Hyperliquid Margin Tiers 2026: Maintenance Margin Explained

The short version: on Hyperliquid, maintenance margin is half the initial margin at the market's maximum leverage. For the biggest markets, a second tier kicks in above a notional size (for example $150M on BTC), where max leverage drops and the maintenance rate goes up. The formula is maintenance_margin = notional × rate − deduction, and the deduction keeps the curve continuous. All tiers are public in the meta info response under marginTables.

Most traders know their leverage and liquidation price. Fewer know that the margin rules change as a position grows. Hyperliquid uses tiered leverage like most centralized exchanges: past a certain notional value, the extra size needs more margin. This guide explains the formula, shows the live tiers we pulled from the API on 21 October 2026 (around 07:10 UTC), works through examples, and gives you a short Python script to compute maintenance margin for any coin. If you just want to watch a wallet's positions and PnL, Hyperfolio does that read-only, with no API keys.

Initial margin vs maintenance margin

• Initial margin is what you post to open: position_size × mark_price / leverage. At 10x, a $100,000 position needs $10,000.
• Maintenance margin is the floor. Hyperliquid's docs set it at half of the initial margin at max leverage. A market with 20x max leverage has a 5% initial margin at max leverage, so its maintenance rate is 2.5%.
• Liquidation starts when account value (including unrealized PnL) falls below maintenance margin. For cross margin the check uses the whole cross account; for isolated it uses only that position's margin and notional. Our liquidation guide covers the rest of the process.

The important detail: the maintenance rate depends on the market's max leverage, not on the leverage you chose. Picking 3x on BTC gives you more buffer, but the liquidation threshold is still computed with BTC's maintenance rate.

The margin tier formula

From the Hyperliquid docs:

• maintenance_margin = notional_position_value × maintenance_margin_rate − maintenance_deduction
• maintenance_margin_rate(tier n) = initial margin rate at the tier's max leverage / 2
• maintenance_deduction(tier 0) = 0
• maintenance_deduction(tier n) = deduction(tier n−1) + lower_bound(tier n) × (rate(tier n) − rate(tier n−1))

The deduction is what makes the system fair. Without it, crossing $150M on BTC would suddenly double the margin on the whole position. With it, only the size above the boundary is charged at the higher rate, and total maintenance margin rises smoothly with position size. The rate and deduction depend only on the tier table, not on the coin.

Live Hyperliquid margin tiers (21 October 2026)

We read marginTables from POST https://api.hyperliquid.xyz/info with {"type":"meta"}. Of 178 active main-DEX perps, only 34 use tiered tables. The rest use a single tier.

Table ID	Markets	Tier 1	Tier 2	Maint. rate (T1 / T2)	Deduction T2
56	BTC	$0–150M at 40x	>$150M at 20x	1.25% / 2.5%	$1,875,000
55	ETH	$0–100M at 25x	>$100M at 15x	2% / 3.33%	$1,333,333
54	SOL	$0–70M at 20x	>$70M at 10x	2.5% / 5%	$1,750,000
53	XRP	$0–40M at 20x	>$40M at 10x	2.5% / 5%	$1,000,000
52	21 markets incl. HYPE, DOGE, LINK, SUI, ENA, ZEC, AAVE, NEAR, PUMP	$0–20M at 10x	>$20M at 5x	5% / 10%	$1,000,000
51	9 markets: BNB, ARB, TRX, kSHIB, DOT, JUP, ONDO, PAXG, XPL	$0–3M at 10x	>$3M at 5x	5% / 10%	$150,000

The full table 52 list was AVAX, LTC, DOGE, SUI, kPEPE, CRV, LINK, BCH, APT, AAVE, WLD, UNI, ADA, NEAR, kBONK, ENA, HYPE, FARTCOIN, TRUMP, PUMP and ZEC. The docs page also lists MKR under table 51, but MKR is flagged as delisted in the API, which is a good reminder to treat the API as the source of truth.

Single-tier markets. For table IDs below 50, there is one tier and the max leverage equals the ID. In our snapshot 56 active markets used table 5 (5x, 10% maintenance) and 88 used table 3 (3x, about 16.7% maintenance). Examples of 5x markets include ATOM, OP, INJ and LDO; examples of 3x markets include GMX, SNX and BLUR. These change as Hyperliquid adjusts listings, so check again before you size a trade.

Worked examples

All numbers below come from the formula and the tables above.

Position	Calculation	Maintenance margin	Effective rate
BTC $100M	100M × 1.25%	$1,250,000	1.25%
BTC $200M	200M × 2.5% − 1.875M	$3,125,000	1.56%
ETH $120M	120M × 3.33% − 1.333M	$2,666,667	2.22%
SOL $80M	80M × 5% − 1.75M	$2,250,000	2.81%
HYPE $25M	25M × 10% − 1M	$1,500,000	6.00%
BNB $5M	5M × 10% − 150k	$350,000	7.00%
OP $1M	1M × 10%	$100,000	10.00%

Check the BTC case at the boundary: $150M × 1.25% = $1.875M, and $150M × 2.5% − $1.875M = $1.875M. Same value from both tiers, so there is no jump. Past the boundary, every extra dollar of BTC costs 2.5% in maintenance margin instead of 1.25%.

