Hyperliquid Glossary: The Terms You Need to Know
A living glossary of Hyperliquid concepts, market terms, protocol components, and developer primitives, with each definition connected to deeper Academy references.
This glossary is the shortest route into Hyperliquid terminology. It is intentionally definition-first: each term explains what the object does in the system, not how the market narrates it. Use it when an article assumes a term you have not seen before, then follow the linked concept for the mechanism.
Protocol and execution terms
Hyperliquid: the L1 blockchain that contains HyperCore and HyperEVM.
HyperCore: the native financial execution environment responsible for Hyperliquid's order books, positions, margin, liquidations, and other protocol financial state.
HyperEVM: the EVM-compatible smart-contract environment on the same L1.
HyperBFT: Hyperliquid's proof-of-stake consensus system, derived from HotStuff-style consensus ideas.
Precompile: a protocol-provided EVM interface that lets a smart contract read selected HyperCore state.
CoreWriter: a system interface through which HyperEVM contracts can send supported actions to HyperCore.
Trading terms
CLOB: central limit order book. Bids and asks are matched using an ordering rule such as price-time priority.
Perpetual future: a derivative without a fixed expiry date that uses funding and reference prices to keep its market price aligned with the underlying.
Mark price: a risk-oriented price used for calculations such as unrealized PnL and liquidation.
Oracle price: an external/reference price input used by the protocol's pricing and risk systems.
Funding: periodic peer-to-peer payments between long and short positions used to encourage perp prices to remain near the underlying reference market.
Open interest: the outstanding notional or contract exposure in a derivatives market, distinct from trading volume.
Cross margin: positions share eligible collateral.
Isolated margin: collateral is ring-fenced to a position or isolated exposure.
ADL: auto-deleveraging, a backstop mechanism for residual risk when ordinary liquidation cannot fully resolve an undercollateralized position.
Protocol standards
HIP-1: Hyperliquid's native token standard for HyperCore spot assets.
HIP-2 / Hyperliquidity: protocol-level automated liquidity support for native spot order books.
HIP-3: builder-deployed perpetual markets that use HyperCore infrastructure while giving deployers control over defined market parameters.
HIP-4: outcome-market infrastructure for fully collateralized discrete outcomes.
Aligned Quote Asset: a quote asset that meets additional protocol conditions and receives defined fee/liquidity benefits.
Permissionless Quote Asset: a quote token enabled under the protocol's permissionless requirements without aligned status.
Capital and ecosystem terms
HYPE: Hyperliquid's native asset, used for staking, HyperEVM gas, and selected protocol staking requirements.
HLP: the protocol vault that participates in market making and other system activities.
Portfolio Margin: an account mode that evaluates eligible spot and perpetual exposures together and can support lending/borrowing mechanics.
API wallet: an authorized signer used for programmatic exchange actions without exposing the account's primary key to the bot.
Subaccount: a separate account context under a main account used to isolate strategies, positions, and permissions.