Fees
Every charge that exists on KestrelPerps, what it is charged on, and what it is not.
There are four places money leaves your hands on KestrelPerps: the demo taker fee, our fee on real routed volume, the market creation payment, and network gas. Two of those are real money. Two of them are not the same thing. This page lists all of them, states the base each is charged on, and names the things that are commonly assumed to be fees but are not.
The whole list
| Fee | Rate | Charged on | Real money | When |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demo taker fee | 0.06% | Notional (margin x leverage) | No, demo USD | On open and again on close |
| Our fee on real trades | 0.01% (1 basis point) | Routed volume | Yes | Per fill |
| Market creation | 0.01 ETH | Flat, per new demo market | Yes, on-chain | Once, at creation |
| Network gas | Variable | The transaction itself | Yes, in ETH | Any on-chain action |
| Funding | Not ours | Position notional, real trading only | Yes, between traders | Periodically |
Demo taker fee: 0.06% on notional
The demo terminal charges 0.0006 of notional as a taker fee. It is charged when the position opens and charged again when it closes. Notional is margin multiplied by leverage, not margin alone. This is the industry convention and it is the single most misread number in perpetual futures.
notional = margin x leverage
open fee = notional x 0.0006
close fee = notional x 0.0006
round trip = notional x 0.0012Why leverage changes the bill
Post 1,000 demo USD as margin and the fee depends entirely on the leverage you chose, because the leverage is what sets the size the fee is measured against.
| Margin | Leverage | Notional | Open fee | Close fee | Round trip | As % of margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | 1x | 1,000 | 0.60 | 0.60 | 1.20 | 0.12% |
| 1,000 | 5x | 5,000 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 6.00 | 0.60% |
| 1,000 | 10x | 10,000 | 6.00 | 6.00 | 12.00 | 1.20% |
| 1,000 | 25x | 25,000 | 15.00 | 15.00 | 30.00 | 3.00% |
At 25x, a round trip costs 3% of your margin before the price has moved at all. The position has to earn that back before it is even. Fee cost per trade rises in a straight line with leverage, which is a reason to be deliberate about size rather than reaching for the cap. The cap itself is set per market by liquidity depth, covered on the leverage page.
Fees and liquidation
A demo position is liquidated when its loss reaches 90% of margin. The remaining 10% is returned to your balance. The fee is separate from that threshold: it is taken on the way in and, on a liquidation, on the way out. So the amount that lands back in your balance is the returned remainder less the closing fee.
Real trading: 1 basis point on routed volume
On real trading we take 1 basis point, 0.01%, of the volume routed through us. The protocol permits a ceiling of 0.1%. We sit at one tenth of what we are allowed to charge.
When you set up real trading you sign two things once: a trading session key, and a fee approval. The fee approval names a 0.05% maximum, not the 0.01% we actually charge. That gap is deliberate. It leaves headroom so a future change inside that band does not force every user back through a wallet signature. We charge 0.01%. The 0.05% is the ceiling of what the approval permits, and 0.1% is the ceiling of what the protocol permits above that.
our fee = filled notional x 0.0001
100,000 routed -> 10.00
10,000 routed -> 1.00The session details, its 24 hour expiry, and what it can and cannot do are on the security page. Read it before you approve anything.
Market creation: 0.01 ETH
Anyone can open a demo market for an asset on Robinhood Chain that does not have one yet. That costs 0.01 ETH, paid on chain to the treasury address, plus gas. It is a real payment for a demo market. It is not refundable and it does not credit demo balance.
Demo top-ups are a separate on-chain payment: ETH buys demo USD at 2,500,000 demo USD per ETH. That is a purchase, not a fee, and what it buys has no cash value.
Network gas
Every on-chain action pays gas in ETH to Robinhood Chain, an Arbitrum stack L2. That includes market creation, demo top-ups, and any real deposit or withdrawal. Gas goes to the network. We do not take a share of it and we cannot discount it.
What is not a fee
- Funding is not a fee we take. In real trading, funding is paid periodically between long and short traders to hold the perpetual near the underlying price. It moves between traders. None of it is routed to us. Depending on your side and the market you may pay it or receive it.
- Funding is not charged in demo at all. A demo position accrues no funding, in either direction.
- Slippage is not a fee. Demo fills are instant and complete with no slippage, because order book depth is not modelled. In real trading a market order is an aggressive immediate-or-cancel limit order priced through the book with a 5% default tolerance, so the price you get can be worse than the price you saw. That is execution, not a charge.
- There is no maker fee, withdrawal fee, inactivity fee, or spread we add. If it is not in the table above, we do not charge it.
Holder tiers and fees
PERPS holder tiers read your on-chain balance and affect leverage bonus and reward multipliers. They do not change any of the rates on this page. Bronze and Diamond pay the same 0.06% demo taker fee and the same 1 basis point on routed volume.
Reading a bill end to end
- You post margin and pick leverage. Notional is the product of the two.
- On open, the taker fee is taken on notional and deducted from your balance.
- While the position is open, demo charges nothing further. No funding, no carry.
- On close or liquidation, the taker fee is taken on notional again.
- Your realised result is price movement on notional, less both fees.
Rates change only with notice. If you find a charge on your account that is not described on this page, tell us at https://x.com/poolsperps and we will explain it or refund it.