THE $280M COST OF ONBOARDING RETAIL TO HYPERLIQUID

Summary from the TLDR Crypto newsletter

A study of nearly 400,000 wallets trading Hyperliquid perpetuals through six consumer apps found cumulative losses of $280M all-time, with $126M accruing since November 2025. Fees drove slightly more than half those recent losses: builder fees stacked on Hyperliquid's base rate push per-$100 order costs to 6.5-14.5 cents, and small accounts turning over their balance many times compound those costs fast. Invo users show the extreme: $12.4M deposited against $5.8B traded, and on BTC positions, fee drag alone exceeded net gains from closed trades. Retention is poor across all six apps: about half of each month's active traders are first-timers, and only one in seven new traders remains active three months later, meaning growth has come from continuous new-user acquisition rather than building a durable base.