Hyperliquid Surpasses Robinhood in Monthly Trading Volume for the Third Consecutive Month

Cryptocurrency

Summary:

Robinhood’s July volume was made up of $209.1 billion from equities, $195.8 million from options, and $28.7 billion from crypto, based on its Aug. 13 attestation.

Hyperliquid registered more trading volume than Robinhood for the third consecutive month, with July marking the largest gap between platforms at 39.1%.

DefiLlama data shows the decentralized derivatives exchange traded $330.8 billion in combined spot and perpetual volume during July, while Robinhood processed $237.8 billion across all products.

Robinhood’s July volume was made up of $209.1 billion from equities, $195.8 million from options, and $28.7 billion from crypto, based on its Aug. 13 attestation.

Hyperliquid’s $93 billion advantage represents its strongest monthly performance against the retail trading platform since beginning its winning streak.

Data shared by Jon Ma from Artemis shows Hyperliquid traded $256 billion in May compared to Robinhood’s $192 billion, followed by June volumes of $231 billion versus $193 billion, respectively.

Further, Hyperliquid approaches $2 trillion in year-to-date cumulative volume from spot and perpetuals as of Aug. 25.

The protocol has been rising since June, when it registered $226.4 billion, then jumped to the $330.8 billion seen in July. As of Aug. 25, Hyperliquid has already surpassed $349 billion in monthly trading volume with spot and perpetual combined.

Maximum efficiency

The consistent outperformance positions Hyperliquid among dominant forces in crypto derivatives trading despite minimal staffing requirements.

CEO Jeff Yan confirmed that the exchange operates with just 11 core contributors, generating annualized revenue of $1.167 billion based on DefiLlama estimates as of Aug. 20.

The platform achieved $106 million in revenue per employee on Aug. 20, surpassing technology giants and previous record holder Tether Limited at $93 million per employee.

Data gathered by Hyperliquid France places OnlyFans third at $37.6 million, while established tech companies trail considerably with Nvidia at $3.6 million, Apple at $2.4 million, and Meta at $2.2 million per employee.

The trading volume dominance occurs amid institutional adoption of crypto derivatives products, with Hyperliquid capturing market share from centralized exchanges and traditional trading platforms.

Hyperliquid’s consistent volume leadership over Robinhood demonstrates the competitiveness of decentralized finance protocols against established financial technology companies.

This difference is particularly true in crypto-native trading products, where traditional platforms face regulatory and operational constraints limiting their market reach.

Source: Cryptoslate

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Manuel

Cryptocurrency

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin weighed in on the growing debate over prediction markets, warning that the absence of interest-bearing mechanisms makes them unappealing for risk-averse traders.

In a post on Farcaster, Buterin said the lack of yield forces participants to sacrifice guaranteed returns elsewhere, such as the 4% annual yield available on dollars, just to take part.

He suggested that once markets solve the interest gap, “lots of hedging use cases” could emerge, driving greater volumes and adoption.

Critics see structural flaws

Buterin’s comments came as online discussion flared over the risks and potential of platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi.

The exchange was sparked by an essay from former quant trader Agustin Lebron, who argued that prediction markets are structurally flawed and could destabilize society by encouraging reflexive feedback loops between bets and real-world outcomes.

Lebron contended that prediction markets lack the diverse mix of hedgers, speculators, and institutional investors that underpin traditional financial markets.

He argued that without hedgers transferring risk, prediction markets devolve into contests between sharp traders and retail gamblers, leaving little room for sustainable liquidity.

Supporters push back

His critique drew a detailed rebuttal from pseudonymous trader @TomJrSr, who disclosed financial interests in the sector.

In a lengthy response, he argued that Lebron’s view underestimates the long-term potential for prediction markets to provide valuable hedging tools for businesses, industries, and individuals exposed to real-world risks.

He wrote: “Airlines face hurricanes, utilities face unpredictable temperatures, and energy firms face shifting OPEC quotas.”

He further suggested that prediction markets could offer a cheaper and more direct way to hedge against such events than existing financial instruments.

