An unprecedented bid for stablecoin issuance rights is rewriting the power landscape of the cryptocurrency market.

Recently, the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid publicly auctioned the issuance rights of its native stablecoin USDH, attracting fierce competition from ten institutions such as Ethena Labs, Paxos, Frax Finance, and Sky Ecosystem for an annual income stream of up to $220 million.

This bid, decided by validator votes, represents an unprecedented democratization of stablecoin options.

As a leading decentralized derivatives trading platform with a daily trading volume of billions of dollars, Hyperliquid has reduced its reliance on external stablecoins such as USDC and returned value such as treasury bond yields to its own ecosystem.

An unprecedented dispute over distribution rights

Hyperliquid wants to take out the issuance rights of USDH, the stablecoin used by its platform, for public bidding! This is the first time in the history of stablecoins.

The platform's monthly trading volume is close to $400 billion, and its monthly fee revenue reached $106 million in August, accounting for about 70% of the decentralized perpetual market. At present, the US dollar liquidity on the Hyperliquid chain mainly relies on USDC, and the circulation scale once reached US$5.7 billion.

The US dollar liquidity on Hyperliquid is mainly based on USDC, a mainstream stablecoin, and the circulating supply was as high as $5.7 billion at one point. But now, they want to replace it with their native stablecoin USDH, so they decided to choose the most reliable institution to be responsible for issuance and management through "public bidding".

The bid attracted 10 heavyweight institutions to participate, including:

Ethena Labs (well-known stablecoin project)

Paxos (the compliance giant that issues USDP)

Frax Finance、Curve Finance、Sky Ecosystem

There are also emerging platforms like Native Markets, Bastion, and more

The benefits are numerous: access to the issuance rights of USDH, which could reach billions of dollars in the future; It also receives about $220 million in reserve income (equivalent to "lying down and making money") every year.

Who is most likely to win? According to data from the prediction market Polymarket on September 10:

Native Markets leads the way with a 74% win rate;

Paxos ranked second with a win rate of 15%;

Ethena is third, 12%.

To put it simply, this is not only a competition of "who will issue coins", but also an experiment in the autonomous decision-making of the decentralized community. If successful, it could set a new benchmark for "public asset operations" for other projects in the future.

|三大阵营激烈角逐

这场为Hyperliquid发行稳定币USDH的“选秀”，堪称币圈顶级高手的“华山论剑”。各家方案风格鲜明，背后其实是稳定币未来走哪条路的大对决。参赛选手个个来头不小，路线也完全不同：

传统派：Paxos——“我最合规”

Paxos是老牌稳定币公司，发行过PAX Dollar、PAX Gold等产品，一向以“守规矩”著称。它的方案主打一个词：合规。

promises that USDH will fully comply with the US Stablecoin Innovation Act and the EU's MiCA regulatory requirements, allowing users to "use it with peace of mind"; use 95% of the reserve income to buy back HYPE tokens and directly give back to platform users; In the latest plan, it also adds weight: cooperate with PayPal to promote the launch of HYPE tokens on PayPal and Venmo (the two major payment giants in the United States); provide $20 million in incentives to support ecological development; and also plan to legally issue stablecoins in Europe to help USDH go global

To put it simply: Paxos wants to use its identity as an "old financial driver" to put on a "compliance coat" for USDH and take a steady expansion route.

Geek: Frax - "All the proceeds belong to you, I don't take a penny"

Frax is an innovative pioneer in the DeFi (decentralized finance) circle, and its solution is very "idealistic": completely decentralized and zero commission.

1:1 pegging of USDH to its own stablecoin frxUSD; 100% of the income earned from all underlying assets (such as US Treasury bonds) is automatically returned to Hyperliquid users through smart contracts; Frax does not take a penny and has zero commission.

It's like a "public water and electricity system": Frax is only responsible for the construction, and all the proceeds go to the community. They emphasize that everything is decided by community voting, all operations are written into code, open and transparent, and there are no black box operations.

Frax wants to turn stablecoins into "public facilities" in the Web3 world, not a money-making tool.

Crossover: Sky Ecosystem – "I have money, I can still borrow you"

Sky Ecosystem has a lot of origin, formerly known as MakerDAO (the founding team of DAI stablecoin). Its solution is very "local tyrant": not fighting, not fighting, fighting for strength.

Directly commit to providing $2.2 billion in instant liquidity in USDC, so that USDH will have sufficient financial support as soon as it is launched; Willing to import its own balance sheet resources of more than $8 billion into the Hyperliquid ecosystem; Promise that USDH users can get an annual return of 4.85%, which is higher than treasury bonds; All proceeds will be used to repurchase HYPE tokens to boost the value of the platform; Another $25 million will be spent to set up a special fund for "Hyperliquid Star" to support ecological projects.

Sky's logic is very straightforward: I don't talk to you, I have the capital and resources, and I can quickly expand the market.

Three routes, three futures. This bid is not only a choice of "who will issue coins", but also a key vote on who stablecoins should serve and control in the future. The winner has not yet been announced, but whoever wins will profoundly affect the entire crypto world.

Will the stablecoin power structure face deep changes?

Once USDH is successfully launched, hundreds of millions of dollars in annual interest income will no longer fall into the pockets of external companies, but will directly return to the hands of Hyperliquid's community and users - such as to buy back the platform token HYPE to increase everyone's income.

If other large platforms (such as Uniswap, Aave, etc.) follow suit: the profits of stablecoins are no longer monopolized by giants such as Tether and Circle; but flow back to the DeFi ecosystem that truly creates value.

This is like shifting from "capitalists' exclusive profits" to "dividends for all", which is a major reshuffle of the distribution of interests in the entire industry.

This bidding is actually a showdown between two concepts: traditional financial factions (such as Paxos): relying on compliance and licensing; native DeFi factions (such as Frax): relying on code and community, decentralization to the end

Whoever wins may mean whether stablecoins are more obedient to regulation or users in the future.

In Jingtai's view, Hyperliquid's move is not just to find a coin issuing partner for itself, but more like throwing a war letter to "stablecoin giants" such as Tether and Circle.

It proves that leading DeFi platforms have the ability to hold the right to speak and keep money in their own hands. If successful, the power and profits of stablecoins in the future will flow from a few giants to more community-led open ecosystems - a true "decentralized finance revolution" that may kick off this.