Starbase: A New Era of High-Performance Trading on Deribit

At Deribit, our mission has always been to provide the most robust and technologically advanced platform for crypto-derivatives. Today, we are excited to share the details of our most significant upgrade to date: Starbase.

Starbase is our next-generation, high-performance matching engine. Its launch is the centerpiece of the strategic consolidation of Coinbase International Exchange (INTX) and Deribit into a single, unified, institutional-grade trading venue that will create a powerhouse of liquidity and technical excellence.

The Power of Starbase

Starbase isn’t just an incremental update; it is a complete architectural overhaul designed for the future of finance:

• Ultra-Low Latency: Starbase delivers microsecond execution speeds, facilitating superior price discovery and tighter spreads.
• Enhanced Throughput: The engine is built to handle extreme market volatility and massive bursts of throughput without performance degradation.
• Engineered for Fairness: We have prioritized a level playing field. Orders are assigned priority on a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) basis much sooner than today. Furthermore, we are equalizing cable lengths and network hops within the LD4 data center to ensure that all co-located and cross-connected traders have identical access speeds.

Connectivity & Infrastructure

Deribit remains a “bare-metal” exchange located in the Equinix LD4 data center in London. Our connectivity options remain consistent, but their performance is now amplified by the Starbase engine:

• Hosted Co-location: Client servers in the same rack space as the engine.
• Physical Cross-connect: For participants with their own presence in LD4, normalised with co-location for latency.
• AWS PrivateLink: High-speed access via AWS regions in London (eu-west-2) and Tokyo (ap-northeast-1).
• Public Internet: Standard access via the Deribit website and mobile apps. All current APIs are available over the internet, but the Starbase APIs are not.

The Unified API Landscape

All current APIs will remain fully supported for the time being; Starbase is designed to be backward compatible with Deribit’s existing infrastructure to ensure a smooth transition for all participants.

While existing integrations continue to function, we are introducing a new suite of high-performance Binary APIs (SBE – Simple Binary Encoding) to unlock the new engine’s full potential. These are designed for machine-to-machine communication with minimal overhead, providing the fastest possible path for order entry and market data.

For developers and technical teams, comprehensive documentation for these new interfaces can be found here.

Understanding Latency: The 1,000x Leap

When discussing performance, we look at three distinct layers of latency:

1. Exchange Latency: This is the internal “hop” within our engine. With Starbase, we anticipate a 1,000x improvement in p95 latency compared to current systems, moving from milliseconds to microseconds.
2. Geographic Latency: As we are based in London (LD4), physical distance matters. Traders in Tokyo or New York will experience standard fiber-optic delays, which can be optimized via specialized providers like BSO or Avelacom (e.g. from ~110ms to ~70ms for Tokyo).
3. Algo Latency: Because Starbase is so deterministic and fast, the bottleneck often shifts to the trader’s own code. The efficiency of your execution logic will be more critical than ever.

How is this relevant for me?

The impact of Starbase depends on how you interact with the market:

• Retail Traders & Click Traders (UI/App): For those using our website or mobile app, the transition will be seamless. While you don’t need to change your setup, you will benefit significantly from superior liquidity and tighter prices. A faster engine attracts more competitive market makers, resulting in better execution for every trade you make.
• HFTs & Institutional Market Makers: This is a major technical milestone. To remain competitive and capture the lowest latency, you should begin planning your integration with the new SBE Binary APIs. Additionally, the introduction of speed bumps on options will provide passive liquidity providers with enhanced protection against latency arbitrage.
• Brokers and technology providers: For any technical integration that requires latency in the millisecond, but not microseconds, the existing Websocket API remains available. This is a fast, full-featured and reliable option, available over the internet.

Road to Launch: Key Dates & Technical Milestones

We are currently in the rollout phase for Starbase. Please take note of the following milestones:

• April 8, 2026: Starbase Testnet (UAT) Go-Live.
  • Starbase will replace selected order books on test.deribit.com.
  • Members can create API keys for Starbase authentication via the existing UI.
  • Registered members will receive an email containing gateway IPs, usable ports, and the list of migrated instruments.
  • XML specs for the SBE APIs and market data multicast channels will be made available.
  • Integration Support: A Python-based SDK (.whl) is available to help kickstart your integration of Starbase order entry and market data. FIX Drop Copy specs are also now available for reconciliation workflows.
• Early July 2026: Starbase Production launch.