A decentralized Layer 1 blockchain with fully onchain order books — trade 100+ perpetual and spot markets without giving up custody of your funds.
Open AppGetting from zero to your first trade takes four steps. The protocol handles the rest natively on the HyperLiquid L1 chain.
Use any EVM-compatible wallet. MetaMask, Rabby, or a hardware wallet all work. No account creation. No email.
Bridge USDC from Ethereum mainnet, Arbitrum, or Base. Funds arrive in your HyperLiquid trading account within a few minutes, depending on the source chain's finality.
Pick from over 100 perpetual or spot pairs. Set a limit price or use a market order. The onchain order book matches your trade in milliseconds.
Your balance is always yours. Withdraw back to Arbitrum, Ethereum, or Base whenever you want. No withdrawal delays beyond normal bridge finality.
For deeper technical context on decentralized exchanges, see the Wikipedia article on decentralized exchanges and the Ethereum Foundation's dApp documentation.
Honest answer: there are several DEX protocols out there. Here is what actually sets the HyperLiquid platform apart from the rest.
Your keys, your coins — the protocol never takes custody of assets. Every position and every balance lives onchain, verifiable by anyone with a block explorer.
Maker fees start at 0.02% and taker fees at 0.05% for most markets. High-volume traders qualify for further rebates through the fee tier program.
Most DEXs use AMM pools. HyperLiquid's protocol runs a central limit order book entirely on the L1 chain, giving you the familiar limit-order experience of a CEX, without the custodial risk.
Stake HYPE tokens with validators and earn protocol rewards. Estimated APR sits around 2–2.3% depending on validator commission, with no lock-up period for undelegating.
More background on how the HyperLiquid platform compares to other venues is available on the protocol info page.
These figures reflect the scale of activity on the protocol as of early 2025. They update continuously as trading volume grows.
Every order, cancellation, and match is recorded on the HyperLiquid L1 — no off-chain relayers, no trust assumptions.
Major pairs like BTC-USDC and ETH-USDC support up to 50x leverage. Risk parameters are set per-market by the protocol's governance process.
Buy and hold HYPE, BTC, ETH, and dozens of other assets directly in your onchain wallet. No wrapping, no bridging between trades.
Over 25 active validators secure the network. Delegators pick based on uptime history, commission rate, and community reputation — all visible in the staking dashboard.
Algo traders connect via the public API to stream order book data, submit signed orders, and manage positions programmatically. No special permissions required.
Deposit into community-managed vaults to earn a share of trading profits. Vault operators run their own strategies; depositors earn proportional returns.
Share a referral link and earn a percentage of the referred trader's fees indefinitely. The team behind HyperLiquid set this up to reward community-driven growth.
Questions about any of these features? Visit the support page for detailed answers, or review the source code on GitHub.
Common questions about HyperLiquid's protocol, accounts, staking, and trading mechanics.
HyperLiquid is a decentralized Layer 1 blockchain that runs fully onchain order books for perpetual futures and spot markets, settling all trades without any centralized intermediary.
Connect a compatible Web3 wallet, deposit USDC to your trading account, and then select any of the 100+ available markets to place your first order. The whole process takes under five minutes if you already hold USDC on Arbitrum or Base.
HyperLiquid's smart contracts and L1 consensus code have undergone third-party security reviews. The protocol publishes audit reports publicly so the community can inspect findings and remediation steps. That said — as with any onchain protocol, users should size positions responsibly.
HYPE is the native token of the HyperLiquid L1. It covers gas fees on the chain, is used to stake with validators to secure the network, and will play a role in future governance decisions.
Go to the Staking section of the app. Transfer HYPE from your spot balance to your staking balance, then delegate to a validator. Rewards accumulate based on your delegated amount and the validator's uptime — currently averaging around 2–2.25% APR.
Yes. USDC is the primary settlement currency on the HyperLiquid platform. You can buy spot BTC, ETH, HYPE, and many other tokens directly using your USDC balance. No separate steps needed.
Full self-custody. No KYC for onchain trading. Transparent fee structure. The order book state is verifiable by anyone, at any time. If you have ever worried about an exchange freezing withdrawals, HyperLiquid's onchain design removes that risk category entirely.
BTC and ETH perps currently allow up to 50x. Mid-cap assets typically sit between 10x and 20x. The protocol adjusts these limits through onchain governance as market conditions change.
When a position's margin ratio hits the liquidation threshold, the protocol's onchain engine closes it automatically. Part of the fee goes into an insurance fund. This fund covers losses in cases where a position is liquidated at a worse price than the bankruptcy price, preventing losses from spreading to other traders.
It does. The team behind HyperLiquid maintains a public REST and WebSocket API. Market data endpoints are open without authentication; order submission requires a signed key. Documentation and example code are available in the official GitHub repository.
Deposits and withdrawals currently work with Arbitrum, Ethereum mainnet, and Base. The HyperLiquid L1 itself is an independent proof-of-stake chain — all trading activity settles natively there, not on any of the deposit source chains.