HYPE on HyperCore vs HyperEVM: which network should you use?
Use whichever one the receiving side tells you to, and check it every time. HyperCore and HyperEVM share the same 0x… address but keep separate HYPE balances, so a coin sent to the side your recipient is not watching does not show up, even though the address was right.
If nobody has told you which side to use, the rule of thumb is: HyperCore for Hyperliquid's own trading app, HyperEVM for wallets, DeFi apps and any service whose deposit screen says "HyperEVM". If a deposit screen just says "HYPE" with an address and no network, ask before sending.
One address, two balances
Hyperliquid is one chain with two execution environments. HyperCore runs the order book, spot and perpetual balances, staking and vaults. HyperEVM is an Ethereum-compatible environment that runs smart contracts and is, in the docs' words, "secured by the same HyperBFT consensus as HyperCore".
Both use ordinary EVM-style accounts, so the address you see in Hyperliquid's app is the address you see in MetaMask on HyperEVM. What differs is the ledger behind it. Your HyperCore spot balance and your HyperEVM balance are two numbers, and moving HYPE from one to the other is an explicit action, not something that happens because the address matches.
That is what makes deposit screens ambiguous. An exchange or a swap service that shows you an 0x… address is telling you where, not which side. Two services can show identical-looking addresses and watch different ledgers.
What each side is for
| HyperCore | HyperEVM | |
|---|---|---|
| What runs there | Order book, spot and perp balances, staking | Smart contracts, wallets, DeFi apps |
| How HYPE exists | Spot balance on the exchange ledger | Native balance; HYPE is the gas token |
| Precision | Exchange-style lot sizes | 18 decimals, like ETH |
| Wallet setup | Hyperliquid app | Chain ID 999, RPC https://rpc.hyperliquid.xyz/evm, symbol HYPE (wallet details) |
| Typical reason to hold HYPE here | Trading, staking, fee discounts | Paying gas, using dApps, sending to services that accept HyperEVM |
HyperEVM's chain ID is 999. Chainlist has the entry, which is the quickest way to add it to a wallet. Block explorers are hyperevmscan.io and hyperscan.com.
Moving HYPE between the two
Inside Hyperliquid's app there is a "Transfer to/from EVM" button on the Balances table and an "EVM <-> Core Transfer" button on the Portfolio page. Under the hood, and for anyone doing it from a wallet, the route is a system address: send HYPE to 0x2222222222222222222222222222222222222222 from either side and it arrives on the other.
Two things the official onboarding page says that are worth reading twice:
- "Note that this only works for HYPE; sending other assets will lead to them being lost." Do not send USDC, PURR or anything else to that address.
- You pay gas on the side you send from: HYPE on HyperEVM for an EVM→Core transfer, HYPE on HyperCore for the reverse. A brand-new HyperEVM address with a zero balance cannot send anything until it holds some HYPE.
The same page's closing advice applies to every first transfer: do a small test transaction before the real one.
WHYPE is not HYPE
HYPE on HyperEVM is a native balance, not a token contract, so contracts that expect an ERC-20 cannot use it directly. For those, Hyperliquid deploys a canonical wrapped version, WHYPE, at 0x5555555555555555555555555555555555555555. It is the same idea as WETH on Ethereum: wrap one HYPE, get one WHYPE, unwrap to get it back.
For a deposit, that distinction matters. A service asking for "HYPE on HyperEVM" wants the native asset. Sending WHYPE to its deposit address is a token transfer to an address that was expecting a native balance change. The service's deposit checks look for a native balance change and will not see a WHYPE transfer. If your HYPE is sitting in a DeFi position as WHYPE, unwrap first.
If you have already sent to the wrong side
Start from the same question as any wrong-network send: who controls the private key for the address the coins landed on?
Your own wallet, wrong side. Nothing is lost. The HYPE is in your HyperCore spot balance or your HyperEVM balance, whichever one you did not mean to use. Open the other view and transfer it across.
A service's deposit address, wrong side. The address belongs to the service, on both sides. If you sent through HyperCore to an address the service watches on HyperEVM, the coins are sitting in a HyperCore balance that the service's key controls. That is not the same as "gone", but it is not automatic either: their systems were not looking there, and it depends on the service having the ability and the willingness to move coins in from the environment it does not normally use. Contact support with the transaction reference and the amount. Do not send a second payment "to fix it".
Anything other than HYPE sent to 0x2222…2222. Per the documentation quoted above, this is the case that is lost.
Where SwapToZec sits
SwapToZec handles HYPE on HyperEVM only. When you swap HYPE to ZEC, the deposit address shown is a HyperEVM address and only native HYPE sent on HyperEVM is matched to your swap. HYPE sent through HyperCore, or as WHYPE, is not detected automatically; it lands in an account we control, so it can usually be sorted out by hand, but it will need a support ticket rather than confirming on its own.
In the other direction, when you swap ZEC to HYPE or anything else to HYPE, the payout is native HYPE on HyperEVM to the address you give. If that address belongs to an exchange, check first that the exchange accepts HYPE deposits on HyperEVM and not only on HyperCore. The same 0x string can be right and the network still wrong.
Checklist before you send
- Read the network name on the receiving side's deposit screen. If it says only "HYPE", ask.
- Match it exactly: HyperCore (sometimes shown as "Hyperliquid L1" or "Spot") or HyperEVM.
- Sending native HYPE, not WHYPE, unless the recipient explicitly asks for WHYPE.
- Sending from an account that holds gas on that side.
- First time with this recipient? Small test transaction first.
The same habit that keeps USDT deposits on the right network applies here; the twist with HYPE is that the address will not warn you, because it is the same on both sides.