Fee Structure

Learn about how our fees are structured on ZO

ZO Fee Structure

ZO uses three core fee types designed to keep markets fair, pools protected, and liquidity efficient: Trading Fees, Reserving Fees, Funding Fees, and Instant Exit Fees.

Trading Fees

Trading Fees are charged on both opening and closing a position. These range from 1–20 bps depending on the market. They are straightforward transactional fees and do not influence OI balance.

Open and Close fees are different per symbol. Please find the details below.

Symbol	Collaterals	Max Leverage	Open / Close Fee Bps	Minimum Holding Duration (Second)
BTC	ALL	50/50	4/4	60
ETH	ALL	50/50	4.5/4.5	60
XRP	ALL	50/50	5/5	60
SOL	ALL	50/50	3.5/3.5	60
DOGE	ALL	50/50	8/8	60
SUI	ALL	50/50	8/8	60
HYPE	ALL	20/20	10/10	60
ONDO	ALL	20/20	10/10	60
TRUMP	ALL	20/20	10/10	60
WALRUS	ALL	10/10	8/8	180
DEEP	ALL	10/10	8/8	180
CETUS	ALL	5/5	20/20	600

Reserving Fee

A dynamic fee paid for borrowing assets as leverage from the pool. The fee scales with utilization of the specific asset and accrues over time, capped around 0.1% per 8 hours.

$$reserving\_fee\_rate = \left( multiplier \times utilization \right) \times \left( \frac{elapsed\_time}{seconds\_per\_eight\_hours} \right)$$

Where:

• multiplier — coefficient that scales how fast reserving fees grow

• utilization — current utilization ratio of the borrowed asset

• elapsed_time — number of seconds the position has been open

• seconds_per_eight_hours — constant equal to 8 × 3600

• reserving_fee_rate — fee accrued for the elapsed period

This ensures heavily-borrowed assets cost more to reserve, encouraging healthier utilization across the pool.

Funding Fee

A mechanism to balance long vs short open interest for each symbol. The side with higher OI pays the side with lower OI. Each market has its own cap, typically 0.01–0.05%. Formula:

$$\text{FundingFee} = \min\left( M \cdot \frac{(OI_{\text{long}} - OI_{\text{short}})^{E}}{OI_{\text{total}}}, \text{MaxFee} \right)$$

Where:

• M — coefficient that scales the funding strength

• E — controls how aggressively imbalance affects funding

• oi_long — total long open interest

• oi_short — total short open interest

• oi_total — sum of both sides (oi_long + oi_short)

• MaxFee — maximum allowed funding rate for the symbol (e.g., 0.01%–0.05%)

Together, these fees create a system where trading is predictable, leverage usage is efficiently priced, and OI imbalances are continuously corrected to protect liquidity providers.

Instant Exit Fee

The instant exit fee is an additional fee applied only when a user closes a position very quickly after opening it. It is designed to discourage toxic, ultra-short-duration scalping flows that can harm LPs, especially during moments of oracle latency or rapid price updates.

The fee uses three time tiers, commonly:

• within 300 seconds

• within 600 seconds

• within 1800 seconds

Each tier applies an extra percentage of fees based on how quickly the position is closed. The longer you hold, the lower the fees will be. If position is held beyond the instant exit fee time tiers, no additional fees will be charged.

Instant Exit Fee Details on a Symbol

Important condition:

• If the position is closed at a loss, no instant exit fee is charged. (LPs are already protected when the trader loses; the fee only targets toxic profit-seeking behavior.)

This mechanism ensures that extremely short, opportunistic trades pay a premium, reducing the impact of latency arbitrage and protecting liquidity providers.