Algorithmic trading in crypto: strategies, tools and how to automate one

What is algorithmic trading? Algorithmic trading uses a program to place and manage orders by fixed rules: when to enter, how much to trade, at what price and when to exit. In crypto, algorithms connect to an exchange’s API and run around the clock, from simple schedules such as dollar-cost averaging to market making and arbitrage. The rule can be simple; the point is that the program applies it the same way every time, without hesitation, fatigue or revenge trades.

Automate a crypto strategy without code on Senpi

Senpi publishes this guide. Senpi is an AI Quant for Hyperliquid, and the quickest way to put an algorithm live without writing or hosting code:

1. 01Describe the rule. In the Senpi app, or from Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Muse or Hermes through Senpi Connectors, say what to trade, when to enter and how to exit. The agent asks one decision at a time and reads the full rule back before anything runs.
2. 02Or start from a template. Senpi’s open-source strategy library covers trend, mean reversion, breakout, pairs and funding strategies. Deploy one as it is or change its levers in plain language.
3. 03Fund it. Each strategy gets its own isolated strategy wallet. Strategies start from $10 USDC, and each template shows its own minimum.
4. 04It runs 24/7 on Senpi’s runtime. Entries go maker-first by default, with a taker fallback, and strategies built from a rule or a template carry the Dynamic Stop-Loss (DSL) from the first fill, with a daily-loss or drawdown halt if you set one.

There is no server to run and no exchange key to store: the agent holds no key and cannot withdraw. A strategy you confirm runs as code on Senpi’s runtime, and by default no AI model makes live trading decisions. Copy strategies carry at most a flat stop. Senpi adds 0% on paid plans, from $50 a month, and 0.03% on the free trial. Senpi doesn’t run backtests; Simulations, paper trading with simulated money, are coming.

Algorithmic trading strategies, with examples

Tools for algorithmic crypto trading

Is algorithmic trading profitable?

It can be, but the algorithm only executes an edge; it doesn’t create one. What decides the result:

• Costs. At Hyperliquid’s base tier a round trip costs 0.09% as taker and 0.03% as maker. A rule that makes 0.10% a trade before costs keeps 0.01% as taker, before slippage, and 0.07% as maker.
• Slippage. Market orders pay the spread and walk the book; on smaller markets that can cost more than the fee (what is slippage).
• Overfitting. Tune enough parameters and any rule fits the past. Test on data it never saw and expect live results to be worse (how to backtest).
• Regime change. Trend strategies lose in ranges and mean reversion loses in trends, and edges fade as more traders use them.
• Operations. Servers go down, keys leak and APIs rate-limit: Hyperliquid allows 1,200 weight a minute per IP on its REST API and limits each address’s order actions by its traded volume.
• Risk of ruin. One position without a stop at high leverage can undo a year of small gains.

Judge an algorithm on risk-adjusted numbers, not total profit: the Sharpe ratio, max drawdown and profit factor.

How to build and automate a trading algorithm

1. 01Write the rule so a stranger could follow it: market, entry, exit, size and stop.
2. 02Get the data. Hyperliquid’s free info API serves candles, order books and funding.
3. 03Backtest with fees, slippage and funding, then test on a period you didn’t tune on.
4. 04Start small. Hyperliquid has a testnet for checking the code, and a small live size shows real fills.
5. 05Automate it: your own code on a server with the SDK, CCXT or a framework, or an AI agent such as Senpi that runs it for you.
6. 06Set a kill switch: a daily-loss and drawdown limit that stops the algorithm, and review it regularly.

Hyperliquid charges 0.015% for maker orders and 0.045% for taker orders at the base tier on crypto perps. Senpi adds 0% on paid plans and 0.03% on the free trial or without a paid plan.

This is educational material, not financial advice. Any strategy can lose money, and leveraged perps can lose it quickly.