Pump.fun, the app best known for Solana memecoins, now lets users trade perpetual futures from inside the same app. The trades are not executed by Pump.fun itself. They run on Hyperliquid, the on-chain perpetuals exchange, while Pump.fun provides the interface. This guide explains how that setup works, what it costs, how leverage and liquidation behave, who can use it, and what risks traders should understand before opening a position.
Last updated: October 2026. Fees, leverage limits and eligibility rules can change, so always confirm current figures on the official pages linked below.
Key Takeaways
- Hyperliquid is the engine behind the perps. Pump.fun is the app that routes orders to it.
- Hyperliquid handles order matching, margin, funding payments and liquidations.
- Pump.fun earns a builder fee on each order. Hyperliquid's own trading fee is charged separately.
- Leverage magnifies losses as well as gains, and positions can be liquidated quickly.
- Reports say users in the United States and Ontario, Canada, are not allowed to use the feature.
1. What Are Hyperliquid Perps on Pump.fun?
Hyperliquid perps on Pump.fun are perpetual futures contracts that users can open from within the Pump.fun app. The contracts are listed and executed on Hyperliquid. Pump.fun supplies the screens, the wallet experience and the order entry. Users can go long or short on markets that cover crypto, stocks and commodities, and they fund positions with USDC or SOL held in their Pump.fun wallet, according to PANews.
In practical terms, the feature extends Pump.fun beyond memecoin launches and spot trading into leveraged derivatives, without the company having to build or run its own derivatives exchange. For the original announcement coverage, see our news report on the Pump.fun and Hyperliquid launch.
2. What Are Perpetual Futures?
A perpetual future, or "perp," is a derivative contract that tracks the price of an asset but has no expiry date. Traders can hold a long or short position for as long as they keep enough collateral in the account. A trader who buys a Bitcoin perp does not own any Bitcoin. They hold a contract whose value follows the Bitcoin price.
Because the contract never settles, perps use a funding rate, a periodic payment between long and short traders, to keep the contract price close to the spot price.
| Feature | Spot trading | Perpetual futures |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership of the asset | Yes | No, only a contract that tracks the price |
| Expiry date | Not applicable | None |
| Leverage | Usually none | Available, up to a market-specific limit |
| Short selling | Limited | Built in |
| Ongoing cost | None | Funding payments |
| Liquidation risk | No | Yes, if margin falls too low |
3. What Is Hyperliquid and Why Do Apps Build on It?
Hyperliquid is an on-chain exchange for perpetual futures that runs its own Layer 1 blockchain and a fully on-chain order book. It is the largest venue in the perp DEX category, competing with platforms such as Aster and Lighter. You can compare these platforms on our Hyperliquid page, along with Aster and Lighter.
Apps build on Hyperliquid because they can offer derivatives trading without building matching, margining and liquidation systems themselves. They reuse Hyperliquid's liquidity and earn a fee on the orders they route through builder codes. The result is that Hyperliquid increasingly acts as backend infrastructure for consumer apps, while those apps compete on user experience and distribution.
4. How Hyperliquid Perps Work Inside Pump.fun
When a user opens a perp position in Pump.fun, the app sends the order to Hyperliquid's trading engine. Hyperliquid matches the order, manages the collateral and open positions, and applies funding and liquidations. Pump.fun's job is to present the markets, take the user's order and display the results. Reporting by Bitcoin.com News notes that positions also remain accessible through Hyperliquid itself, so a user is not locked into the Pump.fun interface.
Users trade from the USDC or SOL balance in their Pump.fun wallet, and the announcement says no manual cross-chain bridging is required. Reports also mention a separate bridge-transfer fee of up to 0.25% in some cases, so it is worth reading the in-app fee page before moving funds.
5. Pump.fun vs Hyperliquid: Who Does What?
The split of responsibilities is the most important thing to understand about this feature. The table below summarizes it.
| Function | Pump.fun | Hyperliquid |
|---|---|---|
| User interface and wallet | Yes | No |
| Order matching | No | Yes |
| Margin and collateral handling | No | Yes |
| Funding payments | No | Yes |
| Liquidations | No | Yes |
| Builder fee on each order | Yes | No |
| Trading fee on each fill | No | Yes |
Pump.fun's terms also state that it does not act as the counterparty to the trade, as reported by Altcoin Buzz.
6. What Are Builder Codes and How Do They Work?
Builder codes are Hyperliquid's on-chain mechanism that lets an app earn a fee on orders it routes for a user. According to the official Hyperliquid builder codes documentation:
- The fee is set per order, so apps keep flexibility over what they charge.
