How to use Hyperliquid vaults
A vault lets you put USDC behind another trader's strategy. The mechanics are simple; choosing one well is the hard part.
A Hyperliquid vault pools depositors' USDC under one trader, the leader, who keeps 10% of profits and must hold at least 5% of the vault. User vaults lock deposits for 1 day (HLP: 4 days). About 3,063 vaults were open on 4 Nov 2026, and only 79 held $100k or more.
What a vault is
A vault is a shared trading account. Depositors put in USDC, and one trader, the leader, trades the whole pool. Everyone owns a slice in proportion to what they put in, so the vault’s profits and losses are shared the same way.
There are two kinds on Hyperliquid’s Vaults page:
- Protocol vaults such as HLP, run by the protocol with no fees. See our HLP vault guide.
- User vaults, created and run by individual traders or automated by market makers. This guide covers these.
Hyperliquid’s docs now call these HyperCore vaults “legacy”. Builders can create newer, tokenised vaults on the HyperEVM with their own rules; those are separate products with their own docs and risks, and nothing below applies to them automatically.
The rules that apply to every user vault
| Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| Leader’s cut | 10% of profits |
| Leader’s own stake | Must stay at or above 5% of the vault |
| Lockup | 1 day after you deposit |
| What it can trade | Validator-operated perps only (no spot, no HIP-3) |
| Fee discounts | Your referral discount doesn’t apply inside vaults |
| Name and description | Fixed when the vault is created |
The 5% rule exists so the leader has their own money at risk: they can’t withdraw if it would take them below 5%. Creating a vault costs a 100 USDC minimum deposit plus a 10,000 USDC gas fee, which the protocol distributes the same way as trading fees.
How much you get back: the docs’ example
Say you deposit 100 USDC into a vault that already holds 900 USDC. The vault is now 1,000 USDC and you own 10%.
Later the vault has grown to 2,000 USDC with no one else joining or leaving. Your 10% is 200 USDC. Your profit is 100 USDC, and the leader takes 10% of it, 10 USDC. You withdraw 190 USDC.
If the vault had fallen to 500 USDC instead, your 10% would be 50 USDC. There’s no profit share on a loss, and no protection either.
How to choose a vault
On app.hyperliquid.xyz/vaults you can sort vaults by APY and by total deposits (TVL). Click one to see its PnL, max drawdown, volume, open positions, trade history, how many people have deposited and for how long. Before depositing, check:
- Size. Of about 3,063 open vaults, only 79 held $100,000 or more (Hyperliquid API, 4 Nov 2026). A tiny vault with a huge APY is usually a short lucky streak.
- Age and history. Look at PnL over the longest period available. A good month says little.
- Max drawdown. This is the worst peak-to-trough fall, a measure of how painful it got. Hyperliquid’s docs note the figure on the site is computed for display only and divides PnL by the account value at the start of each period, so compare vaults with it but don’t treat it as exact.
- What’s open now. Open the positions tab. Large leveraged positions mean your deposit joins those positions immediately.
- The leader’s share. A leader far above the 5% minimum has more of their own money in it.
- Depositors and how long they’ve stayed. Many long-standing depositors is a better sign than a crowd that arrived last week.
Be wary of anyone who DMs you a vault to join. That’s a common lure (see scams to avoid).
How to deposit
- Fund your account with USDC (how to deposit USDC).
- Open the vault’s page from app.hyperliquid.xyz/vaults.
- Click Deposit, enter the amount and click Deposit to confirm.
- Track it under the Your Performance heading on the vault page. Your total across vaults also shows on the Portfolio page.
How to withdraw, and what it does to the vault
On the vault’s page, click Withdraw, enter an amount and confirm. After the 1-day lockup you can withdraw at any time.
If the vault has enough spare margin, your withdrawal doesn’t touch its positions. If it doesn’t, the docs describe this order:
- Open orders that use margin are cancelled, smallest first.
- If that isn’t enough, 20% of positions are closed automatically, repeated until there’s enough free margin to pay you.
That can mean some slippage on your way out. Leaders can also set the vault to always close positions proportionally on withdrawals. If the leader closes the vault, all positions must be closed first and every depositor receives their share.
Common mistakes
- Chasing the top APY. The highest numbers on the page are usually small, young vaults.
- Ignoring leverage. A vault’s trades are leveraged perps. Read leverage and margin to understand what a liquidation would mean for it.
- Expecting stock or spot exposure. User vaults can’t trade trade.xyz markets or spot.
- Putting in money you need this week. The lockup is short, but a leader can lose a lot in a day.
If something goes wrong
- Withdraw is blocked: check whether a day has passed since your last deposit.
- You got back less than the vault page showed: positions may have been closed to pay you, with slippage.
- The leader stopped trading or vanished: you can still withdraw your share; the vault’s assets are onchain, not held by the leader.
- Need help: use Hyperliquid’s Discord “open-ticket” channel. Questions about a specific vault’s strategy go to its leader, not Hyperliquid.
Questions people ask
How do Hyperliquid vaults make money?
The vault leader trades the pooled USDC on Hyperliquid perps. Depositors share the profit or loss in proportion to their stake, and the leader takes 10% of profits.
What is the lockup on a Hyperliquid vault?
User vaults have a 1-day lockup after your deposit. The protocol vault HLP has a 4-day lockup.
Can I lose money in a Hyperliquid vault?
Yes. A vault is someone else's leveraged trading, and the docs warn that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. You share losses exactly as you share gains.
Can vaults trade stocks or spot?
No. Hyperliquid's legacy user vaults can trade validator-operated perps only, not spot or HIP-3 markets such as trade.xyz stock perps.