Read the trade panel
Find the market selector, the chart, the order ticket and the live order book, and know what each column means before placing anything.
Tool tutorial · Education
Hyperliquid: how it works and how to use it
Hyperliquid is a decentralised exchange where perpetual futures and spot markets settle on its own blockchain, through an order book that lives onchain and an interface that runs in your browser. This guide walks through the account setup, the Arbitrum deposit route, the trade panel, order types, funding and liquidation, in the order you will actually meet them.
Educational guide — not financial advice.
01Foundation
What Hyperliquid is
The two layers behind the interface, and how funds travel from another chain to the trading account.
Hyperliquid is a decentralised exchange built on its own Layer 1 blockchain. Its main component, HyperCore, is designed around one job: a fully onchain central limit order book for perpetual futures and spot tokens. Orders are matched as part of block production rather than on a private server, so the book, the trades and the positions are all part of the public ledger.
A second layer, HyperEVM, is an Ethereum-compatible execution environment that shares the same consensus. Developers can deploy Solidity contracts alongside the market, and the order book stays the same underneath. Accounts are funded with USDC bridged from Arbitrum through the official bridge, and one account gives access to every listed market rather than a separate balance per pair.
02Skills
What you will learn
Four practical skills, in the order the interface asks for them.
Fund an account correctly
Bridge USDC from Arbitrum with the official deposit screen, confirm the arrival on HyperCore, and test with a small amount first.
Place and manage orders
Choose between market, limit and trigger orders, set a size, attach an exit above and a stop below the entry, and cancel what you no longer need.
Read margin and funding
Interpret margin mode, liquidation price, unrealised loss and the funding history attached to an open perpetual position.
03Preparation
Before you start
Five checks to complete before you connect a wallet or move any funds.
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A wallet you control
The app connects to an EVM wallet in your browser, and the exchange asks you to sign a message rather than hand over keys. Create a fresh wallet for this purpose instead of reusing the address that holds your long-term assets, and keep the seed phrase offline and out of every website.
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Funds on the right network
The core exchange is funded with USDC bridged from Arbitrum. If your USDC sits on Ethereum mainnet or another chain, move it to Arbitrum first; the deposit screen shows the exact network and address for the transfer. A small test deposit is cheaper than a lost one.
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Region and eligibility
Access is restricted in some jurisdictions, and US persons are generally not supported for trading. Read the official terms and check your local rules before funding an account. Browsing this tutorial or the public interface commits you to nothing.
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Fees and the risks behind them
Trading fees are charged per fill and differ for makers and takers. Perpetual positions also exchange a funding payment every few hours, and leverage means a position can be liquidated on a relatively small price move. Check the current fee schedule in the docs rather than an old screenshot.
Use official sources only
Bookmark hyperliquid.xyz and app.hyperliquid.xyz yourself instead of following a search result or an ad. Lookalike domains imitate the interface closely and ask for a seed phrase or an unlimited token approval. No support agent will ever message you first or ask for remote access to your computer.
Verify every link before you sign04Walkthrough
Step by step
Seven steps from an empty wallet to a first, deliberately small position.
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Create an account and connect a wallet
Open the official app, choose Connect, and pick the wallet you prepared in the previous section. The exchange signs a message to prove the address is yours; keys stay on your device. Nothing is deposited at this stage, and you can disconnect the wallet again without closing anything.
TipReach app.hyperliquid.xyz from the link on the official site, then bookmark it. Typing the URL out of a search result is how most phishing stories start. -
Deposit USDC from Arbitrum
Open the deposit screen and read the network and address it generates. Send USDC on Arbitrum to that address, then wait for the bridge to credit your balance on HyperCore; it usually takes a few minutes. Only USDC counts towards the core exchange, and assets sent on a different chain will not appear.
TipSend the smallest amount the network allows, confirm it lands, and only then send more. The deposit address is worth saving in your password manager. -
Take the interface tour
Across the top of the app you will find the main tabs: Trade, Vaults and Stake. Inside Trade, the market selector in the upper left lists every perpetual and spot pair; the centre column holds the chart and the order ticket; the right column is the live order book, with bids on one side and asks on the other, plus a recent trades list. Click a market symbol and read the spread between the best bid and the best ask before going further.
TipThe book refreshes constantly. A wide spread means a market order will fill further from the mid price than you might expect. -
Place a first order
Choose an order type in the ticket. A limit order sets the price you are willing to trade at and may wait unfilled; a market order takes the best available price immediately; a trigger order waits for a chosen price before it activates. Enter a size, review the estimated fee and order value, then submit. The TP field sets an exit above the entry and the SL field sets one below it, both in the same step; open orders can be cancelled from the Orders tab.
Figure 1 Order ticket DEMO DATAIllustrative layout only. Prices, sizes and fees are placeholders, not live market data. -
Read your position and funding history
After a fill, the position appears in the Positions tab with its entry price, size, margin and liquidation price. Unrealised PnL reflects the position at the current mark price; realised PnL is what remains after the position is closed. Funding is a separate, periodic payment between longs and shorts that keeps a perpetual close to spot, and the Funding tab lists every payment with timing and rate.