- The user must approve a maximum builder fee for each builder, and can revoke that permission at any time.
- The approval must be signed by the user's main wallet, not an agent wallet.
- Builder fees can be at most 0.1% on perps and 1% on spot.
- The builder must hold at least 100 USDC in perps account value.
For traders, the key point is that a builder fee is an extra cost layered on top of Hyperliquid's own fees, and the approved maximum is a ceiling that the app cannot exceed. Hyperliquid overview covers how this fits into the wider ecosystem.
7. Pump.fun Perps Fees Explained
A trade made through Pump.fun can involve several cost layers. Reports describe Pump.fun's builder fee as charged when a position is opened, increased or closed. Published figures differ slightly between outlets: TokenPost reports 0.05% per trade, while Bitcoin.com News reports up to 0.10% per order. Because Hyperliquid caps builder fees on perps at 0.1%, any figure above that would not be possible. Always check Pump.fun's current fee page.
| Cost | Who charges it | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Builder fee | Pump.fun | Capped at 0.1% on perps by Hyperliquid; reported between 0.05% and 0.10% |
| Trading fee (maker or taker) | Hyperliquid | Base perps rates are about 0.015% maker and 0.045% taker, falling with volume. See the official fees page |
| Funding payments | Paid between traders | Depends on the market and can be positive or negative |
| Bridge transfer fee | Pump.fun | Reported at up to 0.25% in some cases |
As an illustration, at a 0.10% builder fee, a $10,000 order carries a $10 builder fee, with Hyperliquid's trading fee and funding costs billed separately.
8. Leverage on Hyperliquid Perps: How It Works
Leverage lets a trader control a position larger than the collateral they put up. With 10x leverage, a $1,000 deposit controls a $10,000 position. Gains and losses are calculated on the full position size, which is why a small adverse price move can erase most or all of the collateral.
Maximum leverage is set per market and can change. Reports at launch listed up to 40x on Bitcoin, 25x on Ether, 20x on stocks such as Tesla and Nvidia, and 50x on the S&P 500 contract. Treat these as examples rather than permanent limits, and check the market screen before trading. Higher leverage places the liquidation price closer to the entry price, so position sizing matters more than the headline maximum. Hyperliquid's margining documentation explains how margin requirements are calculated.
| Leverage | Position size | Approximate price move against you that wipes out the deposit |
|---|---|---|
| 2x | $2,000 | About 50% |
| 5x | $5,000 | About 20% |
| 10x | $10,000 | About 10% |
| 20x | $20,000 | About 5% |
The figures above are simplified. Actual liquidation happens slightly earlier because of maintenance margin requirements and fees.
9. Isolated Margin, Take-Profit and Stop-Loss Explained
Isolated margin keeps the collateral for one position separate from the rest of your funds. If that position is liquidated, your other positions and balances are not used to cover it. Hyperliquid's documentation states that liquidations in an isolated position do not affect other isolated or cross positions. This makes it easier to cap the loss on a single trade, although the entire collateral assigned to that position can still be lost.
Take-profit (TP) and stop-loss (SL) orders close a position automatically at a price you choose. A stop-loss set before the liquidation price can limit the damage from a sudden move, while a take-profit locks in gains at a target. Pump.fun's perps support isolated margin along with TP and SL settings.
10. Funding Rates and Liquidation: What Every Trader Should Know
Funding rates
The funding rate is a payment between longs and shorts, not a fee collected by the exchange. When the rate is positive, longs pay shorts. When it is negative, shorts pay longs. Hyperliquid settles funding on a regular schedule, and the cost depends on position size and the current rate. For a trade held for hours or days, funding can become a meaningful cost, especially at high leverage.
Liquidation
A position is liquidated when its margin falls below the maintenance requirement. According to the Hyperliquid liquidations documentation, liquidations use the mark price, which blends external exchange prices with Hyperliquid's order book state, and most liquidations are sent to the order book so the trader can keep any remaining margin. If that fails, a backstop mechanism run through the liquidator vault can take over positions that fall below two-thirds of the maintenance margin, and in that case the maintenance margin is not returned to the user.
The practical lesson is to use a stop-loss well before the liquidation price and to avoid maximum leverage, since a small move can trigger a liquidation within minutes.
