Original article by Odaily Odaily(@OdailyChina)
Author｜Wenser (@wenser 2010)
Several years ago, when CZ was asked by the media to compare Binance with other exchanges, he made a bold statement: "Binance's only real competitor is Nasdaq."
Today, Hyperliquid, whose trading volume in US stocks, gold and silver, and commodities continues to surge, is even closer to this goal.
With its token HYPE rising by over 100% (recommended reading: "Why is HYPE still surging? Has it peaked?" ) , the crypto market and even traditional finance are repositioning and repricing this "former Perp DEX".
After the pre-market battle at Cerebras (CBRS), Hyperliquid has begun to play the role of a "US stock price discovery machine" and is becoming the new Nasdaq.
Please answer 2026: Summarize Hyperliquid in one sentence?
Last May, Trade.xyz founder Shoku ( @sershokunin ) tweeted: "It's very interesting that after all this time, people still only see/evaluate Hyperliquid as an on-chain contract exchange. But if you take the time to dig deeper, you'll find that the team's real ambitions go far beyond that. Units' next product will show everyone just how big this opportunity is."
A year later, people realized the foresight of the tweet, and this groundbreaking product became the prototype of today's "on-chain Nasdaq "—Trade.xyz.
Last October, HIP-3 was officially launched, and Trade.xyz, the largest third-party perpetual marketplace application on HIP-3, was subsequently launched. In less than six months, Trade.xyz achieved the milestone of "cumulative trading volume exceeding $110 billion" . Leveraging the on-chain trading liquidity of US stocks, pre-market US stocks, and commodities introduced by HIP-3 and Trade.xyz, Hyperliquid has quickly become the "new king of RWA trading".
On May 18th, Hyperliquid officially announced that its RWA trading open interest had reached a record high of $2.6 billion, doubling from two months prior. Latest data also shows that total trading volume of tokenized stocks hit a record high of $3.57 billion, with Hyperliquid being a leading player in this sector.
On Hyperliquid today, crypto assets are no longer the "main theme." Tokenized stocks and commodities are gradually becoming the focus of the platform's liquidity, including assets such as the Nasdaq index, S&P 500, crude oil, gold, and silver.
A recent weekly report from asset management firm Arca points out that among the top 30 markets on Hyperliquid, only 7 are cryptocurrency trading pairs, with the vast majority of the rest being commodity and stock trading pairs from Trade.xyz.
When the CME closed for the weekend, traders bet on oil price movements on Hyperliquid; ahead of Cerebras' IPO, US stock traders and investment bank fund managers used Hyperliquid's pre-market prices for a more accurate price reference; as soon as SpaceX's pre-market stock went live, the market subsequently pushed its market capitalization to over $2 trillion.
HIP-3 trading volume accounts for nearly 90% on Trade.xyz.
In terms of transaction volume, the on-chain US stock contracts led by Trade.xyz are no longer just a "fun bean" phenomenon, but rather a financial market infrastructure with substantial price discovery capabilities . In the past, this power was held by only a few investment banking giants, securities firms, market makers, and exchanges in the capital market.
Compared to the traditional pre-market market, the close proximity of Trade.xyz and Hyperliquid to the final real price forces people to admit that, for the first time in history, the "price discovery power" of US stocks has shifted from traditional trading hours to 24/7 on-chain.
How Hyperliquid Priced Its Stock: A Never-Ending Game of Funds
The reason Trade.xyz has been able to achieve its current accurate pricing is not only due to the advantage of uninterrupted trading hours, but also to multiple factors such as product structure, global funds, and leverage from whale.
First, let's discuss the advantage of trading hours . Due to historical limitations, traditional financial markets suffer from a fundamental flaw: taking the US stock market as an example, Nasdaq's official trading hours are only from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM Eastern Time, while major events affecting global financial markets increasingly occur outside of stock trading hours. This trend has become increasingly apparent in recent months—US-Iran conflict, tariff negotiations, policy implementation—sudden events often erupt after the market closes on Fridays, precisely when traditional financial markets are shut down. Traders, with nowhere else to go when they most need to hedge risk, flock to Hyperliquid. Now, Bloomberg cites Hyperliquid's crude oil contract quotes as "the most valuable reference price," and the authority of on-chain prices is gaining recognition from mainstream media .
