Maintenance margin and margin tiers explained

Maintenance margin is the minimum equity a leveraged position must keep while it is open; when the account's equity falls below it, the position is liquidated. On Hyperliquid it is set at half of the initial margin at an asset's maximum leverage, and for large positions it rises in steps called margin tiers, with a deduction that keeps the requirement continuous.

This guide explains both parts, shows the published tiers for the largest markets and works through the arithmetic for a large position.

Initial margin vs maintenance margin

Two margin numbers belong to every leveraged position:

• Initial margin is what it takes to open the position: the position size times the mark price, divided by the leverage.¹ A $10,000 position at 10x needs $1,000.
• Maintenance margin is the floor while the position is open. It is a smaller share of the notional, and it is what the exchange compares the account's equity against to decide whether to liquidate.

The gap between the two is the room a position has to lose before it is closed. A position opened with exactly the initial margin can lose the difference between initial and maintenance margin; everything beyond that triggers the liquidation process. The price at which that happens is the position's liquidation price, and how far the market is from it is described on the distance to liquidation page.

How Hyperliquid sets the maintenance margin rate

Hyperliquid derives the rate from the asset's maximum leverage: the maintenance margin rate is half of the initial margin rate at maximum leverage.² Maximum leverage varies by asset from 3x to 40x, so the rate runs from 1.25% to 16.7% of the position value.²

Rates follow the rule in the Hyperliquid docs (maintenance rate = initial margin rate at maximum leverage ÷ 2).³

The rate depends on the maximum leverage of the market, not on the leverage a trader chooses. A BTC position opened at 3x and one opened at 40x carry the same maintenance rate; the 3x position simply has far more equity above that floor.

Margin tiers: lower leverage for larger positions

A single rate would treat a small position and one thousands of times larger alike, although the second is far harder to close on the order book. Margin tiers solve that. Above a notional threshold, the maximum leverage drops and the maintenance rate for the part above the threshold rises.

Like most centralised exchanges, Hyperliquid uses this tiered formula:³

maintenance_margin = notional_position_value * maintenance_margin_rate - maintenance_deduction

The rate and the deduction depend only on the tier. The deduction of the first tier is zero; for every higher tier it is:³

maintenance_deduction(n) = maintenance_deduction(n - 1)
    + notional_position_lower_bound(n) * (maintenance_margin_rate(n) - maintenance_margin_rate(n - 1))

The deduction exists so that the requirement does not jump at a tier boundary. Without it, a position one dollar above the threshold would suddenly owe the higher rate on its whole size. With it, each extra dollar above the threshold adds margin at the higher rate, and the total stays a continuous function of position size.

The published tiers of the largest markets

At the time of writing, Hyperliquid lists these mainnet tiers for its largest markets:³

Tables are found in the meta response of Hyperliquid's info API; a margin table with an id below 50 is a single tier whose maximum leverage equals the id.³

What tiers do to the liquidation price

A higher maintenance requirement means less room before liquidation. Two positions with the same leverage but very different sizes therefore have different liquidation prices: the larger one sits closer to its entry. For tiered markets, Hyperliquid takes the maintenance leverage from the tier that matches the position's value at the liquidation price, not at entry.²

Our liquidation calculator loads the current tiers of Hyperliquid's main perpetual markets (not the builder-deployed HIP-3 markets) from that meta response, and the tiers of the largest Bybit linear contracts by open interest from Bybit's public risk-limit data, and applies them with the formula above. It picks the tier by the notional at entry and leaves out fees and funding, so for positions close to a tier boundary its result is an approximation.

Maintenance margin in the liquidation process

The maintenance margin is also the reference for every later step of a liquidation on Hyperliquid:²

1. Equity below the maintenance margin: the position is closed with market orders on the order book. If enough is closed to meet the requirement again, the remaining collateral stays with the trader.
2. Equity below two thirds of the maintenance margin without a successful book liquidation: the liquidator vault takes over the position.
3. In that backstop case, the maintenance margin is not returned to the trader.

A different, higher threshold applies to taking money out. Unrealised profit can be withdrawn only if the remaining margin is at least the initial margin requirement and at least 10% of the total open notional.¹ That rule limits withdrawals; it does not trigger liquidations.

Limits

Maintenance rates, tier boundaries and maximum leverage are venue parameters and change over time; the tables here are the published values at the time of writing. Each centralised exchange uses its own tiers and deductions under the same formula. For the margin of a live position, the venue's own number is the reference; to keep an eye on one, Liquidation Guard alerts when a position comes within a chosen distance of its liquidation price.