Author: Bondin, Unlocks Insights; Translation: Golden Finance xiaozou

Note: Recently, Hyperliquid TGE issued airdrops to the community, and its token HYPE rose from US$2 per coin to a maximum of US$9.8, and FDV nearly $10 billion. HYPE is currently oscillating around $8.3. This article reviews Hyperliquid’s TGE incident and the current status of the decentralized perpetual contract DEX landscape.

The cryptocurrency market is starting to show signs of a bullish trend, with Meme and artificial intelligence attracting most of the current attention. However, Hyperliquid’s recent token generation event (TGE) has turned the spotlight to decentralized finance (DeFi). The project airdropped more than one-third of its total token supply directly to the community, with no distribution to exchanges or private investors, and the token has maintained a steady increase in price since its release.

This success raises the possibility that the market will refocus on DeFi, especially decentralized perpetual protocols that are in the same field as Hyperliquid. Recent data from DefiLlama supports exactly this underlying trend, showing a significant increase in the total value locked (TVL) of derivatives protocols. This growth highlights the growing relevance of these platforms in the DeFi ecosystem.

In this article, let’s explore together:

Hyperliquid: Key features, token economics and growth potential.

Perpetual Protocols: Take a closer look at noteworthy protocols in the perpetual space, including dYdX (high cap), GMX (mid cap), and HMX (low cap), selected based on their respective important indicators in the category.

Hyperliquid is a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain designed for a completely open financial system on the chain. Its infrastructure combines the speed of centralized exchanges with the transparency and trustlessness of DeFi, delivering fast, transparent and scalable transactions with block latency of less than one second and throughput of up to 100,000 orders per second.

(1) Token Economics

Hyperliquid’s token economics emphasizes community-driven growth. Its recent Token Generation Event (TGE) introduced the native token HYPE, while over a third of the total supply was airdropped directly to the community. Notably, there are no token distributions to private investors or exchanges, ensuring that the project’s value is rooted in community participation.

The main highlights of its token economics are as follows:

Total supply: 1,000,000,000 HYPE tokens.

Allocation details:

Future emissions and community rewards: 38.888%

Creation Allocation: 31.0%

Core Contributors: 23.8%

Hyper Foundation Budget: 6.0%

Community Grant: 0.3%

HIP-2 Allocation: 0.012%

Tokenomics Standard Allocation Details:

Community: 76.2%

(2) Supply Plan

Hyperliquid’s supply plan supports instant liquidity with high initial circulating supply, Also ensuring token emission is controlled over time:

Community allocation: More than 30% of the total supply will enter circulation via airdrop when the token is released. Remaining tokens will be gradually discharged over time. A portion of the tokens are allocated to the foundation budget and community grants to support ecosystem development at launch.

Team allocation: locked for one year, then gradually unlocked on a monthly basis within two years, and all distributions will be completed in 2027-2028. The unlocking time on the issuance schedule is 2 years.

High initial circulating supply promotes liquidity and active market participation from day one, setting it apart from the general trend of low-circulation/high FDV tokens. The year after genesis, when team tokens begin to unlock, will be a key event in observing its potential impact on the market.

(3) Bullish Catalysts

High Initial Circulating Supply: Over 30% of the total supply entered circulation at the time of the token’s issuance – and there was no allocation to VCs or Private Equity Investors - Hyperliquid has a different trend than low-circulation VC-backed tokens. Since no private entity holds the pre-allocated tokens, anyone interested in obtaining HYPE outside of the airdrop will have to purchase it directly on the market. This move received strong support from the community, inspiring bullish sentiment and further boosting market confidence.

Market dominance: Hyperliquid has shown impressive growth in user stickiness and transaction volume. The total number of users exceeds 190,000, and the total transaction volume exceeds 300 billion US dollars. Data from Dune Analytics shows that Hyperliquid currently dominates the perpetual protocol market, leading with more than 35% of the trading volume among all perpetual protocols.

Ecosystem development: HyperEVM introduced Ethereum compatibility, attracting more than 30 projects, including dApps and GambleFi applications. Partnership with Ethena and integration with stablecoins such as USDe further enhance utility, liquidity and developer engagement.

These catalysts highlight Hyperliquid’s growth potential and its leadership in decentralized perpetual trading.

In addition to Hyperliquid, there are several protocols that are actively shaping the sustainable agreement field.domain, driving its growth through adoption and innovation. In this section, we will study the main players with different market capitalizations:

dYdX (high market capitalization): an OG leader with a strong user base, focusing on application chains.

GMX (Mid Cap): The leader on Arbitrum, known for its unique liquidity model and stable growth.

HMX (Low Market Cap): A protocol that offers highly leveraged trading with amazing performance valuation metrics.

By analyzing their token economics and catalysts, we develop a comprehensive perspective on the decentralized perpetual protocol space.

