Synthetix

About

Synthetix is a decentralized perpetual futures exchange built on Ethereum Mainnet, offering a high-performance Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) with offchain order matching and onchain settlement. Traders can access perpetual markets with up to 50x leverage, multicollateral margin (ETH, wstETH, cbBTC, sUSDe, USDT), and deep liquidity, while the Synthetix Liquidity Provider (SLP) vault lets anyone deposit sUSD to act as a community market maker. SNX stakers secure the protocol via the 420 Pool and earn rewards from protocol revenues and emissions.

Where Does Yield Come From?

Synthetix generates returns for participants through three main channels.

1. Trading fees and funding payments

Every time a trader fills an order on the exchange, they pay a small fee. The default maker fee (for orders that add liquidity) is 0.020% of the trade's notional value, and the default taker fee (for orders that remove liquidity) is 0.050%. Heavy traders can earn discounts: the highest tier reduces the maker fee to 0.000% and the taker fee to 0.017%. If a position gets liquidated, the protocol charges an extra clearance fee — 0.5% on BTC and ETH positions, 1% on SOL, and up to 2% on other markets.

Separately, every hour, longs pay a funding payment to shorts (or vice versa), depending on whether the market's mark price is above or below the index price. These payments are capped so they cannot swing more than ±2% per 8-hour window for BTC/ETH or ±4% for SOL.

All of these revenues flow into the protocol treasury, which then distributes them to SNX stakers and the SLP vault (explained below).

2. 420 Pool staking (SNX and sUSD holders)

Anyone holding SNX or sUSD can stake into the 420 Pool. In return, stakers receive a proportional share of a 12‑month program that distributes 5,000,000 SNX tokens. The sUSD deposited in the pool is put to work by the protocol in yield‑earning DeFi strategies (e.g., Curve, StakeDAO); those returns flow back to the protocol and help keep sUSD stable. Stakers also act as a last‑line Safety Module — they backstop the exchange's solvency in extreme scenarios — and earn incentive revenue (including a slice of trading fees) for taking on that risk.

3. SLP vault (Synthetix Liquidity Provider)

The SLP vault is a community‑owned, protocol‑operated market‑making pool. Depositors contribute sUSD only and share the vault's collective profit or loss. That PnL comes from bid‑ask spreads, liquidation fees, collateral exchange fees, funding rate income, and a cut of trading fees. There are no management or performance fees; withdrawals require a 4‑day waiting period to prevent gaming.

If the vault suffers losses, they are absorbed first by a built‑in PnL buffer, then by the Exchange Insurance Fund (capitalised from the exchange's past profits), and ultimately by the SNX Safety Module (which can slash staked SNX pro‑rata).

Extra option for sUSD holders

On their own, sUSD holders can deposit into the sUSD/sUSDe Curve pool and farm additional LP incentives through StakeDAO for a self‑directed yield.

Persons

Fenway
Strategy (Spartan Council)
Cav
Ops (Spartan Council)
Brent
Technical (Spartan Council)
coKaiynne
Treasury (Spartan Council)
Kain
Advisory (Spartan Council)
Jordan
Advisory (Spartan Council)
MasterMojo
Advisory (Spartan Council)

