Hyperliquid is quietly becoming the derivatives engine for its own rivals
Pump.fun is launching perpetual futures trading that runs on Hyperliquid’s infrastructure, a move first reported by Crypto Briefing on the basis of a post on X. The memecoin launchpad, which now competes with Hyperliquid on revenue, is renting its rival’s engine rather than building one.
The mechanics are the interesting part. Crypto Briefing cites API data from around October 9 showing Pump.fun pulling funding rates and open interest for BTC and ETH perpetuals straight from Hyperliquid’s HyperCore mainnet. Instead of standing up its own derivatives stack, the platform borrows the order book and the liquidity. Leverage reportedly tops out at 40x on BTC and 25x on ETH, figures that come from one outlet’s research findings and have not been confirmed by Pump.fun itself.
That arrangement is becoming a pattern. FOMO, another memecoin-native trading platform, put Hyperliquid-based perpetuals in front of its users back in June. Two front-ends that could each be competitors now route their derivatives volume through the same underlying engine, one that posted $12.43 billion in daily perpetual volume in late August.
For Hyperliquid, this cuts both ways. Every rival front-end that plugs into HyperCore deepens the network’s liquidity and fee flow, which is the classic reasons-to-build-on-the-leader argument. But it also commoditises what Hyperliquid sells: if the order book is a utility anyone can rent, the differentiation shifts to the front-end’s user base and fees, and Pump.fun has already shown it can win there, passing Hyperliquid in 30-day revenue by early October.
For traders, the question is simpler. Pump.fun’s audience arrived through memecoins, and 40x margin on BTC is a very different risk profile from a coin launch. Hyperliquid also sits under active US regulatory discussion, which now touches every platform built on its rails. What fees Pump.fun will charge on perpetuals, given its near-zero-fee spot precedent, is not yet known.
