Hyperliquid's RWA trading just hit a new all time high, with open interest crossing $2.3 billion on its blockchain which says a lot about how much liquidity is actually flowing into real world assets through a decentralized venue. The platform has quietly become a go-to spot for trading, building apps, and launching tokens all in one place, and the RWA growth is starting to grow rapidly. It’s fees are competing with top blockchains and stable coin companies within crypto.

 

 

On March 31, Cointelegraph reported that Ripple Prime expanded its Hyperliquid integration with HIP-3. That means institutions now get seamless on-chain perpetuals on traditional assets like gold, silver, oil, and even compute prices.

 

This is the kind of bridge that allows retail to hedge oil exposure at 3 a.m on a Sunday when traditional futures are closed. The same rails powering crypto perps now handle real-world commodities that move markets worldwide. It's infrastructure that pulls capital on-chain because the UX finally matches what people expect from a modern trading venue.

 

On the prime brokerage side, a traditional S&P futures trade runs through six different entities: prime broker, FCM, CME Clearing, and so on with multiple fee layers, T+1 settlement, financing charges, and all the custody overhead that comes with it. On HIP-3, connect your wallet, post USDC margin, trade the perp, and settle instantly on-chain. One fee, self-custody, the smart contract is the clearinghouse, and the blockchain handles custody. It's making large chunks of what they actually do look pretty unnecessary, once the regulatory picture clears up. 

 

Hyperliquid's terms of service explicitly block US users, and enforce this with IP geoblocking, so if you're in the States you'll hit a wall at app.hyperliquid.xyz. The underlying protocol is fully permissionless since it's non-custodial and requires no KYC, but using it from the US still carries real regulatory risk given the CFTC's jurisdiction over leveraged perps. In February 2026 they launched a $29 million Policy Center in D.C. led by Jake Chervinsky, pushing for regulatory clarity around on-chain derivatives. Until something like the CLARITY Act or formal CFTC guidance moves things forward, the restriction is basically the protocol protecting itself while it keeps running 24/7 for the rest of the world. For US builders and investors, the play is watching that policy push closely because when the rails open, the infrastructure is already battle tested and ready to go.

 

Non-crypto assets on Hyperliquid with HIP-3 markets now cover licensed indices like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, individual equities, commodities, and even compute perps tied to GPU rental rates for H100, H200, and A100 chips through projects like Global Compute Index and Hyperbolic. At peak moments these non-crypto pairs have accounted for up to 45% of total volume, with HIP-3 open interest recently sitting around $1.9 billion.

 

Late last year, Aster looked like it could replace Hyperliquid with BNB Chain speed, incentives, and early buzz that some called the “Hyperliquid killer.” Hyperliquid has pulled ahead in TVL, open interest, fees, and real value returned to holders. Aster remains solid, yet Hyperliquid’s dedicated L1 edge with tighter spreads, deeper books, and consistent performance has widened the gap.

 

 

@CosimoCapital posted a thread making a pretty compelling case for why a future proposal of HIP-4 prediction markets could be a serious unlock. The core problem with most prediction market platforms is thin liquidity and parlays that just don't work because every market is isolated from everything else. Hyperliquid flips that by letting prediction markets tap into the same infrastructure already handling massive perpetuals and commodities volume. "When prediction markets share a unified liquidity pool with perpetual markets," Cosimo wrote, "the parlay math transforms completely." One account, cross-margined across oil perps, equity moves, and event outcomes, all settling instantly. It's not just another betting app. It could end up being "the everything market for global event risk."

 

 

This opens up some genuinely interesting scenarios with macro hedges like "if CPI beats and the Fed holds and BTC closes green," or geopolitical risk desks chaining election outcomes to commodity moves, parametric insurance, treasury automation, you name it. Every multi-leg position multiplies fee events too, so five legs means five burns, which turns HIP-4 volume into structural HYPE supply reduction over time. Hyperliquid is pulling in roughly $700 million in annualized trading fees from its perpetuals and spot markets, and around 97 to 99% of it flows automatically into the Assistance Fund, which runs daily HYPE buybacks on a continuous basis. There's constant structural demand and deflationary pressure on circulating supply whether the market is up, down, or sideways.

