The paper
Route
An experimental perpetual exchange on HyperEVM. You ride BTC or ETH, long or short, at up to 1,200×, against a pot held by the contracts.
Every trade is a train. You board, and you either arrive (close in profit), alight (close where you choose) or derail (get liquidated). Route operates the website, the order relay and the keeper.
Experimental. Route is experimental software. You can lose everything you put in, and wins can be reduced, queued or never paid in full. Only ride with money you are fine losing. Terms & risk
Riding
- You deposit USDC and pick a market, a side, a margin and a leverage. Your wallet (or a one-tap key) signs the order and Route's relay submits it on-chain.
- Prices come from Hyperliquid's own oracle.
- When you close, the result settles on-chain at the price at that moment.
- If the price reaches your bust price, the position is liquidated and its margin goes to the pot.
- Above 1,000× you need the Footplate pass, earned with miles.
Where wins come from
There is no market maker on the other side. Your counterparty is the pot, which grows from riders' losses.
- Wins are paid from the pot. If the pot can't cover a win in full, the unpaid part joins a first-in, first-out queue and is paid as the pot refills. A queued win is not guaranteed to be paid.
- How much of a win a position can be paid depends on how much the pot can back on that side. Before you sign, the site shows that share (the payout factor), and you can set the lowest share you accept.
- At launch every position is capped at $10,000 of size.
Fees
| Fee | Amount | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Win fee | 2% of the gain, after the size haircut (bigger wins keep a little less) | 50% pot · 25% HLT stakers · 25% Route |
| Relay gas fee | $0.02 per open / close | the relay's gas wallet |
| Liquidation by the keeper | 10% of the margin | Route (funds the keeper); the rest to the pot |
| Liquidation by anyone else | 0.5% of the margin, after a short grace | the liquidator; the rest to the pot |
| Referrals | 10% (and 1% second tier) of Route's share of a referee's fees, for 30 days | the referrer |
Losses carry no extra fee: a losing position pays its loss to the pot.
Safety
- Prices come from Hyperliquid's oracle, with guards against a manipulated order book.
- Each position has a size cap, and each side of each market has a capacity tied to the pot.
- Orders are timestamped on arrival and settled at the price a few seconds later, not at a price the rider picks.
- If Route's relay stops, a rider can still leave: the contracts include an on-chain exit that doesn't go through the relay. It settles after a waiting period at the oracle price at that time.
- Withdrawals of your free balance go straight to the contracts.
HLT
HLT is the record of what riders have fed the pot.
- HLT is minted only when a rider loses. Nothing else mints it.
- There will never be more than 100,000,000,000 HLT. There was no pre-mint and there is no team or investor allocation.
- The amount minted per dollar of loss falls as the supply line fills. HLT burned in the firebox gives the line room back.
- Positions opened with the Delta Neutral button mint at half rate.
- HLT can be staked. Staked HLT shares in the stakers' part of the win fees. Stake that isn't kept active by riding cools over time into the firebox.
HLT is not a claim on the pot, on Route, or on any revenue beyond what the staking contract pays out under its rules.
Governance
- The contracts are owned by a timelock. Changes are proposed by a 2-of-3 Safe and take effect only after the timelock's delay. A guardian can pause new positions; it cannot touch funds or close positions.
- Governance can change parameters (fees, caps, markets), replace the price oracle and upgrade the exchange contract, always through the timelock.
- HLT is non-transferable at launch, except into and out of staking. The token contract includes a transfer switch that only the timelocked governance can operate. No decision has been made to use it, and nothing in this paper or the Terms commits to it. If it were ever used, these properties are fixed in the contract: the 100B cap, no pre-mint, minting only from losses, and the firebox.
Risks
- Smart-contract risk: the contracts may contain bugs. They have been reviewed with automated tools and fuzzing; a human audit has not been completed at launch.
- Oracle risk: settlement depends on Hyperliquid's prices.
- Pot risk: the pot starts empty. Wins can be paid at a reduced share or queued, and queued wins may never be paid.
- Operational risk: the relay, keeper and website can fail or be slow.
- Governance risk: parameters, the oracle and the exchange contract can be changed through the timelock.
- Regulatory risk: Route is not available in restricted regions (see the Terms).
The Terms govern. If this paper and the Terms disagree, the Terms win. Contract addresses are published on the Signal box page at launch.