Hyperliquid [HYPE] has drawn attention for its dominant fee generation, but a new money laundering report has raised questions about activity on its platform. The report surfaced as perpetual futures providers push for regulatory clarity in the United States.
Hyperliquid's fee lead
Hyperliquid generated $2.5 million in fees over 24 hours on October 20, according to a fee chart. Lighter ranked second with $198,000, about 12 times lower. Aster followed at $123,000, and Jupiter perp was fourth at $102,000. Antartic, GMTrade, Nado, edgeX, GMX, and Extended reported fees between $47,000 and $86,000.
Combined, the second through tenth platforms accounted for roughly $836,000 in fees. Hyperliquid's total was about three times the sum of all other listed platforms.
Laundering allegations surface
On-chain investigator ZachXBT has examined a service called FreedomXMR, or FXMR, which appeared on Hyperliquid Core in August 2026. He concluded that it is a laundering service and claimed that over 87% of incoming funds may be tied to illicit activity.
ZachXBT reviewed past inflows larger than $10,000 each. More than $20 million of that was traced to ransomware, exploits, and social engineering scams. The names DCENT Wallet, Fetch.ai, Axelar, and Gamdom appeared in the mix.
According to the report, FXMR's admin obtained XMR from KuCoin, and addresses linked to them made over 3,000 deposits on the exchange. ZachXBT said he passed all on-chain data to the Hyperliquid team.
The service operates on Hyperliquid rather than being Hyperliquid itself, but the platform's position as the largest perpetual DEX has drawn scrutiny over its response.
Push for compute perpetuals
Meanwhile, the Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC) has asked the CFTC to allow perpetual futures on compute, the chip power behind AI. The CFTC approved its first perpetual contract in May and began asking about compute in August.
Compute prices are volatile. Renting an NVIDIA H100 cost $2.50 to $3.19 an hour in late 2024, and a year later it had fallen to around $2. Data centers had no way to hedge that decline.
HPC said it will continue working with the Commission and its staff to give Americans access to on-chain markets under American oversight. Unlike oil, compute cannot be stored; it is used the hour it is produced, so the risk is continuous. HPC argued that a contract with no expiry date fits that characteristic and referenced trade[XYZ]'s crude oil perpetuals on Hyperliquid as an example.
