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LearnStart here4 pages
How these docs workFoundationHow the site is organised by what you came to do, how every page runs from first principles to engineering detail, and where every fact comes from.Hyperliquid in five minutesFoundationHyperliquid is a set of financial primitives and protocols that combine into one financial system. Build a financial system from nothing, and each Hyperliquid protocol takes its place in it.The house of finance, layer by layerFoundationHyperliquid drawn as a house: one consensus, two engines joined by two bridges, an accounts layer, six financial pillars, a distribution layer that pays others to build, and Hyperliquid itself on top.Traditional finance, pillar by pillarFoundationEvery part of Hyperliquid has a traditional finance counterpart, and each analogy breaks in a specific place that shows what is actually new.
LearnFirst principles5 pages
Why Hyperliquid runs on its own chainFoundationHyperliquid built its own chain so that order books, margin and matching run fully on chain, in one consensus order, fast enough to trade on and with no off-chain book.One chain, two execution environmentsFoundationHyperCore holds the markets as native state and the HyperEVM runs contracts; one HyperBFT consensus orders both, joined by precompiles and CoreWriter.What an on-chain order book actually meansFoundationEvery order, cancel and fill is a transaction ordered by consensus and executed by every node, so the book is public chain state, not a private database.Ordering, finality and fairnessPractitionerHyperBFT gives every honest node one ordered list of committed rounds, a committed block is final, and each block runs cancels before GTC and IOC orders.HYPE: what the token doesFoundationHYPE pays HyperEVM gas, secures consensus, discounts fees, bonds deployers, backs borrowing, and is what the Assistance Fund converts fees into and burns.
LearnConsensus and validators4 pages
HyperBFTPractitionerHyperBFT is Hyperliquid's HotStuff-derived proof-of-stake consensus: stake-weighted validators commit rounds that every honest node executes in the same order.Validators and delegationPractitionerValidators run HyperBFT, ranked by stake; delegators choose them, pay commission, earn nothing while one is jailed and face no automatic slashing yet.Staking HYPE, rewards and the unstaking queueFoundationStaked HYPE is delegated to validators for compounding rewards and fee discounts; getting it back to spot takes a 7-day queue on mainnet.Running a nodeExpertA non-validating node follows consensus and writes every committed transaction, fill, order status, book change and HyperEVM block to local disk.
LearnHyperCore8 pages
HyperCore overviewFoundationHyperCore is where Hyperliquid's order books, margin, clearing and settlement run as native protocol state, applied by every validator in one order.The clearinghouse: one margin enginePractitionerHyperCore's clearinghouse holds balances and positions and checks margin on every trade; in standard mode each perp dex has its own balance and cross margin.The order book and matchingPractitionerEach HyperCore asset has one on-chain book matched in price-time priority, with cancels and post-only orders sequenced ahead of orders that take liquidity.Oracles, mark prices and robust price indicesPractitionerValidators publish perp oracle prices every 3 seconds; the mark price used for margin and liquidation is a median that no single book or venue can move.Quote assets: USDC, USDH, aligned and permissionlessPractitionerAny token can become a HyperCore quote asset if its issuer stakes 200k HYPE against a peg and liquidity standard; aligned issuers also share reserve yield.Vaults: HLP, protocol vaults, user vaultsFoundationA vault pools depositors' USDC into one HyperCore account run by one strategy; HLP is the protocol vault that makes markets and performs liquidations.Multi-sig accountsPractitionerHyperCore can make any account a native k-of-n multi-sig with no smart contract, but CoreWriter stops working for it and its HyperEVM side keeps the old key.API servers and how state reaches youPractitionerAPI servers follow a node, keep a local copy of HyperCore state, answer reads from it, and reply to a transaction only once it executes in a committed block.
LearnResearch5 pages
What one HyperEVM transaction can and cannot doExpertOne HyperEVM transaction can read HyperCore and emit a perp order and an outcome operation, but it only enqueues them, so the legs are not atomic.Options on the borrow rateExpertA research track priced the HyperCore USDC borrow rate with HIP-4 scalar bands, listed them on somebody else's perp, and found owning the perp does not pay.Composable creditExpertA research track tokenised HyperCore lending positions as HyperEVM ERC20s, proved a contract can supply on testnet, and found the vault must be a queue, not a wrapper.Collateral underwritingExpertA research track found the protocol refuses a deployer stake posted by somebody else, and rebuilt underwriting as two-of-two co-custody of the deployer's own bond.Where the chain and the docs disagreeExpertEvery place where measured behaviour on Hyperliquid contradicts the official docs: what the docs say, what was measured, the sample and the covering page.
LearnFor the press4 pages
Start here: press and analystsFoundationFor people writing about Hyperliquid: what it is, how to measure and name it correctly, and the stories behind the numbers.Measuring Hyperliquid: volume, open interest, usersFoundationPublic Hyperliquid figures disagree mostly because each counts the same fills differently; a number means something only with its rows and units.Common misconceptionsFoundationTwelve common claims about Hyperliquid that the official docs or on-chain measurement contradict, each with what is true and where it is explained.Naming and style guideFoundationWrite HyperCore, HyperEVM, HyperBFT, CoreWriter and HIP-1 to HIP-4 exactly, never shorten HyperCore to one word, and do not cite a HIP-5, because none exists.
LearnWhat Hyperliquid is and how it works
Start here
First principles
Consensus and validators
HyperCore
Research
For the press
TradeMarkets, margin and risk
Start here
Trading fundamentals
Perpetuals
Spot
Outcome markets
Accounts and credit
Advanced trading
Incentives
BuildApps, bots and contracts
Start here
Build on HyperCore
Build on the HyperEVM
DeployLaunch and run markets
Start here
The HIPs
Deploy markets
ReferenceEvery number, action and term
Look up
Protocol tables

Naming and style guide

Foundation

Write HyperCore, HyperEVM, HyperBFT, CoreWriter and HIP-1 to HIP-4 exactly, never shorten HyperCore to one word, and do not cite a HIP-5, because none exists.

