VALR integrates Hyperliquid to power its new perpetuals product, a first for centralized exchanges

A centralized exchange just plugged itself directly into a decentralized protocol’s infrastructure. VALR, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Africa by trading volume, has integrated Hyperliquid to power a new cross-asset perpetuals product offering over 200 markets. It’s the first time a major regulated centralized exchange has natively built on top of Hyperliquid’s Layer-1 blockchain.

The product, announced on July 2, went beyond the typical crypto perpetuals menu. Users will be able to take leveraged long and short positions on global equities like NVIDIA and Tesla, commodities including oil and natural gas, forex pairs, and of course, crypto. Web access is scheduled to go live on July 6, with mobile support following shortly after.

The CeDeFi play nobody expected

The exchange, which serves more than 1.9 million users and over 1,900 institutional clients, is using Hyperliquid’s permissionless infrastructure for trade execution and liquidity sourcing. Hyperliquid is widely recognized as the largest on-chain perpetual futures DEX, optimized specifically for high-speed trading and deep liquidity across multiple asset classes.

VALR’s COO Gianluca Sacco framed the integration as an effort to deliver “the deepest on-chain liquidity available anywhere.” Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 protocol allows efficient third-party market deployment on its permissionless infrastructure, which is essentially what VALR is leveraging here.

Why VALR, and why now

Founded in 2018, the exchange is regulated by South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA). It has attracted serious institutional backing, with investors including Pantera Capital and Coinbase Ventures on its cap table.

VALR is operating under FSCA regulation while sourcing liquidity from Hyperliquid’s decentralized infrastructure. A regulated front end, a decentralized back end.

What this means for the market

For Hyperliquid, having a regulated exchange with nearly 2 million users building on your protocol is a significant validation event. The protocol’s HIP-3 framework was designed for exactly this kind of third-party deployment, and VALR is now the highest-profile test case.

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