Arcus perps: markets, leverage and margin
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Arcus perps are perpetual futures on equities, indices, ETF-based commodities and crypto, traded on a central limit order book with leverage up to 50x depending on the market. Collateral is USDG, and Stock Tokens can be posted too. Access is gated: you need an invite code from an existing trader, so spot being open does not mean perps are.
The gate is the first thing to understand, because a lot of coverage describes the product as if anyone eligible can place a perps order today. They cannot. Everything below describes a market you may have to wait to reach.
What markets exist
Arcus launched on 1 July 2026 with 35 real-world-asset perps alongside its spot Stock Tokens. The perps side spans four families:
Equities, including single names such as Tesla, Apple, NVIDIA, Amazon and Palantir. Indices and sector products, including SPY, QQQ, SOXX, EWY and SGOV. Commodities, which Arcus says are based on the GLD, SLV and USO ETFs rather than on futures contracts. Crypto, including BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, DYDX and ZEC.
The ETF detail on commodities is easy to skim past and worth sitting with. A gold perp priced off GLD inherits GLD’s behaviour, including the fact that the fund trades when US markets are open while your perp trades around the clock. For market counts and the dating problem that comes with them, see Arcus Stock Tokens.
Leverage, and what 50x actually means
Arcus publishes up to 50x, varying by market. There is no single public table mapping every listing to its own cap, so the honest statement is that 50x is the ceiling and the figure on a given market may be lower. Arcus has not published per-market maximums in one place.
Fifty times leverage means a 2% adverse move wipes out the margin behind the position before fees and funding are counted. On an equity perp that can happen on an earnings gap while you are asleep, because the perp trades through the gap and the underlying does not. Most leveraged traders lose money, and higher leverage shortens the time it takes.
Cross margin and isolated margin
Cross margin pools your collateral across every open position. It is capital-efficient and it is also a single point of failure: a loss in one market can pull margin away from an unrelated position and take both down.
Isolated margin ring-fences collateral per position, so the worst case on that trade is the collateral you assigned to it. Arcus shipped isolated positions on 9 September 2026, which means anything written about the product before that date describes cross-only margin. If you are reading an older guide and it does not mention isolated margin, that is why.
For how a position actually closes when margin runs out, including the insurance fund and auto-deleveraging, see Arcus liquidations.
Collateral: USDG and Stock Tokens
USDG, the Paxos Labs stablecoin, is the quote and collateral currency across the venue. Arcus announced the Paxos Labs partnership on 21 July 2026. Whatever you fund with, by card, by crypto deposit from Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Solana or Bitcoin, or from a connected exchange, converts to USDG on the way in.
Arcus also accepts Stock Tokens as perps collateral. The appeal is obvious if you already hold them. The cost is correlation: a long Nasdaq-adjacent perp collateralised by a tech Stock Token loses value on both legs in the same selloff, so your effective leverage rises exactly when you least want it to. Collateral that moves with your position is not the same risk as collateral that sits still.
Perps collateral is held in Robinhood Chain contracts and, per Arcus, moves only under user-authorised conditions. That is a different custody arrangement from spot, which settles wallet to wallet.
Order types and fees
At launch Arcus documented market, limit, stop-market, stop-limit, take-profit, stop-loss triggered on mark price, and reduce-only orders. TWAP, trailing stops, OCO and time-in-force options are not documented, so do not assume they exist; the detail is on Arcus order types.
Perps fees are tiered on rolling 30-day volume. From 20 July 2026 Arcus halved taker fees for the beta, so tier 0 pays 0.0225% against a 0.045% standard rate. From 4 August 2026 maker fees went to zero for tiers 0 to 4 during beta.
Arcus describes both schedules as running “for the duration of beta”, which means neither is a permanent rate and the standard numbers are the ones to plan around. The full table is on Arcus fees.
The invite code gate
Arcus opened a perps waitlist on 6 July 2026, where spot volume counted toward queue position, and replaced it with invite codes on 1 October 2026. The mechanics Arcus published:
- One code is minted per $1 million of qualifying perps volume, counting your own volume plus your direct referrals’.
- Codes never expire.
- Codes cannot be transferred, sold or reassigned.
- In Arcus’ own words, “the only way to get a code is from someone already trading on Arcus”.
Because codes are non-transferable by design, anyone selling one is either misrepresenting what they have or selling nothing. The scam pattern and the full mechanics are on Arcus invite codes.
Eligibility comes before all of it
Arcus is not available in the United States, the United Kingdom or Canada, plus other restricted jurisdictions named in the Terms, which also exclude sanctioned persons and comprehensively sanctioned regions and set an 18+ minimum. No invite code changes that. If you are in one of the three blocked countries, the perps product is not available to you at all, and Arcus countries explains how the restriction is framed. Readers in that position may find Arcus alternatives more useful.
Risk, stated plainly
Leveraged perpetual positions can be liquidated, and at 50x the margin for error is thin. Stock Tokens used as collateral are not shares and carry no voting rights or dividend claim as such. Most leveraged traders lose money. Nothing here is financial advice, and nothing here reflects first-hand trading: it is drawn from Arcus’ published documentation and the Arcus help centre as of 2 October 2026.
Questions people ask
What leverage does Arcus offer on perps?
Up to 50x, varying by market. Arcus does not publish a single leverage table covering every listing, so the cap you actually get depends on the market you open. Treat 50x as the ceiling on the most liquid pairs rather than a default.
What is the difference between cross and isolated margin on Arcus?
Cross margin shares one collateral pool across all your positions, so a loss anywhere draws on everything. Isolated margin, which Arcus shipped on 9 September 2026, ring-fences collateral per position, capping the damage from one bad trade.
Can I use Stock Tokens as collateral for Arcus perps?
Yes. Arcus accepts Stock Tokens as perps collateral alongside USDG. That stacks two exposures on one position, because the collateral itself can fall while the trade moves against you, which brings liquidation closer.
Do I need an invite code to trade perps on Arcus?
Yes. Arcus says the only way to get a code is from someone already trading on Arcus. Codes are minted at one per $1 million of qualifying perps volume, never expire and cannot be transferred, sold or reassigned.
Are Arcus commodity perps based on futures?
No. Arcus states that its commodity perps track ETFs: GLD for gold, SLV for silver and USO for oil. That means you are tracking a fund's price behaviour, including its own tracking quirks, rather than a front-month futures contract.
What collateral currency do Arcus perps use?
USDG, the Paxos Labs stablecoin, is the quote and collateral currency. Deposits in other assets convert to USDG on the way in, so your profit and loss is denominated in USDG regardless of what you funded with.