A position is liquidated when account equity falls below the maintenance margin for that position. The trigger and the price that measures it are both worth understanding before you size a trade.
The price that liquidates you isn’t the Hyperliquid price
Mark price comes from an oracle, not from Hyperliquid’s own book. Each validator computes a weighted median of spot prices across centralised exchanges, weighted by their liquidity.
The practical consequence: a wick on Hyperliquid that isn’t reflected elsewhere won’t liquidate you. A move in the underlying spot market will, even if Hyperliquid’s book hasn’t caught up.
Calculating your liquidation price
It depends on entry, leverage, the maintenance margin for that asset’s tier, and — in cross margin — every other position you hold. The interface shows it live, and it moves as you add or remove margin.
Maintenance margin scales with the asset. Major perps require less; thinner markets require more, and the requirement rises with position size.
Liquidation maps and heatmaps
Third-party tools plot where liquidations cluster across the venue, inferring leverage from public position data. They’re estimates, not ledgers.
They show where forced selling would land if price reaches a level. They don’t predict that it will. Price gravitating toward liquidation clusters is a real effect and an unreliable one, and trading it as a signal is how people end up inside someone else’s heatmap.