# Canonical: https://www.uddalak.xyz/hyperliquid-academy/article/125-funds-subaccounts-api-wallets
# Author: Uddalak Das
# Last source: https://www.uddalak.xyz/hyperliquid-academy/article/125-funds-subaccounts-api-wallets

---
title: "How Funds Can Structure Hyperliquid Subaccounts and API Wallets"
description: "Funds can use subaccounts to isolate strategies and API wallets to isolate signing authority, creating a cleaner mapping between mandate, risk limit, execution process, and audit trail."
pillar: "Institutional & Regulatory"
track: "Institutional & Regulatory"
cluster: "Institutional & Regulatory"
level: "Advanced"
primary_icp: ["fund", "trading firm"]
secondary_icp: ["institutional decision-maker"]
content_type: "guide"
reading_time: "3 min"
last_reviewed: "2026-09-07"
last_verified: "2026-09-07"
volatile: true
prerequisites: ["20-subaccounts-api-wallets", "89-designing-api-wallets-for-trading-systems"]
related: ["126-operational-controls-institutional-hyperliquid-trading"]
---

# How Funds Can Structure Hyperliquid [Subaccounts and API Wallets](/hyperliquid-academy/article/20-subaccounts-api-wallets)

A fund should not run every Hyperliquid strategy through one undifferentiated account and one hot private key. Subaccounts separate positions and balances at the protocol account level. API wallets separate automated signing from the master key. Together they allow a firm to map each strategy to a controlled operating domain without creating a completely separate treasury wallet for every process.

## Strategy isolation

Use separate subaccounts for strategies whose risk should be measured independently, such as market making, directional trading, basis, or experimental markets. This makes PnL and exposure easier to reconcile and limits accidental interaction.

## Signer isolation

Approve dedicated API wallets for the systems that need to trade. Keep the master signer behind stronger controls. Do not reuse one API-wallet key across unrelated trust boundaries if separate keys are operationally manageable.

## Permissions and economic account

An API wallet signs for a master or subaccount but is not itself the account whose positions should be queried. Systems must keep signer identity and economic-account identity distinct.

## Institutional controls

Map each subaccount to maximum gross and net exposure, symbols, leverage, daily loss, expected activity, authorized software service, and responsible team. Monitor deviations independently of the strategy code.

## Reconciliation

Consolidated risk still needs a parent-level view. Strategy isolation should not hide correlated positions across subaccounts from the firm's overall risk system.

## How this connects

Start with [Subaccounts and API Wallets](/hyperliquid-academy/article/20-subaccounts-api-wallets), [Designing API Wallets for Hyperliquid Trading Systems](/hyperliquid-academy/article/89-designing-api-wallets-for-trading-systems) if the underlying concept is unfamiliar. Related reading: [Operational Controls for Institutional Hyperliquid Trading](/hyperliquid-academy/article/126-operational-controls-institutional-hyperliquid-trading).

## Sources

- https://hyperliquid.gitbook.io/hyperliquid-docs/trading/subaccounts
- https://hyperliquid.gitbook.io/hyperliquid-docs/for-developers/api/nonces-and-api-wallets