Spot buys the asset; perps create a derivative position
A spot trade exchanges one asset for another on a native order book. A perpetual trade opens a margined derivative position whose PnL tracks an underlying price and can incur funding or liquidation. The two products should not share one cost or risk model.
A spot balance can still lose most or all of its market value, and borrowing under portfolio margin can introduce liquidation risk around spot holdings. Plain unborrowed spot ownership does not have the hourly funding payment used by perps.
HIP-1 defines native spot tokens
HIP-1 is HyperCore’s capped-supply fungible token standard with onchain spot order books. Token metadata includes precision, maximum supply and genesis balances, while deployment and liquidity rules are separate from an ERC-20 contract on HyperEVM.
A familiar ticker is not proof of token identity. Confirm the spot pair, token metadata and deposit route in the official interface before trading or transferring.
Spot fees and volume weighting
Base spot rates start above the base perpetual rates under the current schedule. Perp and spot volume combine into one 14-day tier, and each dollar of spot volume counts twice toward that tier. Staking and eligible referral discounts can reduce qualifying trading fees.
Quote-to-quote pairs, aligned quote assets, deployer shares and maker rebates can modify the simple table. Use the account-specific fee display and order preview for the exact market.
A spot-trading checklist
Unified accounts use a single balance for each eligible asset across spot and compatible cross-margin positions. Standard mode separates balances. Know the account mode before assuming a displayed balance is available for a specific action.
- Verify the base asset and quote asset.
- Check depth and slippage for the intended size.
- Choose GTC, ALO, IOC or market intent deliberately.
- Confirm the balance location under your account mode.
- Keep enough gas on the source chain for deposits or EVM actions.