Arcus referral program: the three levels and the catch

The Arcus referral program pays three levels of net trading fees: 10% on direct referrals, 15% at the top fee tiers, 3% on level two and 2% on level three. The catch is that spot is 0% and maker fees are 0% in beta, so the income comes from perps takers.

Arcus launched the programme on 9 July 2026 and framed it as earning forever, which is accurate as far as it goes: the share continues for as long as the referred trader keeps trading, with no stated cap and no expiry. What the headline does not tell you is how small the fee base currently is, or that the traders who generate the fees need an invite code to exist.

Before any of the numbers matter: Arcus is not available in the United States, the United Kingdom or Canada, plus other restricted jurisdictions named in its Terms. Those three countries are where most English-language search traffic comes from, which makes the addressable audience for an Arcus referral link much narrower than it looks. The countries page covers who is eligible.

The three levels

Arcus pays a share of net trading fees down three tiers of your network:

• Level one, people who signed up with your code: 10% of their net trading fees, rising to 15% if you sit at the top Arcus fee tiers
• Level two, people they referred: 3%
• Level three, the layer below that: 2%

The 15% rate is worth a moment of honesty. Top fee tiers on Arcus perps start at $1 billion of rolling 30-day volume for tier 5 and $3 billion for tier 6. If you are reading a guide about referral programmes, you are not at those tiers. Budget for 10%.

There is no published cap on total earnings and no time limit on the share. Arcus describes it as continuing for as long as the referred trader stays active.

How to get a code

There is no application. No public affiliate programme, no documented KOL programme, no form to fill in and nobody to email.

You create a code inside the app: Rewards, then Referrals, then Create Ref Code. Codes run from 1 to 32 characters and are allocated first come first served, so obvious short strings went early. Onboarding itself uses a Privy embedded self-custodial wallet with email or social login and no seed phrase step, which the how to use Arcus guide walks through.

What the referred user gets

Nothing published. No discount, no rebate, no bonus, no fee credit.

This is worth being blunt about because almost every other referral programme in crypto gives the new user something, and readers assume it here too. Arcus publishes a reward for the referrer only. If you are promoting a code, do not tell people it makes their trading cheaper, because it does not.

What a code does do is settle attribution. A referred trader has to attach a code before their trading volume crosses a threshold, and after that, in Arcus’ words, “that option closes for good”. The threshold is not published. The practical advice is to attach a code before placing a first trade rather than after, because there is no way to know how much room you have.

The catch, in detail

Here is where the maths gets uncomfortable. A referral share is a share of net trading fees, so it is only worth something where fees exist.

Spot Stock Tokens carry a 0% Arcus fee. The cost of a spot trade sits in the RFQ spread, which goes to market makers, not into a fee pool. A referred trader who only trades spot generates nothing for you, however much volume they do.

Perps maker fees are zero for tiers 0 to 4 for the duration of beta. A referred trader who works limit orders also generates nothing.

That leaves perps takers. At the base tier the beta taker fee is 0.0225% of notional, half the standard 0.045%. Ten percent of that is 0.00225% of notional.

A referred trader doing $100,000 of taker volume generates about $2.25 for you. To make meaningful money you need either a lot of referred traders or a few who trade perps aggressively with leverage, which is a sales pitch worth thinking carefully about before you make it. The fee guide has the full tier table.

And both beta schedules are temporary. Arcus describes them as applying for the duration of beta with no end date published. When the standard taker schedule returns, the same volume pays roughly twice as much, which doubles the referral share. That is the one way the economics improve, and it is not in your control.

The perps gate on top

Perps are not open. Access needs an invite code, minted at one per $1M of qualifying perps volume counting your own plus your direct referrals’, and codes never expire but cannot be transferred, sold or reassigned.

So the traders who generate your referral income are exactly the traders who are hardest to onboard. You cannot hand someone a perps invite you bought, and anyone selling one is selling something that does not work. The invite code page explains the mechanics and the scams.

There is one genuine upside in that structure: your direct referrals’ perps volume counts toward your own invite code minting. A referral network is therefore also a route to perps access for yourself, which may be worth more than the fee share at small scale.

Getting paid

Referral earnings are credited to your Arcus trading account and claimable on demand, subject to what Arcus calls “a small minimum balance”. The size of that minimum is not published. Neither is the payout asset, though USDG is the platform’s collateral and quote currency.

Once claimed, getting value out follows the normal route. Withdrawals to a Robinhood Chain wallet take a few seconds with no minimum and no protocol cap; anywhere else bridges, with a time estimate shown first. The withdrawals guide covers it.

A referral code and an invite code are different things, and people searching for one often mean the other. Arcus codes separates them.

Referred activity also feeds Arcus Points, which are a separate system and explicitly discretionary. Points are not a payout and no airdrop has been promised.

Risk, stated plainly

Promoting a referral code means promoting leveraged trading, and the honest version of that pitch includes the downside. Perps on Arcus run up to 50x leverage depending on the market, a leveraged position can be liquidated, and liquidation means losing the margin behind it. Most leveraged traders lose money.

Stock Tokens are not shares: no voting rights, no dividend claim as such, no guaranteed redemption. Nothing on this page is financial advice, and this site is not affiliated with Arcus.