What is HIP-3?

HIP-3 is Hyperliquid's permissionless system for deploying perpetual futures markets. Anyone who stakes 500,000 HYPE can become a builder, launch their own perp venue on Hyperliquid's L1, and earn 50% of the trading fees their markets generate.

The result is an open marketplace of competing venues — each with its own asset selection, collateral type, fee structure, and product philosophy — all settling on Hyperliquid's L1 with the same wallet layer and onchain execution environment.

The market listing problem

On centralized exchanges like Binance, a listings team decides what gets a perpetual market. Demand for an asset does not guarantee a listing — you need the exchange to agree.

Decentralized exchanges have experimented with different approaches:

• dYdX — governance proposals and token holder votes determine new markets.
• GMX — a curated whitelist controlled by the team and community.
• Hyperliquid native perps — the core team selects high-quality markets. This produces excellent liquidity but limits coverage to mainstream assets.

The gap is obvious: traders want perpetuals on Pre-IPO stocks, commodities, forex pairs, and long-tail crypto — but no single listing team can or will cover all of them. HIP-3 fills that gap by making market deployment permissionless.

How HIP-3 works

The mechanics are straightforward:

1. Stake HYPE — a builder locks 500,000 HYPE (roughly $10M+) as a security bond. This stake can be slashed if the builder operates maliciously.
2. Deploy a DEX — the builder creates a perpetual venue on Hyperliquid's L1, choosing which assets to list, what collateral to accept, and how to structure fees.
3. Set up oracles — each market needs a price oracle. Builders can use standard feeds or build custom oracle systems (like Trade XYZ's 3-price Relayer Oracle or Ventuals' Optimistic Oracle for Pre-IPO valuations).
4. Earn fees — the builder receives 50% of all trading fees generated by their markets. The other 50% goes to the Hyperliquid protocol.

All trading happens natively on Hyperliquid's L1 blockchain. Users interact with the same wallet connection and settlement layer, but each builder's markets remain venue-specific with their own liquidity, collateral, and fee settings.

The coin format

Every HIP-3 market is identified by a builder:coin pair. For example:

• xyz:TSLA — Tesla perpetual on Trade XYZ
• hyna:BTC — Bitcoin perpetual on HyENA
• vntl:OPENAI — OpenAI Pre-IPO perpetual on Ventuals

This format matters because the same asset (like TSLA) can exist on multiple builders with different collateral, fees, and liquidity. The builder prefix tells you exactly which venue you are trading on.

The builder ecosystem

There are currently six active builders on HIP-3, each with a distinct strategy:

Most assets are exclusive

A critical pattern in HIP-3: the majority of assets are listed by only one builder. BTC perpetuals only exist on HyENA. OpenAI Pre-IPO only exists on Ventuals. S&P 500 index only exists on Trade XYZ.

A handful of popular assets — TSLA, GOLD, major indices — are available on multiple builders. For these overlapping markets, traders can compare fees, liquidity, and collateral to pick the best venue.

This means that your choice of builder is often determined by what you want to trade, not just by price or fees.

Collateral: your first decision

Before you trade on HIP-3, you need to pick a collateral type — or let the asset you want dictate it. Each builder accepts exactly one form of margin:

USDC — Trade XYZ

The most widely held stablecoin. If you are coming from a CEX and already hold USDC, Trade XYZ is the most frictionless entry point. No yield on idle margin, but the deepest asset coverage on HIP-3.

USDH — Kinetiq, Ventuals, Felix

The main stablecoin used across the Hyperliquid ecosystem. Three builders accept USDH, giving you the widest range of venues from a single collateral. USDH also qualifies for Hyperliquid's "aligned quote" fee discount — roughly 20% lower taker fees at the default fee tier shown on Hip3Hub.

USDe — HyENA

Ethena's synthetic dollar. The unique advantage: USDe can earn yield while sitting in your margin account. You earn passive income on top of your trading P&L. The trade-off is concentration risk — if USDe depegs, your margin is directly affected.

USDT — Dreamcash

The world's most liquid stablecoin and the default on every CEX. Dreamcash is the path of least resistance for traders who hold USDT and do not want to swap. No fee discounts, but maximum familiarity.

What HIP-3 means for traders

HIP-3 expands what is possible on Hyperliquid in several concrete ways:

More assets — over 130 perpetual markets spanning US stocks, global indices, commodities, forex, Pre-IPO companies, and crypto. Before HIP-3, Hyperliquid had roughly 30 native perp markets.

Collateral choice — you are no longer locked into a single margin type. Different builders serve different stablecoin preferences, each with distinct risk-reward profiles.

Competitive fees — builders compete for volume. Growth Mode offers up to 90% fee reduction on non-crypto, non-gold assets. Aligned collateral gets structural discounts. This competition drives costs down over time.

Specialized experiences — some builders optimize for specific niches. Ventuals builds oracle infrastructure for Pre-IPO valuations. HyENA integrates yield generation. Felix extends a lending ecosystem. This specialization means each builder can be best-in-class for its focus area.

How to navigate HIP-3

Hip3Hub is built to solve the discovery problem that HIP-3 creates. Here is how to use it:

1. Find an asset — go to Markets and search or filter by category (stocks, crypto, commodities, etc.) and collateral type.
2. Compare builders — for assets available on multiple builders, the asset detail page shows a side-by-side comparison of fees, leverage, and liquidity.
3. Choose a builder — use the Builder Selection Guide for personalized recommendations based on what you want to trade and what collateral you hold.
4. Trade — click any Trade button to jump directly to the Hyperliquid trading interface for that specific builder and asset.

Getting started

If you are new to HIP-3, here is a practical starting path:

1. Decide what to trade — stocks and commodities → Trade XYZ. Crypto → HyENA. Pre-IPO → Ventuals.
2. Check your collateral — holding USDC? Go with Trade XYZ. Holding USDH? You have three builders to choose from. Holding USDT? Dreamcash is your option.
3. Start small — use isolated margin and conservative leverage until you understand how the builder's markets behave.
4. Explore further — read the Builders Guide for detailed profiles of all six builders, or the Fees & Margin Guide to optimize your trading costs.