Does Hyperliquid’s $2.5M fee lead have a $20M laundering problem?

Hyperliquid [HYPE] is having a great run. But are darker times ahead?

A new money laundering report has given Hyperliquid some very awkward publicity. This happened in tandem with perps knocking on regulators’ doors.

Is Hyperliquid’s lead safe? Let’s take a look.

Hyperliquid earns $2.5M in a day!

The fee chart isn’t close at all.

Hyperliquid made $2.5 million in fees over 24 hours on 20th October. Lighter came second with $198K, and that was 12x lower!

Aster took third at $123K, and Jupiter perp was fourth at $102K. After that, Antartic, GMTrade, Nado, edgeX, GMX and Extended, all somewhere between $47K and $86K.

Here’s what’s wild. Add up everypne from second to tenth place, and you get about $836K. Hyperliquid’s lead is solidified with its fees being 3x over all of the other names on the list… put together.

A money laundering scheme comes to light

Now, here’s where it gets messy.

ZachXBT, the on-chain sleuth, has been digging into something called FreedomXMR, or FXMR. It popped up on Hyperliquid Core in August 2026.

His verdict is that it is a laundering service, claiming that over 87% of the money coming into it might be tied to illicit activity.

He went through past inflows bigger than $10,000 each. More than $20 million of that was traced back to ransomware, exploits, and social engineering scams. Names like DCENT Wallet, Fetch.ai, Axelar and Gamdom showed up in the mix.

It is reported that FXMR’s admin got their XMR from KuCoin. Addresses linked to them made over 3,000 deposits on the exchange.

For his part, the on-chain sleuth has passed all the on-chain data to the Hyperliquid team.

Now, this is a service running on Hyperliquid, not Hyperliquid itself. However, when you’re the biggest perp DEX in town, people are going to ask what you’re doing about it.

HPC asks the CFTC for compute perps

Meanwhile, perps are trying to go legit in the United States.

Hyperliquid Policy Center wants the CFTC to allow perps on compute, the chip power behind AI. The CFTC approved its first perp in May and started asking about compute in August.

Why bother? Compute prices swing a lot. Renting an NVIDIA H100 cost $2.50 to $3.19 an hour in late 2024. A year later, it had fallen to around $2. Data centers had no way to hedge that drop.

HPC will continue working with the Commission and its staff to give Americans access to onchain markets under American oversight.

And unlike oil, you can’t store compute. It’s used the hour it’s made, so the risk never takes a break. HPC believes that a contract with no expiry date fits that perfectly.

They referenced trade[XYZ]’s crude oil perps on Hyperliquid as an example.

Final Summary

• Hyperliquid earned $2.5 million in fees in 24 hours!
• Over $20 million was involved in hacks and scams, flowing through Hyperliquid Core.