#USD1FuturesZeroMakerFee

USD1 Futures: Why a Zero Maker Fee Changes Everything for Active Traders

By now, a lot of traders have noticed something unusual on Gate — the maker fee on USD1-margined perpetual futures is 0.00%. Not discounted. Not reduced by a small percentage. Zero. Flat out zero percent on every maker order, for every VIP tier from 0 all the way up to 16. And because this is a promotional offer that started on August 13, 2026, and runs until further notice, it is not a rounding error or a glitch — it is an official, deliberate fee structure designed to reward the people who provide liquidity to the order book.

Let me break down exactly what this means, what it does not mean, and why it could matter to your trading cost more than you might think.

First, Understand the Difference Between a Maker and a Taker
Before we talk about the numbers, we have to be clear about the two sides of every trade. When you place a limit order that sits in the order book and waits to be matched by someone else, you are acting as a maker. You are literally making liquidity for the market — you are standing ready to buy or sell at a price you chose, and other traders can hit your order. Exchanges love makers because they make markets deeper, tighter, and easier to trade.

When you hit an existing order in the book — for example, by sending a market order that fills instantly against resting liquidity — you are acting as a taker. You are taking liquidity away from the book. Order books do not fill themselves, and taker flow is what actually consumes depth, so taker fees are almost always higher than maker fees on every exchange in the industry.

Here is the crucial point that a lot of people confuse: a zero maker fee DOES NOT automatically mean a zero taker fee. The two are completely separate. Maker is one side, taker is the other, and they are priced independently. Just because the maker fee is 0.00% does not mean you can fire off market orders with no cost. You still need to read the fee table carefully, because your trading style determines which side matters more to you.

What the USD1 Promotion Actually Offers
Gate launched nine USD1-margined perpetual futures markets on August 13, 2026, at 06:00 UTC — the lineup includes BTC/USD1, ETH/USD1, SOL/USD1, plus traditional assets like gold (XAU/USD1), silver (XAG/USD1), the S&P 500 proxy (SPCX/USD1), and semiconductor plays like SKHYNIX/USD1 and MU/USD1. Alongside that launch came a limited-time trading fee discount that applies to any trader holding a USD1-margined position, at every VIP level from VIP 0 to VIP 16.

The promotion has two parts. First, the maker fee is a clean 0.00% across the board. Second, the taker fee is reduced to 25% of its original level — which is a 75% discount off the standard taker rate.

To make it concrete, look at the BTCUSD1 example. At VIP 0, the maker fee is 0.00% and the taker fee is 0.0375%. That taker figure is not an accident — it is 25% of what the original fee would have been, which means the original taker rate at VIP 0 was 0.15%, and you are now paying a quarter of that. The taker discount scales down as you climb VIP levels too. At VIP 5 the taker fee is 0.034%, at VIP 10 it is 0.0225%, and at the top end, VIP 16 trades at a taker fee of just 0.012% — still exactly one quarter of the original 0.048% rate.

So the structure is clear: if you are a maker, you pay nothing. If you are a taker, you pay 75% less than usual. Either way, your trading costs on these USD1 contracts have been cut dramatically.

Why Maker-First Is So Valuable for Certain Styles
Here is where the real insight comes in. If your strategy involves entering and exiting positions with resting limit orders — for example, if you scale into a position in increments, set limit orders at support and resistance levels, or use post-only limit orders to avoid paying the spread — then you fall squarely into the maker camp, and your entire opening and closing cost on the fee side just collapsed to zero.

Think about a trader who places limit orders in the book. In a standard crypto perpetual at the VIP 0 level, the maker fee is typically 0.02% on each side. On a 10,000 USDT position, that works out to 2 USDT of maker fee per fill. If that trader moves in and out of the same contract multiple times a day — which is exactly what scalpers and intraday momentum traders do — those small fees compound into a meaningful drag.

Here is the arithmetic. Suppose you run a strategy that does ten round trips per day on a 10,000 USDT position value, and you are a maker on both legs. Under a standard 0.02% maker fee, each round trip costs you about 4 USDT in fees. Over 20 trading days, that is roughly 80 USDT in maker fees alone — money handed over for no productive reason. Under the USD1 zero-maker structure, that same maker flow costs you zero. Over a quarter, over a half year, over a year, the difference is real money that stays in your pocket instead of going to the exchange.

But Taker Flow Is a Different Story
Now here is the honest part, and I want to be very clear about it because this is where people get burned. The zero maker fee does not mean you can hammer the order book with market orders and walk away cost-free. Taker orders still pay a fee — it is just discounted to 25% of the original rate.

If your style is to fire market orders for quick entries and exits, then you are a taker, and you will pay the taker fee on every fill. At VIP 0 that is 0.0375% per side. That is lower than the standard market rate, and it is a genuine 75% saving, but it is not zero. The taker discount is attractive, but it is not a free ride.

