How to deposit to Hyperliquid, and which chains work

The thing most guides get wrong

Nearly every walkthrough still says the same thing: bridge USDC to Arbitrum, then deposit. Arbitrum works and remains the most convenient route, but the deposit window now accepts considerably more than that.

USDC is accepted from Arbitrum, Ethereum, Base and Polygon.

Native assets are accepted directly from their own chains: BTC from Bitcoin, ETH and ENA from Ethereum, SOL and a handful of Solana tokens, MON from Monad, XPL from Plasma, AVAX from Avalanche, and ZEC from Zcash.

The distinction that matters is what happens on arrival. USDC lands ready to use as perpetuals collateral. Everything else lands as a spot holding, and you have to sell it for USDC or another quote asset before it can back a perpetual position.

Step by step, the USDC route

1. Get USDC on a supported chain

   If you already hold USDC on a centralised exchange, withdrawing it to Arbitrum is usually the cheapest path. If your USDC is on another chain, Circle’s cross-chain transfer protocol moves it natively, and general-purpose bridges also work.

   Keep a small amount of the chain’s gas token. You need it to send the deposit, and nothing more.

   You should see a USDC balance plus a little of that chain's gas token in your wallet

2. Open the deposit window

   Click Deposit in the app. Choose the asset and chain you are sending from before you copy anything.

   You should see a destination address and a QR code, with a chain selector

3. Send from your wallet or exchange

   For USDC from a connected wallet, enter the amount and confirm in your wallet. For a transfer from a centralised exchange, paste the deposit address and pick the matching network.

   Send a small test amount first if this is a new route for you. The cost of a test is a few cents of gas; the cost of a mistake is the whole transfer.

   You should see a confirmed transaction on the source chain's explorer

4. Wait for it to arrive

   Most routes take a few minutes. Native-asset deposits handled by Unit can take longer because they wait for confirmations on the source chain.

   You should see the balance appearing in your Perps account

5. Move it where you need it

   USDC on HyperCore can sit in your Perps balance or your Spot balance. Perpetual positions draw on the Perps balance. Transferring between the two is an in-app action, not a withdrawal, and costs nothing.

   You should see collateral in the account you intend to trade from

What each route is good for

Route	Typical speed	Cost	Best for
USDC from Arbitrum	Minutes	Low source-chain gas	Almost everyone
USDC from Ethereum	Minutes	Higher gas	You already hold USDC on Ethereum
USDC from Base or Polygon	Minutes	Low gas	Funds already on those chains
Native BTC, ETH, SOL and others	Longer, waits for confirmations	Source-chain fee	Moving an existing holding in without a separate swap
Cross-chain USDC transfer protocol	Minutes	Source-chain gas	USDC on a chain the window does not list

Why your deposit might not appear

Work through these in order before contacting anyone.

Check the source chain explorer. If the transaction has not confirmed, nothing on Hyperliquid’s side is wrong yet.

Check you sent the right token. Several chains carry more than one asset called USDC. The bridged variants are different contracts and will not credit.

Check the right balance. A deposit can land in Spot when you were watching Perps. They are separate balances on the same account.

Check the chain you selected. The deposit address is chain-specific. Sending on a chain the window did not offer for that asset is the one failure mode that is genuinely hard to recover from.

Getting money back out

Withdrawals go through the same Withdraw button and settle to the chain you choose. Depending on the destination and method there may be a small gas cost to process it. Our withdrawal guide covers the sequence and the common hold-ups.