First Papertrade Trade: Wallet, USDC and Margin Setup

A short path from wallet connection to a funded Papertrade trading balance and your first position.

Official Papertrade documentation · Updated November 5, 2026 · Canonical domain: papertrade.finance

What you need

Use an EVM-compatible wallet and USDC that can reach your Papertrade deposit address through the supported Hyperliquid or bridging flow.

1. Connect

Connect your wallet and register the scoped session key used by the trading interface. The session key reduces repeated wallet popups for normal trading actions.

2. Deposit USDC

Papertrade derives a unique deposit address for your wallet. Supported deposit routes end with USDC arriving at the deterministic account the protocol monitors and credits.

3. Trade

Choose a market, long or short direction, margin and leverage. Papertrade reads the current Hyperliquid BBO mid and settles position PnL against the LP.

Next

Continue with Wins and losses for settlement economics, The LP and the payout queue for solvency mechanics, and Paper Emissions for PAPER minting.

Pre-trade checklist

• Verify that the browser is on papertrade.finance.
• Use the wallet associated with the Papertrade account you intend to fund.
• Confirm available USDC is not already committed as isolated margin.
• Read the displayed bust price before increasing leverage.
• Check whether the selected market and direction still have available open-interest capacity.

After opening a position

Monitor entry price, direction, isolated margin, notional exposure and bust price in Portfolio or Trade. House can provide protocol-side context such as LP liquidity and directional OI, but those metrics do not remove the liquidation risk of an individual high-leverage position.

If you later close at an eligible realised loss, the PAPER emission rules may apply. PAPER balance and staking are separate from the USDC trading balance, so use the Staking interface for token and reward actions.