Institutional Trading Rewards Program

The Institutional Trading Rewards Program supports the development of options, spot, and perpetual futures trading on the Derive Exchange by increasing liquidity and volume in the central limit order book and RFQ platform, benefiting all participants in the market. Rewards are distributed in 28-day epochs across a USDC rebate pool and a DRV pool. Fee tier and rebate are determined by a combination of market maker ranking, 28-day trading volume, and stDRV holdings.

The program outlined below and all numbers provided are subject to change.

Eligibility

The program is open to any firm or individual completing the application and meeting program requirements. All applicants are subject to review and approval by the Exchange. The program is opt-in, so all firms must provide the relevant information to be considered for rewards. If a participant meets the conditions of different fee tiers through market making or total trading volume, they receive their highest eligible fee tier. Wash trading is strictly prohibited and results in disqualification from all reward programs.

Partner incentives

Market maker rewards

Up to $500,000 USDC exchange rebates per 28-day epoch.

DRV rewards pool

1M DRV rewards are distributed to qualifying market makers, split pro-rata by score. Scoring, qualification, and payout mechanics follow the program rules described below. Pool allocations:

Pool	DRV per epoch
Options RFQ	200,000 DRV
Options OB	400,000 DRV
Perps	400,000 DRV

Asset-category split (percentage allocated across the three categories):

Category	Share
ETH / BTC / SOL	50%
HYPE	25%
Alts (incl. ZEC, XRP, CC, XAUT, LIT, PUMP, VVV)	25%

Per-pool breakdown:

	Options RFQ	Options OB	Perps
ETH / BTC / SOL	100,000 DRV	200,000 DRV	200,000 DRV
HYPE	50,000 DRV	100,000 DRV	100,000 DRV
Alts (incl. ZEC, XRP, CC, XAUT, LIT, PUMP, VVV)	50,000 DRV	100,000 DRV	100,000 DRV

Trading fees

Derive’s fee structure combines a maker/taker fee model with a fee-based rebate program for market makers and volume program participants.

Fees	Perp maker	Perp taker	Spot maker	Spot taker	Options maker	Options taker
ETH	1 bps	3 bps	15 bps	15 bps	1 bps	3 bps
BTC	1 bps	3 bps	15 bps	15 bps	1 bps	3 bps
ALT	1 bps	3 bps	15 bps	15 bps	1 bps	3 bps

Derive’s matching fees are subject to change.

USDC rewards pool

Market makers add value to the protocol by lowering the cost to trade. The Derive Exchange pays program participants on their maker volume and offers discounts to high-volume takers through a rebate program. Trading rebates are distributed in 28-day epochs. $500,000 USDC rewards pool per 28-day epoch

$250K (50%) options.
$250K (50%) perpetual futures (50% to majors, 50% to alt markets).
Participants receive discounted fees atomically.
Negative fees are processed as a rebate at the end of each epoch.
New market makers are eligible to receive the introductory top fee tier for the first full epoch of quoting.
Fee tier and rebate are determined by market maker ranking, volume, and stDRV holdings.

Option fee tiers

MM % Score Share		28-day Volume		28-day Volume Share		stDRV Holdings	Option Maker	Option Taker	Spot Maker	Spot Taker	RFQ Maker Discount	RFQ Taker Discount
10%	OR	≥ 500M	OR	≥ 7.5%	AND	≥ 1,000,000 stDRV	-0.005%	0.0075%	-0.01%	0.05%	100%	75%
10%	OR	≥ 500M	OR	≥ 7.5%	OR	≥ 1,000,000 stDRV	-0.0025%	0.01%	0%	0.05%	75%	50%
5%	OR	≥ 250M	OR	≥ 5%	OR	≥ 500,000 stDRV	-0.0013%	0.0125%	0.05%	0.07%	25%	25%
1%	OR	≥ 50M	OR	≥ 2%	OR	≥ 200,000 stDRV	0%	0.015%	0.1%	0.09%	10%	10%
All traders							0.01%	0.03%	0.15%	0.15%	0%	0%

