With open interest above $18B, Hyperliquid gains ground on centralised exchanges

• Hyperliquid's Q3 market share across eight exchanges expanded to 11.7%, with open interest reaching a September record of $18.1 billion.
• HIP-3's share of Hyperliquid trading activity narrowed from 51.1% to 24.5%, despite generating $262 billion in Q3 perpetual futures volume.
• A key descending trendline remains a resistance barrier for HYPE.

Gaining ground against major centralised trading platforms, decentralised exchange Hyperliquid (HYPE) increased its share of combined open interest across eight leading exchanges to 11.7% in Q3. Its open interest reached a record $18.1 billion in September.

How much did Hyperliquid's derivatives market share grow in Q3?

Traders rebuilding positions in Hyperliquid's native derivatives markets drove the September 22 peak, according to its Q3 report published on Thursday. This reversed the dominance of HIP-3 markets, which provide perpetual futures linked to traditional assets, including equities, indices and commodities.

By the end of September, open interest had risen 79.9% to $16.7 billion from $9.31 billion at June-end. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, average open interest climbed 46.4% to $12.7 billion.

Describing the September peak as "carried by the core book," the report was referring to the platform's native derivatives markets.

Across the eight largest centralised exchanges and Hyperliquid itself, the platform's share of open interest increased from 9.6% at June-end to 11.7% at September-end. According to the report, Hyperliquid overtook HTX in May, moved ahead of Kraken and Bybit on August 12, and subsequently surpassed OKX on September 17.

Nevertheless, Hyperliquid remains well behind the largest centralised exchanges. Its quarter-end open interest was equivalent to 93% of Bitget's and 27% of Binance's.

How are native markets driving open interest growth?

A shift in activity back to native crypto markets reshaped the composition of Hyperliquid's open interest over the quarter.

At $262 billion, HIP-3 perpetual futures volume was 23% higher than in the previous quarter and represented 35.9% of the platform's matched volume. Even so, HIP-3's contribution to Hyperliquid's perpetual trading activity dropped to 24.5% in September from 51.1% in July.

A rebound in native trading volume, which rose 72% from its July low, explained this reversal, according to the report.

Although HIP-3 open interest increased 27.4% from June to close September at $3.94 billion, its share of Hyperliquid's total slipped from roughly one-third to 23.5%. Positions in native markets recovered at a faster pace.

With quarterly volume of $153.8 billion, up 160.8% from Q2, equities retained their position as HIP-3's largest asset class. Commodity volume, in contrast, fell 47.7% to $45.6 billion.

Alongside rising open interest, participation across the exchange also strengthened.

Daily trader numbers on Hyperliquid averaged 65,161 in Q3, rising 20% over the previous quarter to set a third successive quarterly record. The number of new traders increased 14.5% to 362,611.

Despite remaining 30.5% below the year-earlier period, matched trading volume rose 9.3% quarter on quarter to $730.6 billion.

After two successive quarters of net inflows, the exchange recorded net bridge outflows of $953 million during the quarter, the report said. It maintained, however, that these withdrawals reflected profit-taking during the market rally rather than weaker trading activity.

Hyperliquid technical outlook: Can HYPE overcome descending trendline resistance?

HYPE's daily chart retains a bearish bias, with the token trading at $72.13 beneath the 20-day, 50-day and 100-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs). These averages form an overhead resistance cluster between $77.44 and $80.26. Recovery attempts remain constrained by the descending resistance trendline, whose breakout reference stands at $75.12. Meanwhile, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) near 35 and a deeply oversold Stochastic near 9 indicate that selling pressure remains strong but may be approaching exhaustion; they do not confirm a reversal.

The horizontal level at $67.63 provides immediate downside support, followed by lower support levels of $61.16 and $51.57. A longer-range structural base lies near $33.20. Any recovery would initially encounter the trendline resistance zone around $75.12 and the adjacent horizontal barrier at $75.69, before reaching the cluster of long- and short-term EMAs. Further up, stronger resistance levels stand at $85.04 and $97.84.

(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool. Know more.)