Why does Arbitrum stand to "quietly make a fortune" as Hyperliquid becomes more popular?

Recently, the @HyperliquidX HIP3 protocol has exploded in popularity. Stock perps, gold perps, and even Pokémon cards, CS:GO skins, and more can now be traded, putting Hyperliquid in the spotlight. However, many people have overlooked the fact that @arbitrum_cn’s liquidity has also surged dramatically in the past.

That’s right, the more popular Hyperliquid gets, the more Arbitrum can “quietly make a fortune.” Why is that?

1. A basic fact: most of the USDC held by Hyperliquid is bridged over from Arbitrum. Every time Hyperliquid launches a TSLA stock contract or a gold perp, it’s backed by a huge influx of USDC from Arbitrum. This connection isn’t incidental—it’s a structural dependency.

These bridging activities directly contribute to Arbitrum’s daily trading volume and ecosystem activity, helping Arbitrum maintain its leading position as the number one Layer 2;

2. Of course, some might say Arbitrum is just a springboard for Hyperliquid’s funds—a quick pass-through. So why doesn’t Hyperliquid choose Solana or Base, but instead deeply binds itself to Arbitrum? Here’s why:

1. Lowest technical adaptation cost: Hyperliquid needs a highly EVM-compatible liquidity entry point to securely handle stablecoins. Arbitrum’s Nitro architecture allows bridging latency to be controlled within 1 minute, with gas fees below $0.01, making friction costs almost unnoticeable for users.

2. Irreplaceable liquidity depth: Arbitrum’s native USDC circulation has reached $8.06 billion, the highest among all Layer 2s. Plus, established protocols like GMX and Gains have already formed a complete loop for lending, trading, derivatives, and yield aggregation on Arbitrum. Essentially, Hyperliquid’s choice of Arbitrum is not just for bridging, but for accessing a mature liquidity network.

3. Unique ecosystem synergy: Some newly launched stock perps, gold perps, and even treasury bond tokens on HIP3 have already existed as RWA assets on Arbitrum and can be used in DeFi protocols like Morpho, Pendle, and Euler for lending and farming. This means users can stake RWA assets as collateral on Arbitrum, borrow USDC, and then bridge it to Hyperliquid to trade stock perps with 5x or even 10x leverage. This isn’t just a quick pass-through, but a cross-ecosystem liquidity aggregation.

3. In my view, the relationship between Hyperliquid and Arbitrum is far from a simple “parasitic” liquidity arrangement—it’s a strategic complement.

Hyperliquid, as an app chain for perp DEXs, continuously stimulates trading activity, while Arbitrum provides sustained liquidity support. For Arbitrum, it also needs phenomenon-level applications like Hyperliquid to break through Ethereum’s lack of product diversity.

This reminds me of when Arbitrum first promoted its Orbit Layer 3 framework, emphasizing the “general-purpose Layer 2 + specialized app chain” approach. Orbit allows any team to quickly deploy their own Layer 3 app chain, enjoying Arbitrum’s security and liquidity while customizing performance parameters to business needs.

Although Hyperliquid chose to build its own Layer 1 while deeply binding to Arbitrum, which looks different from directly deploying a Layer 3, if you analyze the relationship between the HIP3 ecosystem and Arbitrum, you’ll find an interesting conclusion: to some extent, HIP3 has already become Arbitrum’s de facto Layer 3 app chain.

After all, the core logic of Layer 3 is to maintain its own performance advantages while outsourcing security and liquidity to Layer 2. Clearly, Hyperliquid can’t yet provide the HIP3 ecosystem’s liquidity advantages, but Arbitrum can.

Isn’t this a kind of variant Layer 3 operation model?