Perp fee tiers

MM % Score Share		28-Day Volume		28-Day Volume Share		Staked DRV	Perp Maker	Perp Taker
10%	OR	≥ 500M	OR	≥ 7.5%	AND	≥ 1,000,000	-0.01%	0.015%
10%	OR	≥ 500M	OR	≥ 7.5%	OR	≥ 1,000,000	-0.005%	0.02%
5%	OR	≥ 250M	OR	≥ 5%	OR	≥ 500,000	-0.0025%	0.025%
1%	OR	≥ 50M	OR	≥ 2%	OR	≥ 200,000	0%	0.03%
All traders							0.01%	0.03%

MM ranking, volume share, and stDRV holding requirements are by market: spot, options, and perps are counted separately. To achieve the best fee tiers across programs, 1M stDRV is required per program, i.e. 2M for both options and perps. Discounts apply on a percentage basis to fees on spreads and other complex fee logic, and are calculated pro-rata if the $500K rewards pool is exceeded. Fees are subject to change. See the Trading Fees page for the base schedule.

Obligations

The central limit order book is snapshotted randomly in 15-minute windows to evaluate market maker performance. To qualify for rewards, traders must meet:

Minimum quote size: 500
Delta range: only options with a delta > 1 and < 98 are included in scoring snapshots
28-day notional trading volume: > $50M
Trading volume share: > 2%

Additional incentives

Increased rate limits

Rate limits on matching-engine requests safeguard the exchange’s order-processing capacity. Program participants qualify for the highest matching-engine rate-limit tier. Initially there are two tiers based on market maker and taker status; the exchange reserves the right to add tiers assigned by a combination of volume share and market maker rankings.

Rate limit tiers for market makers and taker program participants.

For the V3 API rate-limit model, see Rate Limits.

Advanced market maker protections

Participants in the program may enable:

Cancel on disconnect
Trade limit — max number of trades per time interval
Quantity limit — max number of instruments per time interval
Delta limit — max delta per time interval
Post-only — order rejects if it would execute on post
Frozen time — auto-reset of MMPs
Manual reset (if desired)

See Market Maker Protections for the V3 configuration API.

How to participate

No commitments required.
Contact information: Google form.

Monitoring and termination of status

The Exchange reserves the right to remove any participant from the program if the Exchange has determined, in good faith, that the participant consistently and egregiously underperforms the obligations, as determined by the Exchange in its sole discretion. The Exchange also reserves the right to prohibit the participant and any affiliated entities or individuals from trading, accessing, or participating in any Exchange products and programs for an indefinite period of time, including a prohibition that extends for several years, if the Exchange determines the participant is found to have engaged in willful misconduct of Exchange Rules.

Market making scoring calculations

Market makers are scored on:

Market coverage
Market quality

Market coverage and market quality scores are boosted by:

Distance-from-best-market multiplier
Market scaling factor

RFQ scores are boosted by:

Distance from max cost
Time score
Market scaling factors

MM scores are then weighted by:

Volume share

Distance from best market multipliers

MM scores for market coverage and market quality include multipliers based on an order’s price distance from the best market price. The further quotes are away from the BBO, the lower the multiplier. The closer to the BBO, the higher. Low-quality markets have a multiplier of 0.

Distance from BBO — Options	Multiplier
< 0.10%	5
0.10% < Order Price < 0.50%	1.5
0.50% < Order Price < 1.0%	1
1.0% < Order Price < 2.0%	0.5
> 2%	0

Distance from BBO — Perps	Multiplier
< 0.0050%	5
0.005% < Order Price < 0.01%	1.5
0.01% < Order Price < 0.05%	1
0.05% < Order Price < 0.10%	0.5
> 0.1%	0

Weightings and categories are subject to change; the docs carry the latest.

Distance from max cost

An MM’s RFQ score includes multipliers based on a response’s distance from the maximum cost of the order. The closer to Max Cost, the lower the multiplier; the more competitive the response, the higher.

Distance from Max Cost	Multiplier
< 0%	0
0 – 1%	1
1 – 3%	2
3%+	4

Market scaling factor

Each market, set of expiries, or group of strikes can have a unique Market Scaling Factor to encourage liquidity. As markets mature, MSF can be set to 0 and new markets are incentivised. Initially all market scaling factors are set to 1.

