Hyperliquid's RWA Perp Boom Hits Revenue

Hyperliquid's revenue is under pressure due to the rising popularity of its Real-World Asset (RWA) perps, also known as builder-deployed markets. At the start of 2026, these RWA perps made up only about 2% of Hyperliquid's perp volume, but they now account for roughly half of it.

As a result, the cost of revenue has increased significantly. In the second quarter of 2025, cost of revenue was under 6% of gross revenue, while in the same period last year, it had risen to 18%. This is largely due to builder code fees, which were roughly $16 million in revenue and also left as cost in the same quarter.

The growth of RWA perps has been remarkable. Real-world asset contracts on assets like crude oil, gold, Nvidia (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA), a Nasdaq-100 tracker, and pre-IPO names like SpaceX have hit a record $3.6 billion in open interest this month, overtaking Bitcoin as the platform's largest market by that measure.

Tokenized stocks and commodities have also seen significant growth, doing $25 billion in volume between July 13 and July 19, which is 52% of the weekly total. This has outpaced crypto perps for the first time, with contracts settling in stablecoins and trading through weekends when the New York Stock Exchange is shut.