Most naming errors carry a factual one. Shorten HyperCore to one word and you hide which execution environment you mean. Write “the HyperEVM chain” and you invent a second blockchain. Confuse HLP with Hyperliquidity and you merge a vault with a market-making algorithm.

Write each name exactly

Section titled “Write each name exactly”
Write Not What it is
Hyperliquid “Hyperliquid Labs”, unless the company is meant The protocol and its layer one blockchain. Hyperliquid Labs is the company that leads its development.
HyperCore Core, Hypercore, Hyper Core The native execution environment: order books, clearinghouse, margin and oracle prices.
HyperEVM Hyper EVM, HyperEvm, “the HyperEVM chain” The general-purpose EVM on the same chain as HyperCore. Wallets see it as chain id 999.
HyperBFT Hyper BFT The consensus protocol, a variant of HotStuff, that orders every transaction.
HIP-1, HIP-2, HIP-3, HIP-4 HIP3, Hip-3, HIP 3 Hyperliquid Improvement Proposals: standards that make a primitive permissionless.
CoreWriter Core Writer, Corewriter, “the write precompile” The system contract at 0x3333333333333333333333333333333333333333 that sends actions from the HyperEVM to HyperCore. The precompiles are the read side.
HLP “the Hyperliquidity vault” Hyperliquidity Provider, the protocol vault: market making, liquidations, lending supply.
Hyperliquidity “Hyperliquid liquidity”, HLP The HIP-2 strategy that quotes a new spot pair automatically, with no operator.
HYPE Hype, hype The native token: gas on the HyperEVM, staking, fee discounts, deployer stakes.
USDC, USDH Usdc, usdh Stablecoins used as collateral and quote assets.
perp dex perp DEX, Perp Dex A perpetuals venue deployed under HIP-3, with its own margining, order books and settings.
builder-deployed perpetuals “builder deployed”, “community perps” Perps listed under HIP-3. The docs’ term for the others is validator-operated perps.
outcome market “prediction market” for every case A market under HIP-4. Prediction markets are one use; scalar outcomes pay a fraction, not all or nothing.
API wallet “API key” A key an account approves to sign on its behalf. Also called an agent.
builder code “block builder” The fee an app earns on fills it routes. “Builder” here means an application developer.
sub-account, multi-sig subaccount, multisig Hyphenated, as in the official docs’ page titles.

The four HIPs

Section titled “The four HIPs”
HIP Official title What it makes permissionless
HIP-1 Native token standard Deploying a token and its spot order book
HIP-2 Hyperliquidity Protocol-run liquidity for a new spot pair against USDC
HIP-3 Builder-deployed perpetuals Running a perp dex, against a 500,000 HYPE stake
HIP-4 Outcome markets Deploying outcome markets from validator-approved templates

There is no HIP-5

Section titled “There is no HIP-5”

The official HIP list ends at HIP-4; HIP-5 appears on social media only as speculation and satire. Do not cite it, and treat any document describing one as unsourced.

Common mistakes and what to write instead

Section titled “Common mistakes and what to write instead”
Mistake Why it is wrong Write instead
Calling Hyperliquid an L2 or a rollup It is a layer one with its own consensus; the Arbitrum bridge is legacy “the Hyperliquid L1”, “Hyperliquid, a layer one blockchain”
Treating the HyperEVM as a separate chain The docs say it is not; it shares HyperBFT consensus and one state with HyperCore “the HyperEVM, part of the Hyperliquid chain”
Core or Hyperliquid's L1 as shorthand Ambiguous between the chain and one of its two environments HyperCore, or the Hyperliquid L1
Calling CoreWriter a precompile Precompiles read HyperCore; CoreWriter is a system contract that writes to it “the CoreWriter system contract”
Using HLP and Hyperliquidity interchangeably HLP is a vault; Hyperliquidity is a HIP-2 quoting algorithm Name the one you mean
“Outcome markets are free to trade” Closing trades and settlement pay fees; only opening is free “outcome trades pay fees only when closing”
“Open interest of X dollars”, from the API field openInterest is in base units Multiply by the mark price, and say so
“Volume was X”, with no method Trackers count the same fills in different ways Name the lens; see measuring Hyperliquid

Give every number its unit

Section titled “Give every number its unit”
  • “Per cent” in prose, % in tables and formulae.
  • Give units: order builder fees are in tenths of a basis point (10 is 1 basis point); API open interest is in coins or contracts.
  • Stakes in HYPE, with duration: “500,000 HYPE, held at least 183 days”.
  • Times in UTC, as the protocol states them.

For the claims behind these errors, see Common misconceptions. For every term, see the Glossary.