This Tuesday, July 29, 2025, the most prominent DEX of the moment experienced an unexpected outage. Hyperliquid, the decentralized exchange native to its own Layer 1 blockchain, was unavailable for over 30 minutes. Blocked orders, frozen executions, silent order books: between 3:10 p.m. and 3:47 p.m., the platform was simply down for thousands of traders.
The alert first came from the users themselves, who mass-reported the inability to place orders. Ironically, Hyperliquid’s official status still indicated that everything was fine.
A Surprise Blackout in the Middle of Trading Day
A rumor of a hack quickly spread. But the team was quick to reassure. On Discord first, then on the official status page, they confirmed the cause of the outage: a simple traffic spike. No breach, no theft, no compromise.
There was an issue with the API servers between 2:10 p.m. and 2:47 p.m. UTC: orders were delayed in their transmission to the nodes. This was due to a sudden surge in traffic. It is not a hack.
In short, the DEX fell victim to its own success. A massive influx on the servers was enough to bring down the infrastructure, which was supposed to handle high throughput.
Pressure… but not an Attack
During the interruption, some users found themselves trapped in positions without an exit. Result: abnormal price divergences on several pairs, and missed opportunities. This kind of downtime, even short, can cost traders exposed to leverage dearly.
The market’s reaction? Measured, but real. The native token $HYPE dropped by 3.75% during the event, around $43, before stabilizing. Nothing dramatic, but a sign that trust can falter quickly, even without a hack.
Consequences: Bugs, Price Divergences, and Frictions
Faced with this incident, the team wasted no time in announcing measures. Additional protections will be integrated into the technical stack to prevent future congestions. Goal: detect anomalies in the API earlier and ensure continuous order execution, even during peak times.
It’s important to note that in the midst of the on-chain trading boom, Hyperliquid holds a strategic position. Competing with giants like dYdX or Aevo leaves no room for error.
The message is clear: it was just a traffic spike. But next time, traders may not be as forgiving.
