Hyperliquid has introduced a new derivatives primitive that could change how prediction markets and non-linear contracts are built on-chain. The decentralized exchange (DEX) announced that HyperCore will support outcome trading under the HIP-4 proposal. The announcement came as Hyperliquid’s native token, $HYPE, recorded sharp gains alongside a surge in trading activity.
Under HIP-4, HyperCore will support “outcomes” as “fully collateralized contracts that settle within a fixed range.” Unlike leveraged perpetuals or options that rely on liquidations, outcomes are designed to be nonlinear instruments that cap risk by construction.
Hyperliquid describes the outcomes product as “a general-purpose primitive that are useful for applications such as prediction markets and bounded options-like instruments.” They also include other applications that developers have yet to design. The contracts introduce non-linearity and expiry without leverage. Additionally, it enhances HyperCore’s expressivity while remaining compatible with existing features, including portfolio margining and the HyperEVM.
The team said outcomes are still a work in progress and are currently being tested on testnet. Canonical markets, based on objective settlement sources and denominated in USDH, will be deployed once development is complete. Based on user feedback, Hyperliquid plans to extend its infrastructure to support permissionless deployment.
Builders see a shift beyond price trading
The announcement triggered different reactions across crypto X, with several builders framing HIP-4 as a foundational shift.
Abhitej, co-founder of Bento.fun, argued that outcome trading expands crypto’s addressable market far beyond traditional asset speculation. While price trading is limited by the number of tradeable assets, he said, outcome trading opens an infinite design space tied to real-world events and information.
Others highlighted that Hyperliquid already controls the hardest layers of the stack, distribution, liquidity, and interoperability. This means that the competitive frontier now shifts toward application design. In that case, HIP-4 turns Hyperliquid into a substrate for building markets about outcomes.
Another X user “Wanderer” reacted to the news, contrasting Hyperliquid’s execution-heavy approach with more marketing-driven launches elsewhere. Wanderer described the HIP-4 drop as “0 to 1 energy we haven’t felt in years,” saying it was “bringing back the real OG crypto vibes.”
Timeline is busy with absolute nonsense while Hyperliquid just casually drops HIP-4.
— Wanderer (@Wanderer_hl) February 2, 2026
Outcome trading and prediction markets as a core primitive.
This is that 0 to 1 energy we haven't felt in years.
No marketing fluff, just pure execution.
Bringing back the real OG crypto vibes.… https://t.co/v1qfagrzt7
These reactions reflect Hyperliquid’s innovation more closely resembling early crypto experimentation than incremental DeFi upgrades.
Prediction markets without the usual trade-offs
Technically, HIP-4 distinguishes itself from both leveraged derivatives and many existing prediction market designs. By avoiding leverage and liquidations, outcomes reduce the reflexive risk spirals that can plague derivatives during volatile events. At the same time, the use of fixed settlement ranges makes the contracts easier to reason about for non-professional traders.
That design choice could prove important as prediction markets gain attention beyond crypto users. While CFTC-regulated platforms such as Kalshi and Coinbase are building event contracts within a tightly supervised framework, Hyperliquid is pursuing a different path. It is integrating outcome markets directly into a high-liquidity derivatives engine.
Rather than competing head-to-head on regulatory compliance, HIP-4 positions Hyperliquid as infrastructure for developers who want to experiment with new market forms.
HYPE token rallies on volume surge
The product announcement coincided with strong market performance for Hyperliquid’s native token. Over the past 24 hours, HYPE recorded more than $1.08 billion in trading volume, a 33% increase from the previous day.
According to CoinGecko data, HYPE is up 24% over the past seven days, outperforming the crypto market, which is down roughly 12% over the same period. The token has also outperformed other smart contract platform assets, which have fallen by more than 13%.
Market participants appear to be pricing in HIP-4 as more than a feature update, viewing outcome trading as a potential catalyst that expands Hyperliquid’s total addressable market (TAM).
If this is successful, HIP-4 could be a turning point at which prediction markets shift from standalone products to composable building blocks within broader trading systems.
For now, outcomes remain on testnet. But judging by the reaction from builders and the market’s response in $HYPE, Hyperliquid’s move has already reframed expectations for what a top-tier crypto trading platform can be.
