Hyperliquid Drops HIP-4 Bombshell — Outcome Trading Revolutionizes DeFi Derivatives

On February 2, 2026, Hyperliquid released HIP-4, thereby bringing "outcome trading" into its HyperCore engine and greatly enhancing the platform beyond perpetual futures into fully collateralized, low-risk contracts. These outcome contracts allow real prediction markets, event-based bets, volatility trading, and options-like instruments without leverage, liquidations, funding rates, or margin calls to settle within fixed ranges (e.g., 0-1 binary or bounded values). The function currently operating live on testnet employs USDH stablecoin for settlement and enables non-linear payouts and dated derivatives; with conventional markets first based on objective price feeds before possible permissionless growth.

Inspired by fast market launches seen in earlier ideas like HIP-3 (silver/gold pairs), the mechanisms let builders create permissionless, event-driven marketplaces for anything from elections and real-world events to structured goods. HIP-4 provides a safer, more adaptable primitive for on-chain finance by removing common high-risk components found in perp trading, therefore merging smoothly with HyperCore's speed, liquidity, portfolio margin, and HyperEVM capabilities. This sets Hyperliquid to immediately challenge the fast-expanding forecast market, drawing developers and programs looking for low-cost, high-throughput infrastructure.

With the native $HYPE token climbing 10–20%+ in the next several days against more general crypto underperformance, the news generated great market enthusiasm that emphasized investor excitement for Hyperliquid's development into a full-spectrum DeFi hub. HIP-4 highlights the platform's aim to be an "everything exchange" for different on-chain derivatives with live mainnet implementation scheduled following testnet input and technical completion in Q1 2026. This action both leverages increasing demand for bounded-risk, real-world-linked trading instruments and broadens revenue sources (through USDH fees powering HYPE buybacks).