Coinbase, Circle Make USDC Hyperliquid Quote Asset, Back HYPE

On May 14 Coinbase and Circle confirmed an agreement under Hyperliquid’s AQAv2 framework that makes USDC the platform’s aligned quote asset, directs the majority of reserve-yield revenue back to the protocol and ties both firms to HYPE token economics. The announcement pushed HYPE to about $45 that day.

Under AQAv2, Coinbase will act as Hyperliquid’s official USDC treasury deployer. Circle will handle technical deployment and cross-chain infrastructure, including the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol that moves USDC natively between chains. Circle committed to staking 500,000 HYPE and Coinbase increased its own staked HYPE position.

The agreement routes most reserve-yield revenue from Hyperliquid’s USDC supply to the protocol. Native Markets granted Coinbase the right to purchase USDH brand assets while remaining an independent organization. USDH will remain fully backed during the transition, markets tied to USDH will be sunset over time, and users will have feeless conversion and fiat redemption options.

Hyperliquid’s USDC supply on the platform is about $5 billion. Applying a 3% to 4.5% annual yield range yields gross reserve income of roughly $150 million to $225 million. If the protocol receives between 70% and 90% of that income, the protocol share would be about $105 million to $202.5 million per year.

On-chain data show Hyperliquid had about $6.16 billion in 24-hour perpetuals volume, $41.05 billion in seven-day perpetuals volume and roughly $9.4 billion in open interest. AQAv2 designates USDC as the quote asset for future canonical HIP-4 markets, a governance-level change to market structure.

The public description of the arrangement refers to the protocol receiving the “vast majority” of reserve yield but does not specify a precise percentage. Concentrating the aligned quote asset on USDC increases reliance on Coinbase and Circle as external issuers, and migrating USDH markets as they sunset will require user and builder conversion steps that could affect collateral availability in the short term.

The agreement links HYPE token economics to reserve-yield income from USDC on Hyperliquid through revenue sharing and staking commitments. The deal also changes which parties receive reserve income generated by USDC supply on the platform and retains technical, issuer and regulatory exposure associated with using an external stablecoin issuer.