Optimism price

Written by: Yanz On September 5, 2025, Hyperliquid announced its readiness to launch its native stablecoin, USDH, with governance as the lead in its next network upgrade. The protocol describes USDH as a "hyperliquid-first and compliant" dollar-pegged asset, hoping to replace external stablecoins like USDC and create a self-sufficient DeFi ecosystem. Unlike traditional stablecoins (e.g., USDT, USDC), which are issued by centralized entities and exclusively profit, Hyperliquid adopts an innovative decentralized voting mechanism: Open the issuance rights of $USDH stablecoins to the ecological team instead of launching them themselves, integrating the community-driven model into stablecoin issuance. The move immediately sparked fierce competition, with Frax and Paxos submitting proposals and Ethena Labs also being favored as a potential entrant. This vote, which is expected to end before September 10, may not only reshape the Hyperliquid ecosystem but also hide the crisis of reshuffling the stablecoin landscape. Issuance bidding $USDH The fierce competition for stablecoin issuance stems from its strategic value and potential economic rewards in the Hyperliquid ecosystem. Hyperliquid currently holds approximately $5.72 billion in stablecoins, 95% of which are USDC, making it aware of the vulnerability of relying on external stablecoins, especially the risk of USDC being frozen. The $USDH issuance rights, which will be open through decentralized voting mechanisms from September 5, 2025, are an attempt by Hyperliquid to create a self-sufficient DeFi ecosystem. Based on a reserve yield of 4% to 5%, the expected annual return of successfully replacing USDC is extremely substantial, reaching $1.5 to $220 million. This fund can significantly enhance $HYPE value and ecological appeal through the purchase of $HYPE or dividends returned to the community, attracting major players such as Paxos and Frax to bid. In the $USDH issuance race, the winning team will dominate Hyperliquid's $570 million liquidity pool, bringing long-term returns and industry influence. At present, the competition is fierce, and the deadline for proposals is approaching on September 10, and all parties have promised to increase their weight and put forward different issuance plans and income distribution plans.   (For details of the table, see: Hyperliquid stablecoin bidding war begins, who will become the issuer of USDH?) ） Additionally, Ethena Labs, Circle, and PayPal have high hopes from the community, and potential proposals could be dark horses. However, the plans are different, and the community also has various doubts. This bidding wars is not only about technical competition but also a battle for the future landscape of DeFi. Stablecoin wars It's not just the $USDH distribution competition, but a broader range of changes are also happening. According to Omar Kanji, a partner at Dragonfly, the move could have a significant impact on Circle's USDC. USDC is currently the primary settlement currency for Hyperliquid derivatives transactions, with USDC deposits currently standing at $5.5 billion on Hyperliquid. Based on the assumption of a 4% yield, this migration will bring an additional $220 million in annualized income to HYPE token holders, while also bringing the risk of a similar amount of revenue reduction for Circle, and the circulating supply of USDC may be reduced by 7%. For Circle and Tether, $USDH will undoubtedly have an impact on their monopoly positions, prompting them to accelerate innovation (like Circle's CCTP V2) in response to changes in the stablecoin landscape. The stablecoin market may move from duopoly (USDT, USDC) to multipolarity. It can be seen that Circle's CEO can no longer sit still, and he said on September 8 that he will strongly enter the HYPE ecosystem, in which he mentioned the deployment of native USDC and CCTP V2 on HyperEVM as a way to break the game. (Original source) But this is not convincing. After all, this blog post was published on July 31, and Circle announced that it was about to land, but there is still no clear progress, and many users expressed doubts, with a high-praise comment saying: "You should do better and act faster." ” Overall, the latest data shows that the global market size of stablecoins has exceeded $286 billion, with $USDT (59%) and $USDC (25.2%) collectively accounting for nearly 85% of the market share. As of September 8, Tether's USDT led the way with a circulating market cap of $168.8 billion, attracting a large number of traders and retail investors with its wide circulation on centralized exchanges (CEXs) and low transaction costs, followed by Circle's USDC with a market capitalization of $72.5 billion, attracting institutional users. Not only does it directly impact the current duopoly pattern of the stablecoin track, but Hyperliquid's attempt is also providing a model for other DEXs, stimulating platforms such as Arbitrum and Optimism to explore similar paths, and promoting the transformation of the stablecoin track to multipolarity. This challenge and subversion of the traditional order reminds people of the classic metaphor in financial history - "the barbarian at the door". In the 1989 book Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco, "Barbarians at the Gate" symbolizes the challenge of the traditional order by emerging forces. Today, this metaphor is aptly projected onto the stablecoin industry, where Hyperliquid as a "barbarian" is knocking on the door of established forces with its innovative $USDH. $USDH ignited short-term price fluctuations, with $HYPE price increasing by 12.27% in seven days. While establishing new standards and forcing established forces to adjust their strategies, the Hyperliquid Foundation and its CEO Jeff currently hold the majority of voting weight, which has also sparked discussions about fairness in the market, and the high concentration of decision-making power has made it face centralization controversy. The wave of change is raging, and no matter where $USDH goes, community benefits will remain at the core.