Audits

Audit / Date	Findings	Verdict
iosiro22-01-2025 - 21-05-2025	Critical0 High7 Medium3 Low12 Info17	The audit identified and remediated multiple high-risk vulnerabilities that could have led to fund loss or improper debt write-offs, and by the conclusion all findings were addressed, leaving the Treasury Market in a substantially improved security posture.
iosiro20-02-2024 - 11-04-2024	Critical3 High1 Medium0 Low2 Info7	The audit uncovered three critical fee-draining exploits and one high-severity manipulation vector, all of which were remediated before deployment; with all findings resolved, the audit indicates that the identified security risks in the BFP Market Carina release have been addressed.
iosiro—	Critical0 High2 Medium0 Low4 Info1	All findings—2 high-risk, 4 low-risk, and 1 informational—were resolved during the audit, leaving no open issues in the final commit; the scoped Synthetix V3 changes were adequately remediated for the engagement's scope.
iosiro—	Critical0 High6 Medium11 Low9 Info9	The audit identified 6 high and 11 medium severity issues, all of which were resolved before the engagement concluded, while 3 low and 3 informational items were acknowledged for future consideration; overall the codebase was found to follow best practices despite its complexity.
iosiro21-04-2023 - 25-04-2023	Critical0 High0 Medium1 Low1 Info1	The audit identified three low-severity issues (one medium, one low, one informational) related to Synthetix's Perps V2 SIP-2011 changes, all of which were addressed or accepted by the end of the engagement, leaving no residual findings.
iosiro22-03-2023 - 06-04-2023	Critical0 High0 Medium2 Low2 Info1	The audit identified two medium and two low severity issues, all of which were either fixed or accepted by the Synthetix team; no critical or high-risk findings remained at the conclusion, and the accepted risks are partially mitigated by direct integrator communication and the use of endorsed liquidation accounts.
iosiro27-02-2023 - 08-03-2023	Critical0 High0 Medium0 Low1 Info1	All high-risk issues were identified and remediated during the audit, leaving only one low-risk and one informational item open; the protocol's cross-chain migration mechanism was deemed acceptable for deployment after the fixes were applied.
iosiro09-02-2023 - 10-02-2023	Critical0 High0 Medium0 Low0 Info0	The audit identified only low-risk and informational issues, all of which were remediated before the conclusion, leaving no unresolved security concerns for the Synthetix Schedar release.
iosiro17-10-2022 - 09-12-2022	Critical0 High0 Medium1 Low0 Info1	The audit found no high-risk issues open at the conclusion, with one medium and one informational item remaining; all critical and higher-risk findings were remediated before the final review, indicating a reasonable security posture for the Mintaka release.
iosiro12-08-202213-08-202214-08-202219-10-202220-10-2022	Critical0 High0 Medium0 Low2 Info4	The audit concluded that the code conforms to its specification with no critical, high, or medium severity issues remaining; the two low-risk items accepted by the team are mitigated by governance controls, and the informational items represent design trade-offs rather than security vulnerabilities.
iosiro15-07-202211-08-202205-10-202218-10-2022	Critical0 High2 Medium2 Low1 Info1	The audit identified two high-risk and two medium-risk issues that were all resolved before the conclusion, and the code was ultimately found to be of a high standard and conforming to the SIP-252 specification; no residual vulnerabilities were present at the end of the engagement.
iosiro25-07-2022 - 04-08-2022	Critical0 High0 Medium0 Low0 Info0	The audit found no open security issues in the final reviewed code, and all identified vulnerabilities were remediated during the engagement, indicating a thorough review process and a clean security posture for the Muhlifain Release at the time of publication.
iosiro25-06-2022 - 26-06-2022	Critical0 High0 Medium0 Low0 Info0	The audit found no vulnerabilities, indicating that the SIP-258 implementation was mature and well-aligned with its specification at the time of review.
iosiro21-06-2022	Critical0 High0 Medium1 Low0 Info1	The audit found no open issues at conclusion; the single medium-risk flaw (incorrect liquidation ratio validation) and all informational items were resolved by the Synthetix team, making the Algol Release contracts safe to deploy with respect to the in-scope code.
iosiro—	Critical0 High0 Medium0 Low0 Info0	This clean audit found zero vulnerabilities across all three reviewed SIPs, indicating that the Saiph release code was implemented correctly according to its specification and presented no identified security risks at the time of review.
