Best HyperEVM Projects in 2026

HyperEVM: The Smart Contract Layer on Hyperliquid

HyperEVM is Hyperliquid's EVM-compatible execution environment, running alongside HyperCore on the same L1. It launched in early 2025 and has rapidly attracted a growing ecosystem of DeFi protocols — from liquid staking and lending to AMM DEXs and yield optimizers. With over 136 projects now building on Hyperliquid, the HyperEVM DeFi stack is one of the fastest-growing in crypto.

What makes HyperEVM projects unique is their ability to compose with HyperCore's native order book and deep perpetual liquidity. This means lending protocols can accept perp positions as collateral, DEXs can route through the native order book, and yield strategies can capture funding rates from Hyperliquid's $3B+ daily volume. Because HyperEVM runs on the same L1 as HyperCore, there is no cross-chain bridging required between the perp exchange and DeFi protocols — everything settles on the same chain with the same validators and the same sub-second finality.

This guide covers the most important projects in each category, with enough depth to help you understand what each protocol actually does, how it works, and why it matters for the broader ecosystem. We prioritize projects with meaningful TVL, real user traction, and clear differentiation.

Liquid Staking: Kinetiq & StakedHYPE

Liquid staking has become the foundation of HyperEVM DeFi. Kinetiq is the largest protocol with $470M+ HYPE staked. Users deposit HYPE and receive kHYPE, a liquid staking token that accrues validator rewards while remaining composable across DeFi. The mechanics are straightforward: when you deposit HYPE into Kinetiq, the protocol delegates your HYPE across a set of validators and mints kHYPE to your wallet. As staking rewards accrue, the exchange rate between kHYPE and HYPE increases — meaning each kHYPE becomes redeemable for progressively more HYPE over time. This appreciation model means you never need to manually claim rewards.

Kinetiq also offers a KNTQ governance token that gives holders voting power over protocol parameters such as validator selection, fee structures, and treasury allocation. Beyond standard liquid staking, Kinetiq operates a Launch platform and EaaS (Ecosystem as a Service) product that facilitates HIP-3 crowdfunding — enabling new projects to bootstrap liquidity through Kinetiq's user base. Redemptions from kHYPE back to HYPE can be done instantly by swapping on DEXs, or through Kinetiq's native redemption queue which processes at the protocol level (subject to unbonding timing).

kHYPE can be used as collateral on lending protocols, traded on DEXs, or looped for amplified yield. Its deep integration across the HyperEVM ecosystem makes it the de facto base collateral asset for many protocols — Felix Protocol, HyperLend, Morpho, and others all accept kHYPE.

StakedHYPE (operated by Valantis Labs) is the second-largest LST with ~$200M TVL, offering stHYPE with deep integrations across the ecosystem. Between Kinetiq and StakedHYPE, liquid staking tokens have become the primary collateral asset in HyperEVM DeFi. The Valantis acquisition of StakedHYPE (originally built by Thunderhead) in August 2025 combined DEX infrastructure with liquid staking, meaning stHYPE benefits from deeply liquid STEX pools on Valantis for efficient swaps.

Lending & Borrowing

Felix Protocol is the largest DeFi protocol on Hyperliquid by TVL, surpassing $1B in September 2025. It is a CDP-style lending protocol forked from Liquity V2, the battle-tested Ethereum lending design. Users deposit HYPE, stHYPE, or kHYPE as collateral and mint feUSD — a decentralized stablecoin that has become the primary stablecoin circulating on HyperEVM.

The CDP (Collateralized Debt Position) mechanics work as follows: you deposit collateral into a “trove” (Felix's term for an individual vault), choose your collateralization ratio (must stay above the minimum, typically 110-150% depending on the collateral type), and mint feUSD against it. The protocol charges a one-time borrowing fee rather than ongoing interest, following the Liquity model. If your collateral value drops and your ratio falls below the liquidation threshold, your trove is liquidated and the collateral is sold to cover the debt.

feUSD is critical for the HyperEVM ecosystem because it provides a decentralized stablecoin that does not depend on centralized issuers like Circle (USDC) or Tether (USDT). feUSD is over- collateralized by HYPE and LSTs, meaning its backing is transparent and verifiable on-chain. The stability pool mechanism (where feUSD holders can deposit their stablecoins to earn liquidation profits) provides a price floor, while arbitrage incentives maintain the peg. For ecosystem liquidity, feUSD enables the full DeFi loop: stake HYPE for kHYPE, deposit kHYPE to mint feUSD, deploy feUSD for yield — all without needing to bridge external stablecoins.

