Hyperliquid vaults guide: deposit, lead, copy

The structure, stated plainly

A user vault is a single trading account funded by several people. One person, the leader, places every trade. Everyone else supplies capital and receives a proportional share of the result.

The economics are the part worth being precise about.

How this differs from HLP

Both are vaults with the same four-day lock. Almost everything else is different.

HLP is owned by the protocol, runs a mechanical market-making and liquidation-backstop strategy, and takes 0% of profits. Its behaviour is structural: you can reason about when it will do badly.

A user vault is a person exercising discretion. Its behaviour is whatever they decide, and it can change without notice because there is nothing to stop it changing.

That makes them different kinds of bet. HLP is a bet on a strategy you can describe. A user vault is a bet on a trader you cannot interview. The HLP explanation covers the first.

Reading a vault before you deposit

1. Check how long it has run

   A vault that has not traded through a sharp drawdown has not been tested. Crypto provides those regularly; if the record does not contain one, the record is incomplete rather than clean.

   You should see a track record measured in months of real market conditions, not weeks

2. Find the worst drawdown, not the headline return

   The return tells you what happened. The drawdown tells you whether you would still have been in the vault when it happened. Most people who lose money in a good vault lose it by withdrawing at the bottom.

   You should see a peak-to-trough figure you would have been willing to sit through

3. Look at the shape of the equity curve

   A curve that rises steadily and then falls off a cliff usually means leverage was carrying it. A curve with regular small losses and larger wins looks more like a process. Neither is proof, but the first should slow you down.

   You should see a judgement about whether this looks like a strategy or a streak

4. Check the leader's own stake

   This is the single most informative figure on the page, and the one least often quoted. Skin in the game does not make someone a good trader, but its absence removes the main thing aligning them with you.

   You should see a number telling you how much they lose when you lose

5. Size it as a risk position

   A vault deposit is not a savings product with a yield. Treat it the way you would treat handing the same amount to a discretionary trader, because that is what it is.

   You should see an amount whose total loss would not change your plans

The lock-up, and the mistake people make with it

Deposits unlock 4 days after your most recent deposit, and the clock covers your whole balance.

The mistake is drip-feeding. Adding a small amount every week means the entire balance is permanently within a fresh lock, so it is never withdrawable. If you plan to add over time, do it in fewer, larger deposits, and expect to be locked for four days after each one.

If you want to lead one

You deposit your own capital, others deposit alongside, and you earn a share of the profits you generate.

Two things worth saying to anyone considering it. Other people’s money changes how a drawdown feels, and traders who were fine losing their own money often trade worse when they are losing someone else’s. And a public record is permanent: the vault’s equity curve is on-chain and will be readable long after you would prefer it were not.

Where vaults sit against the alternatives

If you want exposure without picking a person, HLP is the mechanical option. If you want to keep control, trade the account yourself and use the liquidation calculator to size it. If you want yield without directional risk, that product does not exist here, and pages claiming otherwise are describing a strategy that has simply not lost yet.