HIP-3 explained: permissionless perp markets
Verified against Hyperliquid docs: HIP-3 builder-deployed perpetuals and Hyperliquid public info API · by Hyperliquid Academy
What the upgrade changed
Before HIP-3, the set of markets on Hyperliquid was whatever the core protocol listed. After it, anyone who stakes enough HYPE can deploy a perpetual market of their own.
The deployer chooses three things that matter to you as a trader:
The oracle. Where the market’s reference price comes from. This determines the mark price, and the mark price determines when you get liquidated.
The collateral. What backs positions on that market.
The fee capture. How the market’s fees are split, including the deployer’s share.
Everything else is shared: the same matching engine, the same margin engine, the same liquidation logic, the same account. A HIP-3 market is not a sandbox off to one side.
Why this is why equities are here
It is the direct explanation for something readers find surprising. A crypto exchange listing perpetuals on stocks, commodities, currencies and events looks like a strategy decision by a company. It is not. It is the consequence of removing the permission step: someone wanted those markets, staked to deploy them, and took a share of the fees.
| Market | Price | 24h | 24h volume | Open interest | Funding / 1h | Max leverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BTC | $75,983.60 | +0.36% | $3.16B | $2.91B | 0.00082% | 40x |
| ETH | $2,402.30 | +0.08% | $1.4B | $2.36B | 0.00125% | 25x |
| ZEC | $1,310.40 | +17.21% | $866.23M | $812.81M | 0.00125% | 10x |
| HYPE | $78.025 | +1.46% | $518.05M | $1.61B | 0.00125% | 10x |
| SOL | $98.215 | +1.30% | $173.83M | $521.84M | 0.0012% | 20x |
| XRP | $1.289 | +0.27% | $106.7M | $190.02M | -0.0012% | 20x |
| ARB | $0.16543 | +14.77% | $58.16M | $26.85M | 0.00125% | 10x |
| NEAR | $2.565 | +10.57% | $49.07M | $161.29M | 0.00125% | 10x |
The stake is the safeguard
There is no committee approving these markets, so the deterrent is economic. Deploying requires a substantial amount of staked HYPE, which means a deployer who chooses a broken oracle or unworkable parameters has real capital exposed to the outcome.
That is a genuine safeguard and it is not the same thing as a guarantee. It filters out casual deployments. It does not promise that every deployed market is well designed, and it certainly does not promise liquidity.
What to check before trading one
Read the market’s parameters, not just its name. Which oracle sets the price. What the maximum leverage is and where it steps down. How much volume and open interest it actually has, because a market with a familiar ticker and no depth will cost you far more in slippage than any fee. The market pages publish volume and open interest per market so you can judge that before you commit size.
The fee angle
Builder-deployed markets in growth mode carry a reduction of at least ninety percent on all-in fees while that mode is active. That is a real saving and occasionally a large one.
It should not be the reason you pick a market. Cheap execution in a thin book is not cheap; the spread you cross swallows the saving and then some. Cost per trade is the spread plus the fee plus the funding, and the fee is usually the smallest of the three. The full breakdown of what actually reduces your cost.
How it changes the leverage picture
Maximum leverage is set per market, and on a builder-deployed market it is set by the deployer within the protocol’s rules.
| Max leverage | Markets | Share | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40x | 1 | 1% | BTC |
| 25x | 1 | 1% | ETH |
| 20x | 2 | 1% | SOL, XRP |
| 10x | 30 | 17% | ZEC, HYPE, ARB, NEAR, PUMP, UNI, … |
| 5x | 56 | 31% | LIT, XMR, TAO, MON, INJ, DASH, … |
| 3x | 88 | 49% | PONS, VVV, CASHCAT, USELESS, SAGA, CHIP, … |
The chart is read from the exchange’s own metadata across every live market, so it includes HIP-3 markets. The distribution is the useful part: a small number of markets at the ceiling and the large majority far below it. Any guide quoting one headline leverage number for this exchange is describing something that does not exist.
HIP-3 and HIP-4 are different things
HIP-3 is permissionless perpetual markets. HIP-4 is outcome markets: fully collateralised contracts that settle to zero or one, with no liquidation risk at all. They are often mentioned together and they solve unrelated problems.
Where to read more
How leverage and margin tiers work, which applies identically on these markets, and the liquidation formula, which is the part the deployer’s oracle choice feeds into.
Frequently asked questions
How much HYPE does it take to deploy a market?
A large stake, set out in the builder-deployed perpetuals documentation. It is deliberately high: the stake is the deterrent against deploying a market carelessly, since a deployer with nothing at risk would have no reason to choose a sound oracle.
Who sets the oracle?
The deployer. That is the single most important thing to know before trading one of these markets, because the oracle determines the mark price, and the mark price determines your liquidation.
Are HIP-3 markets riskier for traders?
They share the matching engine, margin system and liquidation logic, so the mechanics are identical. What differs is the parameters the deployer chose and the liquidity the market has attracted. Thin liquidity costs more than any fee schedule saves.
Why are there stock and commodity markets on a crypto exchange?
Because HIP-3 removed the need for the core protocol to list them. A deployer who wants an equity perpetual can create one and take a share of its fees, without anyone's permission.
Do the usual fee discounts apply?
The volume, staking and referral discounts work as normal. On top of that, builder-deployed markets running in growth mode carry a substantial reduction on all-in fees while it is active.
Sources
- Hyperliquid docs: HIP-3 builder-deployed perpetualshyperliquid.gitbook.io
- Hyperliquid public info APIapi.hyperliquid.xyz
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