In a significant development for the cryptocurrency sector, HIP-3 has transitioned from testnet to mainnet, launching with the introduction of the HIP-3 DEX by UNIT. This launch has already seen impressive traction with their inaugural product, XYZ100 — an index that tracks the top 100 companies, generating substantial trading volumes of $24.1 million, $21.6 million, and $20.7 million over its first three days. These figures notably eclipse the typical weekly trading volumes for tokenized equities, which usually range between $8 million and $12 million.
A vital indicator of the growing interest in this new market was the listing of the XYZ100 perpetual contracts on the Phantom platform, which boasts 54,000 users. Other platforms, such as BasedApp with 28,000 users, have also listed the product, demonstrating initial builder participation. It’s worth noting that some builders, like Axiom, opted not to participate, highlighting the variability in engagement among different platforms. Currently, builders represent a modest proportion of Hyperliquid’s total volume at 3.5%, yet they play a substantial role in distribution, with 37% of Hyperliquid’s users trading through these platforms.
Uncertainty remains around the approach that builders will take concerning HIP-3 market listings. Phantom’s documentation indicates that any HIP-3 perpetual futures market can be accessed via Hyperliquid-compatible platforms, potentially allowing Phantom to permissionlessly list all HIP-3 markets. However, a certain level of curation is expected.
HIP-3’s value proposition is underscored by its provision of institutional-grade orderbook technology for deployers, and with builder engagement, it offers a compelling distribution mechanism. The platform abstracts the orderbook infrastructure, alleviating the need for deployers to manage their frontends or cultivate communities, allowing users to trade markets that interest them directly.
One project poised to benefit from builder distribution is Ventuals, which focuses on synthetic perpetual futures tied to private company valuations of firms like OpenAI, SpaceX, and Cursor. Ventuals employs a hybrid oracle system designed to tackle the complexities of pricing illiquid private assets, utilizing a 50/50 approach that combines offchain secondary market data and an 8-hour exponential moving average of the mark price.
For Ventuals to secure the requisite 500,000 HYPE tokens for HIP-3 deployment, it plans to begin accepting deposits for vHYPE on October 16 at 15:00 UTC (11 a.m. ET). Holders of vHYPE will be eligible to receive 25% of the trading exchange revenue as a continuous fee share and accumulate Ventuals points, which could enhance their stakes in the protocol significantly.
However, investors should be aware of the liquidity risks involved, as withdrawals will be paused if total deposits remain at the minimum 500,000 HYPE threshold required for the exchange’s operation. Over time, Ventuals intends to bolster this requirement by adding HYPE from its treasury and purchasing additional HYPE with exchange revenue to establish a withdrawal buffer above the minimum threshold.
As the landscape of decentralized finance continues to evolve, the launch of HIP-3 and the subsequent activities of associated projects may set the stage for further substantial developments within the space.
