# Unit Protocol: How to Deposit Native BTC, ETH & SOL to Hyperliquid > Unit (Hyperunit) is the tokenization layer that brings native Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana onto Hyperliquid spot. Learn how deposits, withdrawals, fees, and the guardian security model work. *Source: https://hyperliquidguide.com/ecosystem/unit-protocol-guide* ## What Is Unit Protocol? Hyperliquid settles everything in USDC, which is great for perpetual futures but leaves an obvious gap: there is no native Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Solana sitting on the exchange. If you want spot BTC on Hyperliquid, something has to carry real Bitcoin from the Bitcoin network onto HyperCore. **Unit** (branded as Hyperunit, at [hyperunit.xyz](https://hyperunit.xyz)) is the piece that does that. Unit is the **asset tokenization layer for Hyperliquid**. It runs a lock-and-mint bridge: you send a native asset on its home chain, Unit locks it, and a matching token is minted to your Hyperliquid account as a spot balance you can trade, use as collateral, or withdraw back to the origin chain. It is what lets a Bitcoin holder move real BTC onto Hyperliquid without touching a wrapped-token issuer or routing through a centralized exchange. > **Note:** Unit is best described as an **independent infrastructure team building closely on Hyperliquid**, not a product operated by Hyperliquid Labs itself. Its engineers come from quant and trading backgrounds, and it works hand-in-glove with Hyperliquid's stack, but it is its own team. Some third-party writeups loosely call it "Hyperliquid's native bridge," which overstates the relationship. > **Key takeaway:** Unit brings native BTC, ETH, and SOL onto Hyperliquid as 1:1 tokenized spot assets (uBTC, uETH, uSOL). You deposit the real asset on its native chain and receive a tradable, redeemable balance on Hyperliquid, with no wrapped-token issuer in the middle. ![Unit (Hyperunit) homepage: deposit native SOL, BTC, and ETH to Hyperliquid](/images/ecosystem/unit-protocol-guide/hyperunit-homepage.webp) Per Unit's own homepage, the bridge has settled well over **$14 billion in lifetime deposits** and a similar figure in withdrawals across more than a million operations. This is not a fringe tool; it is one of the main on-ramps into the Hyperliquid spot ecosystem. **Trade Native Assets on Hyperliquid** — Bridge BTC, ETH, or SOL through Unit and trade them on Hyperliquid spot. Sign up with our referral code for a 4% lifetime discount on trading fees. [Join Hyperliquid with 4% Off](https://app.hyperliquid.xyz/join/Concept211) --- ## Which Assets Does Unit Support? Unit launched with the three assets most people want on a spot exchange and has been adding more over time. The confirmed core is **Bitcoin (uBTC)**, **Ethereum (uETH)**, and **Solana (uSOL)**. Beyond those, Unit has bridged in a rotating set of Solana-based tokens and newer assets. Names like FARTCOIN, PUMP, SPX6900, BONK, and Plasma (XPL) have appeared as deposits, withdrawals, and spot trading went live for each. The list changes often, especially on the Solana memecoin side, so treat any snapshot as a point in time and check the live asset list in the [app](https://app.hyperliquid.xyz/join/Concept211) before you plan around a specific token. The most recent addition to make noise was **ANSEM**, the Solana memecoin tied to the trader of the same name. Its spot trading, deposits, and withdrawals went live on Hyperliquid in July 2026, bridged in through Unit's Solana support. It is a good illustration of how quickly a token can go from a Pump.fun launch to a native Hyperliquid spot market once Unit supports the chain it lives on. --- ## How Deposits Work The deposit flow is a classic lock-and-mint, and the mechanics matter because a mistake at the wrong step can lose funds. ### uBTC, uETH, uSOL: What the Tokens Actually Are The tokens Unit mints are prefixed with a lowercase **"u"** (uBTC, uETH, uSOL), and each is a **1:1 claim on the native asset** Unit is holding for you. In Hyperliquid's spot order books and in the HyperEVM DeFi protocols that accept them, the same assets show up as uppercase tickers: **UBTC**, **UETH**, **USOL**. They are the same thing. "uBTC" is the branding and "UBTC" is how it reads as a market ticker. This is why Unit sits underneath so much of the ecosystem. When [Felix Protocol](/ecosystem/felix-protocol-guide) lets you post UBTC as collateral to mint feUSD, or when [HyperLend](/ecosystem/hyperlend-guide) accepts UBTC in a lending market, that Bitcoin got there through Unit. The same balance you can trade on spot is the one you can deploy across [HyperEVM](/ecosystem/hyperevm-explained) DeFi. --- ## How Withdrawals Work Withdrawing reverses the process: 1. **Select the asset and enter a destination.