Hyperliquid Activates HIP-3 Upgrade, Enabling Permissionless Perpetual Markets

In Brief

• HIP-3 allows builders to launch custom perpetual markets by staking up to 1M HYPE tokens.
• Upgrade supports real-world assets, pre-IPO trading, and custom fee, oracle, and risk settings.
• HYPE jumps 11.99% to $42 as HIP-3 goes live, boosting DeFi and institutional participation.

Hyperliquid has officially activated HIP-3, a major protocol upgrade that enables permissionless deployment of perpetual futures markets. The upgrade went live on October 13, 2025, around 9:15 AM UTC, following a brief 10-minute network pause.

With HIP-3 now active, builders can launch custom perp DEXs on HyperCore by staking 500,000 to 1 million HYPE tokens. This unlocks permissionless access to market creation, including control over oracles, fee models, collateral, and leverage.

The system allows free listing of the first three assets per market, followed by Dutch auctions for further additions. It also includes mechanisms like validator slashing and open interest caps to maintain protocol reliability and security.

According to Hyperliquid’s roadmap, HIP-3 builds on previous upgrades HIP-1 and HIP-2, completing the trilogy of foundational improvements. These steps transform Hyperliquid from a DEX into a modular infrastructure layer for scalable on-chain derivatives.

Institutional Access, RWA Markets, and DeFi Innovation Ahead

By requiring high staking thresholds, HIP-3 encourages institutional participation in listing real-world assets like stock indices and commodities. Estimated daily fees from such markets could exceed $500,000 based on similar TradFi volumes.

The platform’s integration with HyperEVM enables smart contract support, governance features, and flexibility for complex market designs. It also opens doors to prediction markets and pre-IPO asset trading through its Hyperps framework.

Retail users may participate through collective staking platforms like HLAggregator, mirroring past DeFi incentive structures. This model could create demand for HYPE tokens and promote ecosystem growth.

Hyperliquid has already cleared over $1 trillion in cumulative trading volume under its HyperBFT consensus mechanism. The HIP-3 upgrade aims to scale this further by decentralising market creation and enabling the rapid deployment of niche financial products.

HYPE rose 12.99% in the last 24 hours, trading around $42.10 with a market cap of $14.7 billion. Analysts view HIP-3 as a key milestone in aligning DeFi innovation with institutional-grade infrastructure.