iosiro26-05-2022 - 01-06-2022	Critical0 High0 Medium0 Low0 Info0	The audit uncovered a high-risk vulnerability in exchange fee accounting that could have enabled collateral drain, along with several medium-risk issues, but all findings were remediated before deployment; the marginal undercalculation in the exchange fee fix was accepted as a reasonable trade-off for complexity.
iosiro23-05-2022	Critical0 High0 Medium0 Low0 Info0	The audit found no security vulnerabilities or implementation defects; the SIP-239 code was deemed to be of high quality and fully compliant with its specification.
iosiro16-05-2022	Critical0 High0 Medium0 Low0 Info2	The audit concluded with no high, medium, or low-risk findings remaining, leaving only two informational items, and the code was assessed to be of high quality by the end of the engagement.
iosiro—	Critical0 High1 Medium0 Low1 Info3	Iosiro assessed the Synthetix Mirarch Release across three SIPs and found the code to be of a high standard, with all identified security issues (one high-risk, one low-risk, and two informational) closed during the audit and only one acknowledged informational observation remaining.
iosiro23-03-202229-03-202204-04-2022	Critical0 High0 Medium0 Low0 Info0	The iosiro audit found no unresolved security issues in the Synthetix Menkent Release contracts; all identified design comments and refactoring suggestions were remediated during the engagement, and the codebase was assessed as high quality.
iosiro17-01-202220-01-202207-03-202228-03-2022	Critical0 High0 Medium0 Low0 Info0	The audit found no open vulnerabilities, with all informational findings fully remediated during the engagement; users should, however, be aware that the contract owner (a multi-sig) retains substantial control over grants and deposited funds.
iosiro25-03-2022	Critical0 High0 Medium0 Low0 Info1	The audit found no security vulnerabilities in the SIP-220 fix; the only finding was an informational gas optimization, indicating the code is sound and correctly resolves the original debt share calculation bug.
iosiro—	Critical0 High0 Medium0 Low0 Info6	The audit found no critical, high, or medium severity vulnerabilities at the conclusion of the engagement, with both low-risk issues remediated during the assessment, indicating a well-secured codebase for the Didpha release.
iosiro17-02-2022	Critical0 High0 Medium0 Low0 Info0	The audit found no unresolved security issues; the two informational findings were addressed during the engagement, leaving the in-scope contract with a clean bill of health for the limited (single-file, single-day) scope examined.
iosiro17-01-2022 - 28-01-2022	Critical0 High0 Medium1 Low1 Info1	The iosiro audit found one medium-risk, one low-risk, and several informational issues, all of which were resolved during the engagement, leaving no open findings and reflecting a high standard of code quality for the Alphard Release.
iosiro17-01-202218-01-202220-01-202221-01-202225-01-2022	Critical0 High0 Medium0 Low0 Info2	The audit found no security vulnerabilities across the three SIPs reviewed, with only minor informational design remarks and several closed issues that were remediated during the engagement.
iosiro14-01-2022	Critical0 High0 Medium0 Low0 Info0	This audit confirmed that SIP-200 correctly remediated the reported vulnerability in setRewardsToDistribute without introducing any additional security issues, leaving no residual findings across all severity levels.
iosiro03-12-2021	Critical0 High0 Medium0 Low0 Info0	The audit found no vulnerabilities in the Synthetix Atria Release (SIP-192) fix, confirming the implementation correctly resolved the double-counting fee error without introducing new issues.
iosiro—	Critical0 High0 Medium0 Low0 Info0	This audit identified no security vulnerabilities in the SIP-167 Menkalinan release smart contracts; two code style observations were made and promptly addressed by the Synthetix team, resulting in a clean final report.
iosiro05-07-202109-07-202113-07-202125-08-202101-11-202104-11-2021	Critical0 High1 Medium1 Low1 Info0	All three findings (one high, one medium, one low) were remediated during the engagement, leaving no open issues; the audit indicates the Alkaid release contracts were secure at the time of review.
iosiro23-10-2021 - 27-10-2021	Critical0 High1 Medium1 Low3 Info2	All issues found during the audit were remediated by the conclusion, leaving no open findings; the residual risk lies in careful token selection for wrapper instances and vigilance when updating fee rates.

Legal

Legal form

Panamanian corporation (Sociedad Anónima)

Registration jurisdiction

Panama

Status and notes

The Privacy Policy (19 Dec 2025) states the operator is Molon Labe Inc., a Panamanian corporation. The Terms of Use reference “SNX / SNX DAO” as a distributed network of individual contributors without specifying a separate entity. No formal imprint or legal entity registry details beyond “Panamanian corporation” are disclosed on the website.