What margin tiers mean for your liquidation price

• Most retail traders never leave tier 1. The lowest tiered boundary is $3M (table 51). Under that, your maintenance rate is simply half of 1 / max leverage.
• Large positions get liquidated sooner, in percentage terms. A higher effective maintenance rate means less room for the price to move against you. A $25M HYPE position needs 6% maintenance instead of 5%.
• Cross margin mixes markets. Maintenance margin is added up across all cross positions, so a large tiered position raises the threshold for the whole account. See isolated vs cross margin.
• Leverage caps follow the tiers. The tier table also sets the max leverage for each notional band, so very large positions can't use the headline leverage. Our Hyperliquid leverage guide explains how to change leverage.
• Tiers are not open interest caps. A market can also stop accepting new exposure when it hits its OI cap. That is a separate mechanism, covered in our open interest guide.

To pick a size from your risk instead of guessing, use the position size calculator and keep your stop well above the liquidation price.

Read the tiers from the API with Python

This script reads meta, maps each active coin to its table, handles the "ID below 50" rule, and computes maintenance margin with the deduction formula. No API key or wallet is needed.

import requests

INFO = "https://api.hyperliquid.xyz/info"

def margin_tables():
    meta = requests.post(INFO, json={"type": "meta"}, timeout=10).json()
    tables = {tid: t["marginTiers"] for tid, t in meta["marginTables"]}
    coins = {a["name"]: a["marginTableId"] for a in meta["universe"] if not a.get("isDelisted")}
    return tables, coins

def tiers_for(table_id, tables):
    # IDs below 50 are a single tier whose max leverage equals the ID
    if table_id < 50:
        return [{"lowerBound": "0.0", "maxLeverage": table_id}]
    return tables[table_id]

def maintenance_margin(notional, tiers):
    deduction, prev_rate, mm = 0.0, None, 0.0
    for t in tiers:
        lower = float(t["lowerBound"])
        rate = 1 / t["maxLeverage"] / 2  # half the initial margin at max leverage
        if prev_rate is not None:
            deduction += lower * (rate - prev_rate)
        if notional >= lower:
            mm = notional * rate - deduction
        prev_rate = rate
    return mm

if __name__ == "__main__":
    tables, coins = margin_tables()
    for coin, size in [("BTC", 200e6), ("ETH", 120e6), ("SOL", 80e6), ("HYPE", 25e6), ("BNB", 5e6), ("OP", 1e6)]:
        tiers = tiers_for(coins[coin], tables)
        mm = maintenance_margin(size, tiers)
        print(f"{coin}: ${size:,.0f} -> maintenance margin ${mm:,.0f} ({mm/size:.3%})")

Output on 21 October 2026:

BTC: $200,000,000 -> maintenance margin $3,125,000 (1.562%)
ETH: $120,000,000 -> maintenance margin $2,666,667 (2.222%)
SOL: $80,000,000 -> maintenance margin $2,250,000 (2.812%)
HYPE: $25,000,000 -> maintenance margin $1,500,000 (6.000%)
BNB: $5,000,000 -> maintenance margin $350,000 (7.000%)
OP: $1,000,000 -> maintenance margin $100,000 (10.000%)

The meta request has weight 20 under the REST limits described in our rate limits guide, so cache it rather than calling it on every loop.

Testnet tiers are different

The docs publish lower boundaries on testnet so people can test tier changes with small sizes. For example, testnet BTC has three tiers: 40x up to $10k, 25x from $10k to $50k, and 10x above $50k. Never copy testnet tier numbers into a mainnet risk model. Our testnet guide covers the other differences.

Frequently asked questions

What are margin tiers on Hyperliquid?

They are notional bands with their own max leverage. Above a band's lower bound, the extra size uses a lower max leverage and a higher maintenance margin rate.

How is maintenance margin calculated on Hyperliquid?

Notional value times the tier's maintenance rate, minus the tier's deduction. The maintenance rate is half the initial margin at the tier's max leverage, for example 1.25% at 40x and 5% at 10x.

Which Hyperliquid markets have tiered margin?

In our 21 October 2026 snapshot, 34 of 178 active main-DEX perps: BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, plus 21 markets in the $20M table and 9 in the $3M table. Everything else uses a single tier.

Does choosing lower leverage change my maintenance margin?

No. Maintenance margin depends on the market's tier table and your notional size. Lower leverage only means you post more margin, which puts the liquidation price further away.

Where can I find the current margin tiers?

In the marginTables field of the meta info response, with each coin's marginTableId in universe. The Hyperliquid docs also have a margin tiers page, but the API is the live version.

Do margin tiers affect small accounts?

Almost never. The smallest tier boundary on mainnet is $3M of notional on one market.

Track the risk without doing the math by hand. Paste any wallet into Hyperfolio to see positions, perps and PnL in one read-only view, free. Trading on Hyperliquid? Use code HYPERFOLIO for 4% off fees (how the referral works).