HyperLend is the largest money market, supporting HYPE, stHYPE, kHYPE, and stablecoins with features like flash loans and HyperLoop leverage. Unlike Felix's CDP model, HyperLend operates as a pooled lending market where depositors earn variable interest from borrowers. Sentiment introduced a novel approach — it was the first protocol to accept perpetual futures positions as collateral, unlocking capital efficiency unique to Hyperliquid. Traders can borrow against their unrealized perp profits without closing positions.

Morpho is one of the most significant additions to HyperEVM lending. With $4B+ in total TVL across 17 networks, Morpho is a battle-tested protocol that deployed on HyperEVM with $500M+ TVL. Morpho operates permissionless isolated lending markets — anyone can create a market with custom parameters (collateral asset, loan asset, oracle, liquidation LTV, and interest rate model). This modular design means risk is isolated: a problem in one market does not affect others. Morpho markets on HyperEVM are curated by protocols like Felix and HyperBeat, which create front-end interfaces for the most popular markets. This model lets Morpho scale lending without a central governance process approving each new asset.

Decentralized Exchanges

HyperSwap is the first and largest native DEX on HyperEVM with ~$57M TVL, offering concentrated liquidity AMM pools. Its role in the ecosystem is essential — HyperSwap provides the primary venue for swapping between HYPE, kHYPE, stHYPE, feUSD, USDC, and other HyperEVM tokens. Concentrated liquidity (similar to Uniswap V3) means liquidity providers can focus their capital within specific price ranges for higher capital efficiency and better returns.

KittenSwap is the second-largest at ~$32M TVL, using a ve(3,3) governance model where 35% of tokens were airdropped to the community. The ve(3,3) model (popularized by Solidly/Velodrome on other chains) aligns incentives between liquidity providers, token holders, and traders through vote-escrowed tokenomics.

Valantis stands out with its STEX pools optimized specifically for liquid staking tokens, offering the highest-yielding LST pools on HyperEVM. STEX (Sovereign Trading EXecution) pools use a specialized AMM curve designed for assets that have a known exchange rate relationship (like kHYPE/HYPE), resulting in minimal slippage and impermanent loss for LST swaps. Valantis acquired StakedHYPE in August 2025, combining DEX and LST infrastructure into a vertically integrated liquid staking and trading stack.

Yield & Vaults

HyperBeat is a yield aggregation protocol backed by ether.fi Ventures, Electric Capital, and Coinbase Ventures ($5.2M seed). Its Meta Vaults deploy delta-neutral strategies across HyperEVM protocols, automatically rebalancing between lending, liquidity provision, and staking to optimize risk-adjusted returns. HyperBeat also offers beHYPE liquid staking via ether.fi integration, and acts as a front-end curator for Morpho lending markets — meaning users can access Morpho markets through HyperBeat's interface with additional strategy logic on top.

Looped HYPE enables recursive staking with 3x to 15x leverage for ~10% APY. The loop works by staking HYPE, using the LST as collateral to borrow more HYPE, staking again, and repeating. Each iteration amplifies yield but also amplifies liquidation risk — if HYPE price drops sharply, the leveraged position can be liquidated. Mizu automates deployment across top HyperEVM protocols through multi-asset vaults (HyperETH, HyperBTC, HyperUSD), built on Veda's BoringVault infrastructure for institutional-grade vault management.

Trading & Social Tools

The Hyperliquid ecosystem extends well beyond DeFi protocols. A growing set of trading tools and social platforms makes the exchange more accessible and powerful for different types of traders.

pvp.trade is a Telegram-based trading bot that has become one of the highest-volume interfaces for Hyperliquid. With 50,000+ monthly active users, pvp.trade lets traders execute perp and spot trades directly from Telegram with a simple command syntax. Its clan system enables social trading — users form groups, compare performance, and compete on leaderboards. Futures trades through pvp.trade cost just 0.05% taker fee. The Telegram-native approach removes the friction of opening a web app and makes Hyperliquid accessible to traders who live in chat.