The practical takeaway is this: the promotion rewards traders who add liquidity, not the ones who consume it. If you want to benefit the most from this structure, learn to trade with resting limit orders and let the market come to you. If you genuinely need market execution — for example, to get into a fast-moving trade or to close out under pressure — the taker discount still softens the blow, but do not go in expecting to pay nothing.

How the Savings Stack Up on a Real Example
Let me put together a worked example using the actual fee table so you can see the full picture. Say you are a VIP 0 trader running a 50,000 USDT notional position on BTCUSD1, and you do five full round trips in a day — enter and exit five times. Because your cost on each trip is the open fee plus the close fee, and because the maker is free, this is where the economics of the promotion really shine.

If you are a maker on every leg, your fee per round trip is 0.00% plus 0.00%, which is zero. Five round trips on a 50,000 USDT position costs you zero in trading fees. Compare that with a standard crypto perpetual where a 0.02% maker fee would cost you 10 USDT per side, or 20 USDT per round trip, or 100 USDT over those five trips. The difference is not a small percentage — it is a 100% reduction on the maker side.

Even the taker side looks attractive relative to the standard market. At the VIP 0 taker rate of 0.0375%, a 50,000 USDT fill costs 18.75 USDT per side, or 37.50 USDT per round trip. Against the original 0.15% taker rate, which would have been 75 USDT per side and 150 USDT per round trip, you are saving 75% — 112.50 USDT saved on a single round trip, just on the taker leg.

Now scale it. A moderately active trader doing twenty round trips a day on a modest 10,000 USDT notionals with a mix of maker and taker fills could easily be saving several hundred USDT a month in fees compared to a standard fee schedule. For a professional desk running large notionals or high trade frequency, the annual saving runs into thousands of USDT. In a market where edge is measured in basis points, giving up your entire maker fee is not a small concession — it materially improves the net P&L of every strategy that touches the order book.

The Full Fee Curve, in Numbers
Because the discount applies at every level, here is what the BTCUSD1 fee table actually looks like across the VIP range, so you can find your own tier. At VIP 0 the maker is 0% and the taker is 0.0375%. At VIP 1 the maker stays at 0% and the taker is still 0.0375%. At VIP 2 the taker eases to 0.0375%, then VIP 3 and VIP 4 bring it down to 0.036%. From VIP 5 the taker falls step by step: 0.034% at VIP 5, 0.032% at VIP 6, 0.028% at VIP 7, 0.026% at VIP 8, and 0.024% at VIP 9. At VIP 10 it drops to 0.0225%, then 0.021% at VIP 11, 0.0195% at VIP 12, 0.018% at VIP 13, 0.0165% at VIP 14, 0.0135% at VIP 15, and the best rate of all — 0.012% — at VIP 16.

Notice what never changes no matter how high you climb: the maker fee is 0.00% at every single tier. Whether you are a brand-new VIP 0 account or a whale-sized VIP 16, adding liquidity to these USD1 books costs you nothing. That is the headline feature, and it is uniform across all nine contract pairs.

Who Should Pay the Most Attention
This promotion is a gift to specific kinds of traders, and I want to name them so you can decide if you are one of them. If you are a market maker, a proprietary trader, or anyone running tight bid-ask strategies, a zero maker fee is quite literally your fuel — you can quote both sides of the book and pay nothing for every fill you provide. If you are a scalper who thrives on many small limit-order fills, the fee drag that used to eat your edge is gone. If you are a swing trader who likes to set entry and exit limit orders at key technical levels and wait, you are a maker by nature, and your whole round trip just became free on the fee side.

On the flip side, if your entire execution strategy is built on market orders, the taker discount helps, but you are not getting the headline zero — you are getting a 75% reduction, which is still worthwhile but materially different from free.

A Few Honest Warnings
I always want to be straight with you, so here is the honest fine print. First, this is a promotion, and Gate has said it runs until further notice. Promotions can be extended, adjusted, or ended, so read the official announcement and check the fee schedule before you assume the zero maker rate lasts forever. Second, the fee is charged only on orders that actually fill — a resting limit order that never executes or gets cancelled costs nothing, since fees are only applied on matched trades. The formula across these contracts is simple: your fee equals your matched position value multiplied by the applicable maker or taker rate.

Third, and this is the most important mindset shift, remember that the zero maker fee does not mean zero total cost of trading. The funding rate still applies to open perpetual positions, so if you hold a USD1 position across funding intervals you may still pay or receive funding depending on which side of the market you are on and whether the funding is positive or negative. A zero maker fee removes the commission drag on your fills, but it does not remove the cost of carrying a leveraged position or the risk of liquidation if the market moves against you. Do not confuse a fee discount with a risk waiver — they are completely different things.

Fourth, the maker and taker distinction is not a choice you can casually ignore. If you place a limit order and it gets filled instantly because the market traded through your price before you submitted it, you may actually be classified as a taker even though you placed a limit order. Conversely, a market order can never be a maker fill. To reliably capture the zero maker fee, use post-only limit orders where available, so the exchange knows you want to add liquidity and will reject your order rather than cross immediately. That is the practical tool that lets you lock in the maker rate on purpose.