Unless you’ve been completely disconnected from the space, you’ve seen it: Hyperliquid is everywhere. 

It’s one of the few projects that nailed its TGE strategy with flawless execution, massive wealth creation, and momentum that continues across the ecosystem.

While most traders are laser-focused on the perps layer, which has clearly found PMF and built one of the most active cults in crypto, what often gets overlooked is the growing app layer around HyperEVM. This is where the real opportunity lies today.

Castle has already covered Hyperliquid’s core in this breakdown.

This guide builds on that and dives into the airdrop meta forming around HyperEVM. How it’s evolving, who’s likely to get rewarded, and how to position yourself now while it’s still early.

Setting the Stage: What Happened, What’s Next

What happened?

Hyperliquid's first airdrop on November 2024 set a historic benchmark, distributing 31% of its token supply to over 90,000 users. The token launched at $3.20 and peaked at $34.

This valued the drop at over $10.5 billion at its peak, marking one of the largest wealth transfers to early crypto users ever.

What's next?

The opportunity today is massive and still early. HyperEVM is live with core protocols running and point systems active.

Liquidity across the ecosystem remains thin, which is often where the biggest upside starts. Hyperliquid has allocated 31% of its total supply so far. Another 39% remains unclaimed. At current valuations, that’s nearly $4 billion in $HYPE potentially reserved for future participants.

This is not just about $HYPE either. Native protocols like Kittenswap, HyperLend, and HypurrFi are running their point campaigns. These reward activity now and could stack with future ecosystem payouts.

Most of the market hasn’t caught on yet. Participation stays relatively low, attention is scattered, and few are positioned well. If this follows the first cycle’s playbook, the earliest and most consistent players will see the biggest gains.

So who’s likely to benefit next? Based on Hyperliquid’s past and current trends, the top candidates are clear.

• Perp traders generating steady volume and staying active stand out.

• NFT holders tied to Hyperliquid-native collections are in the mix too.

• HyperEVM protocol farmers engaging in lending, liquidity provision, and borrowing, are expected to be the top contenders for receiving any future $HYPE rewards.

With that in mind, here are the 10 most interesting farming opportunities in the Hyperliquid ecosystem.

1. KittenSwap – A ve(3,3) DEX for HyperEVM

KittenSwap is the primary DeX on HyperEVM, using a ve(3,3) model similar to Velodrome and Solidly. It supports both stable and volatile pairs, and rewards long-term users through fee sharing, point programs, and governance.

As the ecosystem’s largest DEX by volume and TVL, it plays a central role in HyperEVM liquidity. New protocols often use it to launch tokens or pair stablecoins.

KittenSwap recently rolled out concentrated liquidity pools with custom price ranges and temporarily boosted point multipliers. 

Some pools now earn as much as 20x points (like LHYPE/HYPE and USDXL/HYPE), while standard multipliers have been reduced. The protocol clearly favors concentrated liquidity going forward.

Farming Strategy

Visit https://app.kittenswap.finance/

• Add Liquidity in High-Reward Pools- Focus on pools with higher multipliers like PURR/HYPE, LHYPE/HYPE, and USDXL. Avoid high-TVL pools where rewards are diluted.

Boost Earnings with  MechaCats NFTs

Holding MechaCats NFTs gives a points multiplier:

• 1–9 NFTs = 1.25x

• 100–199 = 1.4x

• 500+ = 1.5x

MechaCats holders are also guaranteed 3% of the veKITTEN supply at launch.

2. HypurrFi – Leveraged Lending and Stablecoin Yield

HypurrFi operates as a leveraged lending platform on HyperEVM and the home of USDXL, a native overcollateralized stablecoin. Users can borrow USDXL against $HYPE or stHYPE, while still earning interest on supplied collateral.

The protocol routes its own revenue into a reserve of tokenized U.S. Treasuries to improve the long-term stability and backing of USDXL.

Farming Strategy

Visit https://app.hypurr.fi/ 

• Deposit $HYPE → Borrow USDXL
  The simplest way to farm: maintain HYPE exposure while unlocking USDXL for additional yield opportunities
  

• LP the Borrowed USDXL
  Pair with HYPE, LHYPE, or feUSD on KittenSwap/HyperSwap to earn strong point multipliers
  

• Hold or Lend USDXL
  Simply holding or lending it may qualify for future protocol or ecosystem rewards
  
  According to HypurrFi, early users often receive the best rewards, even before points are visible. Activity is tracked in the background, with borrowing, LPing, or moving USDXL potentially qualifying for multiple campaigns
  Points are active and updated regularly, making this one of the easiest farming strategies on HyperEVM

3. HyperLend – Lending Infrastructure 

HyperLend is the primary lending protocol on HyperEVM, supporting core assets like HYPE, stHYPE, LHYPE, and USDXL. Beyond functioning as a standalone money market, it underpins other protocols including Harmonix, Mizu, and Felix, routing liquidity across the ecosystem.

The public points program launched on April 7, 2025, with weekly rewards and XP-based compounding. Points are tied to lending, borrowing, daily activity, and social referral boosts, automatically appearing in your wallet dashboard without requiring manual claims.