HypurrScan is the primary block explorer for the Hyperliquid L1. Beyond standard transaction lookup, HypurrScan provides whale tracking (monitoring large wallets and their positions), auction data for HIP-1 token deployments, and TWAP (Time-Weighted Average Price) monitoring. For traders, the whale tracking feature is particularly valuable — you can see when large players are opening or closing significant positions, which can inform your own trading decisions.

Coinpilot is an AI-powered copy trading app that lets users mirror the trades of top-performing Hyperliquid traders. Rather than building your own strategy, you select traders based on their historical performance, risk profile, and trading style, and Coinpilot automatically replicates their trades in your account. This brings a social trading layer to Hyperliquid that is common on CEXs but rare in DeFi.

Katoshi offers trading automation with 19+ API endpoints for building custom bots and strategies on Hyperliquid. For algorithmic traders, Katoshi provides a higher-level abstraction than Hyperliquid's raw API, with features like pre-built strategy templates, risk management rules, and backtesting capabilities. Combined with Hyperliquid's zero-gas order placement and 200K orders per second throughput, Katoshi makes Hyperliquid one of the most bot-friendly trading venues in crypto.

Infrastructure

RedStone provides oracle infrastructure, securing ~99.5% of oracle-protected value on HyperEVM. Its HyperStone product delivers 3-millisecond price updates for HIP-3 markets, which is critical for perpetual contracts that need accurate, low-latency price feeds to function properly. Without reliable oracles, lending protocols cannot safely calculate collateral ratios and liquidation thresholds. RedStone's dominance in this role makes it foundational infrastructure for the entire DeFi stack.

Cross-chain bridges including deBridge, Across Protocol, and LayerZero connect HyperEVM to 120+ chains. These bridges are how most users get capital onto Hyperliquid in the first place — bridging USDC from Arbitrum, Ethereum, or other chains. LayerZero provides the messaging layer for cross-chain communication, while deBridge and Across focus on fast, secure token transfers with different trust assumptions and speed trade-offs.

How to Get Started with HyperEVM DeFi

Getting started with HyperEVM DeFi involves a few steps, but once your capital is on Hyperliquid, interacting with protocols is fast and inexpensive. Here is the recommended path for new users.

Step 1: Bridge USDC to Hyperliquid. Go to app.hyperliquid.xyz and use the deposit feature to bridge USDC from Arbitrum. You will need USDC on Arbitrum and a small amount of ETH for the bridge transaction gas. The bridge typically completes in a few minutes.

Step 2: Transfer to HyperEVM. Once your USDC is on Hyperliquid (HyperCore), you need to transfer it to the HyperEVM side to interact with DeFi protocols. Use the transfer function in the Hyperliquid app to move USDC from HyperCore to your HyperEVM address.

Step 3: Buy HYPE for gas. HyperEVM transactions require HYPE for gas fees (similar to how Ethereum requires ETH). Buy a small amount of HYPE on the spot order book and transfer it to your HyperEVM address. Gas costs on HyperEVM are minimal, so a few dollars worth of HYPE is sufficient for many transactions.

Step 4: Interact with protocols. With USDC and HYPE on HyperEVM, you can start using DeFi protocols. For newcomers, we recommend starting with liquid staking through Kinetiq as your entry point. Deposit HYPE to receive kHYPE, which immediately starts earning staking rewards. From there, you can explore using kHYPE as collateral on lending protocols, providing liquidity on DEXs, or depositing into yield aggregator vaults. Liquid staking is the natural starting point because it is relatively low-risk, earns a predictable return, and produces a composable token (kHYPE) that opens doors to the rest of the ecosystem.

How to Choose Projects

When evaluating HyperEVM projects, consider TVL (a proxy for trust and usage), audit status, team background, and token distribution. Projects with verified status on perp.wiki have been confirmed as legitimate by our research team. Always check if the protocol has been audited and understand the specific risks of each DeFi strategy before committing capital.

Beyond surface-level metrics, look at how long the protocol has been live and whether it has weathered market stress events. A protocol with $100M TVL that maintained operations through a 40% HYPE drawdown is more proven than a $500M TVL protocol that launched during a bull run. Check whether the team is publicly known or anonymous — both are valid in crypto, but anonymous teams carry additional trust assumptions. Finally, understand the token economics: does the protocol have a governance token? What is the emission schedule? Are insiders heavily allocated? These factors affect long-term sustainability and alignment between the protocol and its users.