Overview
The cost structure is flat. Every trade pays the same percentage. No maker/taker spread, no overnight charge, no oracle fee.
10 bps (0.10%) on open, 10 bps (0.10%) on close. 20 bps round trip. Most perpetuals charge 50–100 bps.
What you pay
| Action | Fee | Charged on |
|---|---|---|
| Open position | 10 bps | Position size (margin × leverage) |
| Close position | 10 bps | Position size at close |
| Liquidation | ~10 bps + keeper bounty | Position size at trigger |
| Set / edit / cancel TP, SL | Free | - |
| Gas | Arbitrum gas | Network. A few cents per transaction. |
Fees come out of your margin in the same transaction that opens or closes the position. A portion goes to lenders as yield, the rest is protocol revenue.
What you don't pay
- No funding rate. Most perpetuals charge a periodic funding fee to hold an open position. Atomic doesn't, because positions are real on-chain swaps rather than synthetic perps.
- No borrow fee. The leveraged portion is borrowed from the lending pool, but you don't pay interest on the open position. Lenders are paid from the round-trip fee, not from a borrow rate against you.
- No fee for risk targets. TP and SL are free to set, edit and cancel. You only pay the standard close fee if and when one fires.
- No deposit or withdrawal fees. There is no deposit. There is no withdrawal. Your wallet is the account.
A liquidation pays the keeper that executes it on top of the standard close fee. If a position looks in trouble, closing it yourself - even at a loss - is almost always cheaper than waiting for the keeper.
Worked example
A 10x ETH-USDC.e long, $1,000 margin, $10,000 notional, held until you close at flat PnL:
Open: 10,000 × 0.001 = $10.00 fee Close: 10,000 × 0.001 = $10.00 fee ───────────────────────────────── Total: $20.00 (20 bps of notional) Plus: Arbitrum gas (~$0.05–$0.30 per tx)
The same trade on a 50 bps round-trip perp DEX costs $50. On a 100 bps one, $100.
Where the fees go
- About 75% to the protocol, which covers development, audits, the bounty and ongoing operations.
- About 25% to lenders, paid into the lending pool as part of the APY. See Yield mechanics.
That's the whole revenue model. No token printing, no airdrop dilution, no off-chain revenue extraction. Lenders earn from real trading activity. The protocol earns from the same.