Hyperliquid Hands Out Manual Loans Like a Bartender With USDC, USDT and Zero Small Talk 🍸

Hyperliquid activated its manual borrows feature on Friday, letting users borrow Circle's USDC and Tether's USDT against HYPE and Bitcoin collateral on its onchain trading platform. The feature, which went live on September 18, runs on the same underlying HyperCore infrastructure that powers portfolio margin, with manual borrows available to Manual/Standard and Unified Account users while portfolio margin accounts continue to operate on automated borrowing. As of launch, total assets borrowed on the platform had reached $269 million, according to Hyperliquid.

Borrowed USDC and USDT pay interest while supplied quote assets earn interest, with rates determined by utilization. Hyperliquid set the loan-to-value ratio at 65% for HYPE and 50% for BTC, with a partial liquidation threshold of 82.5% for HYPE. The platform noted that "Manual borrowing is supported for Manual/Standard and Unified Account users. For portfolio margin (PM) accounts, borrowing is automated and the manual borrow action is disabled," outlining the separation between the two account types.

The launch coincided with a 13% rally in HYPE, which touched a new all-time high of $90.92. The move expands DeFi lending options on Hyperliquid by allowing traders to draw stablecoin liquidity against the exchange's native token as well as Bitcoin without leaving its trading environment.