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Guide · By Stephan Kulik · Updated 2026-09-15

Hyperliquid Margin Modes: Cross, Isolated, Portfolio

Formulas and tables verified against Hyperliquid's official docs on 2026-09-15. The liquidation arithmetic itself is on the leverage and liquidation page; this page covers how margin is pooled.

Three questions decide how a Hyperliquid account behaves under stress: which margin mode each position uses, which margin tier its size falls into, and which account abstraction mode the account is set to. The docs answer all three with formulas rather than adjectives, so this page quotes them.

Cross, isolated and "strict isolated"

"Cross margin is the default, which allows for maximal capital efficiency by sharing collateral between all other cross margin positions." Isolated margin "allows an asset's collateral to be constrained to that asset"; liquidations there "do not affect other isolated positions or cross positions", and vice versa. A third variant, "strict isolated", "functions the same as isolated margin with the additional constraint that margin cannot be removed" — it comes out proportionally as the position is closed. On builder-deployed (HIP-3) markets there is also a "no cross" mode: isolated with margin removal, but no cross at all.

Initial margin, leverage and the 10% floor

"Leverage can be set by a user to any integer between 1 and the max leverage", and the margin to open is position_size * mark_price / leverage. Cross positions lock that initial margin; isolated positions "support adding and removing margin after opening". Unrealised PnL on cross positions "will automatically be available as initial margin for new positions", while on isolated positions it is applied "as additional margin for the open position". Leverage "is only checked upon opening a position" and can be raised on an open position without closing it. Taking money out — withdrawals, spot transfers, isolated margin transfers — is bounded by transfer_margin_required = max(initial_margin_required, 0.1 * total_position_value): at least 10% of total notional stays behind. Maintenance margin "is currently set to half of the initial margin at max leverage".

Margin tiers: leverage falls with size

Maintenance margin is tiered the way centralised exchanges do it: maintenance_margin = notional_position_value * maintenance_margin_rate - maintenance_deduction, where the rate is half the initial rate at the tier's maximum leverage ("at 20x max leverage, maintenance_margin_rate = 2.5%") and the deduction keeps total maintenance margin continuous across tier boundaries. The mainnet tiers on the verification date:

Margin tables carry IDs in the API's meta response, and "for IDs less than 50, there is a single tier with max leverage equal to the ID" — assets outside the table above have one tier. Testnet uses lower brackets for ease of testing.

Account abstraction modes

The mode "determines how spot and perps balances interact, and whether various assets are used as collateral for perps trading". Three are supported: Unified account ("recommended for most users"), one balance per asset that collateralises all cross positions in that asset and is unified with the spot balance; Portfolio margin ("most capital efficient"), one portfolio across the eligible assets, "currently HYPE, BTC, USDC, USDT"; and Manual / Standard ("recommended for market makers, high volume automated users, and deployers/builders"), with separate perp and spot balances and cross margin applied per DEX. A fourth, "DEX abstraction", is discontinued. Two constraints the docs flag: builder-code addresses "must be in standard mode to accrue builder fees", and unified account and portfolio margin "are limited to 50k user actions per day". Under unified account and portfolio margin, cross positions on HIP-3 DEXs sharing a collateral asset share margin; under standard mode "cross margin only applies to the assets within the same DEX".

Portfolio margin: the rules that bind

Portfolio margin unifies spot and perps so that, for example, "a spot balance is offset by a short perps position, collateralized by the spot balance", and idle borrowable assets earn yield. It is gated: a master account needs ">$5M in weighted volume or account value >$10k" and an account value below $25M, and it "will fall back to non-portfolio margin behavior when caps are hit". Collateral has a loan-to-value ratio — "HYPE has an LTV of 0.65 and BTC has an LTV of 0.5" — and shortfalls are borrowed automatically up to token_balance * borrow_oracle_price * ltv. Interest is indexed hourly; the stablecoin borrow rate is 0.05 + 4.75 * max(0, utilization - 0.8) APY, the protocol keeps 10% of borrow interest as a liquidation buffer, and suppliers earn the same rate on idle assets. Global and per-user supply and borrow caps apply per asset (for USDC: 1B global supply, 500M global borrow, 250M and 50M per user).

Liquidation is portfolio-wide: "all cross margin perp positions and spot balances are collectively margined together within one account" (sub-accounts stay separate), and the account "becomes liquidatable when portfolio_margin_ratio > 0.95". Once liquidatable, "users should not expect a deterministic liquidation sequence" — perps or spot borrows may go first — and the backstop liquidator takes over supplied and borrowed assets in full or in 20% steps depending on how far health has fallen.

FAQ

Which mode should a new account use?

The docs recommend the unified account "for most users"; portfolio margin is gated by volume or account value and adds borrowing and a portfolio-wide liquidation. Standard mode exists for market makers, high-volume bots and builders.

Can I lower leverage on an open position?

The margining page says leverage "can be increased without closing the position" and is "only checked upon opening"; it describes closing, adding margin (isolated) or depositing USDC (cross) as the ways to manage a losing position.

Why did my max leverage drop on a large BTC position?

Margin tiers: above $150M notional BTC steps from 40x to 20x, and the maintenance deduction keeps the requirement continuous across the boundary.

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