Figure 2 Position and funding DEMO DATAIllustrative layout only. Negative values are shown to explain how the fields read, not as a forecast. -
Learn liquidation before you use leverage
Liquidation is the automatic close of a position once its margin can no longer cover the loss. Each market publishes a maintenance margin requirement, and the liquidation price in the position row is where that close would begin. Isolated margin puts only the margin assigned to that position at risk; cross margin draws on the whole account balance. Start at the lowest leverage the ticket offers and use the liquidation-price preview to see how size and leverage move it.
TipAdd margin or reduce size while the position is healthy, not when price is already near the liquidation level. -
Read the official docs, then start small
Every screen has a counterpart in the official documentation: order types, fee tiers, vault mechanics, staking and the API. Read the pages for the features you plan to use, and check any number quoted in a tutorial against that source. When you first trade, use the smallest size the exchange allows; the point of the first session is to learn the interface, not to commit capital.
TipThe Vaults tab is separate from the trading panel. The card below shows the fields it lists before any deposit is made.Figure 3 Vaults browser DEMO DATAIllustrative layout only. Vault names, operators and terms are placeholders, not an endorsement.
All three panels above are static mock-ups. The prices, sizes, fees, names and operators shown are placeholders for layout only, not live market data or an account statement.
05Reference
Key terms, in plain language
The vocabulary the trade panel assumes you already know.
- T1Perpetual
- A futures contract with no expiry date. Instead of settling on a fixed day, it is kept close to the spot price by periodic funding payments, so a position can be held for as long as the margin allows.
- T2Funding rate
- A periodic payment exchanged between long and short holders of a perpetual, usually quoted per 8 hours. The rate is set by the market: when it is positive, longs pay shorts; when it is negative, shorts pay longs.
- T3Liquidation
- The automatic closing of a position once its remaining margin can no longer support the loss. The liquidation price depends on entry price, size, leverage, margin mode and the market's maintenance margin requirement.
- T4Maker and taker
- A maker adds an order to the book and waits, which usually means a limit order that is not immediately filled. A taker removes liquidity by matching an existing order, which means a market order or a limit order that crosses the spread.
- T5Order book
- The public list of resting buy orders, called bids, and sell orders, called asks, at each price level. The best bid and best ask define the spread, and the size shown at each level is the liquidity available at that price at that moment.
06Risk
Common mistakes and a safety checklist
The four errors that turn a simple tutorial into an expensive one, and how each is avoided.
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Funding from the wrong network
USDC sent on Ethereum mainnet or another chain will not credit your HyperCore balance, and recovering it can require the sending chain's bridge instead of the exchange.
FixMatch the network named on the deposit screen exactly, and test with a small transfer first. -
Skipping the liquidation preview
Opening a position without reading its liquidation price, or using the maximum leverage available on the first trade, leaves no room for ordinary price movement.
FixRead the liquidation price before submitting, and start at the lowest leverage the ticket offers. -
Following a link from a search ad
Lookalike domains reproduce the interface closely and then ask for a seed phrase or an unlimited token approval, which hands over the wallet rather than the site.
FixType the official URL or use your own bookmark, and never enter a seed phrase on any website. -
Ignoring funding and open orders
Long-held perpetual positions exchange funding repeatedly, and limit orders can stay open for days. Both change the state of the account without any visible prompt.
FixReview the Orders and Funding tabs on a schedule instead of assuming nothing has changed.
07Questions
Frequently asked questions
Short answers to the questions that come up before a first deposit.
How do I get started with Hyperliquid?
Open the official app at app.hyperliquid.xyz, connect an EVM wallet, and deposit USDC on Arbitrum using the deposit screen. Once the balance appears on HyperCore, pick a market and place a small order. The walkthrough above follows the same order, from wallet connection to reading the position afterwards.
Where can I read the official documentation?
The documentation is published at hyperliquid.gitbook.io/hyperliquid-docs and covers trading, vaults, staking and the API. Always start from the link on hyperliquid.xyz; third-party guides repeat old screenshots and fee tables and quickly fall out of date.
What fees does the exchange charge?
Trading fees are charged per fill and priced differently for makers and takers, with tiers based on recent volume. Perpetual positions also exchange a funding payment every few hours. The current schedule lives in the official documentation, so treat any number on a tutorial page as an illustration.
What is liquidation and how is the liquidation price set?
Liquidation is the automatic closing of a position once its margin can no longer cover the loss. The liquidation price shown in the position row is calculated from entry price, size, leverage and margin mode. Isolated margin limits the risk to that position's margin, while cross margin uses the whole account balance.
Where do I get support if something goes wrong?
Support and announcements come through the official channels listed on hyperliquid.xyz and in the documentation. No member of the team will contact you first, and nobody legitimate will ask for your seed phrase or for remote access to your computer.
Next step
Start with the interface, then the smallest order
Read the sections you have not seen yet, open the official app, and walk the same seven steps at your own pace. Nothing on this page creates an account, holds funds or places a trade.