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Review · By Stephan Kulik · Updated 2026-10-05

Vest Markets Review 2026: Stock Perps, zkRisk, Rollbacks

Facts verified against Vest's two documentation sites, its Terms of Service and its public exchangeInfo API on 2026-09-30. Where the sources disagree, this page shows both rather than choosing.

What Vest is

Vest Markets is "a perpetual futures trading platform giving traders access to hundreds of equity, crypto, commodity, and FX markets". It grew out of Vest Exchange, whose docs describe the design: zkRisk, "a zero-knowledge, unified risk engine", prices trades and funding, while "user balances and margin requirements" and position commitments sit on Base and "order placement, cancellation, and matching" run off-chain. Base consensus "is used exclusively for settlement operations"; everything else is "computed off-chain and verified via zkProofs". Today "Vest currently operates with a single validator", with "plans for progressive decentralization". The docs list an audit of Vest's smart contracts by OtterSec. The Terms (23 March 2026) are with Vest Exchange Inc., a Panama corporation, under Panama law.

Markets: 88 trading out of 544

The public exchangeInfo endpoint listed 544 symbols on 2026-09-30, of which 88 were trading and 456 halted. The API classes the 88 as 74 "stock" markets (which include ETFs and index perps), 9 FX pairs and 5 crypto markets. In May 2026 Vest put a long list of single-stock markets into reduce-only mode and closed remaining positions "to improve liquidity across higher volume markets". Index and energy perps such as ES, NQ, RTY and crude track CME futures and roll to the next contract on a published schedule. Vest's tradable markets are in this site's market coverage join, with leverage derived from each market's initial margin ratio; four FX pairs that Vest quotes the inverse way to other venues (CAD, CHF, SEK, NOK) are left out of the join rather than mislabelled.

Since 31 July 2026 Vest runs non-crypto markets 24/5: from Friday 8 PM EST "no new positions can be opened on non-crypto markets" until Sunday evening, while crypto trades 24/7. Positions are not force-closed over the weekend.

Pricing: zkRisk, mark price and funding

Instead of a fixed fee, zkRisk charges "premia and funding" sized by each trade's marginal risk, using a coherent risk measure called Entropic Value-at-Risk. The mark price, which drives PnL and liquidations, "is determined by the last traded price of the perpetual contract", and both mark and index are held inside threshold bands. Funding is "calculated and settled continuously", shown as an 8-hour average, from an hourly formula with a 5% APY interest term clamped to ±0.01% around the premium; "funding rate premiums are not charged during weekend trading hours."

Fees at a glance

Stocks pay nothing from 4 AM to 8 PM EST on weekdays, 0.05% overnight and 0.10% at weekends; FX pays nothing on weekdays and 0.25% at weekends; ES and NQ pay nothing in any session; crypto pays "0.01% to open or close a position". The API showed a taker fee of zero on 83 of the 88 trading markets. Spreads and zkRisk premia still apply. The fees page has the tables, and the fee comparison places Vest beside every other venue.

Margin, leverage and liquidation

"Vest uses Cross Margin across all markets" and "isolated margin is not currently available". The docs give "up to 50x leverage, varying by market", but the API's initial margin ratios imply more on some: 1% on nine markets, which under the docs' own margin formula is 100x. Maintenance margin is half the initial margin. Liquidations are partial, and "because risk is fully priced in, there are zero liquidation penalties."

The incident record

• 15 April 2026. A configuration change to market-making parameters mispriced some assets for about 10% of active accounts, and "approximately 90 orders were erroneously liquidated". Vest halted trading and "executed a full platform rollback to a clean snapshot" taken 33 minutes before the pricing issue began; the docs say affected accounts would be reinstated and compensated.
• 8 June 2026. Large orders in the Sunday overnight session "caused outsized price movements" in ES and other markets that "triggered user liquidations"; those users were compensated.
• 30 June 2026. A pricing issue at the equities open in EWY produced "dislocated fill prices", and PnL for about 20 accounts was adjusted.

Publishing these reports is to Vest's credit. The rollback also shows the operator can restore the whole ledger to an earlier state, which is a meaningful difference from venues where settled trades are final.

Liquidity pool, prop accounts and points

LPs can deposit USDC into the Vest Liquidity Pool and earn a share of trading fees and zkRisk premia; the docs say "LPs do not profit from aggregate trader losses". Vest Capital sells funded accounts: a one-time evaluation fee of $60, $110 or $275 for a $5k, $10k or $25k account, trading simulated funds to a profit target, then a funded account with up to 90% of profits. Points are paid weekly on Wednesdays for trading, referrals and liquidity, with a current boost on equity markets.

Risks

• Ledger rollbacks. Vest has already restored the platform to an earlier snapshot after a pricing bug.
• Single validator. Proof verification and state transitions rest on one validator today.
• Last-trade mark price. A thin book can move the price that triggers liquidations; two of the three incidents were pricing failures.
• Cross margin only. A loss on one market draws on the whole account.
• Shrinking and closed markets. Most listed symbols are halted, and non-crypto markets close at weekends while positions stay open, exposed to the reopen.
• Docs disagree. "Hundreds" of markets against 88 trading; "up to 50x" against 1% margin ratios; "no position or order size limits" against open-interest caps described on the funding page.
• Access. The US, UK, China and others are prohibited, and VPN use is barred. Confirm eligibility first; this site does not cover access workarounds.

Who Vest suits — and who it doesn't

It suits a trader outside the prohibited list who wants US stock, index and FX perps with no fee in market hours, is comfortable with cross margin, and can keep positions small relative to the book. It does not suit anyone who needs isolated margin, a mark price independent of the venue's own trades, weekend trading on stocks, or settled trades that cannot be rolled back.

Getting started

• How to start on Vest — the prohibited-jurisdiction check, email, Google or wallet sign-up, USDC deposits by Coinbase onramp or transfer, cross margin and leverage, orders, weekend hours, and withdrawals.
• Fees explained — the session-based fee table by asset class, funding with its 5% APY interest term, zero liquidation penalties, and the Vest Capital evaluation fees.

How Vest compares

FAQ