Rate Limits and Access Tiers - DerivaDEX Docs

DerivaDEX mainnet is open to a limited number of qualified users. This release uses DDX-based trading tiers together with IP-based gateway limits on the public APIs and WebSocket endpoints.

At a glance

Item	Value	Notes
Mainnet access	Limited number of qualified users	Mainnet onboarding is not fully open.
Trading tiers	Based on DDX deposited on DerivaDEX	Tiers use the trader’s exchange-side DDX balance, not an external wallet snapshot.
Collateral cap	Also based on deposited DDX	The same DDX balance determines the current collateral cap.
Public API limits	Based on public IP	The tables below describe the public, non-whitelisted limits only.

Trading request tiers

These limits apply to authenticated trading requests submitted to POST /v2/request.

Tier	Deposited DDX balance	Per-trader request limit	Per-trader burst	Collateral cap
Tier 0	`< 1,000`	`900/hour`	`1`	`10,000 USDC`
Tier 1	`>= 1,000` and `< 1,000,000`	`1,800/hour`	`5`	`10,000 USDC`
Tier 2	`>= 1,000,000`	`180,000/hour`	`50`	`10,000,000 USDC`

Deposits are capped at the strategy level. DDX withdrawals are checked against the trader’s total margin across strategies, so a withdrawal that would move the trader into a lower DDX band is rejected if the trader’s aggregate margin would exceed the new cap.

Trading requests

Applies to	Limit	Burst	Notes
Shared public IP pool	`3000r/m`	`50`	Applied before the trader-level bucket.
Per public IP	`30r/m`	`5`	Main public-IP gate for trading requests.
Trader address	See trading tier table above	See trading tier table above	Enforced after the gateway checks. Exceeding the trader bucket returns `429 RateLimit`.

Public trading requests must clear both the IP-based gateway limit and the trader-address bucket.

Trading request examples

Situation	Outcome
A trader with `< 1,000 DDX` sends one request after sitting idle	Accepted. Tier 0 allows a single-request burst.
The same trader immediately sends a second request	The trader bucket is rate-limited. Tier 0 has burst `1`, so requests have to be paced.
A trader with `>= 1,000` and `< 1,000,000 DDX` sends five requests in a short burst	Accepted. Tier 1 allows burst `5`.
The same Tier 1 trader immediately sends a sixth request without waiting	The trader bucket is rate-limited until capacity refills.
A trader with `>= 1,000,000 DDX` sends a short burst of 20 trading requests	Accepted by the trader bucket. Tier 2 allows much higher steady-state throughput and a burst up to `50`.
Many traders share one public IP and that IP crosses `30r/m` on `POST /v2/request`	Further requests from that IP are gated at the public-IP layer even if some individual traders are still within their own trader tiers.

Public REST endpoints

Endpoint class	Limit	Burst	Notes
Public Stats REST API (`/stats/api/v1/*`)	`10r/s` per public IP, plus shared frontend pool `100r/s`	`5` per IP, `30` shared	Covers trader and strategy lookups, aggregations, market snapshots, and system/status endpoints published in `/api-docs`. These limits are enforced at the webserver layer.

Realtime connections

Applies to	Limit	Burst	Notes
Upgrade requests per public IP	`20r/m`	default (`0` extra burst)	Applies to connection attempts at the webserver layer.
Shared frontend pool	`100r/s`	`30`	Shared with other frontend traffic.
Open sockets per public IP	`10`	n/a	Enforced with `limit_conn` at the webserver layer.
WebSocket messages on `wss://testnet.derivadex.io/realtime-api`	No active app-layer cap	n/a	No application-level WebSocket message rate limit is currently enforced on this endpoint.

Realtime examples

Situation	Outcome
One public IP opens a few websocket connections to `wss://testnet.derivadex.io/realtime-api`	Accepted, as long as the IP stays within the connection-attempt and open-socket limits.
One public IP tries to open more than `10` concurrent realtime sockets	Additional connections are refused by the concurrent-socket limit.
One public IP repeatedly reconnects and exceeds `20` upgrade attempts per minute	Further connection attempts are rate-limited at the websocket-upgrade layer.

When a limit is hit

Condition	Public outcome
Trader exceeds the trading request bucket	`429 RateLimit`
Public IP exceeds a gateway request limit on trading, stats, or realtime upgrade paths	`503`
Public IP exceeds the concurrent realtime socket limit	`503`
Trader is denied access by policy	`422 SafetyFailure` with `AccessDenied`
DDX withdrawal would leave too much collateral for the new tranche	`422 SafetyFailure` with `TooMuchCollateralToWithdrawDDX`

Mainnet currently uses the collateral caps shown above.

Last modified on May 7, 2026