The promotion is still being reconfirmed
Arcus halved taker rates in July and then removed maker charges for tiers 0–4 in August. A 21 September announcement reconfirmed both changes, so the current evidence is stronger than a launch post left online. The highest-volume maker rebate tiers were left unchanged.
This is a beta pricing promotion. It does not require a referral code or a separate reward claim, and it should not be described as a token-farming season.
Translate the rate into a trade-sized number
At the base tier, the live table lists a 0.0225% beta taker fee against a 0.045% standard rate. For a hypothetical $12,500 fill, that is approximately $2.81 instead of $5.63. An entry and exit each add their own executed notional, so a round trip is not charged only once.
Use your actual fee tier for the calculation. Moving more volume simply to reach a tier is a separate trading decision, with its own costs; the schedule is not a promise that pursuing the next threshold is worthwhile.
A limit order is not automatically a free fill
The maker benefit is about adding liquidity to the book. An order that immediately crosses existing liquidity behaves differently from one that rests and is subsequently matched. When assessing a strategy, check how its fills are classified instead of labeling every limit order “maker.”
A lower explicit charge is useful, but the fill price still matters. For example, saving a few dollars on the fee would not compensate for a much worse execution. Compare the resulting position and total cost, not the fee column in isolation.
Keep funding and other products separate
Arcus’s equity-perpetual funding mechanism settles between position holders at hourly intervals. It is a holding cost or receipt, separate from the maker/taker promotion. A position can therefore have no maker charge and still accumulate other costs.
Spot’s zero-fee pricing and the referral commission program also have their own mechanics. Neither turns the beta perpetual schedule into an unconditional cash bonus. The promotion ends with beta, with advance notice promised through Arcus’s website and X account. No calendar end has been confirmed; the linked campaign record tracks that status separately from this explanation.