Farming Strategy

Supply assets: https://app.hyperlend.finance/ 

• Supply assets like HYPE, LHYPE, or USDXL as soon as the new epoch begins

• TVL caps are enforced, with points dropping sharply for late entries

Borrow to Amplify Points

• Borrowing increases reward weight, with even small positions helping

• Borrow stables against HYPE or LHYPE without sacrificing spot exposure

Enable XP Loop via Daily Drop

• Holding ≥100 points and ≥$50 deposited unlocks a daily XP claim

• XP compounds across the week and converts into additional points

Activate All Boosts You Can

• Testnet participants receive a permanent multiplier

• Hypio NFT holders earn bonus points (extra boost for NFTs with HyperLend trait)

• Referral tree unlocks 13 tiers of point share based on invitee performance

Stack via Other Protocols

• LPing USDXL or LHYPE borrowed from HyperLend into KittenSwap or HypurrFi enables point stacking across multiple protocols

• Supply newly listed uBTC to earn HyperLend points while stacking rewards from HyperUnit

HyperLend represents a "set-and-track" strategy requiring minimal intervention once deployed. Your main task is optimizing entry timing, claiming daily XP, and occasionally rebalancing based on emissions shifts.

4. Felix Protocol – Stablecoin Yield + Liquidation Farming

Felix is HyperEVM’s first native stablecoin protocol. It allows users to mint feUSD by depositing HYPE and offers two main yield paths: staking feUSD in stability pools for liquidation rewards or using it across LPs to earn additional points.

As a foundational DeFi building block, Felix helps mint leverage, absorb risk, and move capital between money markets and DEXs. The points program goes live on April 13, 2025 at 12:00 PM UTC.

Farming Strategy 

Head over to- https://usefelix.xyz/borrow

• Deposit HYPE → Mint feUSD
  feUSD is overcollateralized and designed for ecosystem-wide usage.
  

• Stake feUSD in Stability Pools
  These pools backstop liquidations. When vaults are liquidated, you receive discounted HYPE and a portion of protocol rewards.
  

• LP feUSD on KittenSwap or HyperSwap
  Pairs like feUSD/USDXL and feUSD/HYPE often come with boosted multipliers across partner ecosystems.
  

• Watch for Integrations
  Felix is integrated with HyperLend and supported in Mizu auto-farm vaults.
  Using it across multiple protocols may unlock compounding incentives.
  

Felix is a clean way to put idle HYPE to work. It keeps you eligible for multiple upside streams - protocol rewards, liquidation yield, and ecosystem-wide point distributions.

5. Mizu Labs – Auto-Farming Across the HyperEVM Stack

Mizu Labs is a yield aggregator automating farming across the HyperEVM ecosystem. It offers vaults for hypeETH and hypeBTC, which are liquid wrappers of bridged ETH and BTC, and deploys these assets into top-yielding protocols like HyperLend, HypurrFi, Felix, Harmonix, and more.

The protocol is built for users who want HyperEVM exposure without the hassle of rotating capital or tracking point updates. Mizu abstracts yield optimization and consolidates rewards into single vaults.

Farming Strategy

• Deposit ETH or BTC → Receive hypeETH or hypeBTC
  Mizu provides a guided bridge and wrapping flow. These wrappers are required to access any vault.
  

• Deposit hypeETH or hypeBTC into Mizu Vaults
  Once deposited, Mizu routes capital to optimize rewards, yield, and point accumulation across protocols.
  

• Earn Stacked Rewards
  Vaults are eligible for partner rewards from up to eight protocols, including Hyperbeat, Harmonix, HypurrFi, Timeswap, and HyperLend. Royco Markets has allocated 1 to 2 percent of each token’s supply to Mizu users.

Mizu is a passive but powerful strategy for ETH and BTC holders who want seamless exposure to HyperEVM and access to multi-protocol upside with minimal management.

6. Drip.Trade – Native NFT Marketplace with Future Airdrop Potential

Drip.Trade serves as the main NFT marketplace on HyperEVM, hosting native collections like Hypios, MechaCats, Hypers, and others tied to point boosts, airdrops, and whitelists across the ecosystem. Most NFT-based projects on HyperEVM launch here or use Drip for secondary liquidity.

The platform already has a live token: $JPEG, which powers parts of the marketplace and may factor into future reward dynamics.

Farming Strategy

Buy and Hold Key Collections

• Start with Hypios (used by HyperLend for boosts), MechaCats (KittenSwap multiplier and 3% of $KITTEN supply), and Hypers (Drip's flagship project)

• These have historically received whitelist spots and token allocations from partner protocols

Stay Active on Drip

Trade, list, and delist regularly as marketplace activity may factor into future airdrops

7. Hyperbeat

Hyperbeat operates as a validator and ecosystem fund focused on staking, yield, and long-term alignment with Hyperliquid. 

It gives users exposure to multiple projects through vault deployments and rewards with Hearts (points), potentially leading to future token distribution.

Positioned as a hands-off way to access HyperEVM early protocols without rotating capital, Hyperbeat simplifies the farming process.

