How to trade on Hyperliquid, from deposit to first trade

To trade on Hyperliquid, connect an EVM wallet (or log in with email), deposit USDC via Arbitrum, pick a market, set your leverage and margin mode, then place a long or short order. Trading itself is gas-free. You pay a trading fee of 0.045% as a taker or 0.015% as a maker at the base tier, plus hourly funding while a position is open.

Below is the full flow from an empty wallet to a closed trade and a withdrawal, with the mistakes that most often cost people money.

What you need before you start

According to Hyperliquid’s onboarding docs, you need two things:

• A way to log in. Either an EVM wallet (Rabby, MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet or anything via WalletConnect) or an email address.
• Collateral. USDC is the standard. Wallet users also need a small amount of ETH on Arbitrum to pay gas for the deposit transaction.

If your USDC sits on another chain or on an exchange, get it onto Arbitrum first. Many exchanges withdraw USDC to Arbitrum directly. Otherwise, a bridge aggregator works; our Jumper bridging guide walks through the process.

Step 1: Connect and enable trading

1. Open Hyperliquid’s trading app. Using a referral link at this point gives you 4% off fees on your first $25M of volume; our Hyperliquid referral code page explains the terms.
2. Click Connect and pick your wallet, then approve the connection in the wallet pop-up.
3. Click Enable Trading and sign the message. It’s a gasless signature, not a transaction.

Email option: click Connect, enter your email, then type the 6-digit code you receive. Hyperliquid creates a wallet for you, which you can export later.

On mobile: you can link a desktop wallet by choosing Link Desktop Wallet on your phone and scanning the QR code the desktop app shows. Wallet apps such as MetaMask and Phantom also have Hyperliquid trading built in.

Step 2: Deposit USDC

1. Click Deposit.
2. Choose USDC, enter the amount (at least 5 USDC) and click Deposit.
3. Confirm the Arbitrum transaction in your wallet. Funds usually show up in under a minute.

If you logged in with email, the deposit window shows an address instead. You can send USDC on Arbitrum, Ethereum, Base or Polygon to it. That flow is handled by Across Protocol, and deposits below 5 USDC are bounced back to your email wallet rather than credited.

Hyperliquid also accepts deposits of BTC, ETH, SOL and several other assets through separate addresses. These arrive as spot tokens, so you’d sell them for USDC before trading perps. For a first deposit, plain USDC is simpler.

Step 3: Pick a market and set leverage

Use the token selector at the top left to choose a market, for example BTC-USD. Then, in the order panel on the right:

1. Margin mode. Choose Cross or Isolated. Cross shares your whole balance across positions, so one bad trade can drain collateral backing others. Isolated ring-fences the margin for that position. For your first trades, Isolated is easier to reason about.
2. Leverage. Set any whole number from 1 up to the market’s maximum, which varies by asset (from 3x on some small tokens to 40x on the largest). Leverage is only checked when you open a position; after that, keeping it safe is up to you.

Position size equals collateral times leverage. $500 of margin at 4x controls a $2,000 position.

Step 4: Place your first order

1. Choose Long if you expect the price to rise, Short if you expect it to fall.
2. Pick the order type. Market fills immediately at the best available price and pays the taker fee. Limit rests on the book at your price and, if it doesn’t cross the spread, pays the lower maker fee.
3. Enter the size, in USD or in coins, or use the slider.
4. Tick TP/SL and set a stop-loss price (and a take-profit if you want one). These trigger as market orders.
5. Click Place Order and confirm.

Other order types sit in the dropdown: stop market, stop limit, scale orders, trailing stops and TWAP, among others. The Reduce Only option makes sure an order can only shrink a position, never flip it.

A worked example

Say you deposit $1,000 and open a $5,000 BTC long at 5x with a market order.

• Opening fee: $5,000 × 0.045% = $2.25 at the base tier ($2.16 with the referral discount).
• Closing fee: another $2.25 if you exit with a market order, less if a limit order exits you as a maker at 0.015% ($0.75).
• Funding: charged or paid every hour while the position is open. When longs are crowded, longs pay shorts. Check the funding rate shown above the chart before holding for days.

On cross margin with nothing else open, and assuming BTC’s 40x maximum leverage, the liquidation price for this position lands roughly 19% below entry. The app shows the exact estimate before you confirm. Our Hyperliquid fees guide goes deeper into tiers, staking discounts and how funding adds up.

How liquidation works on Hyperliquid

Your position is liquidated when account equity drops below the maintenance margin, which is half the initial margin at the asset’s maximum leverage. That works out to between 1.25% and 16.7% of the position, depending on the asset, per Hyperliquid’s liquidation docs.

Hyperliquid first tries to close you out with market orders on the book, and you keep any collateral left over. If equity falls below two-thirds of maintenance before that works, a backstop liquidation hands the position to the HLP liquidator vault and you lose the maintenance margin too. A stop-loss placed above the liquidation price is the practical defence.

Liquidations use the mark price, which blends external exchange prices with Hyperliquid’s own book. In fast markets it can differ from the last traded price you see.

Step 5: Close the position and withdraw

To close, use the Close button next to the position in the Positions tab (market or limit), or place an opposite order with Reduce Only ticked.

To withdraw:

1. Click Withdraw.
2. Enter the amount and confirm the destination, which is your connected wallet on Arbitrum.
3. Sign the request. There’s no Arbitrum gas to pay; Hyperliquid’s docs list a $1 withdrawal fee, and funds typically arrive within a few minutes.

You can’t withdraw margin that open positions are using. Unrealised profit can only be withdrawn if what remains is at least 10% of your total open position value.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Using Send instead of Withdraw. Send moves funds to another address on Hyperliquid itself. Sending to an exchange deposit address can leave funds stuck until that exchange supports Hyperliquid.
• Depositing the wrong asset or network. Stick to native USDC on Arbitrum from a connected wallet, and never less than 5 USDC.
• Maxing leverage on cross margin. One position moving against you eats the collateral behind all your other cross positions.
• Forgetting funding. On a multi-day hold, funding can cost more than the trading fees.
• Skipping a test withdrawal. Before putting in a large sum, withdraw a small amount once so you know the route and timing.

Is Hyperliquid right for you

Hyperliquid suits traders who want an onchain order book with deep liquidity on major pairs, where onboarding is just connecting a wallet or an email. You keep custody in the sense that your funds sit under your wallet’s control on Hyperliquid’s own chain, but you’re trusting that chain’s validators and its USDC bridging, not a regulated broker.

If you’re weighing alternatives, our Hyperliquid vs Lighter comparison covers the custody and fee trade-offs, and the best perp DEX roundup lists the wider field. Once you’re comfortable trading, Hyperliquid vaults are the other main way people use the platform.