Synthetix perpetual futures and the SNX token

Ethereum settlement and offchain order matching

The exchange uses a central limit order book, or CLOB, to match bids and asks outside Ethereum. Settlement and deposited collateral remain on Ethereum Mainnet. This separates order processing from the blockchain transactions that move collateral into or out of an account. A perpetual position gives exposure to a market price without transferring ownership of the underlying asset. Its profit or loss depends on the position’s direction and executed prices. Listed markets include BTC-USDT, ETH-USDT, and SOL-USDT, each with its own contract limits.

Long positions gain from a rising contract price; short positions gain from a falling price, before costs.

A connected wallet provides access to the trading account. REST and WebSocket integrations also provide a software access path. Submission and execution represent different states: one order can produce several fills. Order History records the submitted order, while Trade History records its executions. Those records distinguish an accepted instruction from the quantity that actually traded.

What does SNX do after the staking shutdown?

SNX remains the ecosystem token, with legacy debt resolution and sUSD conversion among its uses. Earlier staking models used SNX collateral to support synthetic assets and required participants to manage debt. The replacement staking contract under SIP-423 remains deferred, so the former pool’s reward and debt rules do not describe an available new staking product.

Governance continues through the Spartan Council and published protocol proposals. Council decisions address upgrades and configuration, while token participation follows the adopted voting rules. SIP-424 proposes holder-based council voting after the staking shutdown and remains at the proposal stage. SNX ownership therefore should not be read as automatic eligibility under a future voting system.

Legacy sUSD was the synthetic dollar associated with earlier collateral and staking designs. SIP-423 retired that asset on Ethereum and Optimism. The holder snapshot records eligibility for conversion into SNX, while former stakers with unresolved debt follow separate repayment or vesting terms. SIP-423 defers building the claim contract that would distribute SNX conversion entitlements. These rights are separate from the USDT balances that the live exchange uses for trading.

What determines trading costs and liquidation risk?

Trading costs depend on fees, funding, and collateral operations; liquidation risk depends on adjusted account value, which reflects collateral haircuts and profit or loss, relative to maintenance margin. The exchange calculates trading fees from the notional value of each fill. Notional equals the traded quantity multiplied by its execution price. The applicable maker or taker rate then determines the fee. Both opening and closing trades can incur charges. A partial fill incurs fees on the portion that actually executes.

A maker adds a resting order that another participant later matches. A taker consumes existing liquidity, including through a limit order that crosses the spread. Selecting a limit order therefore does not itself determine the fee role. Volume-based tiers can change the applicable rates. Order-book depth also affects slippage, the difference between an expected price and the actual execution price.

Funding creates a separate payment between long and short positions. Positive funding has longs pay shorts; negative funding reverses that direction. The rate reflects the perpetual’s premium relative to its reference index and can change while a position remains open. Funding updates the USDT balance even when non-USDT assets supply the collateral. Profits, losses, and fees also affect that balance. Outstanding USDT borrowing can accrue interest, adding another cost beyond price movement.

Closing a position does not automatically repay USDT debt that remains in the account. Swap can repay that debt by converting supported non-USDT collateral into USDT.

Cross-margin shares supporting collateral across positions within a subaccount. Supported non-USDT collateral, including wrapped Ether (WETH), contributes its value after a haircut, a risk discount. Price movements can change that contribution. An account below maintenance margin can face liquidation. Forced collateral exchange can also sell non-USDT assets when effective USDT debt exceeds allowed limits. Ethereum gas applies to deposits and withdrawals, and the exchange can charge operation-specific fees.

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Liquidity provision and trading rewards

The Synthetix Liquidity Provider (SLP) Vault supplies internal market-making liquidity and participates in liquidation handling. The vault operates internally and does not accept public deposits. Its proposed public deposit model would expose capital to market-making gains and losses. Snaxpot is a separate weekly rewards program that converts paid trading fees into draw tickets. Rewards depend on matching ticket numbers and credit the trading account in USDT.

Which Synthetix products have been retired?

Perps v2 on Optimism, Perps v3 on Base and Arbitrum, and the 420 pool have been retired. The 420 staking pool closed on June 19, 2026. Earlier non-USD spot synth exchanges also underwent deprecation. These products belong to the protocol’s synthetic-asset and earlier perpetuals deployments, rather than the live mainnet order book. A token still appearing in a wallet does not establish an active market or a redeemable balance. Legacy recovery and conversion depend on the original network, product, and entitlement.

Order choices and the limits on an exit

Execution choices determine whether an order prioritizes immediate matching, a specified price, a trigger, or staged execution. They also determine what can remain incomplete. Market and limit orders support reduce-only, which restricts an order to reducing or closing an existing position. Take-profit and stop-loss controls add conditional exits to supported orders or positions. A trigger and a completed fill are different events.

TWAP has a minimum total order value, and each scaled child order must satisfy its own minimum. Time-in-force settings further control limit orders: good-till-cancelled leaves the order resting, immediate-or-cancel removes any unfilled remainder, and add-liquidity-only cancels an order that would immediately consume liquidity.

Closing exposure and withdrawing collateral have separate constraints. Only collateral that remains available after margin, balance, and debt checks can leave the account. Non-USDT collateral value can support trading without becoming an equal withdrawable USDT balance. Withdrawals also require Ethereum transaction confirmation. Available margin can remain withdrawable with open positions, subject to account-health and debt limits. The amount of exposure to retain determines how much supporting collateral must stay in the account.