(1) dYdX: OG market leader with application chain vision

Introduction to dYdX:

dYdX has become a leading decentralized sustainable exchange It has advanced features and professional trading experience. Originally launched on Ethereum, the protocol was developed into StarkWare (v3) in 2021 to overcome scaling issues caused by high gas fees. To achieve full decentralization, dYdX has launched the v4 iteration on the independent dYdX chain built using the Cosmos SDK, ensuring that all components of the protocol are fully decentralized.

Tokenomics:

The DYDX token was released on August 3, 2021, and its tokenomics continue to evolve through team decision-making and community governance. One thing worth noting is the 1-year re-locking mechanism for investor and team tokens, which greatly boosted market confidence and pushed up token prices.

Standard allocation:

Reserves: 31.3%

Private investors: 27.7%

Founding Person/Team: 22.3%

Community: 18.7%

Supply plan:

Team and investor tokens began to unlock this year, with a significant cliff, followed by monthly unlocking until June 2026 Unlocking completed.

Approximately 20% of the total supply remains unallocated, leaving room for future ecosystem incentives.

The current token emission is stagnant at approximately 80 million DYDX per month (less than 1% of the total supply), ensuring that supply growth is controllable.

Bullish Catalysts:

Controlled Emissions: Stable monthly emissions rates Approximately 1.4% of the circulating supply ensures limited dilution and provides confidence to long-term holders.

Flexible Allocation: Over 20% of unallocated tokens provide opportunities for future ecosystem incentives to support potential growth and adoption.

dYdX Unlimited: The launch of dYdX Unlimited allows users to trade on any market, expanding its appeal in the ecosystemCreate more trading opportunities within the system.

(2) GMX: The mid-cap market capitalization leader on Arbitrum

GMX Introduction:

GMX is a company on Arbitrum and Avalanche A decentralized exchange (DEX) operating on the Internet, providing spot and perpetual futures trading with up to 100 times leverage. Its outstanding feature is the GLP multi-asset liquidity pool, which supports the fees for market making, swap transactions and leverage transactions, and provides a sustainable and scalable liquidity model.

Token Economics:

Standard Allocation:

Founders/Team: 1.9%

Reserve: 37.7%

Community: 60.4%

Supply plan:

GMX launches in July 2021 and is developed from XVIX and Gambit tokens . The majority of its token supply has been unlocked, with remaining emissions primarily used for esGMX rewards under the community pool to incentivize protocol usage.

Bullish Catalysts:

Low Supply Emissions: With an annual emissions rate of just 1.5%, GMX has one of the most conservative supply plans in the perpetual protocol space One, it minimizes the inflation rate and preserves the token value.

Growth in Key Metrics: GMX has shown strong growth trends of late, including a resurgence in TVL, a significant increase in open interest over the past three months, and driven by increased trading activity and strong fee revenue generation Earnings increased by 130% in the next 30 days.

(3) HMX: a low-market capitalization project with strong indicators

HMX introduction:

HMX is a decentralized perpetual contract trading platform running on Arbitrum, providing users with the ability to trade cryptocurrencies and commodities with high leverage. It supports multi-asset mortgage and full margin trading, improving capital efficiency and user flexibility

Token Economics:

Standard Allocation:

Community: 40%

Reserve: 30.6%

Founders/Team: 15%

Public Investors: 8%

Private Investors: 6.4%

Supply Plan:

HMX launches a Token Generation Event (TGE) through a public sale in August 2023.

Team and private equity investors: A 6-month cliff period is followed by a 42-month team unlocking period and a 12-month investor unlocking period.

Community allocation: Allocate rewards to the platform according to a detailed schedule.

Reserved allocation: for ecosystem growth initiatives such as marketing, partnerships, and exchange listings. These tokens will not directly enter circulation after being unlocked and will only be used when needed.

Bull callChemical Agents:

Strong Metrics in the Arbitrum Ecosystem:

Growth Potential: HMX has half the market cap/TVL ratio of GMX and a P/E ratio of 0.39x (Annual expenses: $14 million) has a market cap of only about $5.5 million, while GMX trades at 3.4 times earnings (annual expenses: $90 million) and has a market cap of over $300 million. Its fundamentals are strong and its valuation is much lower than GMX and dYdX ($1.2 billion), showing huge room for growth.

High fees and benefits: HMX ranks second in the fees and benefits dimensions. Although TVL is low, it shows strong user stickiness and platform efficiency.

New roadmap:

HMX’s recently announced roadmap introduces significant updates to enhance its ecosystem and competitiveness:

CLOB model: to be launched soon Launching in the first quarter of 2025, the model will bring deeper liquidity, better price discovery and advanced trading capabilities.

Improved token economics: including token burning, governance-driven inflation, and airdrop campaigns to increase demand and user engagement.

Rebranding: The new brand will reflect HMX’s status as an innovator in the sustainable DEX field and its transformative power.

Led by innovative platforms such as Hyperliquid, dYdX, GMX and HMX, the field of sustainable protocols is gathering momentum in the DeFi field. All platforms have their own unique capabilities. Features and strategies drive growth. As the field continues to develop, it will play a key role in decentralized exchanges.