CoreWriter and precompiles

Hyperliquid has two execution environments on one chain. HyperCore is the exchange: order books, margin, liquidations. The HyperEVM is an Ethereum-compatible computer where anyone can deploy smart contracts. (If that split is new, start with HyperCore vs HyperEVM.)

On most chains, a lending app that wants an exchange price has to trust an outside oracle, and one that wants to trade has to route through a separate DEX. On Hyperliquid, both environments are secured by the same HyperBFT consensus, so a contract can look straight into the exchange and trade on it. Precompiles are the window. CoreWriter is the door.

Precompiles: reading HyperCore

A precompile is a contract address that isn’t ordinary code: the node answers calls to it natively. Hyperliquid’s read precompiles start at 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000800 and expose:

• perp positions and spot balances of any address
• vault equity and staking delegations
• oracle prices for perps and spot
• the current L1 (HyperCore) block number

The values are guaranteed to match HyperCore’s latest state at the moment the EVM block is built. For a Solidity developer this is just a function call, costing 2000 + 65 × (input bytes + output bytes) gas. Calls with invalid inputs (an asset that doesn’t exist, say) fail and consume all gas sent.

Example: a lending protocol on the HyperEVM can read the HYPE/USDC price directly from HyperCore to decide whether a loan is under-collateralized, with no separate oracle network in between.

CoreWriter: acting on HyperCore

CoreWriter is a system contract at 0x3333333333333333333333333333333333333333. A contract calls it with an encoded action (a version byte, a 3-byte action ID, then ABI-encoded fields), CoreWriter emits a log, and HyperCore executes the action. It burns about 25,000 gas before emitting; a basic call uses about 47,000 gas in practice.

ID	Action	ID	Action
1	Limit order	9	Add API wallet
2	Vault transfer	10	Cancel order by order ID
3	Token delegate (stake to a validator)	11	Cancel order by client order ID
4	Staking deposit	12	Approve builder fee
5	Staking withdraw	13	Send asset
6	Spot send	15	Borrow / lend operation
7	USD class transfer (perp ↔ spot)	16	Set account abstraction mode
8	Finalize EVM contract link	17	Outcome operation

So a smart contract can run a trading vault, a liquid-staking pool or a structured product that holds real HyperCore positions. The portfolio margin docs say a future upgrade will expose the margin “supply” action through CoreWriter too.

The deliberate delay

To stop anyone using the HyperEVM as a fast lane around HyperCore’s normal transaction queue, orders and vault transfers sent through CoreWriter are delayed onchain by a few seconds. They show up twice in the explorer: once when queued, once when executed. Also note the timing rule: the account taking a CoreWriter action must already exist on HyperCore before the EVM block is built.

System addresses: moving tokens between the two sides

Moving a token between HyperCore and HyperEVM means sending it to that token’s system address:

Asset	System address
HYPE	0x2222222222222222222222222222222222222222 (arrives as native gas on the EVM)
Any other linked token	0x20 followed by zeros and the token index, e.g. index 200 → 0x20000000000000000000000000000000000000c8
Wrapped HYPE (WHYPE) contract	0x5555555555555555555555555555555555555555

Core → EVM transfers are queued until the next HyperEVM block and cost 200k gas at the next block’s base price. EVM → Core transfers settle in the same L1 block, right after the EVM block. The docs warn there are no automatic checks that a linked ERC-20 is honest, so verify a token’s contract before bridging it.

Is it actually live? Docs vs chain

Hyperliquid’s general HyperEVM overview page still says “write system contracts are not live on mainnet yet.” The developer pages describe them in full. We checked the chain directly on 4 November 2026: the HyperEVM mainnet RPC (rpc.hyperliquid.xyz/evm) returned chain ID 999 and non-empty contract code at both 0x3333…3333 (CoreWriter) and 0x5555…5555 (WHYPE). The overview page is out of date.

Kinetiq’s Elysium L2 plans a similar read/write edge (a market-data precompile and a keeper write lane) in an upgrade about four weeks after its mainnet launch.

Why it matters to you

• Apps on HyperEVM can hold real exchange positions. When a vault or staking app says it trades on HyperCore, this is how. You can verify it onchain.
• Fewer oracle middlemen. Prices read from HyperCore are the same ones the exchange uses for margin.
• Sending to the wrong address loses funds. 0x2222…2222 is for HYPE only.
• “Instant” isn’t instant. CoreWriter orders wait a few seconds by design.

What can go wrong

Related: HyperCore vs HyperEVM, builder codes, and the Elysium L2.