How to deposit USDC to Hyperliquid

Which route can you use?

It depends on how you signed in to app.hyperliquid.xyz (see creating an account):

Route	Wallet login	Email login	Minimum	Below the minimum	Who runs it
USDC on Arbitrum	Yes	Yes	5 USDC	Lost (wallet) / returned to email wallet, lost under 1 USDC (email)	Circle CCTP / Hyperliquid bridge
USDC on Base	No	Yes	5 USDC	Returned to email wallet; lost under 1 USDC	Across Protocol
USDC on Ethereum	No	Yes	5 USDC	Returned to email wallet; lost under 1 USDC	Across Protocol
USDC on Polygon	No	Yes	5 USDC	Returned to email wallet; lost under 1 USDC	Across Protocol
Card / bank (fiat on-ramp)	See app	See app	Set by Swapped	n/a	Swapped.com
BTC, ETH, SOL and other coins	Yes	Yes	Varies by coin	Lost	Unit (then sell for USDC)

If your USDC is on another chain, bridge it to Arbitrum first: see the Ethereum and Solana guides. If it’s on an exchange, see depositing from an exchange.

Before your first deposit, set a referral code at app.hyperliquid.xyz/referrals for 4% off fees on your first $25M of volume. The code is on our referral code page.

Route 1: USDC on Arbitrum from your wallet

This is the standard route and the only USDC route for wallet users.

You need: USDC on the Arbitrum network in your wallet (at least 5, ideally a test amount of 10 or more), plus a small amount of ETH on Arbitrum to pay the deposit transaction’s gas.

1. Go to app.hyperliquid.xyz and connect your wallet. Click Enable Trading if you haven’t yet.
2. Click Deposit and choose USDC.
3. Enter the amount and click Deposit.
4. Confirm the transaction in your wallet. Make sure the wallet is on the Arbitrum network.
5. Wait for the balance to appear. Hyperliquid’s bridge docs say Arbitrum deposits are credited in under 1 minute.

What it costs: Arbitrum gas, usually small. Circle documents a flat 0.20 USDC forwarding fee when USDC moves from Arbitrum to HyperCore through CCTP, deducted from the amount (a 10 USDC transfer arrives as 9.80). Hyperliquid’s docs call CCTP the preferred method and the older Arbitrum bridge “deprecated”, so check the fee line in the deposit window to see which applies to you.

Route 2: Email login, USDC on Arbitrum, Base, Ethereum or Polygon

With email login, you don’t need gas on Hyperliquid’s side: you send USDC to an address, like paying someone.

1. Log in with email at app.hyperliquid.xyz.
2. Click Deposit. The window shows a deposit address and QR code.
3. From your wallet or an exchange, send USDC on Arbitrum, Base, Ethereum or Polygon to that address.
4. Your deposit arrives as USDC on HyperCore (Hyperliquid’s trading layer).

Across Protocol handles this flow. You can look up a transfer at across.to/transfers.

If you send the wrong thing: anything other than USDC on those four networks, sent to the Across deposit address, is redirected to your email wallet within about 10 minutes. You then need to export your email wallet key into a wallet extension to reach it.

Route 3: Card or bank transfer

Hyperliquid’s support docs describe a fiat on-ramp “powered by Swapped.com, an independent service provider”. Swapped sets the payment methods and fees, and handles support (live chat on swapped.com/contact-us or support@swapped.com). We couldn’t verify Swapped’s current fees, so check swapped.com/fees before paying. If you already have an exchange account, buying USDC there and withdrawing to Arbitrum may cost less.

Route 4: Deposit another coin and sell it

You can also deposit BTC on Bitcoin, ETH or ENA on Ethereum, SOL and several Solana tokens, MON, XPL, AVAX or ZEC through Unit, an independent team that runs these deposit addresses. They arrive as spot tokens, so you sell them for USDC on Hyperliquid’s spot market before trading perps. See depositing Bitcoin for how the Unit routes work and their minimums.

What happens after the deposit

Your USDC lands in your Hyperliquid balance. How it’s split depends on your account mode: in unified account mode (which Hyperliquid’s docs recommend for most users) one USDC balance backs both spot trading and cross-margin perps. In the older standard mode you may need to move USDC between your Spot and Perps balances yourself.

Trading from here is gas-free. Next: your first perp trade or how to buy HYPE.

Common mistakes

• Depositing less than 5 USDC from a wallet. It’s lost, not returned.
• Sending USDC on Solana, BNB Chain, Avalanche or another chain to an address that only accepts specific assets. Hyperliquid’s support guide gives “USDC on Avalanche” and “USDC on Solana” as examples that fail. Unit’s revert tool can recover some mistakes on Ethereum, Solana and Plasma, not all.
• Sending USDC on Base or Ethereum while logged in with a wallet. Those networks only work through the email deposit address.
• Having no ETH on Arbitrum. The wallet deposit transaction needs a little ETH for gas.
• Using a Phantom wallet for USDC. Phantom doesn’t support Arbitrum. Hyperliquid’s docs suggest exporting the Ethereum private key into a wallet like Rabby, or depositing SOL and selling it for USDC on spot (minimum order $10).
• Skipping a test deposit. Send a small amount the first time you use any route.

If your deposit is missing

1. Check the network and asset. Only the combinations in the table above are credited.
2. Check the amount was at least 5 USDC.
3. Refresh app.hyperliquid.xyz. Hyperliquid’s docs say this helps with deposits sent to the older email deposit address.
4. Look at your open positions. If you have cross-margin positions with unrealized losses, the deposit is credited but used as margin first, so your available balance looks lower.
5. Email deposits: look the transfer up at across.to/transfers; if it was redirected, export your email wallet to reach the funds.
6. Card purchases: contact Swapped support, not Hyperliquid.
7. Still missing: open a ticket in the official Hyperliquid Discord’s “open-ticket” channel or through its support form. Never respond to DMs offering help.