For as long as perpetual futures have existed in crypto, Ethereum has been the default heavyweight in open interest rankings. On Hyperliquid’s own exchange, that reign just ended.
HYPE, the native token of the decentralized perpetual futures platform Hyperliquid, has overtaken ETH in open interest on HyperliquidX. It’s the kind of milestone that would have sounded absurd even six months ago, when Ethereum perps were the undisputed anchor of nearly every derivatives venue in crypto.
The numbers behind the flip
The flip itself is tight but real. ETH open interest on HyperliquidX sits at approximately $1.15B, while HYPE has climbed to roughly $1.09B. Those figures are close enough that the lead could change hands again, but the directional trend favors HYPE. What makes this particularly striking is the velocity: Hyperliquid’s ETH perp open interest alone recently exceeded $1.5B, reflecting 40% growth in a single month.
To put that in context, total open interest for ETH across major centralized exchanges actually fell by 5.62% during the same window.