Secondly, there's the advantage of its product structure . Unlike pre-market stock trading platforms like PreStocks, which use an SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) holding structure, Trade.xyz's pre-market contracts are purely perpetual synthetic assets—not involving any real equity, but rather cash-settled derivatives. From a legal perspective, this perpetual asset is completely different from traditional tokenized equity, thus offering greater flexibility in terms of compliance and regulation. The previous authorization by S&P Dow Jones to use the S&P 500 index for Hyperliquid perpetual contract trading is a prime example.
Furthermore, there's the advantage of global capital flows . After the US stock market closes, global capital flows, including those from Asia, also need a channel, and the US stock market, with its largest capital capacity, highest capital flow efficiency, and largest number of participants, is the "best target." Hyperliquid's RWA trading platform provides them with a sufficiently broad stage to perform on.
Macroeconomic and stock analyst Citrini's positive assessment of Trade.xyz's price discovery.
Finally, there's the pricing advantage for leveraged whale . Compared to exchanges or other pre-market trading platforms with strict KYC requirements, Hyperliquid is undoubtedly more user-friendly for whale who need high-leverage trading. Fast on-chain trading and leverage of 3-50x significantly enhance convenience for whale.
The two-way race between crypto and traditional finance
Have you realized that the US stock market, which once regarded "business performance and financial data" as the ultimate standard, is showing an increasingly strong "crypto market temperament"? It is strongly driven by macro data, influenced by a single tweet from Trump, driven by institutional KOL' shill, amplified by narrative logic, and pushed to a high level by retail investors' FOMO—only to be suddenly brought to the floor by a sudden piece of breaking news.
On the other hand, after the approval of crypto ETFs, mainstream cryptocurrencies were to some extent "co-opted" by traditional finance: volatility decreased, and they fell into a sideways consolidation lacking narrative.
The shift in asset styles between the two categories has opened up real upside potential for Hyperliquid: as US stock assets and crypto assets become increasingly similar, it is becoming possible to use on-chain tools to handle price discovery for US stocks, and proactive adaptation to the new market structure is already underway. In the near future, the transmission chain of "on-chain pricing first - pre-market follow-up - stock opening confirmation" will reshape the financial market. Hyperliquid, this infrastructure of the crypto world, is transforming into a "global Nasdaq" in a new way.
Organizations that understood this point began to seize a leading position in the Hyperliquid ecosystem.
On May 19, Bitwise announced that it would use 10% of the management fee income from its BHYP Hyperliquid ETF to hold Hyperliquid's native token HYPE on the company's balance sheet, and the relevant HYPE holdings would also be pledged; on May 20, Goldman Sachs, a well-known investment bank, sold $152 million worth of XRP, $500 million worth of ETH, and $450 million worth of BTC, and at the same time bought HYPE tokens.
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan stated that HYPE's value is still undervalued by the market; Hyperliquid's true potential lies in becoming a global trading super app covering stocks, pre-IPO assets, commodities, prediction markets, and crypto assets.
Moreover, according to recently released 13F filings, fund institutions including Paradigm, Pentera, Vanguard Group, Citadel Group, and Galaxy are scrambling to add HYPE DAT treasury company PURR to their portfolios .
A global, non-stop version of Nasdaq, starting from the blockchain.
CZ previously stated that the true ultimate competitor to the crypto market should be traditional stock exchanges like Nasdaq. Now, Hyperliquid is reinterpreting that statement.
The market has realized that this competition is not about "who can build the biggest crypto exchage," but about the restructuring of the global financial infrastructure. Hyperliquid is not just partially moving Wall Street's approach onto the blockchain, but is also attempting to redefine the "market" itself.
US stock trading is limited by fixed time zones, unlisted companies lack publicly available pricing, and global users find it difficult to participate equally in the primary and secondary markets. These long-accepted financial boundaries are being gradually broken down by on-chain trading systems.
"Asset on-chain" is too outdated; this is already a paradigm shift experiment regarding "price discovery rights."
On Hyperliquid, for the first time, global users are beginning to approach the prototype of a truly 24/7, borderless market where all types of assets can flow freely.
Traditional platforms, including Nasdaq, are also being forced to rethink the boundaries of the future financial market.
