Delta-neutral and basis trades on Hyperliquid

Quick steps

1. Pick a market with both spot and perp. Check that the asset trades on Hyperliquid spot with enough liquidity, and note that bridged spot assets add bridge risk.
2. Choose an account mode. Portfolio margin lets spot holdings collateralise the perp short; otherwise keep separate USDC margin for the short.
3. Enter both legs together. Buy spot and short the perp in equal size, using limit orders where possible to cut fees.
4. Keep leverage on the short low. Use 1x–2x and set alerts well before the short's liquidation price.
5. Monitor funding and rebalance. Exit if funding turns persistently negative, and rebalance when the legs drift apart.

What the trade is

"Delta-neutral" means your position barely changes in value when the price moves. On Hyperliquid the standard version is long spot + short perp in the same asset. Hyperliquid perps have no expiry, so the "basis" here is the gap between spot and perp prices plus funding, not a dated futures premium. Your return comes from funding: when funding is positive, shorts are paid every hour. At the baseline interest component alone that is 0.00125% per hour.

Worked example

Hypothetical: $10,000 capital, standard margin (spot and perp balances not cross-collateralised), base-tier fees, asset with 10x max leverage (5% maintenance).

• Buy $6,667 of spot. Keep $3,333 USDC as margin for a $6,667 perp short (2x).
• Fees with taker orders: spot 0.070% × $6,667 × 2 = $9.33; perp 0.045% × $6,667 × 2 = $6.00. Round trip ≈ $15.33. With maker orders: spot 0.040% and perp 0.015% give about $7.33.
• Funding at the baseline 0.00125% per hour on $6,667 = $0.083 per hour, about $2.00 a day or roughly $730 a year: about 7.3% simple on the $10,000, if funding never dropped below baseline. It often does.
• Short liquidation at 2x isolated ≈ entry × 1.5 ÷ 1.05, a rise of about 43%. Your spot gains by the same amount, but in a different balance, so you must move funds in time.

Model it with the funding calculator and liquidation calculator.

Portfolio margin

Hyperliquid's portfolio margin mode pools eligible assets so that a spot balance can collateralise a short perp in the same asset; spot and perp PnL offset each other, protecting the short from liquidation. The docs list eligibility as account value above $10,000 (or over $5M weighted volume) and below $25M, with supply and borrow caps on USDT, USDC, HYPE and BTC. Collateral LTV is 0.65 for HYPE and 0.5 for BTC. When caps are hit the account falls back to normal margin behaviour, and once an account is liquidatable the order in which perps or borrows are liquidated is not deterministic. It is more capital-efficient, not risk-free.

Risks that break "neutral"

• Negative funding: you pay instead of earning. Funding is driven by crowd positioning and can stay negative for long periods.
• Auto-deleveraging: in a crash, profitable positions can be force-closed against liquidated ones. On 10 October 2025 Hyperliquid used auto-deleveraging on cross-margin positions for the first time; a hedged trader whose perp leg was closed was left with a naked spot position.
• Leg drift: Hyperliquid spot prices, the perp mark price and the oracle used for funding are different numbers and can diverge in volatile markets.
• Bridged assets: some spot tokens are bridged representations of assets on other chains. If the bridge or issuer fails, the spot leg can lose value while the perp short does not compensate.
• Fees and churn: the round trip above costs about eight days of baseline funding. Frequent rebalancing eats the yield.
• Platform risk: everything sits on one venue. Read is Hyperliquid safe.

Frequently asked questions