FAQ

How is it on-chain?

The trading rules live in contracts on HyperEVM, Hyperliquid’s smart-contract chain; the USDC sits on HyperCore, Hyperliquid’s native ledger. The Exchange contract keeps every balance, position and queued claim, and moves USDC on HyperCore through the CoreWriter system contract. Architecture overview maps the contracts; Risk lists who can call what.

How do trades work?

Each trade is a synthetic position between you and the LP, filled at Hyperliquid’s mid in the block where it executes. Nothing is traded on Hyperliquid itself, so there is no funding and no slippage. When you enable trading, the app registers a session key, so you do not confirm every trade in your wallet.

How does the oracle work?

There is no separate oracle. The Exchange reads Hyperliquid’s best bid and offer directly through a HyperCore read precompile and takes the midpoint. No off-chain price feed, no price signer. See Pricing: BBO precompile.

What markets are available, and what’s the max leverage?

BTC and ETH, each with up to 1000× leverage. A single position (margin times leverage) can be up to $10,000,000. Any perpetual listed on Hyperliquid can be added; listing is an owner action through the timelock.

What does it cost to trade?

Everything the protocol takes comes out of a winning close:

1. a deadband: the gain is measured as if the exit were 0.002% of the entry price less favourable, so a smaller win pays nothing;
2. a holdback on small moves, wider on the off-hours curve used in quiet periods such as weekends;
3. the asymmetric impact scale, which shrinks small gains the most;
4. a win fee of 2% of what remains.

Closing through a frontend that the owner approved as a builder also costs a builder fee of 0.5% of the gain; the app names no builder, so closes there pay none.

A loss costs only the loss. Losing closes and liquidations carry a fee too (2% and 2%), but it is carved out of what the LP receives, and it is waived while the payout queue holds anything. Each fee is split between stakers (50%) and the team.

Can I add margin to my position?

No. A position is fixed once it opens: you cannot add or remove margin or change its leverage. To take more or less risk, close it and open a new one, or open a second position.

What happens during a liquidation?

Every position has a bust price, set when it opens slightly before the price at which the margin would be used up. When the Hyperliquid mid crosses it, the position can be liquidated and the whole margin is forfeited, even though a close just before could have returned a little. A close of your own that executes at or past the bust price settles the same way. Our keepers submit liquidations as soon as a position crosses. See Liquidations.

Is TOKEN fairly launched?

Yes. Its supply started at zero: no pre-mint, no team or investor allocation, no airdrop, no vesting. The only minter is the Tokenomics contract, and it mints only to traders who close at a loss or are liquidated. Transfers are disabled at launch; staking and unstaking work.

How can I deposit to the LP?

You can’t. The LP holds only what traders have lost, and the only way to get TOKEN, which earns from the LP and the fees when staked, is to lose a trade. If you hold TOKEN, stake it to earn the staker share in USDC.

Can I build my own frontend?

Yes, with one condition: opens, closes, session-key registration and staking actions reach the contracts only through our relayer, which submits them in batches. A frontend signs the same messages and sends them to the relayer’s API (intents API). Withdrawals need your wallet’s own signature and can also be sent straight to the contract. A frontend the owner approves as a builder earns a fee on the closes of session keys registered through it (Builder codes).

Why was my win not paid in full?

The LP pays wins from the cash it holds. When it holds too little, or other winners are already waiting, the unpaid part joins the payout queue and is paid, oldest claim first, as later losses refill the LP. See The LP and the payout queue.

Is a queued claim guaranteed?

No. A queued claim is backed only by future losses of other traders. It can wait a long time, and nothing caps how large the queue can grow. You can use your queued balance as margin for new positions in the meantime.

Can I lose more than my margin?

No. A loss is capped at the margin of the position, and a liquidation takes exactly the margin.

Why is my close waiting a few seconds?

The relayer holds a close of a position opened moments ago for up to 6 seconds before submitting it. This stops orders that try to exploit a single stale price snapshot.

What if the relayer or the API is down?

Opens and closes need the relayer, so they wait. Your free balance does not: you can always withdraw it with a transaction from your own wallet, and the app falls back to reading your positions from the chain.

Who can change the rules?

The owner of every upgradeable contract is a timelock: any upgrade or parameter change is visible on-chain for 2 days before it can execute. A guardian can pause trading or retire a market at once, but cannot move funds. See Risk.

Has the code been audited?

Not yet. Reports will be listed on audits as they are published.