PerpLog Fee Model: 0.01% Builder Code with HYPE Staking Discount
What a trade actually costs
When you execute through the Position Sizer, Hyperliquid's builder-code mechanism skims a fee from settlement and routes it to PerpLog's wallet. The base rate is 0.01%, already 10× below the 0.1% cap Hyperliquid imposes on builders. If you stake HYPE on Hyperliquid, your trading discount automatically applies to PerpLog too — same tiers, same percentages.
HYPE staking discount curve (mirror of HL)
| Tier | HYPE staked | HL discount | Your PerpLog fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| None | 0 | 0% | 0.01000% |
| Wood | > 10 | 5% | 0.00950% |
| Bronze | > 100 | 10% | 0.00900% |
| Silver | > 1,000 | 15% | 0.00850% |
| Gold | > 10,000 | 20% | 0.00800% |
| Platinum | > 100,000 | 30% | 0.00700% |
| Diamond | > 500,000 | 40% | 0.00600% |
Source: Hyperliquid fees documentation. Your effective PerpLog fee is computed live at trade time from your current HYPE stake.
Where the fee goes
100% to PerpLog (Thomas, the builder). That's how builder codes are designed: Jeff Yan explicitly built the mechanism so application developers could capture revenue for the value they add, same way YouTube creators earn from their content. Matt Huang (Paradigm) called it “a brilliant way of franchising out the user experience.” Examples from the Hyperliquid ecosystem: Phantom Wallet earns ~$100k/day from its HL integration, PVP.trade has accumulated $7.2M in builder revenue, and $70M+ has flowed to builders since the feature launched in October 2024. None of those builders run a prize pool to roundtrip user money.
Internal waterfall (the honest breakdown)
The daily USDC revenue flows through this priority order:
- Infrastructure — Firebase, Cloudflare, Google Cloud, AI APIs, domains. Actual cost, itemized per category on /stats/revenue.
- Founder cash draw — ratchets with MRR, capped at $50k/month hard ceiling. Below SaaS founder-comp norms at equivalent ARR. Full schedule at /docs/compensation.
- Team salaries(as hires come online) — market-rate EU tech. Cash + HYPE equity pattern mirroring HL's own team compensation.
- Runway reserve — 3–6 months operating buffer.
- Surplus → HYPE accumulation. Every remaining dollar is swapped from USDC to HYPE on the Hyperliquid spot market and staked on Hyperliquid (delegated to validators, multi-year internal vesting for team). Live balance public at /stats/hype-position.
Why no prize pools or redistribution
Earlier iterations of PerpLog proposed a 70/24/6 split where 70% of fees would flow into a Season prize pool redistributed to top traders by discipline + volume + engagement score. That model was abandoned after a closer reading of what Jeff Yan actually designed builder codes for.
- Builder codes are a revenue mechanism, not a redistribution mechanism. Every sustainable builder in the HL ecosystem keeps their fee as direct revenue (Phantom, PVP.trade, trading bots, etc.). None run a redistribution contest. There is no example in the $70M+ of builder revenue distributed since October 2024 of anyone roundtripping user money via a prize pool.
- Redistribution was zero-sum.The high-volume traders would have subsidized the contest won by high-volume-high-discipline traders. Net effect: mediocre traders pay for skilled traders' prizes. That is the opposite of fair.
- Gaming surface was real. Any scoring with subjective components (weekly reviews validated, playbook compliance, habit days) is farmable. The simpler the mechanism, the harder it is to game. A flat fee with a transparent staking discount has zero gaming surface.
- Simpler beats clever for a solo-founded protocol.Vitalik's credible-neutrality writing: mechanisms should be legible without preamble. 0.01% minus a tier discount is legible. A tiered Merkle-rooted discipline-weighted prize pool is not.
The ownerless v3 SeasonPrizePool contract at 0x661a949597420C21939047515361f37b15F0b44F remains deployed but idle. It may be used in the future if a genuinely non-redistributive reward use-case emerges (e.g. a community-funded bounty for a specific initiative). It will never host a revenue-redistribution pool.
Why HYPE accumulation (and not USDC)
Builder code fees arrive in USDC. PerpLog immediately swaps them to HYPE on the Hyperliquid spot market and stakes the HYPE on-chain. Three effects compound:
- Ecosystem buy pressure. Every fee dollar (after infra + founder + team cash) pushes HYPE up on the open market. Exactly the Assistance Fund pattern Hyperliquid itself uses (99% of HLP profits → HYPE buybacks).
- Skin in the game.PerpLog's treasury is the same asset the community holds. Team wealth literally depends on HYPE appreciating. No USDC hoard.
- Self-reinforcing fee discount.The staked HYPE qualifies PerpLog's hot wallet for HL staking-tier discounts, which lowers our own trading fees on HL, which means more margin on every trade. The team benefits from the same mechanism the users do.
Verifiability
Everything is reconstructible from public data:
- Fee collection: Hyperliquid publishes a daily CSV of all builder fills at
stats-data.hyperliquid.xyz/Mainnet/builder_fills/0x42c137538bee9d7eca612b41a807b5fb7b863c20/. Total fee revenue is transparent by day. - USDC → HYPE swap: executed on the Hyperliquid spot market by the PerpLog hot wallet. Visible in the wallet's trading history.
- HYPE staking: delegation actions on HyperCore are public. Anyone can check the staked balance via the
delegatorSummaryinfo endpoint. - Dashboards: /stats/revenue shows daily revenue; /stats/hype-position shows the cumulative HYPE balance and staking state.
Related: compensation breakdown · no-token philosophy · trust model · live revenue stats · live HYPE position.