Stacked Markets
Stacked Markets Security: How Your Funds Are Protected
Published May 28, 2026 · By Stacked Markets Research Team
Stacked Markets never holds your funds. It never receives your keys. It is an execution interface that routes your orders to Hyperliquid's on-chain order book. Your collateral sits in smart contracts tied to your wallet on Hyperliquid's L1. That distinction is the foundation of how security works here.
Contents
- What "non-custodial" actually means here
- How deposits and withdrawals work
- What the agent wallet is and is not
- What Hyperliquid's protocol layer does
- What Stacked Markets does not do
- The risks that remain
- FAQs
What "non-custodial" actually means here
Non-custodial gets thrown around loosely in crypto. Here it means something specific. When you trade on Stacked Markets, your collateral is never pooled with other users' funds. There is no Stacked Markets wallet holding deposits. No company account that could be frozen, hacked, or drained. The terminal connects to your Ethereum wallet, routes signed orders to Hyperliquid, and that is the full extent of what it does on your behalf.
Compare that to a custodial exchange: you deposit into an account the exchange controls. If that exchange becomes insolvent, gets hacked, or halts withdrawals, your funds are caught in the middle. Stacked Markets has no such account. It holds nothing, so it cannot be insolvent in that sense. Your keys stay with you. Your collateral stays on-chain. Stacked Markets is the interface layer — not the counterparty.
| Custodial exchange | Stacked Markets | |
|---|---|---|
| Custody | Exchange holds your funds | Your wallet holds your funds |
| Insolvency risk | Your funds caught in the middle | No platform funds to lose |
| Withdrawal control | Exchange can restrict or freeze | Stacked Markets cannot block withdrawals |
| Counterparty | Exchange is the counterparty | Interface layer only |
How deposits and withdrawals work
To trade on Stacked Markets, you bridge native USDC from Arbitrum into your Hyperliquid margin account. It is a standard bridge transaction you sign from your own wallet. The funds land in Hyperliquid's smart contract infrastructure, associated with your wallet address. Stacked Markets does not touch this process. It does not receive your USDC, hold it temporarily, or route it through any company-controlled address.
Withdrawals work the same way. You submit a signed request directly from your wallet. Hyperliquid's protocol processes it. Stacked Markets has no ability to block, delay, or intercept a withdrawal — because it never had custody of the funds to begin with.
What the agent wallet is and is not
The agent wallet is optional. It is a local browser key that can sign trading actions on your behalf, so you are not approving every individual order through your main wallet. That speeds up execution without exposing your primary keys.
To be clear about what it is not:
- It is not sent to Stacked Markets' servers
- It is not your main wallet key
- It is not required to use the terminal
- It does not have withdrawal permissions
You can revoke it at any time. It exists purely to reduce signing friction during active sessions. Close the browser or revoke access and it stops functioning immediately. Your main wallet private key never leaves your browser. Stacked Markets never receives it, stores it, or has any access to it.
What Hyperliquid's protocol layer does
Stacked Markets is the interface. Hyperliquid is the protocol. That split matters for how you think about security. Hyperliquid's L1 runs HyperBFT consensus and handles everything at the settlement layer:
- Order matching happens on Hyperliquid's on-chain central limit order book
- Margin and collateral accounting is managed by Hyperliquid's smart contracts
- Funding rate calculations are computed and settled on-chain
- Liquidations are triggered and executed by Hyperliquid's liquidation engine
- PnL settlement is fully verifiable on-chain — no trust required on the terminal side
Because settlement is on-chain, you can verify your positions, funding payments, and trade history independently of anything Stacked Markets shows you. The terminal surfaces that data, but the source of truth is Hyperliquid's chain. Orders submitted through Stacked Markets are IOC-style slippage-bounded limit orders. The order fills within your specified tolerance or it does not fill at all. There are no fake market orders executing at arbitrary prices.
What Stacked Markets does not do
Worth stating plainly. Stacked Markets does not:
- Hold your funds, ever
- Have access to your main wallet private key
- Pool your collateral with other users
- Provide investment advice or trading recommendations
- Have the ability to block your withdrawals
- Ask for your seed phrase — under any circumstance
Seed phrase scam warning. If anyone contacts you claiming to be from Stacked Markets and asks for your seed phrase, that is a scam. Stacked Markets will never ask for it. No legitimate support request, onboarding flow, or wallet connection process requires sharing a seed phrase. Every trade requires an explicit wallet approval with a plain-language signing prompt. Nothing executes without you seeing and approving what you are signing.
The risks that remain
Non-custodial does not mean risk-free. These risks are real.
- Leverage risk. Perpetual futures use leverage. You can lose your entire margin on a single position. Stacked Markets does not cap how much leverage you use and provides no safety net against liquidation.
- Liquidation risk. If your margin falls below Hyperliquid's maintenance threshold, the liquidation engine closes your position automatically. That is protocol-enforced. There is no appeal.
- Smart contract risk. Your funds are held in Hyperliquid's smart contracts. Smart contracts can contain bugs or vulnerabilities. No protocol is immune to this.
- Testnet vs. mainnet. The terminal is currently live on testnet at testnet.stackedmarkets.com. Testnet trades use no real funds. When mainnet launches, real capital will be at risk. Treat the two environments as distinct.
- Planned features are not live. Automation and copy-trading are planned — with hard risk caps, drawdown halts, and cancel-all hooks — but not available yet. Do not factor them into your current risk model.
Perpetual futures trading carries significant risk of loss. Nothing on Stacked Markets constitutes financial or investment advice.
FAQs
- Does Stacked Markets hold my funds?
No. Stacked Markets is an execution interface only. Your collateral is held in Hyperliquid's smart contracts, tied to your wallet address. Stacked Markets never receives, pools, or controls your funds.
- What happens to my funds if Stacked Markets goes offline?
They stay in Hyperliquid's smart contracts. Stacked Markets going offline has no effect on your on-chain positions or collateral. You can access and manage your Hyperliquid account through other interfaces independently.
- Is my private key ever shared with Stacked Markets?
No. Your main wallet private key never leaves your browser. Stacked Markets has no access to it at any point — during account setup, trading, or withdrawal.
- What is the agent wallet and is it safe?
It is an optional local browser key that signs trading actions on your behalf to reduce per-order friction. It is never sent to any server, has no withdrawal permissions, and can be revoked at any time. Your main wallet key is separate and unaffected.
- What if someone from Stacked Markets asks for my seed phrase?
That is a scam. Stacked Markets will never ask for your seed phrase. No legitimate support interaction, wallet connection, or onboarding step requires sharing it. Stop all communication immediately.
- Can Stacked Markets block my withdrawals?
No. Withdrawals are signed requests processed directly by Hyperliquid's protocol. Stacked Markets has no custody of your funds and no technical ability to block or delay a withdrawal.
Test the execution environment with zero mainnet risk. Open the testnet terminal and run through the signing flow before committing real capital.