How Verus works

Verus sits between you and several perpetual-futures venues. You enter the position you want, and Verus decides where it executes for the lowest total cost. You keep custody of your funds the entire time.

Your account

When you sign up, Verus creates an embedded account for you on Arbitrum, and creates perp DEX accounts on the supported venues automatically. This account:

• Holds your USDC (your trading capital). You do not need to hold ETH: gas is paid in USDC through a paymaster (see Deposits & withdrawals).
• Is controlled by your login. Only you can authorize what it signs.
• Is non-custodial: Verus cannot move your funds to an address you did not approve. See Security for the guardrails.

Automatic routing

A perpetual-futures venue is an exchange where you trade perps. Verus routes across three, all central limit order books (CLOBs):

• Hyperliquid
• Lighter
• Orderly

You do not choose between them. When you open a trade, Verus models the full cost of that exact trade on each eligible venue and sends it to the cheapest one. If a venue cannot support your trade (for example, your leverage is above that venue’s cap), it is excluded from routing. See Best execution for the cost model, and Venues for the venue list.

Where your collateral sits

With Verus you never make a separate deposit to a venue. Only the collateral for a given trade is moved to the venue that wins the route, and it returns to your account when you close.

So your funds sit in your own account whenever you are not in a trade.

Isolated margin

Every position uses isolated margin. Only the collateral backing a trade is sent to the venue, and that collateral is ring-fenced. If a position is liquidated, the loss is capped at that position’s margin and cannot reach your other positions or the rest of your funds.

A note on latency

Because collateral is moved to a venue as part of routing, Verus v1 has some deposit latency. That makes v1 better suited to longer-term conviction positions than to fast swing trading. Verus v2 is already being designed to remove deposit latency entirely.

Putting it together

1. You fund your account with Arbitrum USDC. Gas is paid in USDC via a paymaster, so no ETH is needed.
2. You enter a position. Verus routes it to the cheapest eligible venue and moves the collateral there.
3. You close the position. Collateral and PnL return to your account.
4. You withdraw to an external address whenever you like.

Next: Best execution explains how the cheapest venue is chosen, and Placing a trade walks through the order flow.