NEAR adds cross margin to confidential perps powered by Hyperliquid

NEAR Protocol has rolled out cross-margin on its Hyperliquid-powered perpetuals platform, allowing trading positions to share a single perps balance while retaining what the project describes as confidential trading.

Summary

• Positions can draw collateral from a shared perps balance instead of holding separate margin.
• NEAR's privacy explanation describes dedicated Hyperliquid accounts with confidential deposits and withdrawals.
• Hyperliquid documents account-level liquidation rules for positions that use shared cross margin.
• The platform advertises more than 50 markets, with U.S. persons excluded from access.

NEAR Protocol announced the feature on Oct. 22, saying positions now share the user's perps balance as margin. Its accompanying image presents cross and isolated margin alongside the platform's confidentiality claim.

"Positions now share your perps balance as margin instead of each holding its own," the project said.

The announcement identifies perps.near.com as the trading interface and Hyperliquid as the underlying provider. NEAR's message says the feature is live, although it does not provide trading volume, user counts, or figures showing how much collateral customers have committed.

NEAR describes confidentiality through a dedicated trading account

NEAR's product page gives a more specific description of privacy than the short launch announcement. The service says each user receives a dedicated account for trading perpetuals on Hyperliquid, with confidential deposits and withdrawals to and from that account.

The Oct. 22 post describes positions as confidential, stating "nobody can tell they're yours." The product page's explanation centers on the account and its funding flows, without establishing that every order, execution, or position record disappears from Hyperliquid's public infrastructure.

Neither the announcement nor that explanation provides an independent assessment of whether observers could identify users through other information. The material supports reporting NEAR's confidentiality claim, but not a guarantee that trading activity cannot be linked to a person under any circumstances.

For funding, the site says NEAR Intents converts supported assets into the required margin currency. Users can start with assets held across connected networks, while funding and settlement transactions are signed on their devices, according to the service.

Cross margin shares collateral across eligible positions

Hyperliquid's documentation describes cross margin as collateral shared among cross-margin positions. Isolated margin assigns collateral to an individual position, separating it from the collateral used elsewhere in the account.

Its rules allow unrealized profits from cross-margin positions to become available as initial margin for new trades. For isolated positions, unrealized profit instead becomes additional margin for the existing position, the documentation states.

Hyperliquid calculates initial margin from position size, mark price, and the leverage selected by the trader. Maximum leverage depends on the asset, so the platform's advertised ceiling does not apply equally to every market.

The documentation says leverage is checked when a position opens. Afterward, users must monitor their exposure, with available actions including closing positions, adding collateral to isolated trades or depositing USDC for cross-margin positions.

Hyperliquid distinguishes how cross-margin works across different perpetual exchanges deployed on its infrastructure. Its documentation says collateral sharing across those venues depends on the account mode and collateral type. NEAR's announcement does not specify which of those configurations its interface supports.

Hyperliquid applies account-level liquidation rules

Hyperliquid's liquidation rules say positions become subject to liquidation when account equity falls below the required maintenance margin. The platform first attempts to close positions through orders sent to its order book. Remaining collateral stays with the trader when the resulting closures restore compliance with margin requirements.

If account equity falls below two-thirds of maintenance margin and liquidation through the book has not succeeded, the documentation describes a backstop process involving the liquidator vault.

For a cross-margin backstop liquidation, Hyperliquid says the trader's cross positions and cross collateral transfer to the liquidator. An isolated backstop liquidation transfers the affected position and its assigned margin while leaving cross-margin positions untouched.

The exchange uses a mark price for liquidations. Its pricing documentation says that measure combines external market information with Hyperliquid trading data and is used for margin calculations, unrealized profit and loss, and take-profit or stop-loss triggers.

Funding payments can change an account's balance while positions remain open. Hyperliquid states that funding is exchanged hourly between long and short holders, with the payment direction determined by the funding rate. The exchange says it collects no fee on those transfers.

NEAR's perps service excludes U.S. persons

The product page advertises access to more than 50 perpetual markets with leverage of up to 40 times. It explicitly states that perpetuals are unavailable to U.S. persons and users in other restricted jurisdictions, alongside a warning that leveraged trading carries a substantial risk of loss.

NEAR's relationship with Hyperliquid includes direct token trading. On Sep. 23, crypto.news reported that NEAR spot trading had become available against USDC, alongside an existing perpetual market for the token. The announcement cited in that article said inclusion on Hyperliquid's Strict List would take several more days after deployment.