Arcus invite codes: how perps access actually works
Disclosure: this page contains a referral link. If you sign up through it and trade perps, this site may earn a share of the fees you pay on Arcus. It does not change what we write or what you pay.
An Arcus invite code is the only way into perps trading. Codes are minted at one per $1 million of qualifying volume, counting your own plus your direct referrals’, never expire, and cannot be transferred, sold or reassigned. Spot trading needs no code. Once redeemed, a code cannot be revoked.
Arcus put it bluntly when codes went live on 1 October 2026: “the only way to get a code is from someone already trading on Arcus”. That one sentence explains the whole structure. There is no application form, no public allowlist and no way to pay your way in. Access propagates outward from people who already trade perps, one code at a time, as their volume accumulates.
Worth saying before anything else: Arcus is not available in the United States, the United Kingdom or Canada, plus other restricted jurisdictions in the Terms. A code does nothing for a resident of a blocked country, and the eligibility page is the one that actually decides whether any of this is relevant to you.
How codes are minted
One code per $1 million of qualifying volume. The volume that counts is your own perps volume plus that of your direct referrals, so a trader with an active referral tree mints codes faster than one trading the same size alone.
Two consequences follow. The first is that codes are scarce in the early stages and get less scarce as aggregate volume grows: Arcus reported more than $5 billion of cumulative volume via The Block on 1 October 2026, though DefiLlama’s API the same day showed $343.8 million all time, and the gap between those two figures has not been explained. Either way, the number of codes in existence is a function of volume rather than of marketing decisions.
The second is that the people holding codes are, by construction, traders with seven-figure turnover or a referral network that produces it. They are not an anonymous pool. If you know someone trading perps on Arcus at size, that is your realistic route.
What a code can and cannot do
| Property | What Arcus says |
|---|---|
| Expiry | Codes never expire |
| Transfer | Cannot be transferred, sold or reassigned |
| Revocation | Cannot be revoked once redeemed |
| Minting rate | One per $1 million of qualifying volume, own plus direct referrals’ |
| Scope | Unlocks perps; spot needs no code |
The combination of “never expires” and “cannot be revoked once redeemed” is the genuinely reassuring part. Once you are in, you are in. Arcus has published no mechanism for pulling perps access back from a trader who has redeemed a code, and no renewal step.
The combination of “cannot be transferred” and “cannot be sold” is the part that matters for anyone browsing secondary markets.
The waitlist that came first
Before invite codes there was a queue. Arcus opened a perps waitlist on 6 July 2026, less than a week after the spot beta launched on 30 June, and spot volume counted toward queue position. The logic was straightforward: people already trading Stock Tokens on the platform moved up.
Invite codes replaced that as the headline mechanism on 1 October 2026, the same day Arcus Points Season 1 began and Robinhood Wallet integrated the Arcus RFQ API for Stock Token swaps. Arcus has not published how many waitlist positions were converted, how long the remaining queue is, or whether it still moves. If you joined in July, the honest answer about your position is that Arcus has not said.
Anyone selling a code is selling something that cannot be transferred
This needs stating without hedging. Arcus says invite codes cannot be transferred, sold or reassigned. Any listing offering one for payment is offering something that, by the issuer’s own rules, cannot change hands.
The failure modes are all bad. A seller can take payment and send nothing. A seller can send a code that has already been redeemed.
A seller can send a real, unredeemed code that is still tied to its minter rather than to you. None of these outcomes has a complaints process, because the transaction is not one Arcus recognises in the first place. There is no escrow, no dispute window and no support ticket that ends with a refund.
A list of codes posted publicly fails for a quieter reason: a redeemed code is used, so the first reader to try it consumes it. Arcus codes covers that and the difference between an invite and a referral code.
The same scepticism applies to anyone promising guaranteed perps access as part of a paid group or signal service. Arcus publishes no affiliate application and no KOL programme, so there is no documented tier of partner with codes to hand out.
What you get once you are through
Perps on Arcus run on a central limit order book rather than the RFQ system used for spot, with leverage up to 50x depending on the market, cross and isolated margin, and isolated positions live since 9 September 2026. Collateral is USDG, the Paxos Labs stablecoin, and Stock Tokens can also be posted as collateral. The markets include RWA perps on equities, indices and commodities, with commodity perps based on ETFs such as GLD, SLV and USO rather than futures.
Costs are where the invite gate starts to matter financially. Perps taker fees begin at 0.045% at the base tier, halved to 0.0225% during beta, and maker fees are zero for tiers 0 to 4 during beta. Both beta schedules are temporary and described by Arcus as lasting for the duration of beta. The full fee tables have every tier, and the perps overview covers margin mechanics.
What to do if you cannot get a code
Trade spot. It is open to eligible users with no gate, it charges 0% in Arcus fees, and it builds the relationship and the volume history that mattered for queue position in the first place. The setup walkthrough covers getting from nothing to a first spot trade, and the order types page covers what you can actually do with an order once you are trading.
The other honest option is to look elsewhere. Ostium runs RWA perpetuals on Arbitrum, and Hyperliquid hosts xStocks spot markets and lets builders deploy equity and index perps through HIP-3. Neither requires an invite. The alternatives page compares them without inventing fee numbers that have not been verified.
Risks
Perps access is not a prize. Leveraged positions can be liquidated, and most leveraged traders lose money. Fifty times leverage means a 2% adverse move against a fully levered position is enough to wipe it out, before funding and fees.
Stock Tokens are not shares: no voting rights, no dividend claim as such, no guaranteed redemption and a price that can diverge from the underlying. There is no Arcus token, and Arcus Points are described as a participation metric only, with allocation at the sole discretion of Arcus, so chasing a code in the hope of an airdrop is chasing something nobody has promised. Nothing here is financial advice.
Questions people ask
Where can I get an Arcus invite code?
From someone already trading perps on Arcus. The announcement is explicit that this is the only route. Codes are minted to existing traders at one per $1 million of qualifying volume, so holders are people with real perps turnover behind them.
Can I buy an Arcus invite code?
Anyone selling one is selling something the rules say cannot change hands. Arcus states codes cannot be transferred, sold or reassigned. A payment buys you a string of characters with no guarantee it is unused or attached to anyone but its owner.
Do Arcus invite codes expire?
No. Arcus says codes never expire, and that a code cannot be revoked once it has been redeemed. There is no published deadline to use one after receiving it, and no stated mechanism for taking access back afterwards.
Is an invite code the same as a referral code?
No. An invite code grants perps access. A referral code attributes your trading to someone else's referral tree and pays them a share of net fees. They are separate systems, and a referral code does not open perps on its own.
Do I need a code to trade spot Stock Tokens?
No. Spot Stock Token trading is open to eligible users with no code. Only perpetual futures sit behind the invite gate, which is why most newcomers can place a first trade on the same day they fund an account.
What happened to the Arcus waitlist?
It opened on 6 July 2026, with spot volume counting toward queue position, and was the access mechanism before invite codes went live on 1 October 2026. Arcus has not published how many waitlist places were converted or what remains of the queue.