Market	Market Scaling Factor
ETH Perps	1
ETH Weekly Options < 7 DTE	3
ETH Long-Dated Options > 7 DTE	1
BTC Perps	1
BTC Weekly Options < 7 DTE	3
BTC Long-Dated Options > 7 DTE	1
SOL Perps	1
DOGE Perps	1

Alt markets	Market Scaling Factor
BNB	1
XRP	1
LINK	1
AVAX	1
UNI	1
TAO	1
WIF	1
OP	1
NEAR	1
ARB	1
Aave	1
INJ	1
BONK	1
TIA	1
SUI	1
ENA	1
PEPE	1
Worldcoin	1
SEI	1
EIG	1

Option and perpetual futures scoring

Market coverage

Time in market: the percentage of the time an MM’s quotes are on for specified strikes and expiries. An MM is considered “on” if they are meeting min quoting obligations when the snapshot is taken.

\sqrt{\frac{\sum (\text{snapshots MM is on} \times \text{Distance from Best Market Multiplier})}{\text{snapshots taken}}} \times \text{Market Scaling Factor}

Where:

Db = Distance from Best Market Multiplier on the bid side
Da = Distance from Best Market Multiplier on the ask side
N = number of snapshots taken
n = number of snapshots MM is on for
F = Market Scaling Factor

Market quality

Book size:

Vb = MM quantity bid volume, scaled by its multiplier
Va = MM scaled quantity ask volume
Ta = Total scaled quantity ask volume
Tb = Total scaled quantity bid volume
Dmax = Maximum Distance from BBO Multiplier (currently 5x)

Total MM bid/ask volume relative to the exchange’s total bid/ask volume, taken at each snapshot. Sqrt is applied to smooth results. Scaled volumes are volumes scaled by the distance-from-BBO multipliers (a

1,000 notional at top of book counts as

5,000).

Trading volume multiplier

MM score is boosted by percentage volume traded. Volume Weight = 0.

Final score

Example (Options)

	Market Coverage	Market Quality	Quote Efficiency	Initial Score	Initial Rank	Volume Boost	Final Score	Final Rank
Metrics	Time in Market	Book Size	Msg-Volume Ratio	Score
Weight	50%	40%	10%	100%
Score	0.8	0.9	0.001
Results	0.40	0.36	0.0001	0.761	5	1.2	1.09	3

RFQ score

RFQ quoting is scored independently of the order-book Market Coverage and Market Quality components and is paid from its own RFQ reward pool. The RFQ pool is split by asset category, and each category is its own competition, scored and paid out pro-rata within that category:

Asset Category	RFQ Pool (per epoch)
ETH / BTC / SOL	100,000 DRV
HYPE	50,000 DRV
Alts (incl. ZEC / XRP / CC / XAUT)	50,000 DRV

A market maker’s share of a category’s RFQ pool equals its RFQ score divided by the sum of all market makers’ RFQ scores in that category. Only filled RFQs are scored. An RFQ that is requested but never filled contributes nothing to any market maker’s score. On a filled RFQ, every market maker that submitted a maker quote is scored, not only the one that filled.

What is measured

Each maker quote on a filled RFQ is evaluated on two dimensions, price competitiveness and responsiveness, each combined with a per-market weight, the Market Scaling Factor.

1. Distance from Max Cost multiplier

Max Cost is the worst price the taker is willing to accept on the RFQ: the maximum total the taker will pay when buying, or the minimum total the taker will receive when selling. A maker quote’s Distance from Max Cost is the percentage by which the quote improves on that worst-acceptable price:

Distance from Max Cost (%) =  ( MaxCost − QuoteCost ) / MaxCost × 100      (taker buying)
                           =  ( QuoteProceeds − MinProceeds ) / MinProceeds × 100  (taker selling)

A larger positive distance means the maker offered the taker a better price:

Price improvement vs Max Cost	Multiplier
Wrong side / no improvement (≤ 0%)	0
0% – 1%	1
1% – 3%	2
> 3%	4

A quote no better than the taker’s worst acceptable price earns 0; the multiplier rises in steps as the quote becomes more competitive. Example.

