Fee Framework

How maker/taker fees are calculated and applied on Vela Exchange

Default Rates

Role	Fee	Description
Maker	−1 bps	Rebate credited to your balance
Taker	+5 bps	Fee deducted from your balance

A maker is a resting order that gets hit. A taker is the aggressive order that crosses the spread. Net exchange margin per matched pair is 4 bps.

Fee Calculation

Fees apply to the quote asset (USDC) on every fill, calculated as:

fill_value = price × quantity (in display units)

maker_fee = fill_value × (−0.0001)   // −1 bps → rebate
taker_fee = fill_value × 0.0005      // +5 bps → fee

Example: 1 ETH fill at $1,580

Role	Calculation	Amount
Maker	−0.01% × $1,580	+$0.158 rebate
Taker	+0.05% × $1,580	−$0.790 fee

Fee Amounts in Fill Responses

Fee fields are in fixed-point (divide by 1,000,000 for display):

{
  "fill_id": "fill_abc123",
  "order_id": 12345,
  "market_id": "ETH-USDC",
  "side": "bid",
  "price": 1580000000,
  "quantity": 1000000,
  "filled_at": "2026-04-15T12:00:01.000Z",
  "maker_fee": -158000,
  "taker_fee": 790000,
  "role": "maker"
}

maker_fee: -158000 divides to +$0.158** (negative = rebate). `taker_fee: 790000` divides to **−$0.790 (positive = fee charged).

The role field tells you which side you were on.

Exchange Fee Accumulation

The exchange accumulates the net margin (4 bps per matched pair). This is tracked in the engine state and visible via the admin endpoint.

Fee Endpoints

GET /fees               — global fee rates
GET /markets/:id/fees  — per-market fee rates

GET /fees response:

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "maker_fee_bps": -1,
    "taker_fee_bps": 5
  }
}

GET /markets/:id/fees response:

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "market_id": "ETH-USDC",
    "maker_fee_bps": -1,
    "taker_fee_bps": 5
  }
}

Why Maker Rebates

Maker rebates incentivize liquidity providers to quote tight spreads. Resting orders add depth to the book, reduce spread, and improve execution quality for takers. Rebating makers shifts more of the fee burden to the party that benefits from available liquidity.

This is standard practice on professional venues (Nasdaq, CME, most CEXes). Vela applies the same model at the DEX layer.

Fee Comparison

Venue	Maker	Taker
Vela	−1 bps (rebate)	+5 bps
Binance (standard)	0–2 bps	5–10 bps
dYdX v4	0–1 bps	2–5 bps
Uniswap v3 (30 bps pool)	—	30 bps

Vela’s taker fee is competitive with professional CEX rates. The maker rebate is on the lower end — this is intentional during beta; institutional tiers with enhanced rebates are available by contacting the team.