With Buterin highlighting missing yield and both sides of the debate staking out starkly different positions, prediction markets appear caught between two futures: one as a niche form of speculative entertainment, the other as a legitimate tool for risk transfer and price discovery.

Source: Cryptoslate

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Manuel

Commodity

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Oil advanced, solidifying gains from the previous week, as a move above key technical levels helped extend a rally sparked by signs that the Federal Reserve will resume cutting interest rates.

West Texas Intermediate climbed 1.8% to approach $65 a barrel and reach the highest settlement price in three weeks, while Brent closed near $69 a barrel. Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Friday signaled in a speech that the central bank could cut interest rates as soon as its September policy meeting. The comments boosted crude futures on expectations that a rate cut would boost the US economy and raise oil demand.

WTI’s jump above its 100-day moving average of about $64.45 also spurred some buying from algorithmic-based traders.

Elsewhere, Ukraine struck Russia’s Baltic port of Ust-Luga overnight, the latest in a series of attacks on energy infrastructure. Ukraine has attacked eight Russian refineries so far this month, raising concerns of exacerbated fuel market tightness.

Longer-term sentiment remains subdued. Money managers cut their bullish position on crude to the lowest in about 17 years as two of the world’s main oil forecasting agencies said inventories are poised for a glut next year. Crude has been trading in a narrow range since early August as traders reconcile a bearish long-term outlook with several potentially bullish near-term geopolitical factors.

On the one hand, the US has threatened to double a tariff on all imports from India to 50% in retaliation for its purchases of Russian oil. Though the penalty is set to take effect on Wednesday, Indian diplomats have said local processors will continue taking crude from Moscow.

On the other hand, OPEC+’s decision to resume a large portion of idled production has raised concerns about a potential oversupply, with futures now down about 10% lower this year.

Brent futures are now trading at a rare discount to their regional counterpart in Dubai — a shift that could heighten concerns about a growing surplus. The move, months in the making, underscores signs that supply-demand balances in the Atlantic Basin — where contracts are largely priced — are weakening relative to the Middle East, despite OPEC+ adding millions of barrels in daily output.

Trading volumes in Brent futures were lower than the daily average on Monday, with some traders off for a UK public holiday.

Source: Bloomberg

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Manuel

Economic

Central Bank

Dallas Federal Reserve President Lorie Logan on Monday said she feels the U.S. central bank has more room to reduce its reserves, and she expects banks to turn to its standing repo facility next month to alleviate any liquidity pressures.

"We could see some temporary pressure around the tax date and quarter-end in September," Logan said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Bank of Mexico's centennial conference in Mexico City. "I was encouraged to see market participants using the SRF over the June quarter-end, and I anticipate they will similarly use our ceiling tools if necessary in September."

The facility, aimed at preventing liquidity shortages, allows Treasuries owned by eligible firms to be converted quickly into cash, and should lessen the need for the Fed to step in on an emergency basis. It generally sits unused, though there has been some use when banking reserves drop, notably at the end of September in 2004.

As reserves in the banking system drop, Logan said, it is preferable for the Fed and other central banks to avoid balance sheet expansion in response to higher short-term demand for reserves from banks, or risk an "ever-expanding" balance sheet.

The Fed also offers banks liquidity through its discount-window loans. Logan on Monday said the central bank should consider increasing or removing limits on the size of the facility, or centrally clearing those transactions, and she repeated an earlier proposal for the Fed to offer a daily auction on discount window loans to allow easier distribution of liquidity within the banking system.

Logan did not address the outlook for monetary policy or the economy, an omission that may draw notice from investors who have been watching to see how the Fed's more hawkish policymakers, Logan among them, view the risks around inflation, which remains above the central bank's 2% goal, and the labor market, which has shown recent signs of weakness including a sharp drop-off in monthly payroll gains.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Friday he felt downside risks to the labor market had risen, a development that "may warrant adjusting" the central bank's currently restrictive monetary policy stance. Financial markets took the remarks as a go signal for an interest rate cut at the Fed's September 16-17 meeting, as did many on Wall Street.

