HyENA Shuts Down After $4B in Trades, Citing USDC Shift
The platform will delist one contract per hour over three days. User funds are secure. HLPe pool redemption at 1:1 via Upshift. HyENA Points frozen, no token. Final affiliate settlement Sep 9.
Alpha Score of 49 reflects weak overall profile with weak value, strong quality, moderate sentiment. Based on 3 of 4 signals – score is capped at 90 until remaining data ingests.
HyENA will shutter all its markets between August 31 and September 2, after processing more than $4 billion in trading volume for about 12,000 users, the platform said Friday.
The decision to cease operations follows a structural shift within its operating ecosystem. HyENA’s official announcement on August 28 said Hyperliquid’s deepening integration with the USDC stablecoin “significantly reduced the growth margin and viability” for products collateralized with Ethena’s USDe synthetic dollar.
Developed by the Based team, HyENA used Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 technical standard, which let traders post Ethena’s USDe as collateral on perpetual contracts and earn passive yields on that collateral while holding open positions.
During its initial deployment, several dollar-pegged assets, USDT, USDe and USDH, competed for market share within the Hyperliquid network. The mainnet’s subsequent alignment toward USDC, the announcement said, altered the conditions underpinning HyENA’s business model and limited demand for alternative collateral.
The shutdown is phased. One contract will be delisted per hour over the three-day window, with the final mark price for each contract converging to the one-hour time-weighted average oracle price before settlement. Margin funds will be released directly into each wallet’s spot balance automatically.
“User funds are completely secure and risk-free during the transition,” the development team said.
The HIP-3 architecture gives market deployers control over oracles, open interest caps, and liquidation parameters, allowing the operator to execute a contract sunset without direct intervention from the core protocol.
For deposits in the HLPe pool, users can redeem principal and accumulated rewards via the Upshift platform at a 1:1 ratio. No withdrawal fees will be imposed by HyENA, and the processing window is one day. The final regular rewards distribution was executed on August 27.
Ethena concluded its exchange rewards campaign in June 2026. HyENA Points remain frozen in their final recorded state and will not be converted, snapshotted, or distributed; they carry no monetary value. The team reiterated that there are no plans to issue a token.
The operational timeline ends permanently on September 9, 2026, the date set for the final settlement of the affiliate rewards program.
Drafted by a large language model from the source reporting linked above, then screened by automated publishing checks. It is not read by a journalist before publication. Some articles cite our Alpha Score. Verify prices and figures against the original source. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.