Taker buying. Max Cost = 1,400. A maker quotes a total cost of $1,386: Distance = (1,400 − 1,386) / 1,400 × 100 = **1.0%** → 0%–1% band → **multiplier = 1**. A sharper maker quoting$ 1,330 gives (1,400 − 1,330) / 1,400 × 100 = 5.0% → above 3% → multiplier = 4.
Taker selling. Min Proceeds = 1,400. A maker quoting proceeds of $1,430 gives (1,430 − 1,400) / 1,400 × 100 = 2.14% → 1%–3% band → multiplier = 2.

2. Time Score

Measures how quickly a market maker first engages with an RFQ, based on the elapsed time between the RFQ’s creation and the market maker’s first quote. Only the first quote counts; submitting further quotes does not reset the timer.

Time to first quote	Time Score
≤ 5 minutes	2
≤ 15 minutes	1
> 15 minutes	0.5

3. Market Scaling Factor (F)

The Market Scaling Factor is the same per-market weight used throughout the rewards program. For RFQ scoring, F is the sum of the scaling factors of the RFQ’s individual option legs. Each leg is weighted by its market and its tenor: a leg expiring in 7 days or less uses that market’s short-dated weight; a leg expiring in more than 7 days uses its long-dated weight. Non-option legs (perpetual or spot) carry no RFQ weight. Current option-market weights. Only markets that list options contribute to the RFQ score:

Options market	Short-dated (≤ 7 days)	Long-dated (> 7 days)
ETH	5.0	1.0
BTC	5.0	1.0
SOL	5.0	1.0
HYPE	5.0	1.0
ADA	5.0	1.0
ZEC	5.0	1.0
XRP	5.0	1.0
XAUT	5.0	1.0
CC	5.0	1.0

Every options market currently carries the same weighting: short-dated legs (7 days or less to expiry) are weighted 5.0 and longer-dated legs 1.0, reflecting the program’s emphasis on near-term liquidity. Markets that trade only perpetuals do not list options and therefore contribute no RFQ weight.

The fill boost

On every filled RFQ, one market maker’s quote is the one that transacts with the taker. That market maker receives a fill boost of 1.2×. Every other market maker that submitted a quote on the same filled RFQ still scores, but its contribution is scaled by 0.5×. This rewards winning the trade while still crediting competitive quotes that did not fill.

Putting it together

For each filled RFQ, and for each market maker that quoted it:

Take the market maker’s best Distance-from-Max-Cost multiplier across all of its quotes on that RFQ.
Take the market maker’s Time Score from its first quote on that RFQ.
Add the two and weight by the Market Scaling Factor F: F × (DistanceScore + TimeScore).
Apply the fill boost: ×1.2 for the market maker that filled the RFQ, ×0.5 for every other market maker that quoted it.

A market maker’s contributions are summed across every filled RFQ in the epoch. That single total is then divided by the category’s total RFQ fees and square-rooted (the square root smooths the distribution across market makers):

contribution(MM, RFQ) = fillBoost × F × ( DistanceScore + TimeScore )

                       (  Σ  contribution(MM, RFQ)  )
RFQScore(MM) = sqrt    ( ─────────────────────────── )
                       (         TotalRFQFees        )

where the sum Σ runs over all filled RFQs the Market Maker quoted.

Where fillBoost = 1.2 if the market maker filled the RFQ, else 0.5. The sum in the numerator runs over every filled RFQ the market maker quoted, and TotalRFQFees divides that whole sum once (not each term).

Variables

DistanceScore — Distance-from-Max-Cost multiplier (0 / 1 / 2 / 4) for the market maker’s best quote on the RFQ.
TimeScore — Time Score (2 / 1 / 0.5) from the market maker’s first quote.
F — Market Scaling Factor, summed over the RFQ’s option legs.
fillBoost — 1.2 for the filling market maker, 0.5 for all other quoters on that filled RFQ.
TotalRFQFees — the normalisation denominator: the sum of the taker fees paid on every filled RFQ scored in that category over the epoch, across all market makers. It is the same value for every market maker in the category, so it does not change the ranking within a category; it puts each category’s scores on a comparable, fee-weighted scale. Because it divides the summed contributions, a market maker earns more when its competitive, well-timed quotes represent a larger share of the fees actually transacted in the category.