Source: Reuters

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Kevin Du

Economic

South Korea's new President, Lee Jae Myung, arrived at the White House on Monday for talks hours after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized Seoul and as conflict over defense spending and trade tests the two countries' decades-old alliance.

The leaders were gearing up for their first summit when Trump criticized the South Korean government over its handling of investigations related to his conservative predecessor's December attempt to impose martial law.

The remarks cast a dark mood over high-stakes talks for Lee, who took office in June following a snap election that followed Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment and removal.

South Korea's economy relies heavily on the U.S., with Washington underwriting its security with troops and nuclear deterrence. Trump has called Seoul a "money machine" that takes advantage of American military protection.

Lee wants to chart a balanced path of cooperation with the U.S., while avoiding antagonizing South Korea's top trade partner, China.

Trump's complaint aligns with those lodged by Korea's far-right movement, especially evangelical Christians and supporters of Yoon, who is on trial on charges of inciting an insurrection.

Those Yoon supporters see the ex-president as the subject of communist persecution and have leveled unsubstantiated claims of election tampering in the vote that brought Lee to power in June.

Trump told reporters he had heard troubling reports of investigations targeting churches and a military base, and that he would be raising the matter with Lee. "I don't know if it's true or not," he said. "I'll be finding out."

Earlier this month, Seoul police raided Sarang Jeil Church, headed by evangelical preacher Jun Kwang-hoon, who led protests in support of Yoon, according to local reports. The police were investigating pro-Yoon activists who stormed a court in late January after it extended Yoon's detention.

In July, prosecutors investigating Yoon's actions served a search warrant on the Korean part of a military base jointly operated with the United States. South Korean officials have said that U.S. troops and materials were not subject to the search and said that "false claims" that their raid required prior consultations with U.S. troops hurt the alliance and interfered with their investigation.

"Regardless of how this specific incident plays out, Trump has nicely illustrated how unreliable and capricious he is for allies," said Mason Richey, professor at Seoul's Hankuk University.

COMPLEX NEGOTIATIONS

The two countries are engaged in lower-level negotiations over trade, nuclear power, and military spending. Several top officials, including the foreign minister, rushed to Washington over the weekend to try to iron out final details.

Lee's goal coming into the meeting has been to make a good impression, connect personally with Trump, and above all, avoid any unpleasant surprises, analysts said.

As part of his preparations for the summit, Lee told reporters during his flight to Washington that he had read "Trump: The Art of the Deal," the president's 1987 memoir.

South Korean negotiators secured a last-minute deal in July to avoid the harshest of new U.S. tariffs, but they must still hammer out details of $350 billion in promised investments in the United States.

Lee, who arrived in Washington on Sunday, will highlight some of South Korea's expected investments when he visits a shipyard in Philadelphia owned by the country's Hanwha Group after the summit. Cooperation to help the ailing U.S. shipbuilding sector is part of the broad agreement reached between the countries.

ENGAGING NORTH KOREA

Trump is expected to pressure Lee to commit to more spending on defense, including potentially billions of dollars more toward the upkeep of 28,500 American troops stationed in South Korea.

Wi Sung-lac, Lee's top security adviser, said South Korea was in talks with Washington over defense spending and looking into a plan for the purchase of American weapons.

While focusing on increasing military spending, Lee will likely seek to avoid conversations about a potential reduction of U.S. troops or details on modernizing the alliance, said Duyeon Kim, from the Center for a New American Security.

Lee told reporters it would be difficult for Seoul to accept the demand by the U.S. to adopt "flexibility" in operating the U.S. military stationed in South Korea, a reference to the touchy issue of using the U.S. military for a wider range of operations, including China-related threats.

"They should leave those topics for working-level officials to hash out," Kim said. "Ambition could backfire."

As he headed to the U.S., Lee sent a special delegation to Beijing, which delivered a message calling for normalized relations with China that have been strained in recent years.

Trump and Lee may also discuss efforts to persuade North Korea to freeze and eventually abandon its nuclear weapons program. Both leaders support engaging Pyongyang, and Lee has called for a phased approach to denuclearization.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says South Korea and the U.S. remain hostile to his country, and he will never give up his nuclear arsenal. Over the weekend, Kim supervised the test firing of new air defense systems.