 

And yet CEXs still dominate headlines, but Hyperliquid delivers the speed and depth traders love as everything is transparent, on-chain, and runs non-stop. For builders shipping interoperability tools, this is the tool that makes cross-border and cross-asset trading feel native.

 

Hyperliquid is quietly becoming a 24/7 venue where crypto-native capital meets macro and physical assets without intermediaries. The current restriction is more about protecting the protocol long term than anything else, and the policy push happening in DC is very much part of the plan. Once clarity comes, the floodgates will open and give a much needed update to trading.

 

 

Aster has taken its biggest step yet toward becoming a standalone blockchain.

 

The decentralized trading platform announced that its Layer-1 testnet is now live and open to all users, moving the project out of private testing and into a broader public phase. The launch puts Aster on track for a planned mainnet debut later this quarter and signals a clear shift in strategy, from operating across multiple chains to running its own purpose-built network.

 

For a project that started as a perpetual futures DEX, the move reflects how competitive onchain trading has become. Speed, execution quality, and control over infrastructure are now as important as liquidity.

 

 

From Perp Dex To Full Blockchain

Aster originally gained traction by offering perpetual futures trading across major networks like Ethereum, BNB Chain, Arbitrum, and Solana. Its pitch was simple but effective: capital-efficient trading, deep liquidity aggregation, and tools designed to limit front-running and MEV.

 

That model worked, but it also came with constraints. Relying on shared blockspace means competing with unrelated activity, dealing with variable fees, and making tradeoffs on latency. As onchain derivatives volumes surged over the past year, those limitations became harder to ignore.

 

The Layer-1 effort is Aster’s answer. Instead of adapting to general-purpose blockchains, the team is building a network optimized from the ground up for trading.

 

 

What Makes Aster Chain Different

Aster Chain is designed specifically for high-frequency, high-volume trading. The focus is on fast finality, high throughput, and predictable execution, features that traders typically associate with centralized venues.

 

Privacy is another core element. The chain integrates zero-knowledge proofs to allow trades to be verified onchain without broadcasting sensitive order details. That matters in derivatives markets, where exposed positions can attract front-running and liquidation pressure.

 

Rather than positioning itself as a broad smart contract platform, Aster is leaning into specialization. The goal is to make the chain feel like trading infrastructure first, DeFi playground second.

 

 

Testnet Goes Public

Until recently, access to the Aster testnet was limited. An early cohort of about 1,000 users, selected from hundreds of thousands of applicants, was invited to test core features like perpetual trading, spot markets, and order execution. Those users received test tokens through a faucet and were encouraged to stress the system and report bugs.

 

Opening the testnet to everyone marks a shift from controlled experimentation to real-world simulation. More users mean more edge cases, more feedback, and a better sense of how the chain performs under load.

 

For Aster, it is also a signaling moment. Public testnets are where projects start to be judged less on vision and more on execution.

 

 

The Road Ahead

The testnet launch feeds directly into Aster’s broader 2026 roadmap. The next major milestone is the Layer-1 mainnet launch, currently targeted for the first quarter of the year.

 

Beyond that, the team plans to roll out developer tooling, staking and governance features tied to the ASTER token, and deeper integrations for fiat on-ramps and off-ramps. There are also plans for advanced order types, expanded real-world asset markets, and additional privacy features aimed at professional traders.

 

If it works, Aster could end up occupying a middle ground that many projects talk about but few achieve: the speed and sophistication of centralized exchanges, delivered through decentralized infrastructure.

 

 

Competitive Pressure And Open Questions

Aster is not alone in betting on custom blockchains for trading. Several derivatives platforms are exploring similar paths, all chasing the same prize: better execution without sacrificing self-custody.

 

The challenge will be adoption. Traders are pragmatic, and loyalty is thin. Aster’s Layer-1 will need to prove not just that it works, but that it works better, consistently, and at scale.

 

There are also the usual caveats. Testnet tokens have no value, timelines can slip, and regulatory uncertainty still hangs over derivatives trading in many regions.

 

Still, the public testnet launch is a meaningful milestone. It shows that Aster is serious about owning its infrastructure and confident enough to put it in front of the wider market.

 

For now, the real test begins.