Silver trading volume surges, becoming the "hidden driver"; Hyperliquid (HYPE) rises over 20% in 24 hours

On January 28, news reports indicate that as the overall crypto market recovers, Hyperliquid (HYPE) unexpectedly becomes one of the top performers among the top 100 market cap cryptocurrencies. Data shows that HYPE has gained over 20% in the past 24 hours, with its price soaring to $34 at one point, reaching a new high since early December last year. It is currently hovering above $33, with trading volume also increasing, and daily trading exceeding $800 million.

Notably, this rally is not solely driven by overall crypto sentiment; an seemingly “off-chain” asset—silver—is becoming an important catalyst. On-chain data indicates that silver-related trading activity within the platform has significantly heated up in a short period, becoming a key factor in driving protocol activity and revenue growth.

Market data shows that the trading volume of silver against stablecoins in perpetual contracts reached approximately $1.1 billion in the past 24 hours, ranking third in platform trading volume after Bitcoin and Ethereum. This change is closely related to a core structural upgrade previously completed by Hyperliquid.

The protocol officially launched Hyperliquid Improvement Proposal 3 (HIP-3) in October 2025, significantly lowering the barrier to creating perpetual markets. Under the new mechanism, any user can deploy a new perpetual market on the core infrastructure by staking no less than 500,000 HYPE tokens. Since then, activity in external deployment markets has continued to rise.

Latest data shows that the open interest in HIP-3 related markets has exceeded $900 million, a substantial increase from about $260 million a month ago. Several analysts point out that silver has become the most traded asset in these new markets, accounting for a significant portion of daily trading volume.

The increase in trading activity is feeding back into the HYPE price through the tokenomics model. According to protocol rules, the fees generated by HIP-3 markets are split equally between market deployers and the protocol. Of the fees collected by the protocol, approximately 97% are used to buy back HYPE from the open market, continuously reducing circulating supply.

Institutional research firm FalconX estimates that the additional fee income generated solely by HIP-3 could potentially support HYPE’s price by up to 67% this year. Against the backdrop of rising commodity trading enthusiasm and on-chain mechanisms, silver is quietly becoming a key factor in driving HYPE’s strength.