Hotstuff

Onchain trading may feel instant once you are inside, but onboarding is still broken.

Users are forced to repeat KYC across multiple venues, liquidity remains trapped inside single platforms, retail vaults struggle to behave like real market makers, and validators continue to earn inflation rewards without incentives tied to service quality.

Hotstuff is building a DeFi-native Layer 1 focused on trading, powered by DracoBFT, with a fully onchain orderbook supporting spot and perpetual markets and a long-term vision that extends into traditional markets such as FX, commodities, and equities.

Like Hyperliquid or Lighter, Hotstuff is vertically integrated for trading performance. The difference lies in how access is treated as a core part of the protocol, not an afterthought.

Validators operate as financial access points, enabling routing toward liquidity, payment rails, and broader financial infrastructure through verifiable execution.

For end users, gas on Hotstuff Layer 1 is zero 💨

Hotstuff is backed by Delphi Ventures, Dialectic Group, Stake Capital, Tykhe Ventures, and Outlier Ventures, alongside angels including Brian Noll, Stefan George, k06a, Deacix, Wilson Withiam, Roberto Talamas, Vaibhav Chellani, and Aniket Jindal.

🪂 The Hotstuff Liquidity Vault (HLV) pre-deposits are now live.

HLV is a protocol-owned liquidity vault designed to power Hotstuff perpetual markets from day one, with deposits accepted in $USDC on Ethereum Mainnet, a 500,000 USDC pre-deposit cap, and an early deposit window running from January 25 to February 2 (GMT+1).

Depositors receive non-transferable Vault Shares representing pro-rata ownership, converting 1:1 into active HLV positions once mainnet goes live.

Alongside HLV, the Hotstuff testnet is live, allowing users to complete Expeditions milestones, unlock tiers, collect Cards, and earn up to 50% referral rewards.