The decentralized, permanent futures trading sector has a new leader: high lipids (hype). Released in December 2024, Hyperliquid has its own Layer-1 blockchain that surpasses Solana for a 7-day fee.
What drives rapid growth, and how does the hype compare to Solana’s native tokensol (SOL)?
Protocol ranked on a 7-day fee. Source: Defilama
Hyperliquid’s core product is a permanent futures Dex, allowing traders to access up to 50x leverage on BTC, ETH, SOL and other assets. It features a completely on-chain order book and zero gas fees. Unlike Solana, which supports a wide range of distributed applications (DAPPS), Hyperliquid’s Layer-1 is built with the aim of optimizing Defi trading efficiency.
High lipids raise concerns about centralization, but fees are stacked
Hype, the native token of Hyperliquid, was launched via Airdrop in November 2024 and reached 94,000 unique addresses. This distribution promotes a market capitalization of $2 billion on the first day, indicating strong community adoption. However, critics like Lawrencechiu14 have raised concerns about the centralisation level of high lipid chains, pointing to controlling 78% of the stock.
Source: Lawrencechiu14
High lipids generated a weekly fee of $12.6 million, surpassing Solana ($11.8 million), Tron ($10.2 million) and Raydium ($9.8 million), according to Defillama. For comparison, Solana took over three years and reached a $12 million fee (March 2024), while Raydium required 18 months.
Hyperliquid’s price efficiency is notable, with only $638 million for TVL, part of Raydium’s $1.25 billion half and Uniswap’s $4.22 billion. Top DEX, UniSwap, won $22.8 million during the same period, but the higher the TVL, the more it emphasizes a superior margin of high lipids.
According to Kambenbrik, another point of the conflict is the centralized API and closed binary resources. These issues need to be carefully considered before determining the long-term potential of hype.
High lipids have repurchases, but Solana offers a wider range of daps
The main differentiator is the price structure of hypertrophy. All fees are reinvested in the community, and according to the documents it funds hype buybacks and liquidity incentives. In contrast, Solana’s fees are distributed throughout its ecosystem, with protocols like Jupiter and Raydium each exceeding $10 million a week. This misleads a direct comparison with the basic layer of Solana.
Hyperliquid’s market capitalization of $6.7 billion – the out-paced challenge of Uniswap ($4.7 billion) and Jupiter ($1.8 billion). Token Unlock begins in December 2025 and could put pressure on the hype prices. Additionally, 47 million hype tokens have been set up for distribution to core contributors in the first half of 2026, accounting for $940 million at its current valuation.
Hyperliquid’s rise also puts pressure on Solana as some of its top Dexs, including Jupiter and Drift Protocol, will offer derivative transactions. Solana is a diverse DAPP ecosystem with yield aggregators and liquid staking, benefiting from deep integration with major Web3 wallets such as Phantom and Solflare, but Hyperliquid’s hype repurchase program helps offset these benefits.
For Solana, the real challenge is not just lipids, but the broader trend in the Defi protocol to launch its own Layer-1 blockchain. If this continues, it could lead to a lower demand for Solana’s scalability. SOL holders need to closely monitor high lipid growth and other emerging chains like bellachine.
In the near future, high lipids could face competition from Berps, Berchain’s permanent futures trading platform. Currently, BERP handles less than $3 million in daily volume, but has already accumulated open profits of $185 million, indicating a growing interest from traders.
Today, Hyperliquid’s daily $9 billion volume remains unparalleled in the DEX industry. Due to the fee structure and buyback mechanism, it is difficult for competitors to release liquidity through vampire attacks. Therefore, there is a bullish momentum of hype.
This article is for general informational purposes and is not intended to be considered legal or investment advice, and should not be done. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or express Cointregraph’s views and opinions.
