On July 29, Hyperliquid experienced a 37-minute disruption in trading activity due to an API server overload. From 14:10 to 14:47 UTC, users reported widespread issues with placing, managing, or closing orders. The exchange’s backend systems, including the blockchain and HyperEVM, remained operational throughout the incident, with blocks continuing to be produced at the expected rate.
The outage was caused by an unexpected spike in traffic, which exceeded the API servers’ capacity and led to error messages being displayed on the frontend. Although transactions continued to reach the mempool and were later confirmed onchain, the user interface failed to reflect this in real time, causing confusion.
No Security Breach or Fund Loss
Hyperliquid confirmed that the incident was not caused by a hack or exploit. There was no unauthorized access, and user funds remained secure. The problem was limited to the API layer, which handles communication between user interfaces and the backend.
Response and Communications
Initial reports of the outage appeared on community channels shortly after 14:10 UTC. However, the official status page did not reflect the issue in real time and continued to show 100% uptime. The first official acknowledgement came via Discord approximately 20 minutes later, stating the issue was under investigation.
At 14:47 UTC, a co-founder confirmed that order execution had resumed. The status page was later updated to classify the event as a “major outage.”
On July 30, Hyperliquid announced that refunds will be issued automatically to users affected during the outage. Impacted trades are being reviewed, and a detailed refund methodology will be shared in the coming days. The team specified that users do not need to open support tickets, as compensation will be processed programmatically.
Hyperliquid stated that additional safeguards are being implemented to better detect and respond to similar traffic spikes in the future. Planned upgrades include API monitoring enhancements and broader improvements across the stack to reduce the risk of frontend disruptions affecting user experience.
Market and Platform Context
The incident occurred during a period of heightened activity on the platform. Hyperliquid recently reported back-to-back all-time highs in open interest and protocol revenue.
The platform’s governance token, HYPE, dropped by around 4% during the outage and is currently trading near $43, still up 8% over the month.
