New to Paradex? Already trading but want to go deeper? This page covers the questions that come up most often — from account setup to advanced order types. For a broader overview of who we are, visit the About page. You can always return to the main platform when you're ready.
Paradex is a decentralized perpetual futures exchange built on StarkNet. It's not a spot DEX — the platform is specifically designed for perpetual contracts, meaning positions have no expiry date. Most on-chain exchanges settle trades slowly or rely on AMM models with fixed liquidity pools. Paradex uses an off-chain matching engine with on-chain settlement, giving traders execution speed that matches centralized venues without custody risk.
The architecture matters. Funds never leave your control in the way they would on a centralized platform, yet the order book functions like one. That's the core distinction.
Deposits into Paradex go through a bridging step from Ethereum mainnet to StarkNet. Navigate to the Portfolio section, click Deposit, and follow the wallet prompts. The process involves two transactions: an L1 approval and the actual bridge call. Depending on Ethereum congestion, this can take anywhere from 3 to 15 minutes to reflect in your account.
Currently USDC is the primary collateral asset. The team behind Paradex regularly updates supported assets, so check the platform's announcements section for the latest information. Withdrawal works in reverse — funds are released back to your Ethereum address after a short delay enforced by the StarkNet bridge.
Security is taken seriously. The smart contracts underpinning the Paradex protocol have gone through third-party security reviews. StarkNet's validity proof system provides an additional mathematical guarantee — every state transition is verified by a ZK proof before being accepted on Ethereum mainnet.
That said, no protocol is without risk. Smart contract exploits, oracle manipulation, and bridge failures are real categories of risk for any DeFi platform. The Paradex team maintains a bug bounty program and publishes audit reports publicly. Reading them before depositing large amounts is always sensible.
The Paradex platform uses a maker-taker fee model. Makers — orders that rest on the book — pay lower fees or may receive a rebate, depending on volume tier. Takers, who cross the spread, pay a higher rate. As of the current fee schedule, retail takers pay around 0.03% to 0.05% per trade.
Volume-based tiers reduce fees significantly for active traders. The DIME token also plays a role in fee discounts; staking DIME can lower your effective rate. Fee structures can change — always verify the current schedule directly on the platform before calculating expected costs on a strategy.
Paradex launched with BTC and ETH perpetuals and has expanded considerably. The platform now lists dozens of assets including SOL, ARB, OP, and more recently a set of TradFi-linked perpetuals: XAG (silver), XPT (platinum), CL (crude oil), and NG (natural gas). Few DeFi perps exchanges offer commodity exposure — this is a notable differentiator.
Markets are added through a governance and listing process. Token perpetuals, commodity perps, and eventually other asset classes are all on the roadmap. Checking the Trade section directly shows every currently live market.
Leverage on Paradex is cross-margined by default, meaning your full account equity supports all open positions. Maximum leverage varies by market — BTC and ETH typically allow up to 20x, while smaller or more volatile assets carry lower limits. The Portfolio page shows your current margin ratio in real time.
If your margin ratio drops below the maintenance margin threshold, the protocol will begin liquidating positions. There's no manual margin call. Setting take-profit and stop-loss orders proactively is the standard way traders manage this risk on the Paradex platform.
Beyond standard market and limit orders, Paradex supports stop-limit, stop-market, and TWAP (Time-Weighted Average Price) orders. TWAP orders break a large position into smaller slices executed over a defined time window — useful for reducing market impact on large trades.
The Options section adds another layer: you can trade European-style options on select assets. Combining the perpetuals and options interfaces on the same platform is something most competing protocols don't yet offer at this level of integration.
Yes, partly. Paradex integrates with Privy, which allows login via email or social accounts. Behind the scenes, Privy creates an embedded wallet for you. That said, some features — particularly deposits and withdrawals at the L1 level — still benefit from a full Ethereum wallet like MetaMask or Rabby for the bridge interaction.
For pure trading after an initial deposit, email-based login works fine. The experience is noticeably smoother than most DeFi applications, which typically assume users already have a browser extension wallet installed.
DIME is the native token of the Paradex ecosystem. It has two primary functions: staking and fee discounts. Staking DIME through the dedicated staking section earns protocol rewards, while holding and staking also reduces your trading fee tier. The token is separate from the USDC collateral that backs positions.
The team behind Paradex has tied DIME more deeply into the platform over successive releases. Governance proposals, referral incentives, and future protocol revenue sharing are all areas where DIME holders may play a larger role. Token economics documents are published in the project's documentation.
Self-custody. On a centralized exchange, the platform holds your funds. If the exchange is hacked, goes insolvent, or freezes withdrawals, your assets are at risk — as multiple high-profile collapses in 2022 and 2023 demonstrated. On Paradex, your position collateral is secured by StarkNet's cryptographic proofs and Ethereum's base layer.
Performance has also improved substantially. Earlier DeFi perp platforms had execution speeds measured in seconds. Paradex's off-chain order matching cuts that to milliseconds. For most trading strategies, the gap versus centralized venues is now small enough not to matter.
Funding rates on Paradex perpetuals follow the industry-standard formula: they are determined by the difference between the perpetual's mark price and the underlying spot index price. When perpetuals trade at a premium to spot, longs pay shorts. When they trade at a discount, shorts pay longs.
Rates are paid continuously — not in periodic hourly settlements like some other venues. This means your position's effective cost accumulates in real time, which is visible in the Portfolio section. The Funding History page on Paradex shows historical rates for each market, which is useful for carry-style strategies.
Because settlement occurs on StarkNet and ultimately Ethereum, the on-chain state is always recoverable even if the Paradex frontend goes down. StarkNet's architecture means a valid proof of account balances exists on Ethereum at all times. The protocol includes escape mechanisms that would allow users to reclaim funds in an extreme scenario.
This is meaningfully different from a centralized exchange where the company's servers are the only record of your balance. It's worth reading the escape hatch documentation in the Paradex technical docs to understand exactly how that process works before you need it.
Paradex has a dedicated mobile app available for both iOS and Android. The mobile interface covers the core trading experience: opening and closing positions, viewing your portfolio, and managing deposits. The full order book depth and chart tooling are also present, though the desktop version offers more screen real estate for multi-panel layouts.
The app is listed in both the App Store and Google Play. Given StarkNet's wallet requirements, the first-time setup on mobile takes a few extra steps, but subsequent logins are fast.
Yes. The referral program on Paradex lets existing users generate a referral link and earn a share of trading fees from anyone who signs up using that link. The referred user also receives a fee discount for an initial period, which makes the incentive two-sided.
The Refer section in the navigation shows your current referral stats, generated links, and accumulated rewards. Payouts are in USDC and credited to your trading account directly, so there's no separate claim step. Volume-driven referrers can build a meaningful passive income stream depending on their network size.
The primary support channel is Discord. The Paradex Discord server has dedicated channels for technical issues, deposit problems, and general questions — the team and community moderators are generally responsive within a few hours. For non-urgent questions, the documentation site covers most common issues in detail.
For account-specific problems involving funds, opening a support ticket through Discord is the recommended path. Email support exists but is slower. If you encounter a potential security vulnerability, the responsible disclosure path through the bug bounty program is the right route — not a public Discord message.
You can also browse more about the Paradex team or head back to the trading platform directly.