4 Account Types: Futures / Spot / Vault / Earn

Introduction

MC Markets uses a streamlined account structure to better support different trading types while keeping the user experience simple and intuitive. Instead of one mixed wallet handling everything, your funds are organized into four separate accounts — each with a clear purpose, all visible from the same Portfolio page, with instant and free transfers between them.

This guide walks through what each account is for, why the separation exists, and how funds move between them.

Note on naming: the Perpetual Account is sometimes shown in the UI as "Futures" — they refer to the same wallet.

1. The Four Accounts

Your MC Markets account is composed of four separate wallets:

Perpetual Account

For contract trading, settled in USDC.

This is the wallet that backs your perpetual positions — when you open a leveraged long or short, the margin is locked from this account, and PnL settles back here.

Spot Account

For spot trades and swaps. Holds your USDC and any digital assets you buy.

When you deposit funds onto MC Markets, they land in your Spot Account. When you buy BTC, ETH, or SOL via spot trading, those assets sit here. When you withdraw, withdrawals originate from this account.

Vault Account

For MLP vault deposits.

Funds you've committed to the MLP Vault — the platform's USDC liquidity pool — live here. (See the Yield, Two Ways guide for the full Vault mechanics.)

Earn Account

For Earn deposits, accumulating daily interest.

Funds deposited into the platform's flexible Earn product live here, accruing daily yield until you withdraw them back to Spot. (See the Earn vs Vault guide for product details.)

2. One Dashboard, Instant Free Transfers

A practical detail that matters every day:

All four accounts are visible on one Portfolio page. Transfers between them are instant and free.

You don't switch dashboards, you don't pay internal-transfer fees, and you don't wait for confirmations. Moving USDC from Spot into Perpetual to open a leveraged trade is a single click; pulling funds back from Earn to Spot before a withdrawal is the same.

This is the user-experience payoff of a structured-account model: the separation is for clarity and safety, not for friction.

3. Why the Separation Exists

The separation is designed to keep funds clearly allocated based on trading purpose, and to improve risk management and account clarity.

Three concrete benefits:

• Clear purpose for every dollar. At any moment, you can see exactly which funds are exposed to perpetual positions, which are sitting as spot holdings, which are committed to the Vault's lock-up, and which are accruing yield in Earn.
• Better risk management. Funds in Earn or Vault aren't at risk in your perpetual positions; they only enter the trading risk surface if you deliberately transfer them. This makes it much harder to accidentally over-leverage.
• Account clarity at a glance. The single Portfolio view shows the full picture — no need to mentally reconcile what's where.

Despite the separation, all accounts remain fully accessible from the same dashboard, and transfers between accounts are straightforward — the structure adds organization without adding friction.

4. Common Workflows

A few patterns you'll use frequently:

• Deposit → trade perpetuals. Deposit lands in Spot → transfer USDC to Perpetual → open positions.
• Trade perpetuals → withdraw. Close positions in Perpetual → transfer USDC to Spot → withdraw.
• Idle USDC → earn yield. Spot → Earn (flexible, withdraw any time) or Spot → Vault (4-day lock, higher yield).
• Need capital back urgently. Earn → Spot is instant; Vault has a 4-day lock-up window.

Once you internalize the four-account map, fund management on the platform becomes muscle memory.

5. Quick Recap

The four ideas worth keeping:

• Four separate accounts: Perpetual (for contracts), Spot (for spot trades and the entry/exit point for deposits and withdrawals), Vault (for MLP deposits), and Earn (for daily-yield deposits).
• All four are visible on one Portfolio page — no dashboard-switching.
• Transfers between accounts are instant and free.
• The separation is for clarity, risk management, and dedicated purpose — not friction. Move funds between accounts whenever you need to.

Risk Disclosure

The account structure described here reflects MC Markets' current implementation and may be updated; always check the official documentation for the most current details. Trading on the platform involves substantial risk and can result in losses. Trade only with capital you can afford to lose.