What is Drift?

Drift Protocol is an open-sourced, decentralised exchange built on the Solana blockchain, enabling transparent and non-custodial trading on cryptocurrencies. By depositing collateral into Drift Protocol, users can:

• trade perpetual swaps with up to 10x leverage,
• borrow or lend at variable rate yields,
• stake / provide liquidity,
• swap spot tokens

Why use Drift?

The full suite of DeFi tools within the protocol are powered by Drift's robust cross-margined risk engine, designed to give traders a balance of both capital efficiency and protection (more details of the cross-margin engine design are detailed throughout "Technical Explanations").

Under the cross-margin engine, each tool extends functionality within the protocol without over-extending risk. For instance:

• the borrow / lend markets also enable cross-collateral on perpetual futures and more efficient margin trading on spot assets
• every deposited token is eligible for yield on deposits from borrows and provides margin for perpetual swaps
• borrowers are only eligible to borrow from depositors in an over-collateralised fashion while passing multiple safety measures

The protocol's orderbook, liquidity, and liquidation layer is powered by a validator-like Keeper Network. Keepers are a network of agents and market-makers incentivized to provide the best order execution (i.e. Just-In-Time (JIT) liquidity, order matching, etc.) to traders on Drift. The Keepers can route orders throughout the multi-sourced liquidity mechanisms that are designed to effectively scale and offer competitive pricing even with larger order sizes.

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