Robust Oracle and Mark Prices for Perpetual Futures

Summary

The document explains how Hyperliquid derives robust reference prices for perpetual futures to reduce exposure to market manipulation. Its oracle price is a weighted median of centralized-exchange prices and is used to calculate funding rates; because Hyperliquid market data is excluded, the oracle offers an independent reference. Validators refresh it approximately every three seconds.

The mark price is formed as the median of three inputs: an oracle-based price adjusted by an EMA of the venue’s mid-price difference, a venue-local median using best bid, best ask, and last trade, and a weighted median of several external perpetual mid-prices. When only two of those inputs are available, an additional short-horizon EMA of the venue-local median is included. The mark price supports margining, liquidations, take-profit and stop-loss triggers, and unrealized PnL. The page gives an EMA update rule and refresh cadence, but does not provide empirical comparisons or quantify manipulation resistance; the stated robustness is a design rationale.

Key ideas

• The oracle price is a weighted median of external exchange prices and informs funding rates.
• The mark price combines oracle-adjusted, venue-local, and external perpetual-market inputs.
• A supplemental venue-local EMA is used when only two primary mark-price inputs are available.
• Mark prices are used for margin, liquidation, order triggers, and unrealized profit and loss.
• The document describes the design but provides no empirical measure of its robustness.

Tags

This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.