Trading gold, oil and commodities on Hyperliquid
Verified against Hyperliquid public info API and Hyperliquid docs: HIP-3 builder-deployed perpetuals · by Hyperliquid Academy
What is actually on offer
Gold, silver, crude, copper and a handful of agricultural contracts trade here as perpetuals — no expiry, cash-settled in USDC, on the same engine and in the same account as everything else.
They are not on the core exchange. They are HIP-3 markets, deployed by builders who staked HYPE for the right to run them, and each builder chose that market’s oracle, collateral and fee arrangement.
| Market | Builder | Price | 24h | 24h volume | Funding / 1h | Max leverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL | XYZ | $97.343 | -3.07% | $210.64M | 0.00063% | 20x |
| SILVER | XYZ | $63.064 | -0.99% | $183.83M | 0.00373% | 25x |
| BRENTOIL | XYZ | $100.72 | -2.34% | $94.41M | 0.00063% | 20x |
| GOLD | XYZ | $4,270.60 | -0.65% | $90.06M | 0.00302% | 25x |
| NATGAS | XYZ | $3.015 | -1.52% | $5.85M | 0.00063% | 10x |
| COPPER | XYZ | $6.427 | -0.46% | $5.39M | -0.00391% | 20x |
| PLATINUM | XYZ | $1,758.00 | -1.18% | $1.29M | 0.0054% | 20x |
| PALLADIUM | XYZ | $1,282.00 | -1.72% | $526.42K | 0.00912% | 20x |
Why a perpetual beats a future, for a directional view
Anyone who has traded commodity futures knows the three annoyances. A perpetual removes all of them.
| Futures | Perpetual here |
|---|---|
| Expiry, and a roll every month | No expiry, nothing to roll |
| Calendar spread paid on each roll | Funding, charged hourly |
| Delivery risk if you hold to expiry | Cash-settled in USDC, always |
| A contract size you must trade in multiples of | Any notional above the minimum |
| An account with a futures broker | The account you already have |
The roll is the big one. Holding a long crude view through a futures contract means rolling every month and paying the spread each time. A perpetual replaces that with an hourly funding payment, which is more granular, visible in advance and often smaller.
Funding is the carry, and it can point either way
On a commodity in contango — where later delivery costs more — funding tends to sit positive and longs pay. In backwardation it can flip and pay them.
Either way it is a real cost of holding and it accrues hourly whether or not the price moves. Read the funding column above before assuming a multi-week position is free to hold. How the rate is set.
What you take on instead
The oracle is the builder’s
The price your position is marked and liquidated against comes from a feed the deployer chose. That is an extra dependency compared with a crypto perp on the core exchange.
Know which builder runs the contract you are trading — the table above names them — and treat the oracle as part of the market’s risk, not as infrastructure you can ignore.
The book is thinner
These are not BTC. On a quiet contract a market order in size will walk the book, and the cost of that will exceed anything the fee schedule is doing.
Check the live volume, use limit orders, and use a TWAP or a scale ladder if the size is meaningful relative to a day’s turnover. Judging depth matters more here than on the majors.
The underlying closes and this does not
The perpetual trades continuously. The futures market it references does not.
That means weekend and overnight gaps: a move that happens while no cash market is open, priced by whoever is trading here, with your liquidation price entirely unaware that anything is closed. Size for that rather than assuming a quiet Sunday.
Fees, which may not be the ones you know
A HIP-3 builder sets its own fee share, and a market in growth mode carries a reduction of at least 90 % while it is active.
So a commodity perp can be cheaper than a core crypto perp. Check the market’s own parameters. The core schedule is the baseline, and on these markets it is not the whole story.
Who this suits
It suits expressing a macro view without a futures account, hedging an exposure you hold elsewhere, or trading a commodity move at a size that would be awkward in standard contract multiples.
It does not suit owning gold. A perpetual is a leveraged contract with a liquidation price, not a store of value. If the intention is to hold something indefinitely and not think about it, this is the wrong instrument, and there are tokenised alternatives on the spot side.
Approach carefully if you are used to futures and expect the same depth. The instrument is friendlier; the liquidity is not comparable to a major exchange’s front month.
Where to go next
The equity markets, deployed the same way, and how HIP-3 works — the stake a builder puts up, and exactly what they control.
Frequently asked questions
Is there physical delivery?
No. These are perpetuals settled in USDC, so nothing is ever delivered and you never hold the commodity. That removes the delivery date that makes a futures contract awkward for a directional view.
Do I have to roll the contract?
No, and this is the main practical advantage over futures. A perpetual has no expiry, so there is no roll and no calendar spread to pay each month. The cost of holding is funding instead.
Which commodities are listed?
Precious metals, industrial metals, energy and some agricultural contracts, deployed by builders rather than by Hyperliquid. The set changes as builders add markets.
What are the trading hours?
The perpetual trades continuously. The underlying futures market does not, so overnight and weekend moves happen with no cash market to arbitrage against.
Is gold here the same as holding gold?
No. It is a contract on the price with leverage available and a liquidation price attached. If the goal is a store of value you hold indefinitely, a perpetual is a poor instrument for it.
How deep are these books?
Thinner than the crypto majors, and it varies by contract. Check the live volume before sizing, because on a thin book the slippage will exceed anything you save on fees.
Sources
- Hyperliquid public info APIapi.hyperliquid.xyz
- Hyperliquid docs: HIP-3 builder-deployed perpetualshyperliquid.gitbook.io
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.