Coinbase Activates Hyperliquid AQAv2 on USDC Treasury

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Coinbase announced the switch on its official X account. So the company is now the designated treasury deployer for Hyperliquid’s USDC wallets. Today’s move also activates a deal that both sides first announced on May 14.

What Coinbase Activated Today

Coinbase named two USDC treasury addresses in its announcement. Then it confirmed activation from both. The addresses are 0x4E5319dEb1072B01439EE674db5C321d11fd96F8 and 0xc20699185c15D0a2fD65779BB5d69f5b0B113c00.

The company put it plainly. “Coinbase is now the official deployer of @HyperliquidX’s USDC treasury wallet,” it wrote on X. “We will be activating AQAv2 from the two addresses below.”

Both addresses are visible on Hypurrscan. So anyone can verify the treasury wallets on-chain right now. That transparency matters, because the yield routing happens through smart contracts rather than a private agreement.

How Hyperliquid AQAv2 Works

AQAv2 stands for Aligned Quote Asset v2. The Hyperliquid team documents it in the official protocol specs. Essentially, it extends the original AQA model to non-exclusive stablecoins such as USDC.

The framework uses two roles. First, a “treasury deployer” manages the reserve wallets. Second, a “technical deployer” handles the integration. Coinbase serves as treasury deployer, while Circle is named as technical deployer in secondary coverage. Reportedly, both parties staked 500,000 HYPE each as slashable collateral.

That staking step matters. It ties each deployer to the protocol with real skin in the game. If a deployer misbehaves, the network can slash that stake. So the design aligns incentives instead of relying on trust alone. Activation also required a validator vote after staking, according to the docs.

The yield share is large. According to the official Hyperliquid docs, “stablecoin deployers share approximately 90% of cost-adjusted reserve yield revenue on their Hyperliquid supply with the protocol.” So the treasury deployer forwards the bulk of the reserve yield back to the chain.

Here is the plain version. USDC reserves sit in short-term Treasuries that earn interest. Normally that interest stays with the issuer. Under Hyperliquid AQAv2, an on-chain oracle and a HyperEVM contract deduct about 90% of the net yield instead. Then they forward it to the protocol automatically.

Yield Flows to the Assistance Fund

The captured yield does not just sit idle. Instead, it routes to Hyperliquid’s Assistance Fund. That fund then buys HYPE on the open market.

So the design creates a non-trading revenue stream for the token. It needs no extra fees and no volume targets. As long as USDC sits on Hyperliquid, the reserve yield keeps accruing. Then the buybacks keep running.

USDC dominates the chain today. According to DefiLlama, USDC reserves stand at $6.176 billion. That figure is 95.06% of the $6.498 billion stablecoin market cap on Hyperliquid L1. Moreover, those reserves have grown 20.14% over the past 30 days.

What the Revenue Could Mean for HYPE

Analysts first sized the prize in May. At the time, reserves sat near $5 billion to $5.5 billion. So coverage from CoinDesk and CryptoBriefing pegged annual revenue at roughly $135 million to $160 million.

That range assumed prevailing short-term Treasury yields, net of costs. Reserves are higher now, so the real figure could run above that estimate. Still, no official Hyperliquid statement has quantified exact daily or annual revenue yet. Therefore the numbers remain projections, not confirmed results.

The background helps explain the move. Before AQAv2, Native Markets’ USDH pioneered on-chain yield sharing on Hyperliquid. Yet most USDC reserve yield still accrued to Circle and Coinbase. Now the protocol captures the larger share instead.

The scale also reflects how Hyperliquid grew. USDC became the dominant collateral as perps trading volume climbed. So the reserves built up organically over time, rather than through any single incentive program. That base now powers the new yield stream. The treasury deployer forwards 100% of the AQA rate oracle, which doubles the prior AQA revenue share.

HYPE Price Reaction

The market responded quickly. HYPE reportedly rose about 4% in the hour after the activation post. According to community trackers, the price moved from around $62 toward $65 on some feeds.

Those figures are early and not final. So treat them as live readings from CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap rather than settled data. This article is not financial advice, and reserve yields can fall as interest rates change.

What Comes Next for Hyperliquid AQAv2

The first revenue flow starts today, because activation just went live. After that, yield accrual continues as long as USDC remains the dominant collateral. So the next milestone is the first on-chain proof of buybacks funded by the new stream.

Watch the two treasury addresses and the Assistance Fund for that confirmation. If the flows show up as expected, Hyperliquid AQAv2 could become a template for how stablecoin issuers align with the chains that hold their reserves.