HIP-4 explained: outcome markets on Hyperliquid
Verified against Hyperliquid docs: HIP-4 outcome markets and Hyperliquid Terms of Use · by Hyperliquid Academy
A different instrument, not a variation
Almost everything else on this site describes perpetual futures: leveraged, liquidatable, funded hourly, no expiry. Outcome markets are none of those things.
An outcome contract resolves to zero or one. You buy one side, and when the question settles you either hold something worth the full unit or something worth nothing.
| Perpetual | Outcome market | |
|---|---|---|
| Expiry | None | Resolves on a defined event |
| Leverage | Yes | No, fully collateralised |
| Liquidation | Yes | None possible |
| Funding | Hourly | None |
| Maximum loss | Your collateral, via liquidation | What you paid, known upfront |
Why “no liquidation” is the headline
The single largest source of loss on this exchange is leverage, and the mechanism is liquidation: a move against you far smaller than your balance closes the position. The liquidation guide spends most of its length on this.
Outcome markets remove that mechanism entirely. The contract is fully collateralised when you open it, so there is no margin to fall below and nothing for the engine to close. Your downside is bounded at the moment you enter and it does not move.
Bounded is not the same as small
A binary contract can lose one hundred percent of what you put in, and it does so routinely, because that is what settling to zero means. The risk is not that it is worse than a perpetual; it is that it is a different shape. A perpetual can take your collateral in an afternoon of noise. An outcome market cannot, and then resolves against you completely.
What the deployer decides
Outcome markets are deployed under the same permissionless model as HIP-3 perpetual markets. Somebody created the market, and they defined the thing that matters most: how it resolves.
That is the question to read before anything else. Not the odds, not the volume: the resolution criteria. A market whose wording is ambiguous will produce a disputed settlement, and a settlement you disagree with is not something you can trade your way out of after the fact.
Access is a real question here
The Terms of Use restrict the exchange to begin with, excluding residents of the United States and of Ontario, Canada, along with sanctioned jurisdictions. Our country page covers that honestly.
Event and prediction contracts additionally attract regulatory attention in places where perpetual futures do not, and that picture moves. If you are considering these specifically, read the current terms rather than inferring access from the fact that you can trade perpetuals. We do not publish ways around a restriction, here or anywhere else on this site.
Where they fit
Outcome markets suit a view you can state as a question with a date and a clean answer. They are poor for anything requiring nuance, because the payoff has none.
They are also not a safer version of leveraged trading, which is the framing to be wary of. Removing liquidation removes one specific failure mode. It does not remove being wrong.
If leverage is what you are trying to avoid, the more direct route is isolated margin at low leverage, which keeps the instrument you understand and caps the damage. If binary payoffs are what you want, this is the product for it.
Frequently asked questions
How do outcome markets settle?
To zero or one. When the question resolves, one side is worth the full unit and the other is worth nothing. There is no partial outcome and no rollover, which is what makes them different from a perpetual.
Can I be liquidated on an outcome market?
No. The position is fully collateralised at the point you open it, so there is nothing to liquidate. Your maximum loss is the amount you put in, known in advance.
Is there a funding rate?
No. Funding exists to tether a perpetual to an underlying price. A contract with a fixed settlement date and a binary payoff does not need one.
Who can deploy an outcome market?
Deployers, under the same permissionless model as HIP-3 perpetual markets. The person who created the market chose how it resolves, which is the thing to read before trading it.
Who is excluded from these markets?
The same restrictions that apply to the rest of the exchange apply here, and event contracts attract additional regulatory attention in several jurisdictions. Read the Terms of Use rather than assuming access follows from the rest of the venue.
Sources
- Hyperliquid docs: HIP-4 outcome marketshyperliquid.gitbook.io
- Hyperliquid Terms of Useapp.hyperliquid.xyz
We link the primary source for every number on this page. If a figure here disagrees with the Hyperliquid documentation, the documentation is right and we want to know.