Technology

Architecture overview

ZEUS Exchange is built on Base, a layer 2 network on Ethereum developed with support from Coinbase. Base uses Optimistic Rollup technology to batch and settle transactions on the Ethereum mainnet, inheriting its security model while providing significantly lower fees and faster block confirmation times.

The choice of Base as the foundation for ZEUS is deliberate. A perpetual DEX requires high throughput, predictable gas costs, and a reliable finality mechanism. Base provides all three, while also benefiting from direct integration with Coinbase's ecosystem and a growing number of users and developers already active on the network.

All core protocol logic on ZEUS runs on chain. Smart contracts handle position management, collateral accounting, liquidations, oracle price consumption, fee collection, and ZLP token mechanics. There is no off chain matching engine or centralized execution layer involved in trade settlement.

Smart contract architecture

The ZEUS protocol is composed of several interconnected smart contracts deployed on Base. Each contract is responsible for a specific layer of protocol functionality:

• Vault is the central contract of the protocol. It holds all user collateral and ZLP pool assets, manages position accounting, and enforces risk parameters such as maximum leverage, minimum collateral, and liquidation thresholds.

• Router handles incoming user requests and routes them to the correct contract functions. It serves as the entry point for most user facing operations including swaps, opening positions, and managing collateral.

• PositionManager stores and manages pending limit orders, stop loss, and take profit orders. There is no traditional order book on ZEUS. Instead, pending orders are held in the contract and monitored by keepers. When the mark price derived from oracle data reaches the specified trigger level, the keeper executes the order on chain directly against the ZLP liquidity pool.

• PriceFeed aggregates oracle data from Chainlink and other configured sources to produce the mark prices used across the protocol for execution, PnL calculation, and liquidation checks.

• ZLP (Zeus Liquidity Pool token) is an ERC-20 token that represents proportional ownership of the multi asset liquidity pool. It is minted when users deposit assets into the pool and burned when they withdraw.

• RewardRouter manages fee distribution to liquidity providers, keepers, and the protocol treasury. It handles the routing of revenues from trading activity to their respective destinations.

Keeper network

ZEUS uses a keeper based execution model for certain protocol operations. Keepers are automated bots that monitor on chain state and execute pending actions when the required conditions are met.

Keepers are responsible for:

• Executing limit orders when the mark price reaches the trigger price.

• Executing stop loss and take profit orders on open positions.

• Processing liquidations when a position's collateral falls below the maintenance margin.

Keepers receive a fixed execution fee in ETH for each operation they perform, paid by the user at the time the request is submitted. This model ensures that execution is always economically incentivized and does not depend on the protocol team or any single operator. Any address can act as a keeper, making the execution layer permissionless.

Oracle infrastructure

Mark prices on ZEUS are derived from two complementary data sources that are continuously cross-checked against each other to provide manipulation-resistant, real-time pricing across all supported markets.

Chainlink provides the primary on-chain price feeds, verified and updated by a decentralized network of node operators. Multiple recent price rounds can be sampled to derive conservative minimum and maximum bounds, adding an extra layer of protection against short-term anomalies.

FastPriceFeed is maintained by an off-chain keeper that computes a blended spot price based on data from Bybit and MEXC. This price is periodically pushed on-chain and evaluated against the Chainlink reference feed. If the deviation exceeds a configurable threshold, or if authorized signers flag an anomaly, the system automatically falls back to Chainlink pricing with an additional safety spread applied.

This two-layer design ensures that liquidation thresholds track global market dynamics rather than on-chain AMM prices, which are explicitly excluded during liquidation checks to prevent pool manipulation.

Base network and EVM compatibility

Because Base is fully EVM compatible, all ZEUS smart contracts are written in Solidity and are compatible with standard Ethereum tooling including Hardhat, Foundry, Etherscan, and web3 libraries. This makes it straightforward for developers to audit contracts, build integrations, or extend the protocol.

Users interact with ZEUS through any EVM compatible wallet such as MetaMask or Rabby. Transactions are signed locally in the user's wallet and broadcast directly to the Base network. At no point does the protocol take custody of private keys or require trust in an off chain operator for core trading functions.

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Security considerations

The protocol's smart contracts are designed with several layers of protection against common DeFi attack vectors:

• Access control on administrative functions limits who can update protocol parameters.

• Oracle manipulation resistance is built into the pricing model through multi-source aggregation and FastPriceFeed cross-validation against Chainlink.

• The dynamic tax mechanism discourages large one sided positions that could destabilize the liquidity pool.

• Liquidation thresholds and maximum leverage caps are enforced at the contract level and cannot be bypassed at the interface layer.

Smart contract security audits have been completed by Hashlock and ContractWolf. Audit reports are publicly available in the Security Audits section. Users should be aware that, as with any on chain protocol, smart contract risk cannot be fully eliminated, and participation involves accepting this risk.