What is Elysium? Kinetiq's Hyperliquid L2 explained (2026)

Elysium is a new blockchain for the Hyperliquid ecosystem. It is a Layer 2 (L2) built by Kinetiq, the team behind kHYPE, the largest liquid staking token on Hyperliquid. Where most L2s settle to Ethereum, Elysium settles to HyperEVM, the smart-contract side of Hyperliquid, and uses HYPE to pay for gas. Its mainnet is scheduled for November 9, 2026.

If you are trying to understand why a new chain on top of Hyperliquid matters, the short version is space. HyperEVM keeps its blocks deliberately small, which kept swaps expensive at busy moments (Kinetiq has cited fees of up to about $20 for a simple swap at peak). Elysium is meant to be the roomy, fast place where trading apps, market makers, launchpads and meme coins can live, while staying one hop from Hyperliquid's order books.

How does Elysium work?

Elysium runs the same software as Arbitrum One (Arbitrum Nitro) as an Arbitrum Orbit chain. That has three practical consequences:

• Any Ethereum smart contract works unchanged. Solidity and Vyper contracts, and tools like Foundry, Hardhat, viem and ethers.js, behave as they do on other Orbit chains.
• Transactions are ordered by a single sequencer (operated by Conduit at launch), which is what makes very fast blocks possible.
• Its rollup contracts live on HyperEVM, so HyperEVM is the parent chain: deposits come from HyperEVM and withdrawals go back to it.

Data availability uses AnyTrust: a committee stores the full transaction data and posts a short certificate to HyperEVM. If the committee goes offline, Elysium falls back to posting the full data on HyperEVM, which costs more but does not stop the chain.

When does Elysium mainnet launch?

Kinetiq has announced November 9, 2026 as the mainnet date, and infrastructure providers such as Goldsky list mainnet support from that day. The public testnet opened on September 22, 2026 and by late October had processed over 43 million transactions from more than 6.7 million addresses. Those are testnet numbers with free test tokens, so they show developer and farmer interest, not real money.

How fast is Elysium?

The design target is around 300 million gas per second with blocks every 100 to 200 milliseconds, roughly 100 times HyperEVM's gas throughput. On the testnet, observers measured blocks every 0.13 to 0.32 seconds, under light load. Kinetiq itself calls the throughput figure a target to be validated, so treat it as a goal until mainnet traffic proves it.

What can you do on Elysium?

• Swap tokens on Elysium DEXs. The Nest DEX is expected from the first mainnet block, with Dawn also committed.
• Launch and trade meme coins on Elysium launchpads. Montra and Citadel have committed to mainnet, and launchpads such as BunnyPad and Chainzy run on the testnet. See Elysium launchpads compared.
• Trade prediction markets (Speculate has committed to mainnet).
• Later: contracts that read live HyperCore order books and prices, and send orders to HyperCore. Kinetiq expects this in an upgrade about four weeks after mainnet.

Kinetiq describes a path for new tokens: launch in a long-tail AMM pool on Elysium, move into professional market-maker pools (PropAMMs), optionally open a HyperCore spot order book, and eventually seek a perpetual listing through HIP-3. Whether many tokens actually make that journey is something only mainnet will show.

Does Elysium have a token or an airdrop?

No. At launch there is no Elysium token and no official points program. Sequencer fees are split: Kinetiq has said 50% buys KNTQ (Kinetiq's token) on the open market, with the purchased KNTQ burned by sending it to the Hyperliquid Assistance Fund, 25% goes to builders who use Elysium blockspace, and 25% to Kinetiq's treasury. More in is there an Elysium airdrop?.

What are the risks?

• Centralised at launch: one sequencer, a whitelisted set of validators and a small data committee. Permissionless fraud proofs (Arbitrum BoLD) are planned for later.
• The headline HyperCore features arrive after mainnet, not on day one.
• Withdrawals back to HyperEVM are optimistic and finalise only after a challenge period, so leaving through the official bridge is slower than entering.
• New chains attract copycat tokens and rug pulls in their first weeks. Read the Elysium meme coin safety check before buying anything new.
• Kinetiq's own TVL is well below its October 2025 peak, according to DefiLlama. A new chain is a bet on its team as much as its tech.

How to get started on Elysium

1. Hold some HYPE on HyperEVM, or use an app that handles gas for you.
2. Bridge HYPE from HyperEVM to Elysium with the official bridge. Step by step in how to bridge to Elysium.
3. Swap or launch. Guides: how to buy meme coins on Elysium and how to launch a meme coin on Elysium.

sasa is preparing Elysium coin launches and trading from a single USDC balance, so you will be able to launch or buy on Elysium without holding HYPE or using a bridge. It opens when Elysium's mainnet is live.