Native Markets Claims Victory, Earns USDH Ticker Following Intense Competition

Native Markets, one of the teams that proposed to issue and manage the Hyperliquid crypto exchange’s US dollar stablecoin (USDH), officially secured the USDH ticker on Sunday, following a community vote.

The project is set to launch the first Hyperliquid Improvement Proposal (HIP) for USDH and an ERC-20 token, which is the token standard for Ethereum, shortly, as stated by Max Fiege, founder of Native Markets, in an X post. He detailed the upcoming steps:

“We will then commence a testing phase for mints and redeems of up to $800 per transaction with an initial group, followed by the launch of the USDH/USDC spot order book, along with unrestricted mints and redeems.”

Native Markets’ odds of winning the ticker surged to over 99% on Saturday on the prediction market Polymarket, after synthetic stablecoin issuer Ethena withdrew from the competition on Thursday. 

The USDH bidding war attracted significant attention from the crypto community and industry leaders, leading to claims of a skewed selection process and reflections on the future of the stablecoin market.

Related: Inside the Hyperliquid stablecoin race: The companies vying for USDH

Hyperliquid’s USDH bidding war draws criticism and sparks debate

Executives within the crypto industry expressed mixed feelings regarding the USDH bidding process and the results of the vote, which saw established stablecoin, crypto, and payment companies lose to a newcomer. 

“It’s starting to feel like the USDH RFP was somewhat of a joke,” noted Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner of venture capital firm Dragonfly, said on Tuesday.

“I’ve heard from multiple bidders that none of the validators are considering anyone besides Native Markets. It’s not a serious dialogue, as if a backroom agreement was already in place,” Qureshi added.