- A high-stakes vote is underway to choose the native stablecoin for Hyperliquid.
- The Stripe-aligned Native Markets team has taken an early but narrow lead.
- The winner will claim access to $5.5 billion in assets and a pivotal DeFi corridor.
The first volleys have been fired in a fierce contest over the financial direction of one of the fastest-growing crypto exchanges.
The race to mint Hyperliquid’s native stablecoin, USDH, is in full swing, and in the opening rounds the impressive, Stripe-aligned Native Markets team has secured a slim advantage.
But with the majority of eligible voters still on the sidelines, the ultimate prize remains very much up for grabs.
As of Thursday morning in Hong Kong, Native Markets has captured 30.8 percent of delegated stake, a lead built on support from heavyweight validators such as infinitefield.xyz and Alphaticks.
The closest competitors—regulated Paxos Labs in New York and the innovative Ethena—trail with 7.6 percent and 4.5 percent respectively. Other candidates, despite ambitious proposals, have not yet gained significant momentum.
The undecided whales and the road to victory
This is not a race that will be decided in its opening phase. The larger and decisive picture is that more than half of the total stake—an impressive 57 percent—remains unallocated.
Among that silent majority are some of the most powerful and influential validators in the Hyperliquid network, including the largest, Nansen x HypurrCollective, which controls over 18 percent of votes on its own, along with institutional giant Galaxy Digital.
The final outcome will depend on where these titans ultimately cast their votes.
Their decisions will determine whether Native Markets’ early momentum becomes a decisive opening salvo or merely a fleeting lead in a long and unpredictable battle. The deadline for this critical vote is September 14.
An immense prize
The stakes in this competition could not be higher. This is far more than a simple token launch; it is a fight to integrate a new stablecoin directly into the financial backbone of a DeFi powerhouse.
Hyperliquid currently holds a staggering $5.5 billion in USDC deposits, an amount equal to roughly 7.5 percent of the circulating supply of that stablecoin.
Replacing those deposits with USDH would be a monumental shift, redirecting hundreds of millions of dollars in annual treasury yield into the protocol’s revenue stream.
Candidates have brought lavish promises to woo validators. Paxos has pledged to use 95 percent of its revenue to buy back Hyperliquid’s native HYPE token.
Frax has promised to pass 100 percent of its earnings directly back to users. Agora has offered 100 percent of its net yield alongside an institutional custodian.
Given that Hyperliquid already commands nearly 80 percent of the decentralized perpetuals trading market, the winner of this contest will do more than launch a stablecoin; they will forge a new, foundational rail for the future of decentralized finance.
Market updates
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BTC: Bitcoin is trading at $114,053, up 2.6 percent in the last 24 hours. The move reflects a short-term recovery fueled by positive risk sentiment, even as longer-term consolidation continues.
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ETH: Ethereum is trading at $4,373.99, a 2 percent gain as investors shake off a recent mass slashing event that punished over 30 validators, underscoring the network’s underlying resilience.
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Gold: Gold sits near $3,635 per ounce after reaching a Tuesday high of $3,674. Investors are awaiting U.S. inflation data while ANZ raised its year-end gold target to $3,800 and projected a potential peak of $4,000 by next June.