Hyperliquid Launches Dollar-Pegged Stablecoin USDH

Key Insights:

• Hyperliquid launched its first native stablecoin, USDH, logging nearly $2 million in early trading.
• Native Markets, a new startup, won governance rights to manage USDH despite competition from larger players like Paxos and Frax.
• USDH is backed by cash and US Treasuries and uses Stripe’s Bridge for reserve management.

Stablecoin markets saw fresh action on Wednesday as Hyperliquid launched USDH, its first dollar-pegged stablecoin.

Early trading on the USDH/USDC market logged about $2.2 million in volume.

Native Markets won issuance rights for USDH in a Sept. 14 validator vote and will manage the token’s reserves.

Notably, Native Markets is a crypto startup backed by investor Max Fiege and ex-Uniswap Labs chief Mary-Catherine Lader

Stablecoin USDH Debuts on Hyperliquid

Hyperliquid opened a USDH/USDC spot market as soon as the stablecoin launched. The new token runs on Hyperliquid’s own HyperEVM blockchain, meaning USDH is issued natively on the exchange’s infrastructure.

In practice, USDH circulates within HYPE rather than on an external chain, which lets the platform capture yield on stablecoin trading. The native dollar-pair also gives Hyperliquid tighter control over liquidity and fees.

HYPE began soliciting bids for the USDH ticker on Sept. 5. Dozens of firms including Paxos and Frax Finance, submitted proposals, but investors and stakeholders ultimately backed Native Markets.

Validators voted on Sept. 14, and Native Markets received over two-thirds support. Dragonfly Capital partner Haseeb Qureshi noted that some bidders felt validators were “not interested in considering anyone besides Native Markets,” suggesting the winning proposal had “advanced notice.”

Despite these concerns, the vote was decisive: Native Markets won the governance contest for USDH.

Dollar-Backed Reserves and Network Integration

Native Markets’ proposal pledges that USDH by Hyperliquid will be fully backed by cash and U.S. Treasury securities.

The reserves are to include short-dated U.S. Treasuries and cash, managed partly off-chain via Stripe’s Bridge tokenization platform and partly on-chain with oracle feeds for transparency.

In other words, the stablecoin is a fully collateralized stablecoin whose issuer will publish reserve data on-chain.

The token’s design also channels a portion of reserve interest to buying back Hyperliquid’s native HYPE crypto.

USDH’s launch comes as stablecoin use grows: on-chain data show total stablecoin supply approaching a record 280 billion.

By creating its own USD-backed token, Hyperliquid adds another dollar pair to its exchange and keeps more trading and collateral activity within its own network.

The new coin effectively gives Hyperliquid its own built-in dollar rails, which the exchange hopes will boost liquidity and fee revenue.

In the past week, Hyperliquid’s native token HYPE has fallen about 8%, based on CoinGecko data. At the same time, the exchange faces pressure from Aster, a BNB Chain-based perpetuals platform.

DefiLlama figures from Wednesday showed Aster processing nearly $53 billion in daily perpetuals volume, more than twice Hyperliquid’s $10 billion at the time.