Hyperliquid to Compensate Users for Losses

The decentralised exchange (DEX) for trading perpetual futures, Hyperliquid, will compensate users who suffered losses due to a malfunction in the API. The project team announced this on Telegram. 

“We will publish details about the compensations in the coming days, once we develop an appropriate mechanism for affected users. Payments will be made automatically — there is no need to contact support for now,” the announcement states. 

On July 30 at 14:10 UTC, Hyperliquid clients began reporting issues with order execution. Many were unable to close positions, leading to price discrepancies — on the platform, prices differed from the market by approximately $9.

Half an hour later, developers resolved the issue. They attributed the problem to a sudden surge in traffic, rather than a hacker attack, as some users speculated. 

“To emphasise: this was not a hack. The blockchain, consensus, and HyperEVM were functioning normally, and blocks were generated without delays. The issue was with the API — transactions were processed, but users saw errors. This problem is currently being addressed,” stated Hyperliquid representatives. 

What Caused the Traffic Surge? 

The team noted that in recent weeks, the exchange has shown record performance. According to Dune, at the time of publication, the platform holds 77.3% of the perpetual futures trading market. 

According to DeFi Llama, in July, Hyperliquid’s trading volume reached $300 billion, a 24% increase over the previous peak of $248 billion recorded in May. 

Since December 2024, the DEX’s revenue from trading fees has exceeded $1 billion. In the last month, the platform earned a record $86.5 million.

HYPE’s Reaction 

Following the malfunction, the price of Hyperliquid’s native token fell nearly 2% to $42.59. According to CoinGecko, in the past 24 hours, the HYPE rate has recovered by 0.3%. 

At the time of writing, the coin is trading at $43.36 with a market capitalisation of $14 billion. 

Earlier, on July 30, the Polygon network ceased processing transactions and producing new blocks. Developers explained the reasons for the issues.