How to deposit BTC, ETH and SOL to Hyperliquid

What this route is for

Most people should deposit USDC. It arrives ready to use as collateral, it is the cheapest route, and the Arbitrum path takes minutes.

This route exists for a different situation: you already hold BTC, ETH, SOL or one of the other supported assets on its own chain, and you would rather move it in directly than sell it somewhere else and bridge the proceeds.

The mechanism is a protocol called Unit. Its guardian custodians hold your asset on its native chain and credit the equivalent to your Hyperliquid account, where it behaves as a spot balance.

Read this before you send anything

Two more things that have no recovery path.

The wrong network. Sending on a different chain from the one the address belongs to cannot be undone. The documentation says plainly that there is currently no way to retrieve those funds.

A reused address. Generate the deposit address from the window for the deposit you are about to make, rather than reusing one you saved last month.

What arrives, and what it can do

This catches people out. You deposit Bitcoin, the balance shows up, and the perpetuals ticket still says you have no collateral. Nothing is broken: perpetual positions are margined in USDC, and a spot holding is not USDC until you sell it.

That sale is an ordinary spot trade at spot fees, which are higher than perps fees. Worth knowing if the plan was always to trade perps — in that case, depositing USDC in the first place is cheaper.

Step by step

1. Open the deposit window and choose the asset

   The window changes to that asset’s own deposit route. Read the minimum and the estimated arrival time it displays; they differ per chain.

   You should see the asset selected, with its own minimum and time estimate shown

2. Copy the deposit address it generates

   This is a Bitcoin address for BTC, a Solana address for SOL, and so on. It is generated for you rather than being a shared address, so copy it fresh.

   You should see an address on that asset's native chain, specific to your account

3. Check the amount against the minimum

   This is the step with no undo. Above the minimum, with room to spare.

   You should see a send amount comfortably above the stated minimum

4. Send from your wallet or exchange on that asset's own network

   No bridging, no wrapping, no network selector games — just a normal send on the asset’s own chain. If you are sending from an exchange, check its withdrawal network matches.

   You should see a confirmed transaction on the source chain

5. Wait for confirmations

   Bitcoin takes roughly 30 minutes, because it waits for confirmations on Bitcoin rather than on Hyperliquid. Other chains are faster. The wait is the source chain, not a queue.

   You should see a spot balance appearing on Hyperliquid

6. Sell for USDC if you intend to trade perpetuals

   An ordinary spot sale, then transfer the proceeds from Spot to Perps, which is instant and free.

   You should see a USDC balance on the Perps account

The trust model, stated plainly

A USDC deposit moves a token you already hold into an account you control on a chain.

A native deposit is different: the asset stays on its own chain, held by Unit’s guardian custodians, and what you hold on Hyperliquid is a credit representing it. That is an additional party in the chain of custody, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest.

It is a reasonable trade for convenience, and it is not the same risk profile as the USDC route. For a large balance, know which one you are using and why. What Unit is and how it works goes further into the mechanism.

Which assets are supported

The list changes as assets are added, and the deposit window is the authority at any moment. As verified for this page it covers native BTC, ETH and SOL alongside a set of assets on Ethereum, Solana and several other chains.

If an asset is not in the window, there is no native route for it. Sending it anyway to an address that looks similar is the failure with no recovery.

Troubleshooting

It says Failed but everything was correct. If the token, the chain and the amount were all right, Unit runs support for these deposits at app.hyperunit.xyz/support, because Unit rather than Hyperliquid processes them.

Nothing has arrived after an hour. Check the transaction on the source chain’s explorer first. A transaction that never confirmed is a source-chain problem, not a Hyperliquid one. The full checklist.

The balance is there but the perps ticket says no collateral. Expected. It is a spot balance. Sell it for USDC and transfer to Perps.

Sent below the minimum. There is no recovery. This is why the warning is at the top of this page rather than the bottom.

Where to go next

The route comparison, if you have not committed to this one yet, and how spot trading works, since that is where your deposit lands.