How to Use Sub-Accounts on Hyperliquid

A Hyperliquid sub-account isolates a strategy or a chunk of capital under its own balance and positions, but it has no private key of its own, every action on it is ultimately signed by your master account.

This guide is part of TradeOnDEX’s Hyperliquid how-to series within Perpetual Futures.

Disclosure: TradeOnDEX may earn a commission from links to Hyperliquid on this page, at no extra cost to you. Full details at the end of this article.

What a sub-account actually is

A sub-account behaves like a separate trading account, with its own balance, positions, and margin, but it isn’t a separate wallet in the self-custody sense. It has no private key: signing on its behalf is done by your master account, or by an API wallet the master account has explicitly approved.

This means for you, concretely: sub-accounts are a way to organize and isolate risk across strategies within your own control, not a way to create genuinely independent, separately-custodied accounts.

Eligibility and limits

You need $100,000 in trading volume before you can create your first sub-accounts, and can create up to 10 initially. Every additional $100 million in volume unlocks one more, up to a maximum of 50 sub-accounts total.

How to create and use a sub-account, step by step

1. Confirm your account meets the volume threshold; the option won’t be available otherwise.
2. Go to the Sub-Accounts section of the app.
3. Create a new sub-account, giving it a name that reflects its purpose (a specific strategy, a specific risk allocation, etc.).
4. Move funds between your master account and a sub-account using the transfer function, this moves collateral, it isn’t a withdrawal off the platform.
5. Trade within the sub-account as you would a normal account; its positions and margin stay isolated from your master account and your other sub-accounts.

Risk: what sub-accounts do and don’t protect against

Sub-accounts isolate trading risk from each other, not custody risk from your master account. Because sub-accounts have no private key, a compromise of your master account’s wallet compromises every sub-account under it. This is a meaningfully different security model from holding genuinely separate wallets.

Isolating strategies helps with clarity and risk containment, not performance. Running one strategy in a dedicated sub-account makes its P&L easy to track independently, but it doesn’t change the underlying risk of that strategy, a losing strategy loses money whether it’s isolated in a sub-account or not.

API wallet approvals extend trust, deliberately. If you approve an API wallet to trade on behalf of a sub-account (for automated strategies, for example), that wallet inherits real trading authority over that sub-account’s funds. Treat API wallet approvals with the same caution as any other credential that can move your money.

Transfers between master and sub-accounts move funds within the platform, not off it. Don’t confuse a sub-account transfer with a withdrawal, your funds remain on Hyperliquid, subject to the same platform-level risks (smart contract, oracle, liquidation-engine risk) covered elsewhere in this series, regardless of which account holds them.

Sub-accounts vs. separate wallets: an honest comparison

See it for yourself

If you’re managing more than one strategy, try sub-accounts for the organizational clarity, but keep the custody trade-off in mind: they don’t reduce your exposure to a compromised master wallet. You can review the sub-accounts panel at app.hyperliquid.xyz.

Frequently asked questions

Do sub-accounts have their own private key?

No. They’re signed for by the master account or an approved API wallet, not an independent key.

How much trading volume do I need before creating a sub-account?

$100,000 in trading volume unlocks the ability to create up to 10 sub-accounts, with more becoming available at higher volume thresholds.

Does a compromised master wallet put my sub-accounts at risk too?

Yes. Since sub-accounts have no independent key, they inherit the security of the master account entirely.

Can I transfer funds directly between two sub-accounts?

Transfers are generally routed through the master account rather than directly between sub-accounts; check the current transfer interface for the exact flow.

Affiliate disclosure

TradeOnDEX may earn a commission if you trade through a link on this page, at no extra cost to you. Hyperliquid’s own affiliate/referral terms are still being confirmed for this site, so links here are direct and untracked for now. This article is educational and is not financial advice. See our disclaimer for the full risk warning.