Hyperliquid Unveils HIP-3 Upgrade: Users Can Now Launch Custom Perpetual Futures Exchanges

Hyperliquid (HYPE), a Layer-1 platform that has made notable strides in the cryptocurrency sector this year, has announced its latest upgrade, HIP-3. This upgrade marks a significant step toward decentralizing the perpetual futures listing process, allowing users and developers to deploy their own perpetual futures exchanges on the platform.

What To Expect From Hyperliquid’s Latest Upgrade

The Hyperliquid protocol will facilitate builder-deployed perpetuals (HIP-3), with a minimum viable product (MVP) of this feature currently active on the testnet.

Builder-deployed perpetuals will share many characteristics with HyperCore, the blockchain-based engine of Hyperliquid’s trading platform, including spot deployments and the allocation of new, high-performance on-chain order books.

In terms of deployment logistics, gas fees in HYPE will be determined through a Dutch auction conducted every 31 hours, with a single auction covering all HIP-3 perpetual decentralized exchanges (DEXs). 

For the mainnet, the staking requirement is set at 500,000 HYPE, although this requirement is anticipated to decrease as the infrastructure matures. Any amount staked above the current requirement can be withdrawn. 

Importantly, the staking requirement will be upheld for 30 days even after all of a deployer’s perpetual markets have been halted. Any deployer meeting the staking criterion can establish one perpetual DEX, with each DEX featuring independent margin, order books, and deployer settings. 

Deployers can use any quote asset as collateral for a DEX. However, assets that fail to satisfy the permissionless quote asset criteria will lose their status based on an on-chain validator vote, which would also disable any perpetual DEXs utilizing that asset as collateral. 

Future Enhancements 

In terms of asset deployment, the first three assets introduced in any perpetual DEX will not require participation in the auction process. Any additional assets will go through a Dutch auction with the same hyperparameters as the HIP-1 auction. 

This Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 auction for additional perpetuals will be shared across all DEXs. Future enhancements are planned to improve the user experience regarding the reservation of assets for time-sensitive deployments.

Currently, only isolated margin mode is required, while cross-margin support is projected for a future upgrade. Markets under HIP-3 will incorporate established sources of trading fee discounts, including staking discounts, referral rewards, and aligned collateral discounts. 

From the deployer’s perspective, the fee share is fixed at 50%. For users, fees will be double the usual rates applied to validator-operated perpetual markets, although the protocol will collect the same fee regardless of whether the trade occurs on an HIP-3 or a validator-operated platform. 

At the time of writing, the platform’s native token, HYPE, is trading at around $39.84. This represents a significant 17% drop over the past week, in line with the wider crypto market crash on Friday, when the token fell as low as $20.8. 

Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com