Collateral Management
Deposit and withdraw USDT, and understand margin requirements before trading on Diffusal
Diffusal uses USDT as collateral for all options positions. Your collateral is held in a non-custodial vault contract — the protocol can only move collateral according to the margin rules you agreed to when depositing.
Depositing USDT
- Navigate to the Portfolio tab in the left sidebar
- Click Deposit in the Collateral section
- Enter the amount of USDT you want to deposit
- Approve token spending (first deposit only): Your wallet will prompt you to approve the vault contract to spend your USDT. This is a one-time on-chain transaction.
- Confirm the deposit: Your wallet prompts for a second transaction to transfer USDT into the vault
Once the deposit transaction confirms, your available margin updates and you can start trading.
Withdrawing USDT
You can withdraw any USDT not currently reserved as margin.
- Navigate to the Portfolio tab
- Click Withdraw in the Collateral section
- Enter the withdrawal amount — the form shows your maximum withdrawable balance
- Confirm the withdrawal transaction in your wallet
If you have open positions, the withdrawable amount is your total collateral minus the initial margin currently reserved. You cannot withdraw margin that is actively backing open positions.
Understanding Margin Requirements
Diffusal uses a portfolio margin model. Margin is calculated at the portfolio level, not per-position, which allows offsetting positions to reduce your overall requirement.
Initial Margin
Initial margin (IM) is the collateral required to open a new position. Before submitting an order, the order form shows a margin preview — the estimated IM impact of the pending order.
If the order would push your total IM above your available collateral, the submit button is disabled.
Maintenance Margin
Maintenance margin (MM) is the minimum collateral required to keep existing positions open. MM is lower than IM.
If your portfolio value falls and your collateral drops below maintenance margin, your account becomes eligible for liquidation. See Risk Management for details.
Margin Impact Preview
The order form displays the margin impact of your pending order before you submit:
- Current IM: Your portfolio's current initial margin requirement
- New IM: Projected IM after this order is filled
- Available: Current collateral minus current IM (your trading buffer)
Use the margin preview to understand how each trade affects your risk capacity before committing.