Example

Alice sends an RFQ to buy 100 ETH weekly call options (expiry < 7 days). The benchmark is the RFQ’s Max Cost — say $1,400 for the lot. The market’s short-dated ETH scaling factor is F = 3. Two market makers respond: ABC submits one quote at t = 200 s for a total cost of $1,386:

Price improvement = (1,400 − 1,386) / 1,400 = 1% → DistanceScore = 1
First quote at 200 s (≤ 5 min) → TimeScore = 2
ABC does not fill → fillBoost = 0.5
contribution = 0.5 × 3 × (1 + 2) = 4.5

XYZ submits two quotes —

1,360 at t = 500 s**, then **

1,330 at t = 800 s, which fills:

Best price improvement across its quotes = (1,400 − 1,330) / 1,400 = 5% → DistanceScore = 4
First quote at 500 s (≤ 15 min) → TimeScore = 1
XYZ fills → fillBoost = 1.2
contribution = 1.2 × 3 × (4 + 1) = 18.0

Suppose this pool’s total RFQ fees for the epoch are $18. Then:

RFQScore(XYZ) = √(18.0 / 18) = 1.00
RFQScore(ABC) = √(4.5 / 18) = 0.50

XYZ ranks above ABC: it filled (1.2× vs 0.5×) and offered more price improvement, even though ABC responded faster.

Notes

Filled RFQs only. Unfilled RFQs are not scored; quoting competitively without ever filling still earns (via the 0.5× quoter boost on RFQs that other market makers fill), but filling is worth substantially more.
Self-trades are excluded. A market maker’s quotes on an RFQ that it itself created as the taker are not scored.
Multi-currency RFQs are split across asset categories in proportion to the Market Scaling Factor that each currency’s option legs contribute, so a single RFQ can feed more than one category pool.
Anti-spam floor. A per-currency minimum RFQ notional can be applied; any currency leg below that floor is dropped from scoring.
Only option legs are scored for RFQ; perp/spot legs contribute no RFQ score.

Trading Fees

Base maker/taker fees that the tier discounts apply to.

Rate Limits

How program participants qualify for higher matching-engine rate limits.

Market Maker Protections

Advanced MMPs, cancel-on-disconnect, and open-orders margin.

RFQ Trading

How to send and quote RFQs on V3.

​Eligibility

​Partner incentives

​Market maker rewards

​DRV rewards pool

​Trading fees

​USDC rewards pool

​Option fee tiers

​Perp fee tiers

​Obligations

​Additional incentives

​Increased rate limits

​Advanced market maker protections

​How to participate

​Monitoring and termination of status

​Market making scoring calculations

​Distance from best market multipliers

​Distance from max cost

​Market scaling factor

​Option and perpetual futures scoring

​Market coverage

​Market quality

​Trading volume multiplier

​Final score

​Example (Options)

​RFQ score

​What is measured

​1. Distance from Max Cost multiplier

​2. Time Score

​3. Market Scaling Factor (F)

​The fill boost

​Putting it together

​Variables

​Example

​Notes

​Related

Trading Fees

Rate Limits

Market Maker Protections

RFQ Trading

Eligibility

Partner incentives

Market maker rewards

DRV rewards pool

Trading fees

USDC rewards pool

Option fee tiers

Perp fee tiers

Obligations

Additional incentives

Increased rate limits

Advanced market maker protections

How to participate

Monitoring and termination of status

Market making scoring calculations

Distance from best market multipliers

Distance from max cost

Market scaling factor

Option and perpetual futures scoring

Market coverage

Market quality

Trading volume multiplier

Final score

Example (Options)

RFQ score

What is measured

1. Distance from Max Cost multiplier

2. Time Score

3. Market Scaling Factor (F)

The fill boost

Putting it together

Variables

Example

Notes

Related