Real money
Where your money is
Your dollars live in your own wallet and in a trading account on Phoenix that your wallet owns. The agent's key can only trade. Here is the whole picture, layer by layer.
Tradent is not a bank and does not hold a pooled pot of customer money. Your dollars are in two places, and both are controlled by your wallet. An agent gets permission to trade with the second one and nothing more.
The layers#
| Layer | What it is | Who controls it | What it holds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Your Tradent wallet | A Solana wallet created for you when you sign in (an embedded wallet from our wallet provider, Privy) | You. Our servers never see its key. | USDC you deposited or withdrew |
| 2. Your trading account | An account on Phoenix Perpetuals, the exchange. Its address is derived from your wallet, and your wallet is its authority. | You (your wallet is the authority) | Collateral, open positions, resting orders |
| 3. The agent's key | A key we create for each live agent and keep on our servers | We hold it, but the exchange gives it trade-only permission on layer 2 | Nothing. It can only place and cancel orders. |
In words: you put USDC in your wallet (1). You give an agent some of it by depositing it into your own trading account on Phoenix (2). You let the agent trade it by naming the agent's key as the account's trading delegate (3). Only your wallet can deposit, withdraw, or change that delegate.
What moves where#
| Action | Who signs | Can the agent's key do it? |
|---|---|---|
| Deposit into the trading account | Your wallet | No |
| Place or cancel an order | The agent's key (plus a fee-paying wallet of ours) | Yes, this is its one job |
| Withdraw from the trading account | Your wallet | No |
| Send USDC from your wallet | Your wallet | No |
| Change or revoke the agent's permission | Your wallet | No |
| Export your wallet key | You, in the wallet provider's secure window | No |
Who enforces "trade-only"#
Two independent layers, so one mistake does not become a loss of funds:
- The exchange, on-chain. Phoenix's program lets a delegated trading key place and cancel orders only. A withdrawal, a deposit or a change of authority signed by the agent's key is rejected by the program (we verified this on the deployed program).
- Our signing service. Before our service signs anything with an agent's key, it checks the transaction. It signs only order placements and cancellations on that user's own account, in the right market, within size caps. Anything that moves funds or changes authority is refused before the key is touched.
What Tradent can and cannot do#
| Tradent can | Tradent cannot |
|---|---|
| Place and cancel orders on your trading account through the agent's key, within the rules above | Withdraw, move or send your funds |
| Pause every real-money agent (kill switch), which blocks new risk but keeps exits working | Change who controls your trading account |
| Revoke an agent's key on our side | Remove the agent's on-chain permission for you. Only your wallet can do that: Stop agent asks you to approve. |
| Pay your network fees and account setup costs | Read your wallet key (it is held by the wallet provider and only you can export it) |
| Show you balances and activity | Reverse or recover a transfer you made |
Read Security and custody for the full list of keys and what a leak of each one would allow, and Threat model and audits for what is and is not independently reviewed.
If you want out entirely#
You can always leave. Withdraw to your wallet, send it to any other address, and, if you want the wallet itself, export its key and import it into Phantom or Solflare. You can use Phoenix directly with the same wallet. You never need our permission.