Hyperliquid Surges: Overtakes Solana in Fees, Drives DeFi Growth

Hyperliquid, a decentralized perpetual futures trading platform, has emerged as a leader in the sector, surpassing Solana in 7-day fees. Launched in December 2024, Hyperliquid's own Layer-1 blockchain has generated significant interest and growth. This article explores the factors driving Hyperliquid's rapid rise and compares it to Solana's native token, SOL.

Hyperliquid's core offering is its perpetual futures DEX, which provides up to 50x leverage on various assets, including BTC, ETH, and SOL. The platform features a fully on-chain order book and zero gas fees, optimizing DeFi trading efficiency. Unlike Solana, which supports a broad range of decentralized applications (DApps), Hyperliquid's layer-1 is purpose-built for DeFi trading.

Hyperliquid's native token, HYPE, launched via an airdrop in November 2024, reached 94,000 unique addresses, signaling strong community adoption. However, concerns have been raised about the level of centralization on the Hyperliquid chain, with some critics pointing out that it controls 78% of the stake.

Hyperliquid generated $12.6 million in weekly fees, surpassing Solana ($11.8 million), Tron ($10.2 million), and Raydium ($9.8 million). This impressive feat was achieved in a short period, with Solana taking over three years to reach $12 million in fees. Hyperliquid's fee efficiency is notable, with just $638 million in TVL, a fraction of Uniswap's $4.22 billion. Despite its lower TVL, Hyperliquid's superior margins are evident in its fee generation.

A key differentiator is Hyperliquid's fee structure, which reinvests all fees into the community, funding HYPE buybacks and liquidity incentives. In contrast, Solana's fees are distributed across its ecosystem, with protocols like Jupiter and Raydium each surpassing $10 million in weekly revenue. This makes direct comparisons to Solana's base layer misleading.

Hyperliquid's $6.7 billion market cap faces challenges ahead, with token unlocks beginning in December 2025 and 47 million HYPE tokens set for distribution to core contributors in the first half of 2