Arcus Points Season 1: How to Earn Points and Get Perps Access

Arcus started Season 1 of its points program on October 1, 2026. Points are distributed every week to traders, market makers and depositors on the stock-token and perp exchange from the team behind dYdX, and Arcus has confirmed a future token. This guide explains how Season 1 works, what earns points, which boosts apply, and how to get perps access to start.

Disclosure: links to Arcus in this guide are ArbiLayer referral links. They cost you nothing; traders who join through them become our referrals under Arcus' referral rules. Facts below come from Arcus' official announcement of October 1, 2026.

New to Arcus? Read our full Arcus review first.

Season 0 and Season 1

• Season 0 covered the private beta, July 1 to September 30, 2026. Beta users received a special allocation automatically. You can see your Season 0 ranking on the Points Dashboard by connecting your wallet; the point amounts themselves are hidden and will be revealed later.
• Season 1 started on October 1, 2026 and runs until no later than the end of H1 2027.

How Season 1 points are distributed

• 250,000 points every week, distributed on Wednesdays at 3 PM ET.
• The weekly total is fixed: it does not grow when more people join. More participants means a smaller share for each, so starting early matters.
• Your weekly points and the totals are shown on the Points Dashboard.

What earns points

Arcus lists four sources:

1. Trading. Points depend on how you trade, not only on volume. Arcus says the factors may change over time, so pure volume farming is not the target.
2. Market making. Quoting tight, deep and consistent prices. Resting limit orders that improve the order book count.
3. Retained deposits. Keeping collateral on Arcus over time.
4. Referrals. Bonus points based on the activity of traders you bring in.

Boosts

These activities earn more points (Arcus notes the boosts can change):

• Real-world assets. Trading stock tokens and other RWAs.
• Off-hours RWA perps. Trading RWA perps outside regular US market hours, that is outside 4 AM to 8 PM ET on US trading days. The boost covers overnight sessions, weekends and US market holidays for markets that quote then.
• Robinhood Wallet. Spot swaps routed through Arcus inside Robinhood Wallet earn boosted spot points.

The off-hours boost is the most interesting: weekend and overnight stock trading is exactly what Arcus is built for, and it is when the order books need liquidity most. Watch how stock prices on crypto venues compare with the last close on our Stocks & TradFi page.

What reduces or removes points

Wash trading, self-matching, deliberate clustering, rapid churning and other ways of gaming the system reduce or eliminate points. Arcus can slash points for fraud or violations of its protocol terms, and reallocates them to other users. Trading with yourself across several wallets is the fastest way to lose your allocation.

How to get perps access

Stock-token spot trading is open to eligible users without a waitlist. Perps, where most points are earned, are invite-only:

• Invite link or code. Since October 1 invite codes replaced the whitelist: anyone with a code can sign up and trade perps immediately. Traders who sign up with a code become the referrer's referrals.
• Waitlist. Connect a wallet and an X account; past perps volume on venues such as dYdX, Hyperliquid and Lighter improves your position.

Get Arcus access with ArbiLayer's invite link →

Existing users earn one invite code for every $1M of perps volume on Arcus, including volume from their referrals. Codes appear on the Rewards tab and never expire.

Arcus is not available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada or other restricted jurisdictions, and KYC is required.

Practical ways to approach Season 1

These follow from the rules above. None of them guarantees an allocation.

1. Start early. The weekly pool is fixed, so the share per trader shrinks as the platform grows.
2. Trade what is boosted. Stock tokens and RWA perps, especially overnight and at weekends.
3. Use limit orders. Market making is a listed source of points, and makers pay lower fees.
4. Keep collateral on the platform instead of depositing only to trade and withdrawing.
5. Trade normally. "How you trade" counts; mechanical churning is penalised.
6. Use your own referral link once you have one, and bring traders who will actually trade.

What points are, and are not

Arcus has confirmed a token, with an allocation reserved for the dYdX community, but has not said how points will relate to it. The announcement describes points as a measure of participation, allocated at Arcus' discretion under its protocol terms. Treat them as a possible bonus, not as a promise of an airdrop, and don't trade more than you would anyway just to farm them.

Risks to keep in mind

• Perps on Arcus are leveraged up to 50x; weekend stock prices can gap at the Monday open.
• The platform is young and rules, boosts and fees can change.
• Robinhood Chain runs a single sequencer operated by Robinhood; see our Robinhood Chain overview.

Join Arcus through ArbiLayer → and compare it with other perp DEXs on best perp DEXs.

This guide is educational and is not investment advice.