Learn Hyperliquid
The technical parts, explained for people who just want to use it well.
The basics
What Hyperliquid is and how its pieces fit together.
- What is Hyperliquid?Hyperliquid is a blockchain built to run an exchange: onchain order books for perps, spot, stocks and outcomes. What it is, how it works, and the risks.
- How Hyperliquid worksFollow one Hyperliquid trade from click to settlement: consensus, the onchain order book, oracle and mark prices, margin, funding and liquidation.
- HyperCore vs HyperEVMHyperCore is Hyperliquid's built-in exchange; HyperEVM is its Ethereum-style smart-contract layer. How they differ, how they connect, and how to move funds.
- Hyperliquid vs centralized exchangesHyperliquid compared with exchanges like Binance and Coinbase: custody, transparency, fees, sign-up, liquidations, listings, access rules and risks.
Trading mechanics
Perps, funding, margin, liquidation and order types, explained without jargon.
- Perpetual futures, explainedWhat a perpetual future is, how leverage, margin and hourly funding work on Hyperliquid, and what can go wrong. Plain English, with live numbers.
- Funding rates and margin on HyperliquidHow Hyperliquid's hourly funding rate is calculated, who pays whom, what it costs, and how cross, isolated, initial and maintenance margin work.
- Liquidation on HyperliquidWhen Hyperliquid liquidates a position, how the order book and HLP backstop handle it, partial liquidations, auto-deleveraging, and how to avoid it.
- How Hyperliquid's order book worksHyperliquid's fully onchain order book: price-time priority, tick and lot sizes, order types, TP/SL, TWAP, mark vs oracle price, and how blocks order trades.
- Portfolio margin on HyperliquidHow Hyperliquid portfolio margin unifies spot and perps, who qualifies, LTVs, borrow rates, the carry-trade example, and when it liquidates.
HIPs, explained
Hyperliquid Improvement Proposals: what each one does and why it matters.
- HIP-1: Hyperliquid's native token standardHIP-1 is how tokens are created on HyperCore: a 31-hour Dutch auction for the ticker (floor 500 HYPE), capped supply, and a built-in spot order book.
- HIP-2: HyperliquidityHIP-2 (Hyperliquidity) is a market maker built into Hyperliquid itself: a ladder of orders 0.3% apart, refreshed every 3 seconds, with no operator.
- HIP-3: builder-deployed perpetualsHIP-3 lets outside teams launch their own perp markets on Hyperliquid by staking 500k HYPE. How it works, the 10 deployed dexes, fees and the risks.
- HIP-4: outcome marketsHIP-4 adds fully collateralized yes/no outcome markets to Hyperliquid: no leverage, no liquidations. How they work, what's live, and what the docs miss.
Under the hood
Consensus, HyperEVM, CoreWriter, the assistance fund and other protocol plumbing.
- HyperBFT: how Hyperliquid agrees on every tradeHyperBFT is Hyperliquid's HotStuff-style consensus: validators with over 2/3 of stake finalize each block in one step, with ~0.2s median latency.
- CoreWriter and precompilesHow HyperEVM smart contracts read HyperCore prices and positions (precompiles at 0x...0800) and send orders to it (CoreWriter at 0x3333...3333).
- Validators and HYPE stakingHow HYPE staking works: ~2.2% rewards, a 1-day delegation lock, a 7-day unstaking queue, fee discounts up to 40%, and how to pick a validator.
- HLP, explainedHLP is Hyperliquid's protocol vault: it makes markets, runs backstop liquidations and earns a share of fees. Size, returns, lockup and risks, as of Nov 2026.
- The Assistance Fund and HYPE buybacksHow Hyperliquid's Assistance Fund turns trading fees into HYPE automatically, what it held on 4 Nov 2026, and why it's treated as burned supply.
- Builder codes, explainedHow Hyperliquid builder codes let wallets and apps add a fee to your trades (max 0.1% on perps, 1% on spot), what popular apps charge, and how to check.
The wider ecosystem
Stablecoins, L2s, liquid staking and the apps around Hyperliquid.
- The HYPE tokenWhat HYPE does, how much exists, who holds it, how unlocks and buybacks work, and what staking pays. Live supply figures from the Hyperliquid API, Nov 2026.
- USDH and aligned quote assetsWhat a quote asset is, how Hyperliquid's aligned stablecoin rules (AQAv1, AQAv2) share yield with the protocol, and what happened to USDH in 2026.
- Hyperliquid Strategies (PURR) and the HYPE ETFsThe listed ways to own HYPE exposure: Hyperliquid Strategies Inc (Nasdaq: PURR) and spot HYPE ETFs from 21Shares (THYP) and Bitwise (BHYP). What each holds.