Hyperliquid
Layer 1 blockchain with a native onchain order book for perpetual futures and spot trading, plus the HyperEVM smart contract platform.
Security record: 5 incidents · 1 own fault · 1 repaid in full · 3 not or partly repaid · 1 refund pending- Own L1 (HyperBFT consensus) with fully onchain perp and spot order books on HyperCore
- HyperEVM smart contract platform runs on the same chain
- USDC collateral with cross or isolated margin; max leverage is set per asset
- Base perp fees: 0.015% maker, 0.045% taker, lower with 14-day volume
- Trading is gas-free; gas is only needed to deposit
Seven criteria on a scale of 10, the fee and market numbers computed from the data. Compare it with other perp DEXs only. How we score
- Taker
- 0.045%
- Maker
- 0.015%
- Volume a day
- $7.2B
- Open interest
- $7.5B
- Rewards 6.0
- HYPE live, points ended in 2024; HLP vault yield and staking fee cuts
- Taker fee 4.2
- No taker fee is a 10, 0.07% or more is a 1. A venue that earns from the spread tops out at 7.
- Volume 10.0
- Average a day: $5M is a 1, $5B is a 10, on a log scale. Volume past ten times open interest does not count.
- Safety 8.0
- Fully onchain order book since 2023; JELLY losses were made whole
- Open interest 10.0
- $1M is a 1, $1B is a 10, on a log scale. Harder to farm than volume.
- Ease 10.0
- Gas-free one-click trading, mobile login, 170+ perps plus stock markets
- Access 8.0
- No KYC or invite; closed to US and Ontario plus sanctioned places
- Connect an EVM wallet or log in with email at app.hyperliquid.xyz
- Click Enable Trading and sign the gas-less message
- Deposit USDC on Arbitrum (keep a little ETH for gas) or another supported asset
- Choose a market, long or short, and set size and leverage
- Click Place Order and confirm
- Is a Perp DEX Safe? Custody, Exits and LiquidationsNon-custodial is a label, not an answer. Six questions to ask any perp DEX about custody, exits, reversed fills, liquidation and audits before you deposit.
- Funding Rate Arbitrage Between Perp DEXs: The Real MathA cross-DEX funding hedge earns by the hour and pays its fees up front. How to work out the net, the break-even time and what can break each leg.
- Maker vs Taker Fees on Perp DEXs: What a Trade Really CostsMaker and taker fees explained for farmers: why the fee is charged on the position, why a hedge pays four times, and when a maker order costs more.
- What Is a Funding Rate on a Perp DEX?What a perp funding rate is, who pays whom, how to turn it into a yearly figure, and what it costs or pays a farmer who holds positions for volume.
Cross margin positions share collateral, so a loss on one can push the others toward liquidation. The points program ran from November 2023 to November 2024 and has ended. Deposits from Bitcoin, Solana and some other chains go through Unit Protocol, a separate bridge.
5 incidents · 1 own fault · 1 repaid in full · 3 not or partly repaid · 1 refund pending
Past incidents 5
POPCAT manipulation leaves HLP with about $4.9M loss. An attacker used about $3M in USDC across many wallets to pump POPCAT and then let the leveraged longs collapse, pushing about $4.9M of bad debt onto the HLP vault. Reports say Hyperliquid's chain, matching engine and contracts were not compromised. No compensation for HLP depositors was reported.
Partly own faultUsers lost about $4.9MNot repaid
Sources: coindesk.com, cointelegraph.com
XPL pre-market perp pumped about 200%, shorts liquidated. Whale buying in Hyperliquid's thin XPL pre-launch market sent the price from about $0.60 to $1.80 in minutes with no move on other venues, liquidating shorts; a few wallets reportedly made about $46M. Hyperliquid said there was no bad debt, declined compensation and added a 10x price cap and outside price data. Hyperliquid declined to compensate, per The Defiant.
Partly own faultNot repaid
Sources: thedefiant.io, theblock.co
API outage blocks trading for about 37 minutes. Hyperliquid's API went down for about half an hour during a traffic spike, so users could not manage positions. Hyperliquid said it was not a hack and refunded affected users about $1.99M in USDC from early August. Refunds of $1.99M USDC were sent to affected users, per onchain data reported by Cointelegraph.
Own faultUsers lost about $2MRepaid in full
Sources: cointelegraph.com, thedefiant.io
JELLY squeeze, validators delist and settle market. A trader self-traded a large JELLY position that was liquidated into HLP, then the JELLY price was pumped, leaving HLP with a large unrealized loss. Validators voted to delist JELLY perps and settle them at a chosen price, and the Hyper Foundation said all users except flagged addresses would be made whole. The Hyper Foundation promised automatic refunds for all non-flagged users, longs settled as if at 0.037555; no source found confirming the payout was completed.
Partly own faultRefund promised
Sources: thedefiant.io, cointelegraph.com, info.arkm.com
ETH whale exits 50x long, HLP loses about $4M. A trader opened a large 50x ETH long, withdrew margin so the position was liquidated into the HLP vault, and left with about $1.8M profit while HLP lost about $4M. Hyperliquid said there was no hack or exploit and later raised margin requirements. No compensation for HLP depositors was announced; Hyperliquid said HLP is not a risk-free strategy.
Partly own faultUsers lost about $4MNot repaid
Sources: dlnews.com
From the project’s statements and security coverage. Own fault means the project’s code, servers or keys; third party means a vendor, registrar, oracle or issuer it relies on.
