commitment and to demand for HYPE.
Builder-operated markets. Each builder runs its own markets, sets leverage caps, and supplies the price oracle that anchors its perps to the underlying asset.
Shared settlement. Despite being builder-deployed, the markets settle on Hyperliquid's core order book, so they inherit the platform's execution and liquidity rather than starting from zero.
Fee split. HIP-3 perps carry their own fee structure, with a share routed to the deploying builder, which is the incentive for builders to create and maintain quality markets.
The high stake requirement is deliberate, though it has drawn debate (covered below). Hyperliquid's own documentation has signaled that the threshold is expected to fall as the infrastructure matures.
Timeline: How HIP-3 Grew
October 2025: HIP-3 goes live on mainnet, opening permissionless market deployment.
Late 2025: TradeXYZ (built by the Hyperunit team) becomes the first major deployer, launching 24/7 perpetuals on US equities and a synthetic Nasdaq-style index.
March 2026: TradeXYZ secures an official license from S&P Dow Jones Indices to run the first licensed S&P 500 perpetual. HIP-3 open interest passes $1.4 billion.
May 2026: TradeXYZ introduces Pre-IPO perpetuals; HIP-4, a separate framework for outcome and prediction markets, launches.
June 2026: HIP-3 open interest surpasses $3.2 billion; on peak days, HIP-3 markets account for close to half of Hyperliquid's total volume.
By mid-2026, tokenized real-world assets occupied the majority of Hyperliquid's top markets by open interest, and non-crypto markets showed strong trader retention, a sign of durable use rather than a launch spike.
What Can You Trade Through HIP-3?
HIP-3's most visible impact has been bringing traditional assets onchain as perpetuals:
Single-stock perps: NVDA, TSLA, AAPL, MSFT, GOOGL, AMZN
Index perps: a synthetic Nasdaq-style index (XYZ100) and a licensed S&P 500 perpetual
Commodity perps: gold and silver benchmarked to COMEX front-month futures, plus others
Pre-IPO perps: exposure to companies before they publicly list
The dominant equity and commodity builder as of 2026 is TradeXYZ, which has accounted for the large majority of HIP-3 open interest, with others such as Felix operating alongside it. For the trading mechanics of these markets, see how to trade stock perps on Hyperliquid and tokenized commodities.
Why HIP-3 Matters
It made Hyperliquid a macro venue. Crypto derivatives were the start; through HIP-3, Hyperliquid became a place to trade equities, commodities, and indices 24/7. See why traders are moving to Hyperliquid.
It scales market coverage. Instead of the platform listing every market itself, builders extend coverage, which is how the venue added dozens of real-world-asset markets quickly.
It ties growth to HYPE. Because deploying requires staking HYPE, platform expansion is linked directly to token demand.
It keeps everything onchain and transparent. HIP-3 markets settle on Hyperliquid's public order book, so positioning and liquidations stay visible, an edge covered below.
The Trade-offs and Risks
HIP-3 is powerful, and it is not without tension:
Deployer concentration. One builder has held the large majority of HIP-3 open interest, so the framework is permissionless in principle but concentrated in practice. Proposals exist to lower the stake for smaller builders.
Oracle dependence. Each HIP-3 market relies on its deployer's price oracle. Oracle quality varies, and it matters, especially in fast or thin markets.
Leverage and liquidation. These are perpetual futures. Positions can be liquidated, and leverage cuts both ways.
Regulatory ambiguity. Some HIP-3 markets, particularly synthetic equity perps, sit in an evolving regulatory landscape, and availability differs by jurisdiction. Understand what applies to you.
How to Read HIP-3 Markets with Onchain Data
Because HIP-3 markets settle on Hyperliquid's public order book, their positioning is visible, the same way crypto perps are.
With Nansen, that data becomes legible: activity cross-referenced against 500M+ labeled addresses, so you can see whether Smart Money is positioned long or short in a given HIP-3 market, how open interest is trending, and where funding sits, before you act.
FAQ: HIP-3
What is HIP-3 on Hyperliquid? A framework that lets independent builders deploy their own perpetual futures markets on Hyperliquid, settling on the platform's shared order book. It enabled onchain perps for stocks, commodities, and indices.
What does HIP stand for? Hyperliquid Improvement Proposal. HIP-3 is the third such proposal to be implemented as a core framework, focused on permissionless market deployment.
Who can deploy a market under HIP-3? Any builder that stakes the required amount of HYPE (500,000 at launch, roughly $25 million then). The threshold is expected to fall over time.
When did HIP-3 launch? It went live on Hyperliquid mainnet in October 2025.
How is HIP-3 different from HIP-4? HIP-3 covers continuous perpetual markets for assets whose price moves all day. HIP-4, launched May 2026, adds a separate framework for outcome and prediction markets tied to discrete events.
Is HIP-3 risky? The markets are leveraged perpetuals with liquidation risk, depend on each builder's oracle, and some sit in an evolving regulatory landscape. Treat them accordingly.
Conclusion
HIP-3 is the framework that turned Hyperliquid from a crypto perps exchange into a permissionless, 24/7 venue for stocks, commodities, and indices.
It is the infrastructure behind the tokenized-asset wave, and its markets, being fully onchain, come with a transparency edge that traditional venues cannot match.
