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HyENA introduces USDe-margined perps to Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 ecosystem, bringing productive collateral, stronger capital efficiency, and new incentive layers for traders and market makers. It’s early, but the liquidity flywheel and alignment between Ethena and Hyperliquid make this an exciting launch. 

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Disclaimer: Views expressed are the author’s personal views and should not be relied upon as investment advice.

Discloser: Analyst (Yarl) behind this research owns $HYPE and is a HyENA affiliate. Full disclaimer and disclosure here.

Key Takeaways

• USDe as collateral makes perps cheaper to trade and more capital-efficient.

• Traders earn multiple incentives: Ethena points, Based points, and possibly future $HYPE incentives.

• Delta-neutral strategies improve thanks to productive collateral and higher short-leg yield.

• HLPe vault bootstraps early liquidity, adding rewards and improving depth.

Introducing HyENA

Ethena has just launched HyENA, which they describe as “The Internet Trading Engine with Native Rewards”. In simple terms, HyENA is a USDe-margined perpetuals DEX built on Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 standard.

We’ve personally been very vocal about HyENA for some time, because it’s becoming increasingly important for traders and community members that collateral economics flow back into the Hyperliquid ecosystem. That was the core idea behind the USDH governance proposal, moving away from Circle’s USDC toward Hyperliquid’s native stablecoin, USDH, where value actually returns to the ecosystem:

• 50% of the T-bill yield goes to $HYPE buybacks

• 50% goes toward fostering growth

• Reduced taker/maker fees

HyENA is different in nature because it is a HIP-3 market, meaning with 500k $HYPE staked, Ethena can deploy custom markets, but philosophically it aligns with USDH: value should flow back to traders/Hyperliquid.

Perpetual traders’ collateral is now becoming productive thanks to USDe, which has historically yielded 4–12%. We’ll discuss what USDe as collateral enables for traders below, but the first major benefit is clear: financing costs drop significantly, as funding rates can be reduced, eliminated, or even generate extra returns.

Let’s dive into HyENA and why this is a net positive for the entire industry.

→ HyENA is currently accessible by invitation only. For anyone interested in trying HyENA, here is our affiliate link. Code: GLCRESEARCH

Why is HyENA valuable for traders ?

As explained above, the first value-add of using USDe as collateral is the reduced trading cost for both takers and makers. If you're a taker, you want your idle capital to be productive and generate returns. Over time, this increases your collateral margin and lowers your liquidation price.

For market makers, the cost of capital is also reduced, which theoretically improves MM profitability. It’s early, HyENA launched only two days ago, but the first step is attracting liquidity, and we don’t think they’ll struggle to bring in makers given HyENA’s underlying design.

In addition to being more attractive for MMs, HyENA introduces HLPe, the HyENA Liquidity Provider Vault. This mirrors Hyperliquid’s HLP, a community vault that provides liquidity to the exchange, with depositors sharing PnL pro rata.

HLPe works the same way but is deployed specifically for HyENA, using USDe instead of USDC. This model was extremely effective for Hyperliquid to bootstrap early liquidity, and we’re pleased to see Ethena using a similar approach. On top of the PnL share, depositors also earn USDe rewards, a portion of HyENA trading fees but that’s not all.

Depositing into HLPe earns 70x more Ethena points for Season 5 and 5x Upshift points (since the vault is operated by Upshift). At a high level, liquidity bootstrapping should not be a challenge with this structure in place.

And speaking of points, we’ve already discussed why trading on HyENA is attractive from a pure economic perspective. But there’s more.

Three Points Campaign?

On top of the benefits mentioned above, trading on HyENA also earns you HyENA points for 6 months, which will be converted into Ethena points. There is no additional token; all value ultimately accrues to $ENA.

You will also earn Based points. Trading on HyENA gives you the same benefits as trading directly on Based because Based was a core contributor, alongside Ethena, in building HyENA. Beyond that, Based is one of the highest fee- and volume-generating front-ends on Hyperliquid, and one of the top front-ends by users integrating Polymarket.

Long story short, Based is executing extremely well, growing fast, and HyENA now gives you direct exposure to that growth.

We’ve seen traders say there is “no point” in trading on Hyperliquid anymore because other platforms have points campaigns. Well, HyENA now gives you two point campaigns at once: Ethena and Based, with limited OI and fewer users in the early days. Something to think about.

It is also reasonable to speculate that if Hyperliquid ever launches an S3, HIP-3 volume will likely be incentivized. Meaning that on top of earning Ethena and Based points, you may also be farming a potential $HYPE S3.

Delta-Neutral/Hedging Improved 

Another point that isn’t talked about enough is how USDe-margined perps reduce the cost of capital for hedging and delta-neutral strategies.

Take a simple example: you hold a $10,000 $HYPE position that you don’t want to sell. You’re long-term bullish, but you want to hedge occasionally to protect capital, which is perfectly reasonable given crypto volatility.

With USDe-margined perps, you can short $10,000 worth of $HYPE, maintain your spot exposure, and earn significant yield while hedging.

Market participants are structurally long-biased, meaning long pays funding to short. For $HYPE, funding is usually around 10% APY for shorting. On top of that, your collateral earns USDe yield, historically 4–12%. 

So simply hedging your position can generate 14–22% APY on the short leg with no market exposure while also accumulating HyENA and Based points.

The same applies to market makers or traders who want market-neutral yield. Teams like Liminal, which offer delta-neutral strategies in a few clicks, could see higher returns using USDe collateral. Their newly launched xTokens reduce execution and rebalancing costs, and when you combine higher returns with lower costs, it becomes obvious why many participants, including us, will be interested.

→ See GLC’s latest Liminal research here.

Of course, it’s early and liquidity and depth still matter.

But this is exactly the kind of mechanism that pulls liquidity into HyENA. Higher returns attract more delta-neutral participants, which pushes funding lower for longs, which attracts more traders, which attracts more market makers, and so on. A positive liquidity snowball effect.

Ethena will also participate in its own market. Remember that USDe yield primarily comes from delta-neutral strategies, with the short perp leg generating APY. A portion of that activity will now route directly through HyENA, further deepening liquidity.

HyENA is positioned to benefit from this dynamic from day one.

GLC’s Thoughts

HyENA brings a genuinely differentiated value proposition to Hyperliquid’s ecosystem. For traders, the incentives are straightforward: productive collateral through USDe, reduced financing costs, two active points programs (Ethena + Based), potential exposure to a future $HYPE S3, and a boosted 12% APY during the first month.

For market makers and delta-neutral participants, USDe collateral improves capital efficiency. Higher returns on the short leg make strategies more attractive, which in turn helps pull liquidity into the system. HLPe further accelerates this by offering additional rewards and a liquidity-bootstrapping mechanism inspired by Hyperliquid’s successful HLP.

If the liquidity flywheel develops as intended: more MMs → better liquidity & depth → more traders → more volume, etc. HyENA could quickly establish a strong foundation.

Of course, this introduces an additional layer of risk, as it requires trusting that USDe will not depeg. It’s still early, but Ethena’s clear alignment with Hyperliquid and their commitment to making HyENA succeed position the project very well. If the Hyperliquid–Ethena “bromance” continues strengthening, HyENA could become a meaningful pillar of HIP-3 and a powerful complementary force within the ecosystem.

→ HyENA is currently accessible by invitation only. For anyone interested in trying HyENA, here is our affiliate link. Code: GLCRESEARCH

Early days, but the vision remains the same: housing all of finance.

Hyperliquid.

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