What is HyENA?

HyENA is a USDe-margined perpetual futures DEX built on Hyperliquid's HIP-3 builder-deployed framework, launched on mainnet in December 2025 by the Based team in collaboration with Ethena Labs. It allows users to trade perpetual contracts on assets like BTC-USDE, ETH-USDE, SOL-USDE, HYPE-USDE, XRP-USDE, and others using Ethena's synthetic dollar USDe exclusively as collateral and settlement asset—users connect existing Hyperliquid accounts, deposit USDe (via crypto bridges, exchanges, or card), and trade with inherited mechanics like funding rates, liquidations, limit orders, and leverage.

A key innovation is turning idle margin into productive capital: traders earn native rewards on USDe collateral balances (e.g., advertised 12% APR with base + boosted components), offsetting costs, enabling better basis trades, and providing yield while holding positions—unlike traditional USDC-margined perps where collateral sits unproductive.

Addionaly the platform has HyENA Liquidity Provider Vault (HLPe) for passive earners to capture funding, market-making, and liquidation fees (with TVL caps and managed via Upshift on HyperEVM). Fees follow HIP-3 structure (roughly 1.11x standard Hyperliquid rates, with maker rebates, staking discounts, referrals).