Arcus Opens Stock Token and Ether Collateral to All Perpetuals Traders

Arcus removes its volume gate

Arcus has made multi-asset collateral available to every trader with access to its perpetual futures, removing the trading-volume threshold that governed its October early access. The exchange, built by the team behind dYdX and associated with Robinhood Chain, announced the wider rollout on Thursday. The policy change broadens eligibility, though the platform’s dollar caps still limit how much collateral and borrowing any one account can bring into the system.

The change lets traders use wrapped ether (WETH) and nine stock tokens as collateral alongside USDG. Those tokens cover SPY, QQQ, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta and Tesla. Arcus groups the last seven as “MAG7,” a shorthand for the large technology companies represented in the list. Each asset has an initial loan-to-value ratio of 50%, meaning its recognized collateral value supports borrowing at a level below the asset’s full market value.

There are firm limits. Arcus allows up to $20,000 in non-USDG deposits per user and $2 million across the platform. Public lending data puts the maximum loan at $10,000 per account; the exchange says it rejects orders that would exceed that amount. At the individual deposit limit, 100 traders would use the full platform cap. The calculation illustrates how quickly the shared ceiling could become relevant if many accounts approach their individual maximums, although the actual pace depends on deposits across the user base.

Arcus’s announcement says traders don’t need to enable anything to use the feature. That removes a setup step, but it doesn’t remove the need to understand how collateral values, margin requirements and borrowing interact once positions are open.

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Borrowing follows margin needs

Collateral can turn into debt automatically. When USDG in a trader’s perps account doesn’t cover margin requirements or losses, Arcus creates a variable-rate loan against the deposited assets. The balance falls as the margin requirement declines. Arcus’s public lending feed listed the annual rate at 4.94% on Thursday, a snapshot that may change because the loan rate is variable.

That arrangement links the collateral account to active trading exposure: a trader may not need to sell an asset to add margin, but the shortfall becomes a loan secured by that asset. The 50% initial loan-to-value ratio provides a buffer against the collateral’s full quoted value, while price movements and changing account requirements can affect how much support the assets provide. If you’re working in this space, the operational detail matters as much as the headline asset list: borrowing can happen as part of maintaining a position.

That flexibility comes with liquidation risk. If a token’s price falls or the loan grows enough to breach the maintenance threshold for an asset—or the account’s $10,000 borrowing limit—Arcus can close perpetuals positions, sell collateral, or do both. Its documentation describes the order limits, while the public lending feed reports lending data. Those mechanics mean users need to account for both market exposure and the possibility that collateral may be sold to settle borrowing.

From high-volume access to general availability

The feature began rolling out on Oct. 19 to accounts with more than $25 million in trading volume. That early version included the same assets and 50% initial loan-to-value ratio. Thursday’s expansion removes the volume test, changing who can access the feature without changing the listed collateral or the stated starting ratio.

“Spot positions and perpetuals positions shouldn’t have to operate in separate silos,” founder and CEO Eddie Zhang said in the press release. He said traders can use stock-token value to maintain positions, open new trades or hedge exposure. That pitch speaks to a familiar product aim in crypto markets: making assets held in one part of an exchange usable to support activity in another. The practical value depends on the terms and limits, as well as on how traders manage the added borrowing exposure.

Arcus is unavailable in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. The exchange launched leveraged stock and crypto tokens in August, and Robinhood Wallet started routing stock-token trades through Arcus on Oct. 1. The wider collateral rollout extends that market into perps margin, subject to the deposit and borrowing caps. Stock-token trading and collateral use now sit within the same product offering, though the source details do not establish how much demand the new feature will draw.

What the wider rollout changes

This is more significant than it looks: collateral eligibility can shape whether traders need to keep additional USDG idle in a perps account. Allowing WETH and stock tokens to support margin gives eligible users another way to meet account requirements, while the automatic loan mechanism lets those assets remain in use until a margin shortfall prompts borrowing. The trade-off is direct. A market move can affect both the position and the assets backing its loan.

And yet, the caps temper the breadth of the announcement. The $20,000 per-user deposit ceiling and $10,000 loan limit place a clear boundary on the feature’s use for each account, while the $2 million system-wide deposit cap makes total capacity finite. (And this is the part most people overlook.) Removing the volume test changes access; it doesn’t establish how much capacity will be available as users arrive.

For traders, the useful question is how the exchange applies its maintenance thresholds when collateral prices move and positions incur losses. Arcus’s documentation and live lending feed are the places to check for those mechanics and current terms. More accessible collateral can make account management more flexible. The resulting debt still has to be managed. A wider door, with a low ceiling.

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