Hyperliquid Sees $71M in Gold, Silver Liquidations as RWA Trading Surges

Hyperliquid users faced $71 million in liquidations on gold, silver, and copper perpetual futures Thursday—second only to Bitcoin’s $121 million—as volatile price swings triggered mass position closures. The surge reflects growing trader exposure to real-world assets (RWAs) since October’s protocol upgrade enabling third-party commodity listings. TradeXYZ, a Hyperliquid-based DEX, facilitated these trades; developers must stake HYPE tokens to list markets. Silver prices plunged 12% intraday to $106/oz before recovering to $116, fueling $1.6B in silver trading volume on Hyperliquid—trailing only Bitcoin’s $6.5B. Wall Street ETFs for silver and gold hit record daily volumes of $25B and $20B respectively by 1 p.m. ET. HYPE token rose 50% over seven days to $32.83, outperforming Bitcoin amid renewed on-chain activity. Protocol fees totaled $62M this month, down from August’s $145M peak. Token burns from fee collection may be driving scarcity-driven demand.