Could Hyperliquid Be the Next Robinhood?

Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ: HOOD) made its name by turning stock and options investing into a sleek and gamified experience for an entire generation of investors. From the launch of its zero-commission trading in 2015 to reaching $4.5 billion in annual revenue in 2025, the company is proof that lowering friction and giving customers what they want can create an enormous amount of value for shareholders. Its stock is up by 750% in the last three years alone. Now, a crypto project is making a similar bet, and it's growing fast enough to earn a comparison with Robinhood.

Hyperliquid (CRYPTO: HYPE) is a blockchain that's built for perpetual futures, a type of financial derivative that offers continuous leveraged price exposure to an underlying asset without the constraint of the contract's eventual expiration. With a market cap near $12 billion and $961 million in protocol fees in 2025, it has become the dominant venue for decentralized derivatives in the crypto sector.

Let's see how deep this resemblance to Robinhood goes, because if it's substantial, Hyperliquid could be a great investment.

Image source: Getty Images.

This is a familiar playbook, but it's accelerated

Robinhood's key insight was that millions of investors wanted market access but were blocked by frictions like paying trading commissions and having to navigate clunky interfaces replete with dead ends and often confusing financial terminology.

Hyperliquid identified a similar complex of issues. Perpetual futures contracts were only available on centralized exchanges that mandated custody of users' funds. Those exchanges were also very conservative in terms of which contracts they'd list, and how much leverage they'd provide to users.

Today, the platform commands upwards of 60% of on-chain derivative open interest globally. In 2025, it processed an impressive $2.9 trillion in activity. Around 97% of the trading fees are funneled into buybacks of the HYPE token, meaning that platform usage directly benefits the token's holders. In the first quarter of this year, it repurchased $192 million worth of HYPE. All the repurchased tokens were burned, reducing the coin's circulating supply and boosting the value of holders' tokens.

For what it's worth, that tight link and easy-to-understand linkage between Hyperliquid's revenue and holder value is far more direct than with a traditional stock's earnings, so it's a design that could influence the future of cryptocurrency platforms broadly.

There are a couple of catches

Hyperliquid could have what it takes to be the next Robinhood, but that doesn't mean it's going to be precisely the same. It was only launched in 2023, and its markets have been full of powerful and large competitors, including Robinhood, from the get-go.

Furthermore, Robinhood is a publicly traded company, so buying its stock means owning a fractional claim on it. The HYPE token isn't the same as equity, and there's no legal obligation for the protocol to keep directing fees to holders. That distinction may become more relevant over time, and perhaps that's detrimental to Hyperliquid in a way.

Nonetheless, Hyperliquid's buybacks and its innovative platform echo Robinhood's early trajectory. If you're interested in holding a highly risky altcoin, it's worth looking into.

Alex Carchidi has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Hyperliquid. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.