Fees, Costs and Staking Benefits for Users
Using Liquid comes with certain fees and optional costs, but we strive to keep the model transparent and rewarding for active participants. Here’s what general users should know:
Tokenization Fee:
When you tokenize an asset on Liquid, a one-time fee is charged based on the asset’s value (declared by you, possibly cross-checked by our AI or appraisals). The standard rate is 0.5% of the asset value. This fee covers:
All the legal document generation
Smart contract deployment
Initial listing on the marketplace
Ongoing use of the platform (no subscription – just this upfront fee)
You have two choices for payment:
Pay in SOL (or equivalent stablecoin) at 0.5%.
Pay in $LIFI (Liquid’s token) at a discounted 0.3% rate. This is a significant ~40% discount as a perk for using our ecosystem token.
Example: If your asset is valued at $100,000, the fee in SOL would be $500 worth of SOL. If you pay in $LIFI, it would be $300 worth of $LIFI. If $LIFI is trading at, say, $0.50, that would be 600 $LIFI tokens. The exact $LIFI needed is calculated at the time of transaction by the current market rate.
The fee is generally deducted automatically during the tokenization process – you’ll see the bot or platform request the fee payment as described earlier. There are no hidden charges beyond this. If for some reason tokenization fails or is aborted before completion, any fee paid is either not taken or is refunded (Liquid’s smart contract escrows it until completion).
Marketplace Trading Fees:
If you buy or sell tokens on the Liquid marketplace, a small fee applies to each trade (like an exchange fee). Currently, it’s 0.3% per trade (0.3% of the trade value). This is taken from the asset seller by default (like how selling on a stock exchange might incur fees). If you are a buyer, typically the price you pay has that fee baked in via the AMM spread, so effectively both sides share it. These trading fees partly go to liquidity providers and partly to Liquid’s treasury.
There’s no fee if you’re just transferring tokens peer-to-peer to someone (except for the negligible blockchain network fee, which on Solana is ~$0.0001).
Custody and Withdrawal Fees:
Liquid does not custody user assets – everything sits in your own Solana wallet. So, unlike some platforms, we don’t charge withdrawal fees to get your tokens or funds out; you always control them. The only "network fee" is the standard Solana transaction fee, which is extremely low (fractions of a penny). If you use features like fiat on-ramps or off-ramps, those might have fees charged by third-party providers (e.g., a payment processor might take 1% for converting your credit card to crypto) – Liquid will transparently show any such fees if the service is available.
Staking $LIFI Benefits:
If you decide to buy $LIFI (either to pay fees or as an investment in Liquid) and you stake it in the Vault:
Earn staking rewards (~17% APY) that accrue daily. The UI will show your accumulating rewards, which you can claim periodically (note: reward rates could vary over time).
Priority Services: Faster KYC processing, especially if there’s a backlog.
Fee rebates or extra discounts in the future: For example, staking a large amount of $LIFI could reduce your tokenization fees to near-zero.
Early access: To new features (such as beta mobile apps or new asset classes).
Voting rights: Stakers will participate in governance decisions.
Marketplace incentives: Boosted yields when providing liquidity or better visibility for asset listings.
Holding Asset Tokens:
There’s no custody fee or management fee for simply holding tokens of assets. If you buy tokens representing an asset (like a rental property), Liquid doesn’t charge you ongoing fees. However, individual assets might have operational costs that affect returns (e.g., property management fees) — but these are part of the asset's own economics, not Liquid’s fees.
Example Scenarios:
Asset Owner:
You tokenize a $100,000 asset.
You pay $300 in $LIFI as the tokenization fee.
You sell 40% of the asset for $40,000 via the marketplace.
The marketplace fee at 0.3% is $120, deducted during sales.
You net ~$39,880 from the sales, and you still hold 60% ownership.
Going forward, you incur no further platform fees unless you sell more tokens.
Investor:
You buy $5,000 worth of tokens.
You pay a
0.3% trading fee ($15) at purchase.You sell later for $6,000 (after a 20% gain).
You pay another 0.3% trading fee (~$18).
Net profit = $6,000 - $5,000 - fees ($15 + $18) = $967.
Any rental income you receive from the asset is additional profit, with no platform fee taken out.
Gas Fees:
On Solana, transaction fees are extremely low (fractions of a penny). You might see a network fee of 0.00001 SOL per action — effectively negligible. Liquid optimizes transactions to reduce gas usage wherever possible.
No Subscription/Platform Fee:
Using Liquid (the bot, the Vault, etc.) is free — no subscription fees. You pay only when you tokenize or trade, not simply for having an account.
Future Changes:
Liquid’s fee model may evolve, subject to governance voting by $LIFI holders. As usage scales up, we expect fees to decrease rather than increase. Premium services might be introduced separately, but core tokenization and trading should become even more cost-competitive over time.
Compared to traditional models:
Traditional tokenization/securitization deals cost 5–10%+.
Competing crypto platforms charge around 1–2%.
Liquid charges only 0.5% (or 0.3% with $LIFI) — far cheaper.
Conclusion:
Liquid is fully transparent about its fee structure:
0.5% (or 0.3% with $LIFI) to tokenize.
0.3% per trade.
No hidden or recurring fees.
By participating and staking, you can even earn from the system rather than just pay into it. Our goal is for Liquid to be not just a platform you use, but one you own a part of, sharing in its growth.
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