How to create a Hyperliquid account

What a Hyperliquid account actually is

On an exchange like Coinbase, you have a username, a password and a company holding your money. Hyperliquid works differently. It’s a blockchain, and your account is simply a wallet address: a string starting with 0x. Whoever controls the private key for that address controls the funds.

That has three practical consequences:

• There’s no sign-up form. The first time you connect a wallet, you have an account.
• Nobody can recover it for you. The app’s Terms of Use (§1.4) say you must use a non-custodial wallet, and that the company “has no ability to retrieve or transfer” its contents.
• The same address works everywhere. Your balances and trade history live on the chain, not in the app. Hyperliquid’s support guide notes that if you switch wallet extensions, “your trades, history, and address remain the same” as long as you import the same key.

Before you set anything up, check that the terms allow you to use the app. They exclude people in the United States, Ontario and sanctioned territories (§1.6). Details are in is Hyperliquid available in the US.

Wallet or email: which should you choose?

	Browser wallet (Rabby, MetaMask, etc.)	Email login
Setup time	5–10 minutes	About 1 minute
Who holds the key	You, from day one	Created for you via Privy; you can export it
USDC deposit networks	Arbitrum only	Arbitrum, Base, Ethereum, Polygon
Needs ETH for gas to deposit	Yes, a little on Arbitrum	No (you send USDC to a deposit address)
Recovery	Your seed phrase	Your email account, until you export the key
Good for	People who already use crypto wallets	First-timers and people coming from an exchange

Email login is the easiest way to start, especially if your USDC is on an exchange that doesn’t withdraw to Arbitrum. A browser wallet gives you full control and works with other Hyperliquid apps. You can start with email and move to a wallet later by exporting the key.

Option A: Set up with a browser wallet

1. Install a wallet extension. Hyperliquid’s own docs point new users to rabby.io. Download extensions only from the wallet’s official site or your browser’s extension store.
2. Create a new wallet and write the secret recovery phrase on paper. Store it somewhere safe and offline. Never type it into a website and never share it with “support”.
3. Go to app.hyperliquid.xyz (type it, or use our official links).
4. Click Connect, choose your wallet and press Connect in the pop-up.
5. Click Enable Trading and press Sign in your wallet. This is a gas-less signature that lets the app place orders for you; it doesn’t move funds.

If you plan to hold meaningful amounts, Hyperliquid’s support guide suggests a hardware wallet (Ledger, Trezor, Keystone) paired with a browser wallet like Rabby, so your key never sits in the browser.

Option B: Set up with email

1. Go to app.hyperliquid.xyz and click Connect.
2. Enter your email address and press Submit.
3. A 6-digit code arrives within a few seconds. Type it in.
4. You’re connected. Click Deposit to see your deposit address.

Export your key soon after. In the settings dropdown in the navigation bar, choose Export Email Wallet and follow the steps to copy your private key. Store it as carefully as a seed phrase. This matters for two reasons:

• If you ever stop receiving login codes (Hyperliquid’s docs say this can happen if you once marked Privy emails as spam), the exported key still gets you in.
• If you send an unsupported asset to your email deposit address, it’s redirected to your email wallet, and you need the exported key to reach it.

Do these four things before your first trade

1. Set a referral code. Go to app.hyperliquid.xyz/referrals and enter a code. It gives 4% off fees on your first $25M of volume. Our code and the maths are on the referral code page. Do it before your first trade.
2. Bookmark the real site. Phishing sites use lookalike domains; Hyperliquid’s own support guide gives “hyperliguid.xyz” as an example. See scams to avoid.
3. Understand your balance mode. Hyperliquid has several “account abstraction modes” that decide how spot and perps balances interact. Its docs recommend unified account for most users: one balance per asset that backs both spot trading and cross-margin perps. Advanced users and market makers may use separate balances.
4. Check which app you’re using. Wallet apps such as MetaMask and Phantom can trade Hyperliquid inside the wallet, but they can add their own fee (a “builder fee”) on top of Hyperliquid’s. The official app adds none. See builder codes explained.

Then deposit USDC and follow how to start trading.

Common mistakes

• Storing the seed phrase in a screenshot, email or cloud note. If that account is breached, so is your wallet.
• Using Phantom without knowing its Arbitrum gap. Phantom doesn’t support Arbitrum. Hyperliquid’s docs say Phantom users who withdraw USDC to Arbitrum will find it there, not in Phantom, and must import the Ethereum private key into a wallet like Rabby to see it.
• Creating several email accounts by accident. Each email creates a different address. Log in with the same email every time.
• Linking your account to someone else’s “staking account”. Hyperliquid’s staking-link feature lets the staking account take all funds from the linked trading account, and linking is permanent. Only link two addresses you control.

If something goes wrong

• Wallet won’t connect or keeps asking to sign: update the extension, hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R or Cmd+Shift+R), clear cache, disconnect and reconnect. Coinbase Wallet users on mobile may do better with the Chrome extension. Trezor users seeing a “forbidden keypath” error can change Safety Checks from “Strict” to “Prompt” in Trezor Suite.
• No email code: check spam, then contact Privy support (support@privy.io) as Hyperliquid’s docs advise.
• Mobile wallet prompts not appearing (WalletConnect): disconnect, remove the app from your wallet’s connected sessions, then reconnect.
• You think someone else has access: treat the address as burned. Move what’s left to a new wallet straight away. The safety guide lists the full steps from Hyperliquid’s support guide.