Arcus is making its cheaper fee tiers easier to reach. Starting October 23, 2026, the decentralized perpetuals exchange will cut in half the 30-day trading volume a trader needs to climb its fee ladder.
There is a catch, and it arrives on the same day. The beta-era discounts on crypto perpetuals are ending, and those markets will go back to standard rates.
What is changing on October 23
Arcus announced the update on October 20, 2026, through its official social media channels. The changes take effect three days later.
Fees on Arcus are tracked per wallet address. Each wallet’s tier depends on its rolling 30-day filled notional volume.
That term needs a quick unpacking. “Notional” is the full dollar size of a position, not just the collateral posted to open it. “Filled” means only executed orders count, so resting orders that never trade add nothing. “Rolling” means the window keeps sliding, and today’s trades drop off the count after 30 days.
Hitting a higher tier means lower taker fees. At the upper levels, it can also mean maker rebates.
Not every market moves the same way
The update is not uniform across Arcus’s product lineup. Fees on real-world asset perpetuals stay where they are.
Crypto perpetuals are leaving behind the incentives Arcus used during its beta period and moving to standard rates. In July 2026, Arcus cut taker fees in half. In August 2026, it set maker fees to zero for certain lower beta tiers.
Spot trading fees on Arcus stay at 0%.
Who Arcus is and how it works
Arcus is a decentralized perpetuals exchange built by the dYdX team. It works in collaboration with Robinhood.
Arcus runs a central limit order book with trading available 24/7. Orders are matched off-chain and settled on-chain.
What this means for traders
The winners are likely mid-sized traders who sat just under a tier cutoff. With the thresholds cut in half, some of them could jump up a level on the volume they already trade.
The traders most at risk are smaller accounts that enjoyed zero maker fees during beta. For them, standard crypto perp rates may cost more than any benefit from the new thresholds, especially if their volume stays well below even the reduced cutoffs.
RWA traders can mostly ignore this update. Their fee structure is not changing.
Arcus has not yet published post-update tier figures or any estimate of how the changes will play out. Until those numbers are out, traders cannot work out exactly where they land.
Once the table is live, the math is straightforward. Take your rolling 30-day filled notional volume, find your new tier, and compare that rate with what you paid during beta.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.