Hyperliquid Tax UK: Perp DEX, Funding Rates and HLP Vault (2025/26)

Hyperliquid has become one of the largest perp-DEX venues by volume, and a meaningful share of that volume is UK retail. The tax treatment of Hyperliquid activity differs from spot DEX trading in several specific ways. This guide covers what UK users actually need on Self Assessment for the 2025/26 year.

Perpetuals are not spot disposals

Opening a long ETH-PERP on Hyperliquid is not a disposal of any spot crypto. You are entering a derivative contract, with your USDC collateral as margin. The same applies to closing the position — there is no spot disposal, only the realised PnL on the contract.

This is the single most important routing decision: perp PnL is miscellaneous income in HMRC's view, not capital gain. The reasoning is that HMRC treats most retail derivative profit as miscellaneous receipts under the Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Act 2005 unless the activity rises to the level of a trade.

How PnL is calculated for UK reporting

The clean way is one row per closed position: entry notional minus exit notional, plus funding flows received, minus funding flows paid, expressed in GBP at the close timestamp. Hyperliquid's CSV export already provides this per-trade. Convert the USD figures to GBP at the daily Bank of England rate or block-time rate (Hyperliquid's UI shows order timestamps).

A position closed at +£420 PnL is £420 of miscellaneous income for the year, taxed at your marginal income rate (basic 20%, higher 40%, additional 45%).

Funding rate flows

Funding payments you receive are income at the moment they accrue. Funding you pay is a deductible cost against the position. Most UK filers net these into the position PnL number rather than reporting them separately; HMRC accepts the netted figure provided records show the gross components.

The HLP vault

Depositing USDC into the Hyperliquid HLP vault is not a disposal of USDC (HMRC's transitional view: the deposit returns a vault unit representing a claim on the underlying). The yield accruing inside HLP is income at the time it credits to your vault position.

Withdrawing HLP units to USDC is also generally not a disposal under the same transitional treatment. The position is effectively a yield-bearing deposit, taxed annually on accrued yield rather than on entry and exit.

This treatment is HMRC's working position for similar vault structures; it is not yet codified specifically for Hyperliquid HLP. Filers should keep records that allow the reverse treatment (disposal-on-entry, disposal-on-exit) if HMRC clarifies otherwise.

HYPE token receipts

Airdropped HYPE tokens are miscellaneous income at the GBP value at receipt. The same value becomes the Section 104 cost basis. Selling HYPE later for USDC or USD is a CGT disposal at the GBP value of the proceeds.

If you are staking HYPE for fee discounts or governance, the staked position is not a disposal. Any reward rebase or emission is income at GBP value when it accrues.

Trader-versus-investor escalation

Heavy Hyperliquid use can push UK users into "trader" classification under the badges-of-trade test. Daily activity, leveraged positions, systematic profit motive, and substantial capital recycling are exactly the indicators HMRC weighs. Trading status moves perp PnL from miscellaneous income (taxed at marginal rates) to self-employment income on SA103 with Class 4 NI, but allows business expense deductions and treats losses as offsettable against other income.

The threshold is fact-dependent. Casual users with monthly activity stay in the miscellaneous-income bucket. Daily traders running multiple positions concurrently are more likely to be trading.

Records the filing needs

For each closed position: open timestamp, close timestamp, asset, side, size, entry price, exit price, realised PnL in USDC, GBP equivalent at close. For HLP: deposit timestamps, withdrawal timestamps, accrued yield by week-end. For HYPE: airdrop dates and GBP values, plus disposal events.

Hyperliquid's portfolio export covers the first set. HLP yield needs a weekly snapshot since the platform shows cumulative rather than incremental.

CryptoLens reads Hyperliquid CSVs as derivative-income events rather than spot disposals, routes funding flows correctly, and presents HLP yield as a separate annual income line.