Hyperliquid Overtakes Bybit, Kraken and OKX in Open Interest as Q3 Positions Jump 80%

Hyperliquid closed the third quarter with a record $16.8 billion in open derivatives positions, an increase of nearly 80% from the end of June, according to a report from the Hyperliquid Research Collective. The growth was sufficient for the decentralized perpetuals venue to surpass centralized exchanges Bybit, Kraken and OKX in open interest.

The figure marks a sharp reversal from July, when activity on the platform slowed alongside a broader lull in crypto trading. Hyperliquid's share of open interest measured across itself and eight major exchanges climbed to 11.7%, up from 9.6% three months earlier.

Protocol revenue rose 21.7% quarter over quarter to nearly $191 million. That total includes $17.3 million earned from a USDC reserve-income arrangement tied to Coinbase's role as Hyperliquid's treasury deployer. Even with the quarterly acceleration, revenue remained 36.5% below the same period a year earlier — a reminder that the recovery started from a depressed base.

What drove the record quarter?

Native perpetuals volume climbed from $109.5 billion in July to more than $188 billion in September. Average daily traders hit a quarterly record of 65,161.

Stock-linked perpetuals posted the sharpest gain. Volume in the asset class rose 161% to $153.8 billion, overtaking commodities within HIP-3, the mechanism that lets third-party operators launch perpetual futures on the platform.

The shift matters beyond headline volumes. Equity-linked perpetuals have historically been a niche product on crypto venues. Their expansion on Hyperliquid, at a pace that outgrew a full asset class in a single quarter, signals where the platform's marginal demand is coming from — traders seeking synthetic equity exposure inside a crypto-native margin system.

Why is Wintermute paying for early data access?

Separately, Bloomberg reported Thursday that Wintermute, one of crypto's largest market makers, has become a major user of Hyperliquid's auctions for early access to trading data.

A wallet linked to Wintermute won 76% of auctions for the top-priority data slot over the preceding month, according to analysis from Loris Tools cited by Bloomberg. The system gives winning traders an early look at incoming orders, allowing them to adjust positions before other orders are processed.

Critics say the feature hands larger firms an unfair advantage over ordinary participants. Wintermute defended the arrangement as a transparent way to compete for speed. The dispute goes to a structural question that practitioners will recognize from traditional finance: when the right to see order flow is sold at auction, the venue monetizes latency itself, and the buyer's edge is paid for rather than engineered.

What does this change for traders and competitors?

For traders, the practical consequences cut in two directions. Rising open interest and record daily participation deepen liquidity and tighten effective execution on the platform's core perpetuals. At the same time, the auctioned data slots concentrate informational advantage in the hands of firms willing to pay for it — a dynamic that smaller participants cannot match and that critics argue degrades execution quality for everyone else.

For competitors, the standings have shifted. A venue that was, by its own quarterly comparison, running 36.5% below prior-year revenue has now outgrown Bybit, Kraken and OKX on the single metric most tied to user leverage and conviction: open interest. An 11.7% share across nine venues, gained in one quarter from 9.6%, is the kind of market-structure move that forces centralized exchanges to answer on product breadth — equity-linked perpetuals being the clearest example — rather than on spot liquidity alone.

The Wintermute disclosure adds a second pressure point. If auctioned early access to order data becomes a durable revenue line, rival venues face a choice between adopting similar mechanisms and competing on the promise of a level playing field. The critique from market observers suggests that question is unresolved.

The near-term markers to watch are whether stock-linked perpetual volume sustains its share within HIP-3, whether the USDC reserve-income arrangement with Coinbase continues to contribute materially to protocol revenue, and whether scrutiny of the data auctions — now quantified at a 76% win rate for a single firm — draws a regulatory or competitive response.