A closer look

Back in November last year, the market-making bot meta on perp DEXs was just getting started. TreadFi was the main player, followed by Flowbot. Since then, a ton of other projects have emerged, and some have already shut down

TreadFi has since launched its TGE, with $TREAD reaching an FDV of over $100M. Flowbot, meanwhile, moved away from the MM bot meta and pivoted into a platform offering market-neutral USDC yield through trading RWA perpetuals (stocks, indices, and commodities). They also received a $60K grant at Arbitrum Open House Singapore, where they ranked #1 among 125 founders building RWA-related startups

So, what exactly is @atoma_fi?

You deposit USDC once and receive vault shares. Atoma then trades that capital through hedged positions across multiple perp DEXs. Instead of betting on price direction, it makes money from price discrepancies between venues, differences in funding rates, and points earned on the platforms themselves. Your yield is reflected in the increasing share price, while points are distributed among depositors

There are two main vaults:

Atoma Index (64% APY over the last 30 days)

Points-focused vault. Capital rotates between paired perpetual venues to maximize points earned across different platforms

Atoma RWA (57.7% APY over the last 30 days)

Return-focused vault. Uses market-neutral strategies on stock and commodity perpetuals

How the strategies actually work:

1. Cross-Venue Spread Trading (the main strategy)

The same underlying asset (or a very closely related one, such as an index vs. an ETF) trades at different prices across venues. Atoma buys where it's cheaper and sells where it's more expensive, then closes both positions once the spread narrows. This runs in high-frequency mode, with liquidity taken into account

2. Funding Arbitrage

Atoma uses the same hedged positions to capture differences in funding rates. For example, going long where funding is low or negative and short where it's high, collecting the difference for as long as the spread lasts

3. Points

Simply farming points on perp DEXs like Lighter through trading volume and activity. 80% goes to depositors and 20% to Atoma

Platform fees:

Performance fee: 20% of trading profits above the high-water mark + 20% of points

Withdrawal fee: 0.5%. Withdrawals take 3 days

The vault contract was scanned by Nethermind AuditAgent, an AI-driven code analysis tool. The scan was automated and was not manually reviewed by Nethermind's security team, so this is not a full security audit

The project is also transparent about the risks: you can lose your money

The main risks include:

Venue risk: A trading venue could freeze funds or go bankrupt

Custody risk: There is no third-party custodian. Atoma manages its own trading wallet and accounts on the venues. USDC can only be withdrawn from the contract to pre-approved addresses, with a 24-hour delay before any new address is approved

Despite these risks, Atoma offers a way to passively earn both USDC yield and points across multiple perp DEXs without having to farm points manually yourself

Right now, you can passively farm points (including potential retroactive points) on:

Hyperliquid Season 3 (through TradeXYZ)
Lighter Season 2
QFEX

Once the respective perp DEXs convert their points into tokens during their airdrops, the tokens are credited to your balance. Atoma will then distribute them to your wallet

But that's not all. You're also farming points on Atoma itself. Its points program kicked off on November 7 with the Genesis Points Boost. The snapshot is set for November 14 at 00:00 UTC. Your qualifying balance determines how much of a boost you receive, and the boost runs until December 7

So, Atoma is a pretty interesting opportunity to passively farm points across several perp DEXs at the same time, potentially earn USDC yield on top, and participate in Atoma's own points program from day one

My code to join: https://t.co/yaFOa1NY9j