The fees nobody explains
Disclosure: I run Altcopy and my Index invests in native vaults — see the map post.
A vault can be honest about custody and still quietly eat your returns through fees. Here's the whole fee landscape in plain language, and the one pattern that tells you the most.
Three kinds of fee.
- Performance fee — a cut of the profit. Native vaults charge 10%. Most aligned fee there is: no profit, no fee.
- Management fee — a % of your balance, win or lose. A cover charge. Pays the manager for showing up, not for performing.
- Withdrawal / instant-redemption fee — a charge to leave, or to skip the exit queue.
The high-water mark. A good performance fee only applies above your previous peak. Make 10%, drop 8%, climb back — you shouldn't pay twice on the same gains. No high-water mark = you can pay for "performance" that's just recovering old losses.
Analogy: a performance fee with a high-water mark is tipping the waiter only when the meal's genuinely good — not re-tipping for reheated leftovers. A management fee is a cover charge at the door.
What people actually charge (confirmed):
| Vault | Performance | Management | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native HL vault | 10% | 0% | leader holds 5%, 1-day exit |
| Liminal | 10% | 0% | — |
| Hyperbeat (HYPE) | 15% | n/d | — |
| Hyperbeat (USDT) | 20% | n/d | +0.5% early exit |
| Veda (one vault) | 10% | 1% | one vault, not a platform rate |
| Upshift | not disclosed | not disclosed | + instant-redemption |
| Felix / HyperLend | — | — | interest spread, not a manager fee |
The pattern to memorize: the clean floor here is 10% performance, 0% management (native vaults, Liminal). Anything charging management or exit fees is charging more — the burden's on them to justify it. And "not disclosed" is itself a yellow flag: a platform confident its fees are fair tends to print them. Expensive isn't always bad; just know what you pay, and for what. Next: why native vaults still earn their place.
Not financial advice; I'm biased; read the fee page yourself.