Hyperliquid is a decentralised trading platform that runs on its own blockchain, built mainly for perpetual futures. It has grown into one of the largest venues for perps anywhere, centralised exchanges included, and every trade you make through Based settles there.
It was built to fix a specific problem, and that problem explains most of its design.
The problem it was built to solve
Crypto trading used to force a choice. Centralised exchanges gave you speed and a proper order book, but they held your money, and history shows how that can end. Decentralised exchanges let you keep your own funds, but they were slow and clunky for serious trading.
Hyperliquid's answer was a blockchain built specifically for trading. Most chains are general-purpose, with trading apps bolted on top. Hyperliquid's whole job is running an exchange. The order book lives fully on the blockchain, trades confirm in under a second, and placing or cancelling an order costs no gas. It feels like a fast exchange while your funds stay in your own wallet.
How it works under the hood
Most decentralised exchanges use automated market makers: pools of tokens where a formula sets the price. Pools are simple, but large orders slip, and the order types are limited. Hyperliquid runs a real order book instead, the same model every major centralised exchange uses, with limit orders, market orders, stop losses and take profits all executing on the chain itself.
Consensus comes from HyperBFT, Hyperliquid's own algorithm in the HotStuff family. Blocks land in under a second and are final the moment they land, so a fill doesn't wait for extra confirmations. The trading engine, called HyperCore, runs the order books, margin, funding and liquidations directly at the base layer rather than as a smart contract on someone else's chain. That's how it avoids the gas wars and front-running common on general-purpose chains.
Alongside HyperCore sits HyperEVM, launched in February 2025: an Ethereum-compatible environment where developers deploy ordinary smart contracts that can read and trade against HyperCore's order books. Vaults, automated strategies and apps like Based build on that layer.
What trades on it
Crypto perpetual futures came first: BTC, ETH, SOL and hundreds of other markets, margined in USDC. Perps are contracts that track a price rather than the asset itself, with leverage available, liquidation risk and funding fees; the perps guide explains how they work.
Then the model got extended. Hyperliquid lets builders deploy their own markets on the same engine, and that's where stock perps come from: markets tracking Nvidia, Micron, SK Hynix and SpaceX, which traded here as a pre-IPO market weeks before its Nasdaq listing, all trading 24/7 because the chain never closes. There's spot trading too, for tokens like HYPE itself.
Two standards made that possible. HIP-1 lets anyone launch a token on Hyperliquid's spot market. HIP-3, activated in October 2025, lets anyone deploy a new perp market by staking HYPE, where new listings used to need the network's approval. Most stock perps, including the memory stocks, come from HIP-3 deployers such as trade.xyz.
What HYPE is
HYPE is Hyperliquid's own token, with a fixed supply of one billion. It secures the chain through staking, pays for gas on HyperEVM, carries governance votes and is the stake behind every HIP-3 market. Stakers also get discounts on trading fees. You don't need HYPE to trade, since positions are margined in USDC, but the token is one of the most traded markets on the platform. You can trade HYPE through Based like any other market, and the HYPE token guide goes deeper.
Hyperliquid vs a centralised exchange
On the trading screen the two look alike: an order book, the usual order types and sub-second fills. The differences sit underneath. A centralised exchange holds your deposits, asks for identity checks before you trade, and can pause withdrawals. On Hyperliquid your funds stay under your own keys, you can withdraw whenever you like, and every order, fill and liquidation is recorded on the chain for anyone to check.
Self-custody moves some responsibility to you: nobody can reset a lost login for you or reverse a mistaken transfer. Hyperliquid vs centralised exchanges goes through the trade-offs in full.
Where Based fits in
Hyperliquid is the venue. You still need a way in, and raw protocol interfaces aren't most people's idea of easy. Based is a self-custody wallet, on iOS, Android and the web, that makes trading on Hyperliquid feel like using a normal trading app: one wallet for stock and crypto perps, with a flat public fee schedule. On top of Hyperliquid's own trading fee, Based charges a builder fee of 0.025% on crypto perps, the lowest among major Hyperliquid wallets, and 80% less, 0.005%, on stock perps.
The key word there is wallet. Based isn't a broker and never holds your funds. Your USDC sits under your own keys, trades execute on Hyperliquid's order book, and the results land back in your wallet. If self-custody is new to you, this guide covers what it means in practice, and how to use Hyperliquid takes you through a first trade.