Hyperliquid’s trading volume has continued to hit new highs, but protocol revenue has been falling, cutting the cash flow that supports HYPE buybacks. According to CoinDesk, the gap is being driven by the platform’s hottest growth engine: real-world asset (RWA) perpetual contracts.
RWA perpetuals became the biggest trading category
RWA perpetual contracts have grown into Hyperliquid’s largest trading segment. Their share of platform trading rose from 1.8% in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 32.2% in the second quarter of 2026. By mid-July, 52% of weekly trading volume came from RWA products.
At the same time, total protocol revenue moved in the opposite direction. After reaching about $357 million in the third quarter of 2025, revenue fell quarter by quarter to roughly $295 million, then $217 million, and then about $202 million in Q2 2026. That leaves revenue down about 43% from the peak even as trading activity keeps climbing.
Self-launched markets are diverting trading fees
The report said the key factor is a mechanism Hyperliquid opened in October 2025. Under that system, anyone who stakes 500,000 HYPE can launch a perpetual market on the exchange’s order book and keep as much as half of the trading fees.
These self-launched markets accounted for only about 2% of perpetual trading volume in early 2026. That share has now grown to around half, shifting a large portion of fees to market deployers instead of the protocol itself.
Lower revenue means less money for HYPE repurchases
That shift has had a direct effect on HYPE buybacks. Hyperliquid sends about 97% of trading fees to its Assistance Fund, which buys back and burns HYPE on the market. Since buybacks are tied to a fixed share of revenue, a drop in protocol income leads to a smaller repurchase pool.
As a result, buybacks in the second quarter totaled about $149 million, roughly half of the nearly $290 million recorded in the third quarter of 2025. Chain News had previously reported that trading in tokenized assets on Hyperliquid had surpassed crypto assets for the first time. The latest figures show the other side of that trend: the surge in activity is also diluting the cash flow supporting the token.