Farming Strategy

• Stake HYPE with Hyperbeat’s Validator
  Generates Hearts over time, with weekly snapshot-based rewards.

• Deposit into Vaults via Royco Markets
  Choose between:
  • HyperETH vault for ETH → exposure to 15+ partner tokens
  • HyperBTC vault for BTC
  • HyperUSD vault for stables (over $11M TVL)

• Earn Stacked Rewards
  One deposit earns Hearts and partner protocol points from HyperLend, HypurrFi, Harmonix, Timeswap, Silhouette, and more.

• No Active Farming Required
  Funds auto-route and rewards track automatically as new protocols join.

Hyperbeat is a passive way to farm across HyperEVM—combining validator staking with multi-protocol vaults in a single setup.

8. HyperSwap – Low-Slippage DEX With Deep Ecosystem Integration

HyperSwap functions as a minimal-slippage AMM on HyperEVM, positioned as a lighter, cleaner alternative to KittenSwap, optimized for fast execution, low TVL farming, and ecosystem partner campaigns.

The active points program distributes 2.5M points over 5 weeks (500K/week), split across usage, LPing, and integrations with 20+ partner protocols. Weekly snapshots occur every Sunday at 10 PM PST.

Farming Strategy

• LP & Stake
  Provide liquidity and stake LP tokens directly on HyperSwap. Points scale with pool size, duration, and volume. Longer staking improves share.

• Swap Regularly
  Trade weekly on HyperSwap to earn activity-based points, especially in partner token pools.

• Farm Ecosystem Pools
  Certain pairs offer bonus emissions: USDXL, feUSD, KEI, LHYPE, stHYPE, uBTC/uETH. LPing these earns both HyperSwap and partner protocol points.

• Stack Boosts Through Holdings
  Holders of Hypio NFTs, Buddy tokens, CatCabal, PiP, and similar assets earn weekly points if active on HyperSwap.

• Referral System
  Invite users to earn 10% of the points they generate via swaps and LPing.

HyperSwap is ideal for smaller LPs and cross-protocol farmers. With purely usage-based rewards and no NFT or veToken mechanics, it remains simple and scalable.

9. Looped HYPE

Looped HYPE wraps $HYPE into LHYPE, a rebasing token designed for passive leverage—no liquidations, no fee tracking. It earns boosted staking yield and integrates with top protocols on HyperEVM. Looped HYPE also runs a structured early adopter program distributing 7% of its total token supply to users who mint and hold LHYPE across supported DeFi positions.

Farming Strategy

• Mint LHYPE on the Official Site
  Avoid swapping. Only direct minters or those using supported integrations qualify for the Early Adopter Program.

• Participate in Phase-2 (Live)
  Allocation: 3% of total supply
  Cap: 2M HYPE
  Hold LHYPE for ≥8 weeks in one of the following: native wallet, AMM pools (KittenSwap, HyperSwap, Laminar), or lending protocols (Felix, Timeswap).

• LP LHYPE Across the Ecosystem
  KittenSwap concentrated pools offer 20x multipliers. HyperSwap includes LHYPE in its points program. Holding LHYPE also counts toward Mizu, Harmonix, and HypurrFi campaigns.

• No Active Management Needed
  Once deployed into DeFi, LHYPE continues to rebase and farm across layers automatically.

10. $HYPE Staking 

Staking $HYPE on Hyperliquid is a low-effort way to earn yield and potentially qualify for future airdrops from both Hyperliquid and its partner protocols.

Validators like HypurrCollective x Nansen have already secured multiple airdrops for their stakers, including:

• $SENT (Sentiient AI) – 2% of supply, over $120K distributed

• $TIME (Timeswap) – 0.5% of supply, valued at $100K

These were distributed to wallets with minimum HYPE balances, often tiered by stake size.

Staking Strategy:

• Go to Hyperliquid Staking

• Move $HYPE from spot to staking account

• Delegate to a validator (e.g. HypurrCollective x Nansen)

Earn staking rewards + unlock airdrop eligibility

If you’re not actively farming, this is the simplest way to stay in the game and get rewarded for holding.

Conclusion and Food for Thought

That covers the core of what’s live and relevant, but it’s far from everything happening in the Hyperliquid ecosystem.

There are dozens of new protocols building on HyperEVM right now. Many show promise, others are still finding their footing. Due to the scope of this piece, we placed our focus on protocols with live campaigns, active rewards, and meaningful traction. But the momentum is spreading fast.

The most profitable airdrops rarely announce themselves loudly. Hyperliquid has already demonstrated its commitment to rewarding early users through one of the largest token distributions in crypto history. Now, the entire ecosystem surrounding HyperEVM appears positioned for a similar trajectory.

There are significant reasons to make the statement that early activity across the HyperEVM ecosystem is currently significantly mispriced relative to potential future value. The protocols outlined in this guide represent the core infrastructure of what could become a major DeFi environment, with substantial token distributions likely for early participants. For those who missed the first Hyperliquid airdrop, the emerging EVM ecosystem offers a rare second chance to position early,this time with more clarity around which activities matter most.

Brought to you by Hunter.

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Virtually yours,

The Castle