Every trade you make through Based settles on Hyperliquid, so it is worth knowing what Hyperliquid actually is. The short version: it is a decentralised trading platform that runs on its own blockchain, and it has grown into one of the largest venues for perpetual futures anywhere, centralised exchanges included.
The longer version is more interesting, because Hyperliquid was built to fix a real problem.
The problem it was built to solve
Crypto trading used to force a choice. Centralised exchanges gave you speed and a proper order book, but they held your money, and history shows how that can end. Decentralised exchanges let you keep your own funds, but they were slow and clunky for serious trading.
Hyperliquid's answer was to build a blockchain specifically for trading. Not a general-purpose chain with a trading app on top, but a chain whose whole job is running an exchange. The order book lives fully on the blockchain, trades confirm in under a second, and placing or cancelling an order costs no gas. You get the feel of a fast exchange while your funds stay in your own wallet.
What trades on it
Crypto perpetual futures came first: BTC, ETH, SOL and hundreds of other markets, margined in USDC. Perps are contracts that track a price rather than the asset itself; the perps guide explains how they work and what the risks are.
Then the model got extended. Hyperliquid lets builders deploy their own markets on the same engine, and that is where stock perps come from: markets tracking Nvidia, Micron, SK Hynix and even unlisted companies like SpaceX, all trading 24/7 because the chain never closes. There is spot trading too, for tokens like HYPE itself.
What HYPE is
HYPE is Hyperliquid's own token. It secures the chain through staking, and stakers get discounts on trading fees. You do not need HYPE to trade, since positions are margined in USDC, but the token is itself one of the most traded markets on the platform. Based lists it like any other market: HYPE.
Where Based fits in
Hyperliquid is the venue. You still need a way in, and raw protocol interfaces are not most people's idea of easy. That is the job Based does: it is a self-custody wallet, on iOS, Android and the web, that makes trading on Hyperliquid feel like using a normal trading app. One wallet for stock perps, crypto perps and prediction markets, with a flat public fee schedule.
The important part of that sentence is wallet. Based is not a broker and never holds your funds. Your USDC sits under your own keys, trades execute on Hyperliquid's order book, and the results land back in your wallet. If self-custody is new to you, this guide covers what it means in practice.