Coinbase will take over as the official USDC (USDC) treasury deployer on Hyperliquid (HYPE), retiring the network's own USDH stablecoin.
Coinbase Steps In as AQA Deployer
The announcement came Thursday from Coinbase and Native Markets, the team that built USDH less than a year ago.
Under the deal, Coinbase becomes the Aligned Quote Asset deployer for USDC on Hyperliquid, a role designed to channel reserve yield back into the network rather than to outside issuers.
Native Markets has agreed to terms giving Coinbase the right to purchase USDH brand assets, while the startup itself stays independent.
USDC supply on Hyperliquid sits near $5 billion, roughly double its level a year ago, according to figures Coinbase shared alongside the announcement.
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USDH Sunset and User Migration
USDH markets are still fully functional, and the stablecoin remains fully backed by cash and short-dated U.S. Treasury equivalents during the wind-down. Users can keep redeeming USDH for USDC or fiat without fees through the official Native Markets dashboard.
Native Markets said it will work with HIP-1 and HIP-3 deployers to complete the migration before USDH is fully sunset.
CEO Mary-Catherine Lader, a former Uniswap Labs president, framed the agreement as proof that stablecoins should return value to the networks they serve, not extract it.
Stablecoin Economics on a Faster Chain
For Hyperliquid, the move concentrates trading liquidity in one asset on a chain that, per The Block, captures roughly 40% of all blockchain fees, ahead of Ethereum, Solana, and Tron. The partnership also extends Coinbase's push to broaden USDC use beyond centralized exchanges as stablecoin competition tightens.
Analysts say the structure could pressure rival issuers to share more reserve yield with the venues hosting their tokens.
Hyperliquid launched in November 2024 and quickly became the dominant onchain perpetual futures platform. Earlier this week, 21Shares debuted the first U.S. spot ETF tied to HYPE, an event Bloomberg's James Seyffart described as a solid but not explosive opening for an altcoin product.
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