Velocity Exchange
Velocity is a Solana perpetual futures exchange and money market, rebuilt by the former Drift team as a fork of Drift v2 after the April 2026 exploit. It charges 0.06% taker at the base tier and pays makers a small rebate.
Cost: Base tier is 0.06% taker on SOL, BTC and ETH perps, falling to 0.02% above $200M of 30-day volume. Post-only makers earn a flat 0.0025% rebate. Spot markets and direct swaps charge no trading fee. A $1,000 buy-and-sell costs about $1.20 in Velocity fees.
Sign-up perk: 5% off taker fees.
Checked 2026-10-17 · sources below- Round trip fee
- 0.12% buy + sell, platform fee
- $1,000 buy + sell
- $1.20 $1.14 with sign-up discount
- Fees paid, 30d
- — not tracked by DefiLlama
- US availability
- Unverified UK: unverified · EU: unverified
- Custody
- non-custodial
- KYC
- none
- Platforms
- web
- Launched
- —
Best for: Solana perp traders who want a Drift-style order book with a published fee ladder and a maker rebate, and who accept a rebuilt protocol with a short track record.
Velocity fees
| Fee | Type | Rate | Applies to | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perps taker fee (Regular tier) | platform | 0.06% | Buy and sell | 6 bps on SOL, BTC and ETH perps. Velocity's intro page instead states 4 bps at the base tier, so the live rate may differ. |
| Maker rebate | platform | -0.003% | Buy and sell | 0.25 bps paid to post-only makers at every tier. Without the post-only flag a resting order can pay the taker fee. |
| Per-market adjustment | platform | — | Buy and sell | Other markets can be priced above or below the base schedule, and the docs say the admin can change rates. |
| Liquidation fee | protocol | — | Buy and sell | Split three ways between liquidator, insurance fund and protocol at per-market rates; amounts not published on the fee page. |
| Funding | protocol | — | Buy and sell | Hourly payment between longs and shorts. |
Fee tiers
| Tier | Rate | Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Regular | 0.06% | under $5M 30-day volume |
| VIP 1 | 0.05% | $5M to $80M |
| VIP 2 | 0.04% | $80M to $200M |
| VIP 3 | 0.02% | above $200M |
Perps: taker 0.06%, maker -0.003% — Regular tier on SOL, BTC and ETH perps; negative maker figure is a rebate. Volume counts taker, maker and liquidation fills.
Platform fees only. On-chain network/priority fees, pool (LP) fees and price impact are extra and vary by trade.
Is Velocity legit?
Velocity runs as a single Solana program where each subaccount holds one pool of collateral. Its docs do not spell out who controls the funds; the April 2026 Drift exploit came through attacker access to project multisig wallets.
Backers: Multicoin Capital (lead; also Blockchain Capital, Primitive Ventures, Folius Ventures) - raised by Drift, the predecessor ($25,000,000), 2024-09.
Incidents on record
- 2026-04-01: Drift multisig exploit, more than $280M lost. Attackers gained access to Drift's multisig wallets and withdrew assets in about 12 minutes over 31 transactions. ZachXBT, Elliptic and TRM Labs attributed it to North Korea's Lazarus Group; estimates range from $280M to $295M. Affected wallets received recovery tokens at $1 per confirmed lost dollar, redeemable once the compensation fund reaches $5M. Source
- 2026-09-29: Co-founder Cindy Leow steps down; Velocity handed to new team. Leow announced she was stepping down and handed the rebuilt exchange to a five-person team. OtterSec's audit of Velocity recorded 154 findings, none critical. Source
Where Velocity is available
| Region | Status |
|---|---|
| United States | Unverified |
| United Kingdom | Unverified |
| European Union | Unverified |
Velocity's Terms of Use page did not render when fetched on 2026-10-17, so jurisdiction restrictions could not be verified. (source)
We report what the venue's own terms say. Don't use a VPN to get around restrictions; venues can freeze accounts that do.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Fee ladder is published: 0.06% taker at the base tier down to 0.02% at the top, plus a maker rebate.
- OtterSec audited the post-fork program; its report lists 154 findings, none critical, and says every High was fixed.
- Referral discount of 5% on taker fees for newly connected wallets, with a 10% to 20% reward for the referrer.
- Spot markets and direct swaps carry no trading fee.
Cons
- The program is a rebuild after a $280M+ exploit of the predecessor, and its source code is not yet public.
- No Drift balances or referral links carry over; users start with new accounts.
- The Terms of Use did not render, so jurisdiction limits could not be confirmed.
- Docs disagree on the base taker rate (6 bps on the fee page, 4 bps on the intro page).
Features
perpsborrow-lendswapscross-marginvaultsbuilder codesapi
Alternatives to Velocity
Lighter
Non-US, non-UK retail perps traders who want zero trading fees and can accept slower taker execution than paid accounts.
0%Round trip
Paradex
Non-US traders who place orders manually through a web UI and want zero-fee perps plus options from one margin account.
0%Round trip
Ostium
Traders who want onchain leveraged exposure to stocks, forex, commodities and indices from a self-custodied wallet, outside the US.
0.06%Round trip
Aster
Non-US, non-UK traders who want zero maker fees on order-book perps, very high leverage modes, or privacy-shielded orders.
0.08%Round trip
Velocity FAQ
Is Velocity legit?
Velocity is the rebuilt version of Drift, which lost more than $280M in an April 2026 multisig exploit. OtterSec audited the new program and found no critical issues; every High was fixed. Its source is not yet public. It is a new protocol with a short track record.
What are Velocity's fees?
Base tier taker fee is 0.06% on SOL, BTC and ETH perps, dropping to 0.02% above $200M 30-day volume. Post-only makers earn a 0.0025% rebate. Other markets can be priced above or below that schedule.
Is Velocity the same as Drift?
It is Drift's relaunch: a new fork of Drift v2 with a new program. Existing Drift accounts, balances and referral links do not carry over, so traders open new Velocity accounts.
Which chain does Velocity run on?
Solana. Velocity is a single Solana program that combines perpetual futures with borrow and lend, and spot assets can be exchanged through swaps.
Sources
Last checked . Fees and terms change often; the venue's own page wins if it disagrees with ours.
- Velocity Docs: Trading fees — checked 2026-10-17
- Velocity Docs: Referrals — checked 2026-10-17
- Velocity Docs: Introduction — checked 2026-10-17
- Velocity Terms of Use (did not render) — checked 2026-10-17
- Velocity Docs: Migrating from Drift — checked 2026-10-17
- CoinSpot: Drift relaunches as Velocity — checked 2026-10-17
- Solana Compass: Leow steps down — checked 2026-10-17
- The Defiant: Drift rebrands to Velocity — checked 2026-10-17
- Crowdfund Insider: Drift $25M Series B — checked 2026-10-17