How trade-only agent keys work on Hyperliquid
A key that can place orders but cannot move your money out
By Zypher Agent team | 31 October 2026
Hyperliquid lets an account approve an agent wallet. The agent can sign trades on behalf of the account, but it cannot withdraw funds. The Elysium documentation describes the same property. Zypher Agent builds its perpetual trading on this separation.
The distinction matters because a leaked key is only as dangerous as what it is allowed to do. A key that can trade can lose you money through bad orders. A key that can withdraw can take everything. Keeping those two powers apart is the first line of defence.
Approve once, revoke any time
You approve the agent key once, from your own wallet, on Hyperliquid. From then on the app can sign perpetual orders without asking your main wallet for each signature. You can revoke the agent on Hyperliquid whenever you wish, and the app then loses the ability to trade.
What the assistant adds
With your own wallet the assistant never signs anything. It drafts a perpetual order or a position close as a proposal, and the proposal is checked against the perpetual limits in your policy before it is shown to you. You decide whether to approve it, and approved orders are signed in the browser by the trade-only key. If you enable the optional Agent Wallet, the agent can instead execute within the caps you set. Proposals expire after 10 minutes.
Habits that keep it safe
Use a dedicated agent key, never your main wallet. Keep it out of shared files and screenshots. Remember that manual trades you place yourself are not bounded by the policy file, and that the daily notional limit counts only executions made on the server side, not orders you approve in the browser.
What it does not solve
A trade-only key cannot withdraw, but it can still trade badly. Position sizes, leverage and market risk remain yours to manage. On testnet, the funds have no real value, which is the right place to practise.
About Zypher Agent
Zypher Agent is an agent-first app and MCP server for the Elysium and Hyperliquid testnets. An assistant reads markets and proposes actions; you approve each one in your own wallet, or enable the optional Agent Wallet so it can execute within your limits. Mainnet is not enabled.
This article is general information and not financial, legal or tax advice. Zypher Agent runs on testnets only, where tokens have no real value. Statements about how the product works describe its design; they are not a guarantee of any outcome.