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This guide gets you from zero to your first trade. No prior perps experience required—if you’ve used a DEX before, you’ll feel right at home.

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Prerequisites

  • A wallet compatible with Robinhood Chain (Robinhood Wallet, MetaMask, Rabby, or similar)
  • USDG on Robinhood Chain for collateral
  • A small amount of ETH for gas (Robinhood Chain uses ETH as its gas token)
  • A few minutes
Don’t have funds on Robinhood Chain yet? Bridge ETH and supported ERC-20s using the canonical Arbitrum bridge or a partner route. See Bridging to Robinhood Chain for all options.

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Step 1: Connect Your Wallet

  1. Go to our App
  2. Click Connect Wallet in the top right
  3. Select your wallet and approve the connection
  4. Approve the network switch to Robinhood Chain if it isn’t your current chain
Once connected, you’ll see your wallet address in the header. Perpetra never asks for your private keys.

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Step 2: Register & Deposit

1

Deposit USDG

Navigate to Deposit and approve the USDG transfer. Your balance appears in the app once the transaction confirms. USDG is your collateral for all perpetual positions.
2

Enable trading

Click Enable trading and sign once. This authorizes a delegated key that signs your orders, so you won’t see a wallet popup on every trade. The key can’t withdraw funds. It’s a one-time step.

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Step 3: Place Your First Order

  1. Pick a market from Stocks, ETF, Pre-IPO or Crypto (e.g. NVDA, SPY, BTC)
  2. Set your size and leverage (start low if you’re new)
  3. Click Buy or Sell
Your position opens immediately. Check Portfolio to see open positions, PnL and liquidation price.

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Order Types at a Glance

We cover these in detail in Order Types.

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What Happens Under the Hood

Your order goes to Lighter, a zero-knowledge order-book exchange deployed on Robinhood Chain. It matches against a real central limit order book, and the resulting state is proven on-chain. Perpetra is the interface — it never takes custody of your collateral.
You’re set. From here, explore Positions to manage risk, or Fees to understand costs.