Decentralized trading platform Hyperliquid launched a deep restructuring of its liquidity and reserves model, with a record transfer of approximately $4.4 billion in USDC. The move, announced by Coinbase on June 12, 2026, officially activates the Aligned Quote Asset v2 (AQAv2) framework, which will make the stablecoin issued by Circle the main reference asset within the ecosystem.
The funds were sent by Circle to an address managed by Coinbase on HyperEVM, Hyperliquid’s smart contract layer. As explained Coinbasethis is the largest USDC transfer recorded to date.
The operation materializes an announced agreement weeks ago between Coinbase, Circle and Hyperliquid. Under this scheme, Coinbase will take on the role of official USDC treasury manager on the networkwhile Circle will continue to handle issuance, redemption and transfers between networks through its Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP).
The objective of the new model is to consolidate USDC as the main trading and liquidity asset of the protocol. As part of that transition, Hyperliquid will begin to progressively replace USDH, a stablecoin developed within its own ecosystem. In this sense, it has been defined a migration mechanism intended for users who currently own the asset, which has been described as a fluid and uninterrupted process. Both Native Markets and Coinbase have assured that USDH retains their full support at all times. Likewise, users will have the possibility to exchange their tokens for USDC through the official panel available on USDH.com.
As reported by CriptoNoticias, AQAv2 also modifies the way in which the income generated by the reserves that support USDC is distributed. According to the disclosed informationmost of those returns will be channeled into Hyperliquid. With an estimated profitability close to 4% per year, different estimates place these revenues between USD 140 million and USD 200 million per year.
Part of these resources will be allocated to repurchases of HYPE, Hyperliquid’s native token. The mechanism seeks to create a recurring source of demand for the asset while strengthening the protocol’s economic incentives.
Are large corporations displacing native initiatives?
The transition, however, is not without questions. Some ecosystem participants They consider that the replacement of USDH with USDC increases dependence on a stablecoin issued by a centralized entity. Others point out that the agreement reinforces lto influence of Coinbase and Circle on an infrastructure that until now had opted for more native solutions.
The trader Akira Noma It was ironic in X that, after months defending the advantages of USDH over USDC, Hyperliquid ended up adopting the latter as its main asset. According to his interpretation, the large market participants did not simply integrate into the ecosystem, but rather They ended up imposing their conditions.
On the same social network, the user known as Smallro_man questioned that a native stablecoin powered by community governance has been displaced by an alternative backed by Coinbase and Circle, reigniting the debate about the balance between decentralization, liquidity and corporate influence.
There is also controversy over the economic precedent established by the agreement. As Hyperliquid gains a new revenue stream tied to USDC reserves, some analysts have warned that stablecoin issuers and distributors could be forced to share an increasing share of those returns to ensure their presence on the main market protocols.
At the moment, Hyperliquid’s decision reflects an increasingly visible trend in cryptocurrency networks: Protocols compete to attract stablecoins because they have become the main source of liquidity in the market. If AQAv2 works as Hyperliquid hopes, other projects could adopt similar models, where returns from stablecoin reserves become a new source of income to finance the growth of their ecosystems.