> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.ryft.market/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# What is ryft?
> A perpetuals DEX aggregator. Deposit once, trade across every venue, keep one view of everything you hold.
**ryft is a perpetuals DEX aggregator.** You deposit once, and ryft trades for you across several
decentralised perpetual exchanges at the same time — finding the best available price, splitting
your order between venues when that's cheaper, and showing every position you hold in one place.
You keep custody. There are no API keys to paste, no password, and no exchange account to open.
From nothing to an open position in four steps and about five minutes.
New to perpetuals? Start here before you size up.
Eight venues integrated — four live for trading today.
Split routing, funding-aware pricing, one deposit for every chain.
## The problem it solves
Perp liquidity is scattered. The same market — say `SOL-PERP` — trades on a dozen exchanges at
slightly different prices, with different fees and different funding rates. Trading it well means
holding balances on each venue, watching several order books, and deciding where every order should
go. That's a full-time job, so most traders do the lazy version: pick one exchange and take whatever
price it offers.
## What ryft does instead
You send USDC to **one address**. From there:
* **One order can fill across several exchanges.** If buying 5 SOL is cheaper as 3 on one venue and
2 on another after fees, that's what happens.
* **Funding is priced in.** Tell ryft how long you plan to hold, and routing accounts for the
funding you'll pay or earn — not just the entry price.
* **Your positions are unified.** Long on one exchange and short the same market on another shows as
one net view, not two unrelated rows.
* **Funds move themselves.** The exchanges live on different blockchains. ryft bridges and deposits
for you when a trade needs it. You never pick a chain.
## How it compares
| | Most aggregators | ryft |
| ------------- | ------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------- |
| **Venues** | \~3 | **8 integrated** — 4 live today |
| **Routing** | one order → one venue | **split fills** across venues, fee-adjusted |
| **Funding** | ignored | **priced into the route** for your hold time |
| **Portfolio** | per-venue | **unified**, with netting |
| **Custody** | some ask you to paste API keys | **MPC wallets only** — never any key pasting |
| **Pricing** | opaque | **best-execution preview** before you commit |
Custody, plainly
When you sign in, ryft provisions you an **MPC wallet** — a wallet whose private key is never
assembled in one place, split across parties using multi-party computation. It holds your deposit and
signs your trades.
* ryft **cannot** ask you for a private key or an exchange API key, because the design never uses one.
* The trading agent that places your orders **cannot move your funds out**. Withdrawal authority is a
separate signature.
* Funds leave only to an address you request, through the withdrawal flow.
**Be clear about this.** This is **not** the same as holding your own seed phrase in your own
wallet. It is a custody model with real trade-offs, and we'd rather state them than imply
self-custody we don't provide.
## What ryft is not
* **Not an exchange.** ryft holds no order book and is never your counterparty. Your trades execute
on the underlying venues, under those venues' rules and risk engines.
* **Not spot trading.** ryft trades perpetual futures — see
[Perps explained](/concepts/perps-explained) if that distinction is new.
* **Not financial advice.** Leveraged perpetuals can and do liquidate positions to zero.