Decentralized exchange Hyperliquid rolls out ETH spot trading shortly after merging HyperCore and HyperEVM

Decentralized exchange Hyperliquid has rolled out direct deposits and withdrawals of ETH for spot trading, according to an announcement on Thursday. The move marks a significant expansion of its platform, which initially focused on perpetual futures trading since launching last year.

The team notes ETH can be deposited to its Hyperliquid trading platform and its Hyperunit asset tokenization layer, which also supports BTC and SOL.

Hyperliquid runs on a bespoke high-performance Layer 1 blockchain initially focused on perpetual futures trading. The DEX has since expanded into a universe of applications. In February, the team introduced an Ethereum Virtual Machine-powered layer HyperEVM, enabling developers to launch smart contracts.

On Tuesday, the project connected HyperCore, the core infrastructure behind the Hyperliquid L1, and HyperEVM, which were initially siloed.

Hyperliquid has been one of the few breakout successes of DeFi in recent years, especially following the airdrop of $1.2 billion HYPE tokens last November. HYPE, used as a gas token on Hyperliquid, currently trades around $14.15, according to The Block’s price page .

Despite its early success, Hyperliquid has drawn some criticism from the crypto community due to some centralized elements of the protocol, including its closed-source code, validator selection process and centralized API reliance. On Wednesday, Hyperliquid delisted a perpetuals market for Solana-based memecoin JELLYJELLY after a whale manipulated onchain prices.