Hyperliquid open interest reaches record $18 billion: What’s driving activity?

Hyperliquid's open interest has topped $18 billion for the first time, reaching a record as trading activity continues across its crypto and non crypto perpetual markets.

Summary

• Hyperliquid open interest topped $18 billion for the first time, beating the previous record of $16.36 billion reached on Sept. 19.
• Open interest stood above $13 billion at the end of August, putting roughly $5 billion more in outstanding positions on the platform within weeks.
• Bitcoin, Ether and HYPE accounted for roughly $9.33 billion in open interest, while HIP 3 markets continued to draw activity across stocks, commodities and indices.
• HIP 3 markets have brought perpetual contracts tied to assets such as the S&P 500, gold, crude oil and private companies to Hyperliquid.

According to Lookonchain, official Hyperliquid data showed open interest at $18 billion on Sept. 23, above the previous record of $16.36 billion reached on Sept. 19.

Open interest reached an all-time high of $18B on Hyperliquid pic.twitter.com/rIVNZywI83 --- Hyperliquid (@HyperliquidX) September 23, 2026

The figure represents bilateral open interest, meaning it counts the combined value of long and short positions on the platform. Open interest tracks derivatives positions that remain active and have not yet been closed or settled.

Hyperliquid's latest reading puts open interest roughly $1.64 billion above the record set four days earlier. The Sept. 19 level had already passed the previous high recorded on Sept. 18, 2025.

Open interest has moved considerably higher over the past few weeks. DefiLlama Research placed the figure at more than $13 billion on Aug. 31, when Hyperliquid was processing roughly $220 billion in perpetual trading volume per month.

The latest $18 billion reading means outstanding positions have grown by close to $5 billion from the level reported at the end of August.

Hyperliquid open interest reaches $18 billion

Hyperliquid has spent the past year building beyond its core cryptocurrency perpetual markets, with stocks, commodities, indices, private companies and event contracts now available through its trading infrastructure.

HIP 3 has played a central role in that expansion since its launch in October 2025. The framework lets third party developers stake HYPE and deploy perpetual markets on Hyperliquid.

Markets launched through HIP 3 now cover assets ranging from U.S. equities and stock indices to gold and crude oil. Private companies, including SpaceX, have been represented through pre IPO perpetual contracts.

By early September, cumulative trading volume across HIP 3 markets had passed $548 billion, according to data cited by Lookonchain.

HIP 3 markets accounted for roughly 30% of Hyperliquid's total trading volume during the preceding 30 days.

Current market data shows crypto perpetuals still hold some of the largest positions on the platform. HyperIntel data from Sept. 23 put Bitcoin open interest at roughly $4.05 billion, followed by Ether at $3.18 billion and HYPE at $2.10 billion.

Zcash carried around $858.6 million in open interest, while Solana stood at approximately $763.7 million.

Non crypto markets have built sizeable positions as well. An S&P 500 linked perpetual had roughly $418.9 million in open interest, while gold stood near $301.7 million.

HIP 3 markets have become a larger part of Hyperliquid

HIP 3 lets deployers create perpetual markets while using Hyperliquid's HyperCore infrastructure for trading and margining.

Deployers determine several parts of their markets, including the oracle used to provide prices and parameters such as leverage. HYPE must be staked to deploy a market on mainnet.

Activity through the framework has grown alongside demand for perpetual contracts tied to assets outside the crypto market.

As previously covered by crypto.news, TradeXYZ trading volume reached $202.36 billion during the second quarter, up from $112.93 billion during the previous three months.

Open interest on TradeXYZ stood at $2.96 billion at the end of the quarter, while equity perpetual volume reached $58.9 billion across 55 markets.

Hyperliquid later expanded HIP 3 with permissioned markets on testnet, allowing deployers to limit access through onchain allowlists.

Permissioning remains optional, leaving existing permissionless HIP 3 markets unchanged.

Hyperliquid has moved into event contracts

Hyperliquid has taken a similar approach to prediction markets through HIP 4, which was introduced in May.

HIP 4 added event contracts to the platform, allowing markets based on outcomes instead of the price of an underlying asset.

Third party deployment of HIP 4 markets was opened at the end of August, expanding the framework beyond markets launched directly through Hyperliquid.

The platform has rolled out other trading products during the same period. Native lending lets users borrow USDC and USDT against supported collateral, while recent changes have brought more order types to its perpetual markets.

Hyperliquid launched trailing stops across perpetual markets on Sept. 21. The order type lets traders set a percentage distance from the best price reached after an order is activated.

For long positions, the trigger follows the highest mark price reached after activation. Short positions track the lowest mark price before the order is triggered.

Plans are underway to use HIP 3 for regulated U.S. markets as well.

Payward, Kraken's parent company, announced this month that Bitnomial would deploy and administer proposed Hyperliquid perpetual markets for eligible U.S. clients, subject to regulatory approval.

Under the planned U.S. structure, Bitnomial Exchange would operate as the HIP 3 deployer, while Bitnomial Clearinghouse would handle clearing and settlement. NinjaTrader Clearing would carry approved customer accounts.

Access would be provided through permissioned HIP 3 markets, with the proposed structure designed to operate under U.S. derivatives rules.