** On the withdraw screen, choose your uAsset, the amount, and the address on the native chain where you want the real asset sent. 2. **Sign on Hyperliquid.** You sign a Hyperliquid transaction that burns or sends the uAsset back to Unit. Hyperliquid finalizes this in roughly ten seconds. 3. **Guardians release the native asset.** Once Hyperliquid finalizes, the guardian network signs and broadcasts the transfer of the real asset to your destination address on its home chain. Withdrawals are generally faster than deposits because you are not waiting on multiple source-chain confirmations up front, though the guardian step and native-chain broadcast still take a few minutes. --- ## The Guardian Security Model Any bridge is only as trustworthy as its custody design, so this is the part worth understanding before you move real money. Unit secures assets with a **2-of-3 MPC threshold signature scheme (TSS)**. Three **guardians** each hold an independent share of the signing key, generated through distributed key generation. A full private key **never exists in one place**; the shares are combined only transiently, inside secure enclaves, at the moment a signature is needed. Any critical action (minting a uAsset, releasing a native asset) requires at least **two of the three** guardians to agree. Around that core, Unit's docs describe several safeguards: key shares encrypted at rest with KMS, out-of-band identity checks between guardians, end-to-end encrypted guardian-to-guardian communication so relay servers never touch key material, full operation logging, and **circuit breakers** that pause the system if a guardian detects conflicting or abnormal activity. > **Warning:** Be clear-eyed about the trust assumptions. This is a **small, permissioned guardian set**, the three guardians are **not publicly named**, and there is no publicly confirmed **third-party security audit** for Unit. The theoretical failure mode is collusion or compromise of two guardians. MPC materially reduces single-point-of-failure risk versus a plain multisig, but it does not make a bridge trustless. Size your deposits accordingly. --- ## Fees and Confirmation Times Unit's fee model is refreshingly simple: **there is no Unit protocol fee**. You pay only the **network fees** for the two underlying transactions, your deposit on the source chain plus the transaction the guardians broadcast on withdrawal. Unit exposes a live fee-estimation endpoint, so the app shows you the current rate and ETA before you commit. The figures below are illustrative snapshots from Unit's fee endpoint. They move with network conditions, so read them as ballpark, not fixed: | Asset | Deposit cost (approx.) | Deposit ETA | Withdrawal cost (approx.) | Withdrawal ETA | |---|---|---|---|---| | **BTC** | ~2,600 sats | ~30 min (2 confirmations) | ~700 sats | ~14 min | | **ETH** | ~0.0006 ETH | ~3 min | ~0.00006 ETH | ~7 min | | **SOL** | ~0.015 SOL | ~1 min | fraction of a cent | ~4 min | > **Warning:** **The Bitcoin minimum is a hard trap.** Per Hyperliquid's own support docs, a BTC deposit below **0.0003 BTC is lost permanently**. It will not be credited and cannot be recovered. Per-asset minimums for ETH, SOL, and newer tokens are not always clearly documented, so always check the minimum shown in the Unit interface before sending. --- ## How It Shows Up in the Hyperliquid App You do not have to go to a separate site to use Unit. There are two entry points into the exact same rails: - **app.hyperliquid.xyz** lists the Unit-powered assets right in the spot deposit flow. Pick BTC, ETH, or SOL and Hyperliquid surfaces your Unit deposit address inline, so you never leave the trading interface. - **hyperunit.xyz** offers the same deposit and withdraw flows directly, plus the recent-operations feed and fee estimates. Either way, the deposit address is generated by Unit's guardian network and bound to your Hyperliquid account, and the resulting balance lands in your Hyperliquid spot wallet as UBTC, UETH, or USOL. If you have never