What is shadowpaper?
A fully on-chain synthetic perpetuals exchange on BNB Chain: trade BTC and ETH against the protocol LP with up to 1000× leverage, settled in USDT.
Built by Solon Labsshadowpaper is a synthetic perpetuals exchange deployed on BNB Chain (BSC). A synthetic position is a contract between a trader and the protocol's liquidity pool (the LP); no order is routed to, or hedged on, another venue. All trading state (positions, balances, the payout queue, SPAPER minting and staking) is held in contracts on BSC, and every position settles in USDT.
Key features#
- Up to 1000× leverageBTC and ETH, long or short, no order book
- No spread, slippage or fundingNo fee to open or close a position
- No gas for tradingA relayer submits signed trades on the trader's behalf
- LP starts at 0 USDTThe pool grows only from trader losses
- Losses mint SPAPERA non-transferable token that earns protocol fees when staked
- Signed index priceBinance USDⓈ-M index, verified on-chain in the settling transaction
At a glance#
| Topic | One line | Number |
|---|---|---|
| Leverage | Integer leverage per position | 1–1000× |
| Position size | Margin × leverage | 500 to 10,000,000 USDT notional |
| Minimum margin | Per position | 10 USDT |
| Win fee | Charged on the gain of a winning close only | 2% |
| Losses | Nothing is charged beyond the loss itself | 0 USDT extra |
| SPAPER mint rate | While the LP's net balance is below 2,000,000 USDT | 100 SPAPER per 1 USDT lost |
| Staker share | Share of every protocol fee paid to SPAPER stakers | 50% |
| Governance delay | Contract upgrades and governance parameters pass a Timelock; the guardian can only pause or revoke a signer | 24 hours |
How it works#
- Price. Opens, closes and liquidations settle at the Binance USDⓈ-M index price, signed by the shadowpaper price signer and verified by the contract in the same transaction. See Trading & pricing.
- Winning closes pass a 0.2 bp deadband, an asymmetric-impact scale and a 2% win fee. A 1% move on a 10,000 USDT BTC position pays a net profit of about 86.38 USDT. See Profit & loss.
- Losing closes send the loss to the LP. If the LP cannot pay a winner in full, the unpaid profit waits in a first-in, first-out payout queue; margin is always returned immediately.
- SPAPER is minted on every realised loss and liquidation. Staked SPAPER receives half of protocol fees and the LP surplus above the reserve line (initially 5,000,000 USDT). See Where the money goes.
LP & SPAPER#
The LP has no seed capital and accepts no deposits. The only way to share in LP economics is to hold and stake SPAPER, which can be obtained only by realising a loss on shadowpaper. There is no premine, team allocation, investor allocation or airdrop.
shadowpaper is a Solon Labs experiment. 20% of the protocol's dev fee share is used to buy back and burn SOLON.