Hyperliquid says API outage was caused by ‘spike in traffic,’ not a hack or exploit
Quick Take
- Hyperliquid has patched an API server issue that led to a brief period of downtime, confirming it was due to a surge in traffic rather than a hack or exploit.
- A Hyperliquid representative stated that additional protections will be implemented to detect API server issues in the future.
Hyperliquid, a popular decentralized exchange built on its own Layer 1 blockchain, has patched an API server issue that led to over 30 minutes of trading downtime on Tuesday, confirming the outage was due to a spike in traffic and not a hack or vulnerability exploit.
Multiple traders began reporting issues with trade execution from 14:10 UTC on Tuesday. Although Hyperliquid's status page initially did not reflect the problem, a representative on its official Discord server said the situation was being investigated, later confirming that orders were going through again in real-time as of 14:47 UTC.
Hyperliquid subsequently updated its status page to reflect the "major outage," outlining the root cause. "There was an issue with API servers between 14:10 and 14:47 UTC in which orders were delayed in being sent to the nodes," the status page reads. "This was due to a significant spike in traffic. There was no hack or exploit."
That message was reiterated by the same representative on its Discord server, confirming earlier user reports and helping to explain the price divergences caused by traders being unable to close positions during the downtime.
The Hyperliquid team added that further improvements are planned, including additional protections at various levels of its stack to detect such API server issues and avoid impacting users.
Hyperliquid's native token fell slightly by 3.75% to around $43 during the incident and is currently trading at a similar level, according to The Block's HYPE price page.
HYPE/USD price chart. Image: The Block/TradingView.
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