funded a Hyperliquid account before, start with our [guide to depositing USDC](/guides/getting-started/deposit-usdc-to-hyperliquid) and the [beginner walkthrough](/guides/getting-started/how-to-trade-on-hyperliquid), then come back to Unit when you want native spot assets alongside your USDC. You will need a connected wallet either way. [MetaMask](/guides/getting-started/connect-metamask-to-hyperliquid) or [Rabby](/guides/getting-started/connect-rabby-to-hyperliquid) both work fine with the Hyperliquid interface. **Put Native Assets to Work on Hyperliquid** — Bridge in with Unit, then lend, borrow, or trade across the HyperEVM ecosystem. Start with a 4% lifetime fee discount using our referral code. [Get 4% Off Fees](https://app.hyperliquid.xyz/join/Concept211) --- ## Risks and Caveats Unit is genuinely useful infrastructure, but it is a bridge, and bridges concentrate risk. Keep these in mind: - **Custody and bridge risk.** Your funds sit behind a 2-of-3 guardian set. Collusion or compromise of two guardians is the theoretical worst case. There is no publicly confirmed audit, and the guardians are not named, which is a real trust assumption rather than a formality. - **The irreversible-minimum trap.** BTC below 0.0003 is gone for good. Deposit addresses are asset- and user-specific, so sending the wrong asset or using the wrong chain can also mean permanent loss. - **Confirmation delays and circuit breakers.** Bitcoin deposits wait on two confirmations, and the guardians' circuit breakers can pause operations, delaying a withdrawal exactly when markets are moving. - **Thin liquidity on newer assets.** Many of the freshly bridged memecoins carry extreme volatility and shallow spot books. The bridge working perfectly does not make the token a good trade. - **Token and airdrop speculation.** You will see chatter about a future "UNIT" token or airdrop for bridge users. Nothing official is confirmed. Do not bridge funds you would not otherwise move on the assumption that it earns you an airdrop. > **Key takeaway:** Unit is a permissioned lock-and-mint bridge, not a trustless one. Its MPC guardian design is solid, but the small unnamed guardian set and lack of a public audit are real trust assumptions. Use it for what it is, the main on-ramp for native spot assets on Hyperliquid, and size deposits to your comfort with bridge risk. --- ## Where Unit Fits in the Hyperliquid Ecosystem Unit is one of those pieces of plumbing you stop noticing once it works, but almost every "native asset" experience on Hyperliquid runs through it. Spot BTC, ETH, and SOL trading, UBTC collateral on [Felix](/ecosystem/felix-protocol-guide) and [HyperLend](/ecosystem/hyperlend-guide), and the steady drip of new spot listings all depend on Unit carrying the real asset onto the chain first. The uAssets themselves are ordinary [HIP-1 tokens](/ecosystem/hip-1-native-token-standard) with an EVM system address linked to them, which is what lets a balance move between HyperCore and HyperEVM by transferring to that address. Unit is no longer the only asset-backed token standard on HyperCore. In August 2026 **[xStocks listed ten share-backed equity tokens](/ecosystem/xstocks-tokenized-stocks-hyperliquid)** on Hyperliquid spot, using the same HIP-1 mechanics but with a Jersey issuer and a regulated distributor holding the underlying instead of a guardian network holding a private key. Unit already carries an older wrapper of its own in that category, the USPYX "Unit SP500 xStock" ticker listed in July 2025. The two models are worth comparing before you trust either one with size, because the thing you are relying on differs: Unit's is cryptographic custody, and xStocks' is a redemption right against a company. That makes Unit a natural companion to the rest of the [HyperEVM DeFi ecosystem](/ecosystem/hyperliquid-defi-ecosystem). USDC gets you into perps; Unit gets you into everything denominated in actual crypto. Once your BTC or ETH is on Hyperliquid as a uAsset, it behaves like any other spot balance: tradable, usable as collateral, and redeemable back to its home chain whenever you want out. For traders who want to keep Bitcoin exposure while trading perps in the same account, or who want to lend spot ETH into a HyperEVM market, Unit is the bridge that makes it possible without leaving the ecosystem. [Start Trading on Hyperliquid](https://app.hyperliquid.xyz/join/Concept211)