Hyperliquid vs Paradex for perpetual futures

The short answer

Paradex is a self-custodial venue on its own Starknet-based appchain that offers perpetuals, options and spot from one account, and it charges nothing to orders placed from its web app. Hyperliquid is an on-chain order book on its own chain with hundreds of markets and a standing maker/taker schedule. Both hold nothing for you and verify nobody. Whether Paradex is cheaper depends entirely on how you submit orders.

Fees

Paradex splits fees by how an order is submitted, not by who you are. Orders from the web app, or from the API with an interactive token, are Retail and pay 0% as maker or taker on every product. Standard API orders are Pro and pay 0.003% as maker and 0.045% as taker at the entry tier, with volume tiers, staking and payment discounts below that and a published floor.

Hyperliquid’s tier 0 is 0.015% maker and 0.045% taker. Against the Pro schedule, Hyperliquid’s taker rate is level with Paradex’s at entry and lower once a referral code takes it to 0.0432% ; Paradex’s Pro maker rate is the lower of the two maker figures.

Zero is a real number and it is right to take it seriously. The question a zero-fee venue asks you to answer is what you pay in spread and depth instead. Our Lighter comparison goes through that argument in full and it applies here unchanged: a fee is a known cost, and thin depth is an unknown one. Check the book for your pair and your size before treating zero as free. On anything held overnight, funding dominates both; the funding calculator prices it.

Custody and what breaks

Both are self-custodial. On Paradex, your account on the appchain is derived from your own wallet key; on Hyperliquid your balance sits in your own account on its chain. In both cases the risk is your key management and the bridge you use, and our risk page applies to both.

The differences are in age and breadth. Hyperliquid’s chain has run through more volatile markets with more open interest on it, and its liquidation vault is visible on-chain. Paradex is younger, adds options and spot to the same margin account, and puts privacy features at the centre of its pitch. Neither has a support desk that can reverse anything.

Access

Neither asks for documents. Paradex names US persons and Canadian persons as Restricted Persons who may not use its products, alongside sanctioned territories. Hyperliquid excludes residents of the United States and Ontario, Canada, plus sanctioned jurisdictions, under its Terms of Use. A Canadian outside Ontario can use Hyperliquid and not Paradex, which is a deciding factor for those readers. Our country pages cover Hyperliquid’s side.

Where Paradex is genuinely better

• Nothing to pay on web-app orders, on perpetuals, spot and options alike.
• Options and perpetuals on one margin account, which Hyperliquid does not offer.
• Lower maker fee than Hyperliquid even on its Pro schedule.
• Privacy features built into the product rather than added to it.
• Fee discounts for holding its token, if you already do.

Where Hyperliquid is genuinely better

• Far more markets, including builder-deployed equities, commodities and FX.
• Deeper books on the majors, where the cost of size is decided.
• A longer record under stress, with more open interest.
• A lower taker rate than Paradex’s Pro schedule once a referral code is applied.
• Maker fees fall to zero at higher tiers and then pay a rebate.
• Available to Canadians outside Ontario.

Who should pick which

Pick Paradex if you trade from a web interface in modest size, you want options and perpetuals in one account, or the zero on retail orders is worth more to you than depth.

Pick Hyperliquid if you want breadth and depth, you trade through the API, you are in Canada outside Ontario, or you want the venue with the longer record under load.

Fee comparisons flatter zero. Depth and slippage are where the money actually goes, and on the major pairs that argument currently favours the deeper book.