Hyper liquid
Hyper liquid supports spot and perpetual trading with different collateral requirements
Hyper liquid is a layer 1 blockchain where spot and perpetual markets match trades through onchain order books. Spot trading exchanges token balances, while perpetual contracts create price exposure backed by collateral. The selected market, account mode and available margin determine which orders an account can support.
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Token ownership or a collateral-backed position
Spot trading fits a purchase or sale of the token itself; perpetual trading creates a long or short derivative position. A spot purchase uses the market’s quote asset, the asset in which its price is expressed. A perpetual requires the collateral its market accepts.
Perpetual contracts have no scheduled expiry. Their funding payments help keep contract prices close to the underlying asset’s price. Holding a long perpetual does not create a withdrawable balance of that underlying token. The position instead records exposure, profit or loss and margin requirements.
A fully paid spot holding that is not used as collateral has no perpetual maintenance requirement. Using it as collateral in a unified or portfolio margin account exposes it to liquidation risk.
Compatible funding and the account’s balance settings
Account access and a credited balance are separate prerequisites, and the balance must be usable by the selected market. Wallet access supports EVM-compatible wallets, while supported interfaces also provide email onboarding. Deposits must match the receiving route’s asset and network requirements.
Deposits and the receiving balance
The direct USDC deposit route from Arbitrum requires ETH for the source transaction’s gas. Other supported routes can deliver spot assets, which may need conversion into the market’s quote or collateral asset. A balance on HyperEVM also occupies a different execution environment from a HyperCore trading balance.
Unified and standard accounts
Unified accounts use one balance per asset for spot trading and cross margin positions collateralized by that asset. Standard accounts keep spot and perpetual balances separate, with separate balances across perpetual DEXs. A DEX here is a distinct exchange deployment within the protocol.
Portfolio margin eligibility
Portfolio margin combines eligible assets and can automatically borrow against eligible collateral when an order needs additional balance. Account eligibility, loan-to-value limits and supply or borrow caps constrain this feature. Reaching a cap means additional margin must come from the settlement asset; collateral value alone may not support another order.
Margin limits apply before and after entry
Initial margin determines whether a perpetual position can open, while maintenance margin determines whether the account can continue supporting its exposure.
The basic initial requirement is position size multiplied by mark price, divided by selected leverage. The mark price is the protocol’s reference valuation. Market leverage limits constrain the selection, and tiered markets can impose stricter requirements as position value increases. The leverage setting does not freeze subsequent account risk.
Cross margin shares collateral among positions within the scope of the account mode. Losses elsewhere in that scope can reduce the collateral supporting a position. Isolated margin allocates collateral to an individual position. Some markets require isolated margin, and strict isolated markets prohibit separate margin withdrawals but release margin proportionally as the position closes.
Liquidation becomes possible when equity falls below the applicable maintenance requirement. Perpetual liquidations use the mark price rather than the last traded price. An estimated liquidation price can move with funding or other cross margin positions. Available collateral therefore matters throughout the holding period, even after an entry order passes its initial checks.
HyperCore matches orders by price and time
HyperCore maintains the spot and perpetual order books, matching orders by price priority and then time priority at the same price. Orders must respect the market’s permitted price and size increments. Perpetual margin checks run when an order opens and again for the resting order when matching occurs. An accepted order can therefore encounter a later margin constraint before filling. Orders, cancellations and trades form part of the chain’s public execution record; wallet control does not make trading activity private.
Execution instructions control price and remaining quantity
The order’s execution instructions determine whether it takes available liquidity, waits on the book or cancels an unfilled remainder.
Market and limit orders
Market orders seek immediate execution against available orders. Their fills can span several price levels. A limit order sets the worst permitted execution price, but it can execute immediately when matching liquidity already satisfies that limit. A limit alone does not guarantee maker treatment.
Resting and immediate execution
Post-only instructions prevent immediate execution and allow fills only after the order rests. Good-til-cancelled orders can remain open until filled or cancelled. Immediate-or-cancel instructions cancel quantity that cannot fill immediately. Price protection and completion are separate properties: an order can respect its limit while filling only partially.
Trading costs follow execution and holding conditions
Trading costs combine execution fees with the price achieved, plus funding or borrowing charges when the position creates those obligations.
Spot and perpetual trades use separate fee schedules. Account trading volume, maker or taker execution and applicable discounts affect the rate. Builder-deployed markets can add deployer fees. The fee shown for one market or account therefore cannot establish the cost of every trade.
Spread and slippage affect the executed price separately from the explicit trading fee. A larger order can reach deeper price levels when nearby liquidity is insufficient. Resting orders avoid immediate execution but introduce the possibility of waiting without a fill.
Perpetual funding transfers payments between long and short position holders. A positive rate charges longs and credits shorts; a negative rate reverses that direction. Funding settles hourly, and its changing rate affects holding costs. Portfolio borrowing adds interest separately. Gas-free HyperCore trading also does not remove deposit costs or HyperEVM transaction gas.
Can I cancel a limit order before it fills?
A limit order’s unfilled quantity can be cancelled if the cancellation succeeds before execution; fills already recorded remain committed.
Consider a hypothetical perpetual entry with sufficient available collateral and no existing position in the selected market. Treat the proposed size, price limit, fee allowance and available liquidity as hypothetical values. Review and approve these terms before submitting an order that can create exposure.
Compare a market order and a post-only limit order using the same proposed size. The market order seeks immediate fills, with cost affected by book depth and taker fees. The post-only order controls its limit and requires resting execution, but it may never fill. Neither choice fixes subsequent funding costs.
For this example, taking liquidity on submission is unacceptable. The order remains an editable draft until its size, limit and estimated fee satisfy the stated allowance. Submission is the commitment point: a post-only order can begin filling after acceptance, without another approval. Assume it is accepted and rests with no fills. The resulting account has an open order and no new position.
