How to start trading on Derive

1. Create an account

1. Derive is mainly an options exchange, but it also lists perpetual futures and spot. You trade from a self-custody wallet such as MetaMask, Rabby, Coinbase Wallet, Fireblocks or a WalletConnect wallet. Multisig wallets such as Gnosis Safe and other smart-contract wallets are not supported. source ↗
2. Open the Derive site and follow the Connect wallet flow. On a new device you sign an "Enable Derive" transaction, which creates a browser session key so you can trade without signing every order; session keys cannot withdraw funds and can be revoked on the Developers page. source ↗
3. The Terms of Use exclude Australian tax residents, U.S. persons and residents, Ontario residents, and restricted or sanctioned persons. source ↗

2. Deposit collateral

1. Click Deposit at the top right. Your first deposit automatically creates a Standard Margin subaccount, which is where you trade. source ↗
2. You can deposit from Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base or HyperEVM. Derive Chain is a separate network, but you never need to switch your wallet to it. source ↗
3. Deposits go through Derive's bridge and take about 2-5 minutes from an L2 (Arbitrum, Optimism, Base) and 5-10 minutes from Ethereum mainnet. source ↗
4. USDC is the main collateral. Supported base assets such as wETH, wstETH, sUSDe or cbBTC can also be posted, but they count toward margin only after a risk-based haircut. source ↗

3. Open your first position

1. Orders are limit or market. A market order fills immediately and any unfilled part is cancelled; limit orders can be good-til-cancelled, post-only, fill-or-kill or immediate-or-cancel. Reduce-only is available for market and non-resting limit orders. source ↗
2. In a Standard Margin account, BTC and ETH perps need 6.6% initial margin and 5% maintenance margin of spot value, which is roughly 15x maximum leverage. Smaller assets need more (for example HYPE 10% / 8%). source ↗
3. Perp fees are 0.01% of notional for makers and $0.01 plus 0.03% of notional for takers. Lower tiers are available by volume or by staking DRV. source ↗

4. Know how liquidation works

1. The perp mark price is the spot price plus a 30-minute TWAP of the perp-spot difference, and it is kept within 94%-106% of spot. Unrealized PnL and funding are settled into your USDC balance continuously. source ↗
2. If maintenance margin turns negative, the subaccount is flagged and put up for a liquidation auction. While flagged you cannot trade on it, and liquidators can take part of all its assets, including cash, collateral, perps and options, at a discount. source ↗
3. Funding is exchanged between longs and shorts and is quoted as an hourly rate, not an 8-hour rate. If the perp trades above spot, longs pay shorts. source ↗

5. Withdraw

1. Open the account dropdown, select Withdraw, fill out the form and click Withdraw. source ↗
2. The bridge offers fast withdrawals that skip the 7-day challenge period, but there are global daily limits on fast withdrawals. source ↗
3. If the interface or matching engine fails, the docs describe a permissionless "escape hatch" for withdrawing through contract calls; it needs a small amount of ETH on Derive Chain for gas and includes a 30-minute cooldown. source ↗

6. Common mistakes

1. The first time you deposit a token you are asked to "Enable Spending". This is a permit signature that lets the Derive contracts move that token into the protocol. source ↗
2. When you onboard through the app, Derive creates a smart-contract wallet controlled by your wallet. Deposits, fills and transfers show up on the explorer under that smart-contract wallet address, not your own address. source ↗
3. A negative USDC balance is a loan: you pay interest on it at a variable rate that rises as more USDC is borrowed across the system. source ↗
4. Orders cannot be placed outside a price band around the mark price; for BTC and ETH perps the band uses a 2% spot shock, wider for smaller assets. source ↗

Before you trade

Perpetual futures use leverage: a small price move against you can liquidate your collateral. Start with a small amount and low leverage, and read the venue’s current fee and margin pages, which can change after this guide was checked.