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HLP Vault Overview
Almost half of @HyperliquidX's TVL is deposited in its Hyperliquidity Provider — HLP for short — vault, which is currently yielding an APR of 30%. As we’ve seen recently from DYDX, competitors are starting to catch on that this is the superior design philosophy. But just what exactly is the HLP vault and how does it make Hyperliquid a more efficient venue for trading?
This post is part of a series on Hyperliquid’s architecture, which we’re creating as we research and integrate their platform at @TheoNetwork_.
An overview of Hyperliquid vaults
Vaults are a native primitive on the Hyperliquid L1 blockchain, introduced some time back in Q2 2023. The idea behind Hyperliquid vaults is pretty much the same as the idea behind any other crypto vault: users deposits their assets — in Hyperliquid’s case USDC — to be actively allocated according to some strategy.
Anyone can create a vault on Hyperliquid so long as they deposit at least 100 USDC themselves, after which other users can deposit. Vault assets are then managed by the vault creator who is able to open long and short positions on Hyperliquid.
If you’re familiar with copytrading, the premise is very similar — except vaults are a more explicit way of enabling it.
Vaults are extremely cool for two reasons: first, they’re transparent. Users can see exactly how collateral in vaults is allocated, both at present and historically. Second, they’re non-custodial. The vault creator doesn’t directly hold the assets, and the way vaults are designed means users can withdraw at any time (pursuant to a lock-up period).
Components of the HLP vault
The vault we’re specifically interested in today is the HLP, or Hyperliquidity Provider, vault. This is a singular vault enshrined at the protocol level, where funds are allocated to strategies that augments the liquidity (and general performance) of Hyperliquid as a perps trading platform.
As with any other Hyperliquid vault, anyone can deposit USDC to the HLP vault. Now the HLP vault generates alpha — that’s trader speak for returns — using a few different strategies:
1. Market making
2. Price Taking
3. Funding
4. Liquidations
At the protocol level the strategies are actually called Strategy A, Strategy B, and Liquidator, but let’s stick to our more descriptive labels.
Starting with the first of these categories, market making is actually the one we know the least about. What we do know is that Hyperliquid runs offchain algorithms that continuously calculate fair prices for the assets it lists. Based on these algorithms, the market making strategy opens long or short trades when assets are mispriced. In practice this happens a bunch; right now the HLP vault has 130 open positions. But again, the algorithm taking these trades is off-chain, so we don’t know the exact criteria it’s looking for or how it sizes.
Moving onto funding, the HLP vault is also used to provide liquidity for the “less popular” side of perps trades. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that most Hyperliquid users are crypto bulls, so there’s inherently more longs for the majority of assets. The HLP vault is used to take the other side of these trades, providing liquidity for the platform’s userbase while earning the funding rate in return.
The third strategy — liquidations — was once managed by a standalone Liquidator vault, although it’s since been rolled into the HLP vault.
Liquidations take place when a user’s account equity drops below the maintenance margin, which is anywhere from 1% to 16.7% depending on the leverage used. Initially, Hyperliquid attempts to close these positions with market orders, and any left over collateral goes to the user. However, when there’s not enough liquidity in the books to close the position without a shortfall, a backstop liquidation occurs through the HLP vault.
In a backstop liquidation, both the position itself and the margin are transferred to the vault. Even if the account technically has positive equity, it’s all transferred to the vault — thus ensuring backstop liquidations are profitable for the HLP vault (and thus depositors) in the long-term.
Hidden
There’s one last source of alpha for the HLP vault which we didn’t list above, because it isn’t actually a strategy, but an inherent feature of Hyperliquid as a trading platform. That is: a portion of both maker and taker fees captured whenever Hyperliquid users take trades are directed to the HLP vault. For new, low-volume users, these fees start at 1 and 3.5 bps, respectively.
(In case you’re curious what happens to the rest of the fees, they go to an insurance fund as well as an open interest rewards program.)
Wrapping Up
The HLP vault stands as a pivotal innovation within Hyperliquid’s ecosystem, not just in terms of its design, but in how it fundamentally enhances the efficiency and liquidity of the platform. By intertwining strategies like market making, funding, and liquidations, Hyperliquid ensures that both the platform and its users benefit symbiotically. If you enjoyed this overview please make sure to follow along with @TheoNetwork_ as we continue to research and develop new products in the ecosystem.