If that order is then cancelled successfully before any fill, the account retains no exposure from it. If a partial fill occurs before cancellation, the account has exposure from that fill. Cancelling removes only the remainder; the recorded fill creates a position. Closing that position requires another trade, whose execution price and fees make it different from undoing the entry.
Trigger orders depend on execution after activation
Take-profit and stop-loss orders activate using the mark price, then attempt execution under their market or limit instructions. The trigger price does not promise the eventual fill price.
A market trigger seeks execution within its applicable slippage tolerance. A limit trigger can remain unfilled when available prices fail its limit. Position-level orders can cover the whole position, while explicitly sized orders retain their specified quantity. Reduce-only instructions prevent an exit order from opening exposure in the opposite direction, but they do not guarantee liquidity or a complete fill.
Builder-deployed markets have their own specifications
HIP-3 allows builders to deploy perpetual markets whose operators define contract specifications, oracle inputs and operating parameters within the protocol. These markets use HyperCore’s order book and margin infrastructure.
The deployer also controls relevant market settings, including leverage limits and settlement when needed. Collateral assets and fee arrangements can differ between deployments. A familiar underlying name therefore does not establish identical contract terms. The selected market’s collateral, price reference and margin rules determine whether an existing account balance supports the proposed exposure.
HyperEVM, staking and vaults use funds differently
The blockchain also supports smart contracts, validator staking and vault strategies, each with requirements distinct from placing a direct trade.
Smart contracts and gas
HyperEVM runs EVM-compatible smart contracts under the same HyperBFT consensus as HyperCore. HYPE pays its native gas fees. Applications can interact with HyperCore through supported system interfaces, but an application’s contract permissions and accounting add requirements beyond the underlying order book.
Validator delegation
HYPE holders can delegate tokens to validators through HyperCore staking. Staking balances have delegation and withdrawal restrictions, so they are not equivalent to immediately available trading funds. Validator commission and participation affect rewards, while returning funds to spot involves the unstaking queue.
Vault participation
Vault deposits allocate funds to a strategy rather than an individually selected order. HyperEVM vaults can implement customized accounting and trading permissions. Legacy HyperCore vaults have a narrower feature set and do not support spot or HIP-3 trading. Withdrawal conditions and strategy exposure belong to the particular vault, not to a universal vault rule.
Closing exposure and withdrawing available funds
Closing a perpetual position reduces trading exposure, while withdrawal moves funds out of the account subject to its remaining obligations. These are separate operations.
Filled closing quantity, remaining position size and outstanding orders establish whether exposure has ended. An unfilled closing order leaves the position open. Funding records and executed fees help reconcile the resulting balance, while other open positions can continue consuming collateral.
Removing margin must leave enough collateral to satisfy the applicable transfer requirement. That requirement can exceed the amount needed merely to avoid liquidation. A displayed balance therefore may be larger than the withdrawable amount.
The destination must support the selected asset and withdrawal network. Withdrawal costs depend on the route, and staking or vault balances follow their own release conditions. The available exit changes when funds still secure another obligation, even when the original trade is fully closed.
Common questions about Hyper liquid
Do I need a browser wallet to access trading?
A browser wallet is not required when the chosen interface supports email onboarding. Wallet-based access and email access are both supported entry methods, although available interfaces can differ. Connecting or signing in does not fund the account. The account still needs a credited asset balance usable for the intended spot purchase or perpetual margin requirement.
Which address should an API balance query use?
An API balance query must use the actual master account or subaccount address whose balance is needed. An approved API wallet signs actions on that account’s behalf; its address is not a substitute for the trading account address. Querying the signing agent can return an empty result even when the associated trading account holds funds.
Why can an order fail a price or size precision check?
An order can fail because its price or quantity does not match the market’s permitted increments. Prices must respect tick size, and quantities must respect lot size. These rules apply independently of whether the account has enough collateral. More decimal places do not create a more precise valid order when the extra precision violates the market’s increments.
Does a TWAP order always complete its requested size?
A time-weighted average price order can finish without executing its full requested quantity. TWAP divides an order into scheduled suborders subject to execution constraints. Wide spreads or insufficient liquidity can prevent some suborders from filling. Later suborders can attempt to catch up within their limits, but the end of the schedule does not establish that every unit traded.
Are attached stop orders retained when a partially filled parent order is cancelled?
Manually cancelling a partially filled parent order also cancels its attached take-profit and stop-loss children. To attach take-profit or stop-loss orders to the filled position, place new orders manually, for example through the position form. Cancellation caused by insufficient margin has different behavior: after a partial fill, the children are placed as though the parent had fully filled. Their actual status and size matter.
Can opposing orders from the same address trade against each other?
Opposing orders from the same address do not create a self-trade. The protocol cancels the resting order instead of recording a fill between those orders. That cancellation incurs no trading fee and does not appear as a trade in the trade feed. The incoming order can continue matching other eligible liquidity within its execution constraints.
Is the staking reward rate fixed?
The staking reward rate is variable, with the protocol’s reward formula depending on total HYPE staked. Validator commission also affects the amount a delegator receives. Rewards accrue through validator participation, and a jailed validator does not produce rewards for its delegators. A displayed annualized rate therefore does not establish a fixed payment over a future holding period.
Will a position tested on testnet have identical margin limits on mainnet?
A testnet position does not establish the margin limits of the corresponding mainnet market. Testnet and mainnet can use different position-value thresholds in their margin tables. The applicable environment’s market metadata determines its tiers and leverage limits. A successful test demonstrates behavior under those test conditions, without proving that the same order size satisfies mainnet requirements.