Perpetuals

Hyperliquid perpetual futures explained

A perpetual future is a derivative with no settlement date. Instead of expiring, it is pulled toward the spot price by a recurring payment between longs and shorts. Everything else about the instrument follows from that one design decision.

In short

Hyperliquid perpetuals are linear contracts with no expiry, where one contract represents one unit of the underlying spot asset. Collateral is USDC, while the oracle price for most assets is denominated in USDT. Funding is paid every hour, initial margin is 1 divided by the leverage you set, maintenance margin is half the initial margin at max leverage, and there is no position limit.

At a glance

Hyperliquid perpetual contract specification (from Hyperliquid docs)
Parameter	Specification
Instrument type	Linear perpetual, no expiry
Contract size	1 unit of the underlying spot asset
Collateral	USDC
Oracle denomination	USDT for most assets; USDC for PURR-USD and HYPE-USD
Initial margin fraction	1 / (leverage set by user)
Maintenance margin fraction	Half of the maximum initial margin fraction
Funding	Paid every hour
Position limit	None
Funding impact notional	20,000 USDC for BTC and ETH; 6,000 USDC for other assets

The contract, precisely

Hyperliquid's contract specifications are unusually simple: one contract is one unit of the underlying spot asset, priced against a Hyperliquid oracle index of that asset. There is no expiry and no delivery — funding every hour does the convergence work instead.

Collateral is USDC while most oracle prices are denominated in USDT, and no USDC/USDT conversion is applied. Technically that makes these quanto contracts where USDT-denominated PnL is paid in USDC. A few markets, currently PURR-USD and HYPE-USD, use USDC-denominated oracle prices because Hyperliquid spot is their most liquid source.

What sets your risk

Leverage is any integer from 1 up to the asset's maximum, which ranges from 3x to 40x. The margin required to open is position size times mark price divided by leverage. Maintenance margin is half of the initial margin at max leverage, so between roughly 1.25% of notional on a 40x asset and 16.7% on a 3x asset.

Note that leverage is only checked when a position is opened. After that, monitoring the position is your responsibility — Hyperliquid will not stop leverage drifting upward as unrealised losses accumulate, it will simply liquidate when maintenance margin is breached.

Order size limits, not position limits

There is no position limit on Hyperliquid perps, but there are per-order value ceilings that scale with the asset's max leverage: $30,000,000 for markets with max leverage of 25x or more, $5,000,000 from 20x to under 25x, $2,000,000 from 10x to under 20x, and $500,000 otherwise. Limit orders may be up to ten times the market order ceiling.

For anyone running size, this is why large entries are split — either manually or through a TWAP — rather than sent as one market order.

Why perps are what copy trading mirrors

A copied perp position is fully described by asset, side, size and leverage, all of which are public onchain. That makes mirroring mechanically simple and verifiable, which is not true of most off-chain strategies.

It also means the risk being copied is leveraged risk. A mirrored basket diversifies across leaders; it does not convert perpetual futures into a conservative instrument.

Past performance is not indicative of future results. Perpetual futures are leveraged instruments and carry a substantial risk of loss, including the loss of your entire position.

Methodology

Scoring and replacement are documented in full on How it works and in the Docs (Policy v3). In short: the Elite basket is sticky, emergencies remove a leader immediately, and soft issues accrue at most one strike per UTC day with three strike-days triggering replacement. Read how it works or the documentation for the full table.

Questions

Frequently asked

Do Hyperliquid perpetuals expire?

No. They have no expiry or delivery date; hourly funding payments keep the contract price converging toward the underlying spot price.

What is the maximum leverage on Hyperliquid?

It depends on the asset, ranging from 3x to 40x. Leverage can be set to any integer up to the asset maximum and is only checked when the position is opened.

Is there a maximum position size?

There is no position limit, but individual orders are capped by value: up to $30m for high-leverage markets, down to $500,000 for the lowest-leverage ones, with limit orders allowed at ten times the market cap.

Keep reading

Leverage and marginCross vs isolated, and the exact margin formulas.Funding ratesThe interest and premium components, and the 4%/hour cap.LiquidationsMark price, partial liquidation and the backstop vault.Elite trader leaderboardThe current basket with scores and allocation weights.

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