11. Risks of Trading Perps Through a Third-Party App
Trading perps carries market risk, and using an app on top of an exchange adds a few more layers. The table below groups the main risks.
| Risk | What it means | How to reduce it |
|---|---|---|
| Leverage risk | A small price move can liquidate the position | Use lower leverage and a stop-loss |
| Funding cost | Holding a position can cost money over time | Check the funding rate before holding long term |
| Indicative prices | Reports say prices and liquidation levels shown in the app are indicative only | Cross-check against Hyperliquid's own data |
| Platform and smart contract risk | Bugs or outages in the app or the underlying protocol | Trade only what you can afford to lose |
| Fee stacking | Builder fee, trading fee and funding add up | Review every cost layer before trading |
| Regulatory risk | Access can be restricted by region | Read the terms and follow local rules |
12. Who Can and Cannot Use Pump.fun Perps?
Pump.fun's terms bar users in the United States, including American territories, and in Ontario, Canada, from accessing perps, as reported by Bitcoin.com News and Bankless. Other jurisdictions may also be excluded, and using a VPN to get around restrictions is not allowed. Restrictions can change, so read the current terms inside the app before trading, and make sure derivatives trading is legal where you live.
13. Pump.fun Perps vs Trading Directly on Hyperliquid
Because both routes end up on the same exchange, the main differences are cost, interface and eligibility.
| Factor | Through Pump.fun | Directly on Hyperliquid |
|---|---|---|
| Execution engine | Hyperliquid | Hyperliquid |
| Fees | Hyperliquid fee plus Pump.fun builder fee | Hyperliquid fee only |
| Interface | Pump.fun app, familiar to memecoin traders | Hyperliquid's own interface or other terminals |
| Funding the account | USDC or SOL from the Pump.fun wallet | USDC deposit to Hyperliquid |
| Convenience | One app for memecoins and perps | More setup, more control |
| Eligibility | Pump.fun's terms apply | Hyperliquid's terms apply |
Traders who want the lowest possible cost may prefer the direct route, while those who value convenience may accept the builder fee for a single-app experience.
14. How to Get Started Safely: A Beginner Checklist
- Confirm eligibility. Check that you are allowed to use the feature in your region.
- Read the fee page. Note the builder fee, Hyperliquid's trading fee and any bridge fee.
- Start small. Use a small amount and low leverage while you learn how liquidation works.
- Use isolated margin. Keep the risk from each trade separate.
- Set a stop-loss. Place it well before the liquidation price.
- Watch funding. Check the funding rate before holding a position for more than a few hours.
- Protect your wallet. Keep your seed phrase private and review every approval you sign, including builder fee approvals.
- Never risk money you cannot afford to lose.
15. Frequently Asked Questions
Does Pump.fun run its own exchange for perps?
No. Pump.fun provides the app and Hyperliquid runs the trading engine, including order matching, margin, funding and liquidations.
Are Hyperliquid perps on Pump.fun safe?
No leveraged product is risk free. The main risks are leverage and liquidation, funding costs, indicative pricing in the app, and platform or smart contract risk. Use low leverage, a stop-loss and only money you can afford to lose.
What fees apply when trading perps through Pump.fun?
Pump.fun charges a builder fee, which Hyperliquid caps at 0.1% on perps. Hyperliquid's own trading fee is charged on top, and funding payments may apply while you hold a position. Check Pump.fun's fee page for current figures.
What markets can I trade?
Reports say Pump.fun offers more than 300 Hyperliquid markets covering crypto, stocks and commodities. The exact list can change over time.
Do I need to bridge funds to trade?
Pump.fun says users can trade with USDC or SOL from their Pump.fun wallet without manual cross-chain bridging. A bridge-transfer fee of up to 0.25% has been reported in some cases, so check the in-app terms.
Can US residents use Pump.fun perps?
No. Reports say users in the United States and Ontario, Canada, are barred from the feature. Always check the current terms.
Is it better to trade directly on Hyperliquid?
Trading directly avoids the Pump.fun builder fee, but requires more setup. Pump.fun offers convenience inside one app at a slightly higher cost. See the comparison table in section 13.
Conclusion
Hyperliquid perps on Pump.fun combine Hyperliquid's execution infrastructure with Pump.fun's large retail audience. For traders, the essential points are that Hyperliquid, not Pump.fun, handles the trade; that fees come in layers; that leverage and liquidation can move quickly; and that access is restricted in some regions. Understanding those basics, and verifying current limits and fees on the official pages, is the best way to use the feature responsibly.
Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only and is not investment advice. Trading perpetual futures with leverage involves a high risk of loss.
