Pacifica vs Deribit

Pacifica or Deribit: which to use

Pacifica vs Deribit is a decentralized exchange against a centralized one. On Pacifica you trade from a self-custody wallet without ID, at 1.5 bp maker and 4 bp taker. Deribit requires ID, proof of address and a financial profile before any deposit, holds your funds in an account, and charges 1.5 bp maker and 3.5 bp taker. Both offer up to 50x and hourly funding on every market. As of 1 October 2026, Deribit lists 134 perps against Pacifica's 77. Custody, ID and taker fee are the main differences.

How each exchange is built

Pacifica is a decentralized exchange (DEX) on Solana. You trade from a self-custody wallet. It matches orders on a central limit order book.

Deribit is a centralized exchange (CEX): you open an account with the company, and the account holds your funds. It also matches orders on a central limit order book.

What changes is custody and onboarding. On Pacifica your wallet is your account and you need no ID. On Deribit you complete verification first, then deposit into the account.

Fees and what they mean

Pacifica's base tier is 1.5 bp maker and 4 bp taker, per Pacifica's fee page. Deribit's base tier is 1.5 bp maker and 3.5 bp taker. We read Deribit's rates from its API, and it has no fee page to link.

The maker rate is the same on both. A limit order that rests on the book and is filled later pays 1.5 bp on either exchange. A market order pays the taker fee to open and again to close: 8 bp per round trip on Pacifica, 7 bp on Deribit.

The fee is only part of a market trade's cost. Slippage, the price you move by eating through the order book, grows with size. The cost table above adds the fee and measured slippage at each size from $1k to $5M, and the execution cost page compares every exchange on one page.

Markets and leverage

As of 1 October 2026, Pacifica lists 77 active perps, 24 of them stocks, commodities, FX or other real-world assets. Deribit lists 134, 34 of them in those groups. The real-world asset page covers perps on stocks, gold, commodities, FX and indices.

The highest leverage on any market is 50x on both, and most markets allow less. Both pay funding every 1 hour on every market, which means 24 settlements a day. Since the interval matches here, it does not separate the two. The list further down this page shows the markets both exchanges have and each one's funding rate.

Who can use them

Pacifica asks for no ID. It blocks the US, Canada, the UK, China, Russia, Ukraine, the Philippines and sanctioned countries.

Deribit requires KYC: ID, proof of address and a financial profile before any deposit. It is closed to the US, Canada, Japan and retail UK clients.

Token and points

Pacifica has no token yet. As of 19 September 2026 its points and airdrop program was "Active". Pacifica runs no vault that arb.sh tracks. For programs across exchanges, see the airdrops page.

Reading the numbers on this page

Pacifica publishes open interest as longs plus shorts, both sides of every position. Deribit publishes one side of open positions. For the same positions Pacifica's figure reads about twice as large, so the open interest row and chart above are not a like-for-like comparison of size.

Deribit is a centralized exchange and publishes no TVL, so that row and chart show Pacifica alone, as DefiLlama's figure for the exchange.

Which one fits you

• Pick Pacifica if you want to keep funds in your own self-custody wallet and trade without ID.
• Pick Pacifica if you want to trade on Solana from a wallet rather than an exchange account.
• Pick Pacifica if you follow its points program, which was "Active" as of 19 September 2026.
• Pick Deribit if you prefer an account at a company and can supply ID, proof of address and a financial profile.
• Pick Deribit if you trade perps with market orders: 3.5 bp taker against 4 bp.
• Pick Deribit if you want more markets, 134 against 77 as of 1 October 2026, including 34 stocks, commodities, FX or other real-world assets.