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DFUHL Docs
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

Vaults: HLP, protocol vaults, user vaults

Foundation

A vault pools depositors' USDC into one HyperCore account run by one strategy; HLP is the protocol vault that makes markets and performs liquidations.

A vault lets you back a strategy without running it, or run one with other people’s capital. It is a clearinghouse account with no private key, traded by a leader who signs with their own key and names the vault. A deposit is like a fund share, except that redemptions follow protocol rules and every trade is public.

Your share tracks the vault, minus the leader’s cut

Section titled “Your share tracks the vault, minus the leader’s cut”

The docs’ worked example, for a user vault:

Step USDC
You deposit into a vault holding 900 100 (a 10% share)
The vault grows to 2,000 with no other flows; your share 200
Leader’s 10% of your 100 profit minus 10
You receive 190

HLP makes markets and liquidates for the protocol

Section titled “HLP makes markets and liquidates for the protocol”

HLP (Hyperliquidity Provider) makes markets through several strategies, performs liquidations, supplies USDC to lending and receives part of trading fees, alongside the assistance fund and deployers. The docs describe these as strategies other exchanges typically reserve for privileged parties. HLP is community owned and, like all protocol vaults, takes no fees or profit share.

Deposits lock for 4 days from your latest one: per the docs, a deposit at 08:00 on 14 September unlocks at 08:00 on 18 September.

Anyone can run a user vault

Section titled “Anyone can run a user vault”

Each has a permanent name and description; the docs now label them “legacy”.

Rule Value
Leader’s profit share 10% of profits
Minimum first deposit 100 USDC
Creation fee 10k USDC, distributed like trading fees
Leader’s minimum stake 5% of the vault at all times
Depositor lock-up 1 day
What it can trade validator-operated perps only; no spot, no HIP-3

To pay a withdrawal without free margin, the protocol cancels open orders (lowest margin first), then closes 20 per cent of positions at a time. A leader can opt for proportional closing on every withdrawal instead. A vault closes only once all positions are closed, then pays out shares.

New vaults belong on the HyperEVM

Section titled “New vaults belong on the HyperEVM”

The docs point new vaults there: a contract holds funds, trades through CoreWriter, reads positions through precompiles and keeps its own books, with the spot and HIP-3 access legacy vaults lack.

The numbers

Section titled “The numbers”
Parameter HLP User vault
Lock-up 4 days from last deposit 1 day
Fee or profit share none 10% to the leader
Leader stake none at least 5%

What a deposit does and does not do for you

Section titled “What a deposit does and does not do for you”
  • A vault deposit cannot margin your own positions.
  • Vault volume counts apart from the leader’s for fee tiers; referral discounts do not apply to vaults.
  • Returns, drawdown, volume, positions and trades are public; the docs stress past performance guarantees nothing.

Depositing and trading for a vault from code

Section titled “Depositing and trading for a vault from code”

One action deposits and withdraws; usd is an integer in millionths of a dollar:

{ "type": "vaultTransfer", "vaultAddress": "0x...", "isDeposit": true, "usd": 100000000 }
Surface Returns or does
userVaultEquities a user’s vault balances
vaultDetails leader, followers (each with lockupUntil), maxWithdrawable, allowDeposits, alwaysCloseOnWithdraw, isClosed
vaultAddress in a request the leader, signing normally, trades for the vault
Precompile 0x802 a user’s vault equity and lockedUntilTimestamp

For the account model, see The clearinghouse. For what HLP absorbs, see Leverage and liquidation.