Hyperliquid's daily trading volume skyrockets past $5 billion. How are DEXs riding the precious metals trend to set new records?

A license to stake 500,000 HYPE tokens enabled this decentralized trading platform to achieve a single-day trading volume of over $5.2 billion, with nearly 70% coming from silver contract trading.

Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 permissionless perpetual contract market set a record on February 5, 2026, with a single-day trading volume of $5.2 billion, the highest since the protocol launched in October 2025. The main market provider, TradeXYZ, accounted for nearly 90% of the trading share, with silver contracts reaching a daily trading volume of $40.9 billion, approximately 68% of the total HIP-3 trading volume that day.

Trading Surge

Recently, the decentralized finance sector has experienced a wave of trading peaks. Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 permissionless perpetual contract market performed exceptionally well, surpassing $5 billion in daily trading volume. This is the highest single-day trading volume since the protocol’s launch in October 2025.

The surge in trading volume mainly occurred in the last week of January, when gold prices first broke through $5,000 per ounce, and silver prices crossed the important psychological threshold of $100.

Platform Evolution

Behind this trading boom is Hyperliquid’s strategic shift from a single exchange to a comprehensive trading platform. The HIP-3 upgrade fundamentally changed its operational model.

Market analysis shows that HIP-3 transformed Hyperliquid from a purely crypto-native perpetual platform into a “full asset trading layer,” with silver and gold now ranking among the top five assets by trading volume on the platform. This shift signifies that the surge in precious metal trading volume has altered market perceptions of Hyperliquid’s positioning.

Market Structure

In the HIP-3 market, TradeXYZ, as the dominant deployer, has nearly monopolized the market through precious metals, stock indices, and individual stock perpetual contracts. Data indicates that TradeXYZ’s open interest on HIP-3 once reached a peak of $1.06 billion, with 87% originating from this provider.

Even after market corrections, HIP-3’s open interest remains around $665 million, an 88% increase from the previous month. This market concentration reflects the advantage of early participants and highlights the challenges faced by new entrants.

Technical Mechanisms

The core innovation of HIP-3 lies in its permissionless market creation mechanism. According to the protocol design, any participant meeting certain conditions can establish a perpetual futures market on Hyperliquid infrastructure without centralized approval.

To become a market deployer, one must stake 500,000 HYPE tokens on HyperCore to launch a perpetual futures exchange. This threshold is equivalent to an entry ticket worth over $20 million. The system is integrated with HyperEVM, supporting smart contracts and governance functions, and employs various risk management measures.

Ecosystem Impact

The launch of HIP-3 has had a profound impact on the entire Hyperliquid ecosystem. First, it creates sustained buying pressure and value support for the HYPE token through high staking thresholds. Each market deployment requires locking in 500,000 HYPE, a mechanism that directly reduces token circulating supply.

Second, HIP-3 enables third-party projects to leverage Hyperliquid’s on-chain infrastructure, facilitating permissionless deployment, simplifying market creation processes, and expanding user access to new financial products.

Price Performance

According to Gate data, as of February 11, 2026, Hyperliquid’s native token HYPE is priced at $28.77, with a market cap of $6.86 billion and a market share of 1.13%.

HYPE’s price has changed by -6.88% in the past 24 hours, -14.51% over the past 7 days, but has maintained a +15.68% increase over the past 30 days. Over the past year, it has risen by +23.25%.

From a price forecast perspective, market analysis suggests that by 2026, the average price of HYPE could be around $28.78, within a range of $20.14 to $35.4. Long-term projections indicate that by 2031, HYPE could reach $70.74, representing a potential return of +81.00% compared to current levels.

Industry Context

Compared to traditional financial markets, Hyperliquid’s performance in the precious metals sector is already significant. Data shows that HIP-3 gold and silver markets have reached approximately 1% of the trading volume of COMEX, the world’s largest metals derivatives exchange. This indicates that decentralized trading platforms are gradually expanding their influence in traditional asset trading.

Meanwhile, mainstream cryptocurrency markets have shown different trends recently. Bitcoin is currently priced at $68,251 with a market cap of $1.38 trillion; Ethereum is at $2,006.87 with a market cap of $252.82 billion. In contrast to HYPE’s recent positive growth, Bitcoin and Ethereum have declined by -23.78% and -32.22% respectively over the past 30 days.

Behind Hyperliquid HIP-3’s record-breaking trading volume, precious metal contracts account for up to 68%. The platform’s open interest previously reached a high of $1.06 billion before price corrections and remains at $665 million, with an 88% monthly increase. As gold and silver prices fluctuate, attracting traders worldwide, this blockchain-based derivatives platform has quietly handled a volume equivalent to about 1% of the world’s largest metals exchange, COMEX.

The battlefield of decentralized trading platforms is quietly expanding from crypto assets to the entire global financial market.