Source: Reuters

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Adam

Forex

Economic

With US debt above $37 trillion and climbing, the US Treasury market is eyeing stablecoin issuers like Tether and Circle (CRCL) as key buyers.

Wall Street's explosive adoption of digital tokens pegged to the US dollar has been fueled by the recently signed GENIUS Act, which established guidelines and a landmark framework for the industry.

“In terms of US President Trump’s aim to make the US the crypto capital of the planet, a well-regulated stablecoin market could cement the US dollar dominance in the world of digital finance," HSBC analysts wrote earlier this week.

Under the new law, stablecoin issuers have to back tokens with dollars or other high-quality liquid assets, effectively positioning short-term T-bills as the collateral of choice.

“Stablecoins will expand dollar access for billions across the globe and lead to a surge in demand for US Treasuries, which back stablecoins,” Scott Bessent wrote earlier this week on X as he touted the benefits of the GENIUS Act. The Treasury Secretary added, “It’s a win-win-win for everyone involved: stablecoin users, stablecoin issuers, and the US Treasury Department."

Tether and Circle, which went public during a blockbuster IPO, dominate the $250 billion stablecoin market, which is up 22% in 2025. Morgan Stanley analysis shows Tether (USDT-USD) holds about 65% of the total stablecoin capitalization, and Circle’s USD Coin (USDC-USD) holds another 25%, giving the pair a combined 90% share.

On Tuesday, Tether, heavily used abroad, announced the hiring of former White House crypto policy executive Bo Hines as a strategic adviser to help steer its expansion in the United States.

While much of issuers' reserves are in the form of short-term US debt, the industry is not yet considered a major part of the Treasury bill market.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City issuers hold around $125 billion in Treasury bills — less than 2% of the $6 trillion in outstanding Treasury bills.

By comparison, insurance companies hold about five times more, and mutual funds, the largest private buyers, hold $4.5 trillion, or 36 times as much.

"Although the stablecoin market is currently too small to have a large effect on Treasury demand, the market is expected to grow substantially over the next several years," wrote Stefan Jacewitz, economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

That's exactly what Wall Street is betting on.

Last Thursday, Coinbase forecast stablecoins could reach a market cap of around $1.2 trillion by the end of 2028, while Standard Chartered expects it to reach $2 trillion during the same time period. Bernstein projects as much as $4 trillion by 2035.

Stablecoin demand is rising just as the US Treasury leans more heavily on short-term T-bill issuance, while traditional buyers like China, Japan, and Canada have been scaling back.

Ark Invest analysis shows the share of Treasurys held by the largest foreign creditors has fallen from 23% to just over 6% in the past 13 years. That trend is expected to continue under President Trump’s tariff policies and a broader shift by foreign central banks to reduce bond holdings.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve has been tapering its own purchases as it winds down quantitative easing.

In 2024, Tether was the seventh largest buyer of US Treasurys behind the UK and Singapore, while the largest sellers were China and Japan.

“Clearly, Tether, Circle, and the broader stablecoin industry could create one of the largest sources of demand for US Treasuries in the coming years, potentially replacing China and Japan as the top holders by 2030," wrote Ark Invest's Lorenzo Valente in June. "If so, then the stablecoin industry could contribute importantly to the goal of lowering long term interest rates in the US."

Digital tokens backed by the dollar may be moving the needle on short-term yields, according to the Bank for International Settlements, whose data shows that five-day stablecoin inflows of $3.5 billion lower three-month T-bill yields by about 2-2.5 basis points within 10 days.

"If industry projections are remotely accurate, and stablecoin demand balloons north of $1 trillion in the next few years, then not only will stablecoins continue to move short-term yields, they will necessarily become a material factor considered when the Treasury determines its debt issuance schedule," Christopher Vecchio, global co-head of macro at futures and options trading network tastylive, told Yahoo Finance.

Industry observers warn that as money shifts into stablecoins, it will likely come out of bank deposits, therefore reducing balances and lowering banks’ reserve requirements.

