Highlights
- Hyperliquid is a fast growing decentralized exchange for perpetuals contracts. Crypto traders can easily long, short, and trade leverage on 170+ cryptocurrency contracts.
- They offer up to 40x leverage, zero gas fees, and one-click trading (no wallet approvals needed). Just connect your MetaMask or crypto wallet and you're ready to trade.
- The project launched in 2022 on their own chain called Hyperliquid L1. It already has 178,000 users and $6.19B of trading volume in the last 24H.
What Is Hyperliquid?
Hyperliquid is a decentralized perpetuals exchange with up to 40x leverage. Users can deposit USDC via Arbitrum and start trading 170++ popular crypto assets. Their goal is to make decentralized trading feel like any CEX (centralized exchange) such as Binance or MEXC.
To feel like a CEX, there are no wallet approvals to interrupt your flow. Just sign your crypto wallet at the beginning of the trading session. There is also advanced order types like TP/SL and a fully on-chain order book. Plus, you get all the benefits of a DEX like self-custody and no KYC.
How Does It Work?
To trade on Hyperliquid, you need a DeFi wallet like MetaMask and USDC and ETH on the Arbitrum network. USDC is used as collateral to make trades on Hyperliquid. ETH is used to pay for Arbitrum gas fees to deposit and withdraw your USDC (gas fees are typically below $0.30). You can watch my YouTube video above to see how to get started and refer to Hyperliquid's tutorial here.
Key Features & Benefits
- 170++ Assets: Hyperliquid has a wide range of assets and are frequently adding more. It's the largest selection out of the perp DEXs we compared. Traders can open positions with up to 40x leverage.
- Low Fees: Currently, the maker fee is 0.015% and the taker fee is 0.045%. Hyperliquid also has zero gas fees and high trading volume, ensuring good liquidity to get in and out of trades.
- One-Click Trading: For seamless trading, Hyperliquid doesn't require a wallet approval after each trade. Just sign your wallet at the beginning of each trading session.
- Profit Sharing: Hyperliquid has an HLP Vault where users can deposit funds to earn a share of the profits from the exchange. Revenue sharing is a popular feature with perp DEXs. We also wrote about it for ApeX Protocol and Mux Network.
- Advanced Trading: Traders can expect a good user interface, easy to use order types like TP/SL and more, and instant finality in under 1 second. Hyperliquid L1 can handle 20K operations per second for a reliable and efficient trading environment.
- Non-Custodial: Throughout the trading process, you can own your private keys and retain full control over your assets. Hyperliquid is a non-KYC platform. It does however, block some IP addresses. If you are geo-blocked on Hyperliquid, consider finding another Perp DEX or investing in a VPN like Surfshark or NordVPN to protect your IP address.
Trading Fees
Hyperliquid's maker fee is 0.015% and the taker fee is 0.045%. This is lower than the average Perp DEX fee of about 0.05%. You can compare fees for all Perp DEXs in our comparison tool. Hyperliquid also has zero gas fees and high trading volume, ensuring good liquidity. In their Documentation, gas fees will be introduced eventually to help protect the L1 network.
Risks or Security
Hyperliquid launched in 2022 on their custom chain called Hyperliquid L1. This chain has not faced extensive testing as other established L1s like Ethereum. There is also other risks outlined in the documentation like smart contract risk, oracle manipulation risk, and more. Plus, trading crypto with leverage is very risky as well and you could get liquidated.
Is Hyperliquid Worth It?
Hyperliquid checks most of the boxes. It offers an extensive range of coins, a CEX-like experience, fast transactions, and competitive fees. Compared to other Perp DEXs, Hyperliquid leads the market in trading volume and is a top choice by traders.
Compared to centralized exchanges though, it still has a ways to go. While you get the benefits of a DEX, you can still find more volume, number of assets, and total number of features on a popular CEX.
Pros & Cons
- 170++ Assets: More than all other Perp DEXs. You can compare them all here.
- Low Fees: Maker fee of 0.015% and taker fee of 0.045%. Plus zero gas fees.
- Fast Trading: No wallet approvals required to interrupt your flow.
- Profit Sharing: Earn revenue from the exchange via their HLP vault.
- Lacks Multi-Chain Support: Only supports USDC deposits via Arbitrum. Other DEXs support various chains.
- New Protocol: The Hyperliquid L1 chain is not tested as much as other L1s like Ethereum, for example.
- Geo blocks: Certain regions are IP-blocked. You might need to find a different Perp DEX or invest in a VPN like NordVPN.
