Fees

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Important Note on Fee Structure

Yona protocol itself does not charge or collect any fees. All withdrawal and swap fees go directly to independent relayer operators, not to the protocol.

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Nullifier costs

Each private transaction requires the initialization of 2 nullifier accounts, which costs 0.0019 SOL (~0.26 USDC) per transaction.

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Deposit Fees

0% of the deposited amount. Only nullifier costs.

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Withdrawal Fees

0.3% of the withdrawn amount and Nullifier costs 0.0019 SOL (~0.26 USDC).

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Swap Fees

The relayer charges 0% - 0.3% fees on swaps and nullifier costs. When you perform a private swap through our protocol, the relayer doesn’t take a percentage of your input amount, but takes the difference between minimum amount out and actual output.

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Slippage Mechanism

However, due to the technical constraints of fully private swaps in the UTXO model, we implement a unique slippage handling mechanism:

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How It Works

When you execute a swap with a 0.3% slippage tolerance, here’s what happens:

1. You receive the minimum amount out - Your transaction is guaranteed to complete, and you’ll receive at least the minimum output amount based on the slippage tolerance
2. Relayer takes the remaining tokens - Any difference between the actual swap output and the minimum amount goes to the relayer
3. Relayer absorbs the slippage risk - By taking the remaining tokens, the relayer assumes all slippage risks

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Why This Design?

This mechanism is necessary for UTXO-based privacy. In a UTXO system with zero-knowledge proofs, it’s technically impossible to create a fully private swap where the exact output amount is unknown at proof generation time. The alternative approaches would either:

• Reveal transaction information, breaking privacy
• Require trusted parties or complex multi-round interactions
• Make swaps impossible in certain market conditions

By guaranteeing you the minimum amount and absorbing the difference, we enable truly private swaps while maintaining the security guarantees of the UTXO model.

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Example

If you swap 100 SOL for USDC with 0.3% slippage:

• Expected output: 10,000 USDC
• Minimum guaranteed: 9,970 USDC (0.3% slippage)
• Actual output: 9,985 USDC
• You receive: 9,970 USDC
• Relayer receives: 15 USDC (the slippage buffer)

In market conditions where slippage works in your favor, the relayer captures that upside. In conditions where slippage exceeds the tolerance, the relayer absorbs those losses.