Hyperliquid has become one of the few winners amid the sudden escalation of military hostilities in the Middle East between the United States, Israel and Iran.
This weekend, the stock market saw a surge in commodity-focused derivatives trading, with open interest in these assets hitting a record high of more than $1.1 billion.
Hyperliquid rebounds 13% as tensions in the United States and Iran shake the markets
The uptrend can be attributed to traders seeking to hedge against geopolitical risks while traditional financial markets were closed for the weekend.
As a result, market participants have turned to the blockchain-based platform to trade synthetic perpetual futures contracts linked to oil, gold, silver and US stocks.
This continued trade was facilitated by HyperLiquid Improvement Proposal 3, or HIP-3, an upgrade implemented last year.
HIP-3 allows developers to deploy permissionless perpetual futures markets for any asset with a reliable public price feed, provided the creator stakes 500,000 of the platform’s native assets. $HYPE tokens.
Driven by weekend volatility, HIP-3’s open interest eclipsed its previous record of $1.06 billion.
Open interest in Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 platform. Source: Flowscan
Overall, the broader Hyperliquid platform has accumulated nearly $5.5 billion in total open interest, securing an estimated $1.06 million in protocol revenue over a 24-hour period, according to data from DeFiLlama.
Additionally, data provider Messari reported that HIP-3 markets generated $4.4 billion in weekend trading volume in February alone.
Hyperliquid HIP-3 markets have seen $4.4 billion in trading volume so far in February, while the CME and Nasdaq are closed. pic.twitter.com/pdoOYjrwfk
– misery (@zcb_spec) February 28, 2026
The platform’s ability to capture volume from the traditional market has attracted the attention of prominent figures in the industry. Arthur Hayes, co-founder of crypto exchange BitMEX, highlighted the structural change on the social media platform
“Where price discovery happens when TradeExchanges sleeps… It’s the weekend, [stuff’s] down, TradExchanges are closed, but Hyperliquid is open for business,” Hayes wrote.
However, the platform’s lack of compliance guardrails could introduce significant legal hurdles in the future.
Offering synthetic U.S. stocks to retail investors without “know your customer” (KYC) protocols or a registered broker’s license presents significant regulatory risks.
These practices could face scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Despite this looming threat, the platform’s native token responded positively to the weekend’s influx.
Data from BeInCrypto shows that $HYPEThe price of is up 13% in the last 24 hours, trading above $30 at press time. This notably makes it the best performing asset among the top 20 cryptocurrencies in terms of market capitalization.
The article Why Hyperliquid Prices Are Rising Amid the US-Iran War appeared first on BeInCrypto.