Standard, Unified, and Portfolio Margin Accounts
How Hyperliquid's account modes decide which balances can support which positions.
Hyperliquid's account mode determines how balances are organized and which assets can support which positions. Standard, Unified, and Portfolio Margin are three different balance architectures rather than three leverage settings.
That distinction matters because account mode and position margin mode solve different problems. Cross or isolated margin determines how a specific perpetual position shares collateral. Account mode determines the larger set of balances available around those positions.
Standard mode keeps balances explicit
Standard mode separates spot and perpetual balances and keeps individual perp DEX balances distinct. Cross margin operates within the relevant DEX rather than across every market surface in the account.
That separation can be useful for market makers, automated strategies, or teams that want clear capital boundaries. A strategy can know which balance belongs to which trading surface and reduce the chance that activity elsewhere changes its available collateral unexpectedly.
The cost is operational friction. Capital may need to be moved between balances when one venue has excess liquidity and another needs more margin.
Unified mode reduces balance management
Unified mode creates one balance for each compatible asset. That balance can support spot activity and cross margin positions that use the same quote or collateral asset across supported markets.
For a user operating mostly with USDC based markets, this can remove repeated manual transfers between otherwise compatible trading surfaces.
Unified mode is simpler than Standard for many users because it reduces balance fragmentation without introducing the full risk model of Portfolio Margin.
Portfolio Margin evaluates a balance sheet
Portfolio Margin goes further. Eligible spot assets, borrowing, and cross margin perpetual positions can be evaluated as one portfolio.
Suppose an account holds BTC spot and shorts BTC perpetuals. The two legs carry offsetting directional exposure. A portfolio risk engine can recognize some of that offset instead of treating each leg as unrelated.
Portfolio Margin also supports borrowing and supply mechanics for eligible assets. This means the account can become a lending, collateral, and trading balance sheet rather than only a collection of positions.
More capital efficiency means more connected risk
When assets and positions support one another, risk becomes less local. A fall in collateral value, an expensive borrowing rate, a losing perpetual, or a changing oracle can affect the same account level margin ratio.
A user who only monitors the liquidation price of one position can therefore miss the broader portfolio state.
Portfolio Margin Risk and Liquidations covers those interactions in detail.
Choosing a mode
Standard is useful when operational separation is important. Unified reduces friction for compatible balances. Portfolio Margin is designed for capital efficiency across a connected set of assets and positions.
The appropriate choice depends on strategy complexity, automation, risk monitoring, and whether shared capital is an advantage or an unwanted dependency.
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Read Cross Margin vs Isolated Margin for position level collateral boundaries and Portfolio Margin on Hyperliquid for the most integrated account model.