“This potential flow of funds from bank deposits into stablecoins could increase Treasury demand but also reduce the supply of loans in the economy,” wrote Jacewitz of the Kansas City Fed.

Still, industry participants see the net effect as positive.

“Stablecoins will be a meaningful accelerant to economic growth, both in the US and abroad,” Will Beeson, founder of Uniform Labs, a fintech infrastructure company, told Yahoo Finance.

Source: finance.yahoo

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Adam

Economic

Wall Street banks have hired dozens of senior executives in recent months, as improved economic sentiment has spurred mergers and IPOs after a lull earlier in the year due to concerns over the effect of U.S. tariffs.

The surge in job-hopping, which typically occurs in the spring, illustrates how rising confidence has prompted banks to staff up to handle a wave of dealmaking.

“It’s been an active summer in investment banking," said Troy Rohrbaugh, co-CEO of JPMorgan’s commercial and investment bank. "But we’ve also been strategically hiring for the long-term in sectors and geographies where we think we can continue to grow share.”

On Friday, JPMorgan named industry veteran Jerry Lee as global chair of investment banking who will be joining from rival Goldman Sachs. The bank has recently added several senior bankers in technology, energy and activism defense and hired more than 300 bankers between January and April across its global banking unit.

"Just at the moment when hiring was really supposed to kick off, strong tariff uncertainty really shook the markets and shook a lot of these banks, and therefore they said 'Hey, let's hold off'," said Meridith Dennes, managing partner at financial search firm Prospect Rock Partners. "As the markets stabilized, hiring started to pick up in July."

Wall Street executives usually receive and consider job offers between January and April, weeks after receiving their yearly bonuses. But the 2025 hiring season was interrupted by the announcement of U.S. tariffs that President Donald Trump called "Liberation Day."

Talks for M&A and capital markets transactions froze. "The tariffs put a hard stop on hiring and banks started to downsize," said Alan Johnson, founder of compensation consultancy Johnson Associates.

In June, as investment banking activity resumed, job openings that were on hold materialized, according to bankers and recruiters.

"There's been no let up," Julian Bell, head of Americas at executive search firm Sheffield Haworth. "We've been offering and closing on people all year without a pause and we’re still hard at it... it’s active across the market.”

Among the recent senior hires were Citigroup's (C.N), opens new tab new co-heads of M&A, Guillermo Baygual and Drago Rajkovic, as well as Pankaj Goel, co-head for technology investment banking who all came from JPMorgan, hired by Citi's head of banking Viswas Raghavan. Elsewhere, UBS added Taylor Henricks as its head of M&A in the Americas alongside a raft of other additions.

Although recruitment improved after tariff-fueled freezing, it is still below more active years in the last decade, said Alan Johnson, founder of compensation consultancy Johnson Associates.

While hiring for senior managing director positions has been steady, banks started hiring more junior staff in August, according to Tom Ragland, founder and CEO of financial services search firm the Harrison-Rush Group.

He reported a 200% increase in inbound and unsolicited messages from investment banks wanting associates and vice presidents -- typically early-career positions in banks -- in the week to August 13. This was a rebound from the first half of the year, when Ragland received 30% fewer hiring mandates for junior roles than in the same period of 2024.

Boutique investment banks appear especially optimistic. Evercore announced late in July a deal to buy British boutique investment bank Robey Warshaw for $196 million. Evercore will now have more than 400 bankers in nine countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Lazard has hired 14 managing directors in 2025 as a way to reach the goal of doubling revenue by 2030, it said in July. Other areas that have been actively hiring are wealth management and private credit, according to Johnson Associates. Investment banking revenue was tipped to rise 20% this year before April, but that target is no longer achievable and banks are building up their teams for next year, Alan Johnson added.

The latest hiring decisions are backed by some deals getting closed, Dennes said.

“A lot of folks had talked about building up a huge pipeline in the fourth quarter of 2024, and then subsequently, it was really tough to execute deals due to market uncertainty in the first half of 2025," she said. "If you don't have any deals closed, you don't have any money to hire people,” she said.