manager_id, and everything else
follows.
Manager
The margin model applied to your subaccount — Standard (cross collateral margin) or
Portfolio (scenario-based netting).
Risk universe
Restricted set of instruments, collaterals and lending rules, aimed at containing risk. Losses are socialized only within it.
How they relate
- A subaccount can only have one manager.
- A manager belongs to exactly one universe.
- A universe exposes at most one Standard and one Portfolio manager.
- You choose a
manager_id; that fixes both your margin model and your universe.

public/get_risk_universes returns — see
Reading public/get_risk_universes below.
Managers
A manager is the margin engine that risk-prices your subaccount. There are two:
Each manager has a numeric
manager_id. A subaccount stores its manager_id and derives its
universe, tradeable instruments, and accepted collateral from it. Picking Standard vs Portfolio for
the same book changes your margin requirement, not what you can hold.
Risk universes
A risk universe is a set of assets and managers that share a single risk boundary. It exists so that an insolvency in one universe can only ever be absorbed by that universe’s own Security Module and, if needed, socialized to solvent accounts inside the same universe — never across the whole exchange. As a direct consequence, a trade, RFQ, or liquidation is rejected if the two sides sit in different universes. Everything risk-related is keyed by(asset, risk_universe_id): collateral discounts, OI caps, and
lending pools can all differ per universe for the very same asset.
Two ways to find a manager
- By risk universe —
public/get_risk_universes. Break down all trade-able instruments and supported collaterals by universe and manager. - By currency —
public/get_all_currencies. Similar to above but broken down by currency. This route also includes market summary data such as APYs, borrow headroom, OI details and caps.
Reading public/get_risk_universes
Response (abridged, one universe)
For app builders,
public/get_all_currencies carries useful market data that can be useful for onboarding such as open interest caps, lending limits, APYs.Picking your manager
1
Decide what you'll trade and post
Settle on the instruments you want to trade (e.g.
ETH-OPTION) and the collateral you’ll post
(e.g. USDC). If you care about the margin model, decide SM (Standard cross-collateral) or
PM2 (Portfolio) too.2
Find the manager
Call
public/get_risk_universes and scan its managers for the one whose instruments[] include
what you want to trade and whose collaterals[] include what you’ll post (add a margin_type
filter if you want a specific model). Its manager_id is the id you pass everywhere.3
Confirm the collateral earns margin
Check your collateral’s
im_discount under that manager is non-zero — "0" means the manager
holds it but grants no margin against it.4
Create the subaccount
Pass the chosen id as
manager_id when depositing to a new subaccount (see Depositing) —
the collateral entry’s address is the deposit asset. Universe, instruments, and collateral
set all follow from it. You can read them back on private/get_subaccount via its manager_id
and risk_universe_id.The fallback universe
Universe0 is a special fallback (“lost-and-found”) universe: a no-margin holding area whose
only job is to safely custody collateral that has nowhere else to go. It registers every spot asset
but supports no trading, borrowing, options, or perps.
Every wallet is given a single fallback subaccount when its account is created. A deposit lands there —
instead of the subaccount you intended — whenever it can’t be honoured as requested:
- it targets the fallback manager (
manager_id0), - the asset isn’t registered in the target manager’s universe, or
- the amount is below the subaccount-creation fee.
private/transfer_spot.
The fallback appears in public/get_risk_universes like any other universe (as id 0, listed
first) — with no tradeable instruments. Skip it when choosing where to deposit.