⚠︎ Risk warning: leveraged derivatives on unregulated platforms — you can lose everything you deposit. Not investment advice.
How to Start Trading on Hyperliquid (2026): Step by Step
Mechanics verified against official Hyperliquid documentation, 2026-07-16. See our Hyperliquid hub for the full guide set.
Hyperliquid's onboarding is short, but perpetual futures carry real liquidation risk regardless of how simple the interface is. Before depositing anything, read our risk disclosure so leverage and liquidation are clear before you're exposed to them. To follow the steps below you need one of two things to connect — a DeFi wallet or just an email address — plus some USDC to deposit as collateral.
From our own setup runs
Setting up the accounts behind this site's field runs, the thing that actually cost us time wasn't any exchange — it was gas. Two lessons we'd hand any occasional crypto user before their first deposit:
- Always hold the network's own coin, not just your stablecoins. Moving anything on a network costs its native gas coin — USDC on Arbitrum can't go anywhere without a little ETH on Arbitrum. A funded wallet with no gas coin is stranded: you can see your money and you can't move it. Whenever you fund a wallet, send a small amount of the gas coin (a few dollars' worth) to the same network in the same session, and top it up before it runs dry.
- Check the network against your wallet before you send. The same coin exists on many networks, and the network you pick on a withdrawal screen must be one your wallet actually supports and displays. Verify the wallet lists that network — and do a small test transfer first — before moving the real amount.
Choosing a wallet in the first place is covered by our sister site's crypto wallet rankings.
Connect
Hyperliquid supports two verified ways to access the exchange. The first is email login: enter your email address, then enter the six-digit code sent to your inbox to confirm access. The second is connecting a DeFi wallet directly, such as MetaMask or Phantom. If you don't have a wallet yet — or want to set up a dedicated one for trading, which is the sensible pattern — our sister site's crypto wallet rankings cover the options in depth.
Either way, before you can place an order you need to click "Enable Trading" and sign a gas-less transaction that authorizes your trading account. This step doesn't cost network fees and doesn't move any funds — it only sets up permission to trade. Once you're in, the screen itself takes some decoding — our interface walkthrough explains every button with screenshots from our own account.
Deposit
The primary route is depositing USDC, Hyperliquid's quote asset and the collateral every perpetual position is denominated in. USDC deposits are supported from Arbitrum, Ethereum, Base, and Polygon: enter the amount, click Deposit, and confirm the transaction in your wallet. Hyperliquid's documentation states there is no minimum deposit amount.
Other assets can also be deposited natively — for example BTC on the Bitcoin network, ETH on Ethereum, SOL on Solana, and more. These don't work directly as perp collateral, though: any non-quote asset has to be sold into USDC first before it functions as margin for a perpetual position.
Place a small first trade
Once funded, consider starting with a small limit order on a major, liquid pair rather than sizing into a market order. A limit order lets you control the exact price you enter at, which is one basic form of risk control.
Hyperliquid supports both isolated and cross margin. Isolated margin caps potential losses on a position to the margin assigned to it rather than your full account balance — the more cautious choice for a first trade. Starting at low leverage similarly limits how far the market can move against you before liquidation. None of this is a recommendation to trade; it's a description of the settings available so you can practice managing risk deliberately rather than by accident.
Withdrawing
USDC withdrawals from Hyperliquid are sent to Arbitrum and carry a flat $1 fee, with no separate gas charge to the user. See our deposit and withdrawal guide for the full process.
Fees
Hyperliquid's base trading fees are 0.045% for taker orders and 0.015% for maker orders — see our fees breakdown for how these scale with volume. Using a referral code applies a 4% discount on trading fees; details are in our referral guide.
FAQ
Do I need KYC to trade on Hyperliquid?
No. You can connect with just an email or a wallet, with no identity verification step in the flow described above. See our KYC guide for what this means for account access.
Can US residents use Hyperliquid?
No. Hyperliquid does not permit access to US residents.
What does a withdrawal cost?
A flat $1, charged when you withdraw to Arbitrum, with no additional gas fee.
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