FBYT publishes this comparison, so we have a stake in the outcome. We built it from each platform's own documentation and the FBYT smart contract, linked each Neutral Trade claim to its source, and marked what we could not verify. Last checked: 12 October 2026. Fees, redemption schedules and vault lists change often, so confirm current terms before you deposit. This is not financial advice, and capital is always at risk.
Short Answer: Neutral Trade vs FBYT
If you are looking for a Neutral Trade alternative that keeps funds on-chain, or are simply comparing Solana vault platforms, the choice comes down to custody and access. Choose FBYT if you want vaults that trade on-chain through Jupiter, with deposits held in program-controlled token accounts and any manager free to launch a vault. Choose Neutral Trade if you want curated, market-neutral strategies that run on centralised exchanges and perp venues, and you accept that, for strategies with an exchange leg, part of your capital sits with exchange and custody partners.
Both run on Solana, and both give depositors on-chain vault shares. They are built for different jobs. This guide compares custody, who runs the strategies, fees, withdrawals and security, mainly using each platform's own documentation.
What Are FBYT and Neutral Trade?
What Is FBYT?
FBYT is a permissionless vault platform on Solana. Money managers launch public vaults, and investors deposit from their own wallets. Deposits sit in token accounts owned by the vault's program-derived address (PDA), an address only the program can sign for. The manager trades those assets through Jupiter swaps. The contract gives the manager no instruction to withdraw investor principal, and FBYT has no instruction to move investor funds. Managers can collect the fees set at launch. A bad trade can still lose value: the vault's slippage limit only caps the execution price, not the quality of the decision.
What Is Neutral Trade?
Neutral Trade describes itself as a marketplace of on-chain trading strategies in which quant firms trade capital held in Solana vaults, with deposits starting at $100 on most vaults (Neutral Trade). Its vaults are mostly market-neutral (market making, arbitrage, funding-rate strategies), plus some directional vaults, a conservative USDC lending vault and a multi-strategy allocator called Autopilot (market-neutral vaults). Deposits are made only on Solana. The capital is then deployed to centralised exchanges, decentralised exchanges and DeFi (how it works).
Custody: Where Your Money Sits on FBYT and Neutral Trade
Custody is the biggest difference between the two, and the most important thing to understand before you deposit.
FBYT. Your deposit stays in token accounts owned by the vault's PDA. Only your wallet signature can withdraw your shares. FBYT's contract has no instruction that lets FBYT move investor funds. The remaining risk is the one every on-chain program carries: a bug in the program itself, so check its audit status (see the security section below). For more on this model, see what a non-custodial vault is.
Neutral Trade. Your deposit is tracked as on-chain vault shares, minted and redeemed at a daily net asset value (infrastructure docs). To run its strategies, capital is moved out to venues. On centralised exchanges it sits with custody partners (Ceffu MirrorX for Binance and KuCoin, Copper ClearLoop for OKX, Bybit, Gate and Bitget), mirrored into sub-accounts under Neutral Trade's own exchange accounts. Hyperliquid and Lighter accounts sit under Fordefi MPC policies (infrastructure docs).
Neutral Trade documents real protections. Strategy firms get trading rights but not withdrawal rights, and capital can only move to pre-approved addresses and venues. Changes to those lists need multi-party approval, and the vaults have an emergency pause and a 12-hour timelock on material changes (vault protections). The trade-off is that for any strategy with an exchange leg, your risk includes exchange and custodian counterparty risk and Neutral Trade's operational controls, not only smart-contract risk. Its terms also reserve the right to freeze funds, restrict transactions or hold withdrawals (terms); read the clauses for the conditions.
Neither model is safe or unsafe by definition. They put trust in different places: the vault program on FBYT, and an operator, its partners and its venues on Neutral Trade.
Who Runs the Strategies on Each Platform?
FBYT is permissionless. Any money manager can launch a vault and build a public, on-chain track record. Investors compare managers on verifiable history. The upside is openness and a wide range of strategies. The downside is that quality varies, so due diligence is on you.
Neutral Trade is curated. Strategy firms go through a formal onboarding (curator onboarding):
- a due-diligence questionnaire, then an NDA and a curator agreement
- KYC/AML checks
- a pilot of four to eight weeks
- a live Sharpe ratio of 1.5 or more, with a fully systematic approach
The upside is a screened set of professional firms. The downside is that you cannot launch your own vault there.
Fees Compared
Neutral Trade charges a 1% annual management fee as the base on all 12 of its current strategy vaults, accrued over time and charged in vault shares. Autopilot has VIP discounts down to 0.70% for large holders. Some vaults also charge performance fees against a per-wallet high-water mark. The docs list on-chain ceilings (up to 75% performance fee) that are caps, not actual rates, and do not list per-vault performance-fee rates, so check each vault's page in the app (fees and redemption).
FBYT has no entry or exit fee. Each manager sets their vault's fees at launch, within protocol caps, and cannot change them afterwards. On 12 October 2026 the production program capped management fees at 15% a year and performance fees at 20% (read from its settings account on Solana Explorer). A performance fee is charged only if the vault has traded, only when you withdraw, and measured against your own deposit value in USD. A management fee builds up as owed shares while the vault is active and is paid in the vault's tokens. The protocol takes a share of the manager's fees, currently 20% of both the management and the performance fee. FBYT's admin sets that share and can change it, and it comes out of the manager's fee rather than on top of it, so investors pay the same either way. For a worked example, see DeFi vault fees explained.
Withdrawals Compared
Neutral Trade redeems on a fixed schedule that depends on the vault, and some vaults also have a lockup before you can request a withdrawal. As of 12 October 2026, each schedule runs after a 00:00 UTC cutoff:
- Autopilot redeems on Saturdays.
- Five vaults redeem weekly, on Fridays.
- Three vaults redeem twice weekly, on Mondays and Fridays.
- NT Earn, Multi-Asset Volatility Arbitrage (quarterly, with notice) and Meridian Liquidity Provider keep their own terms.
A withdrawal request cannot be cancelled, only one can be in flight at a time, and your funds return to your wallet net of fees (how it works). Until settlement you stay exposed to the vault's share price, so the value shown at request time is an estimate (fees and redemption).
FBYT lets you withdraw once the vault's raise period has ended and any withdrawal cooldown set for the vault has passed. A closed vault has no cooldown. On 12 October 2026 the production program allowed raise periods of up to 30 days and cooldowns of up to 45 days. You sign the withdrawal from your own wallet. You receive your pro-rata share of each token the vault holds, not a single stablecoin, and a performance fee may apply if the vault has traded.
Security Record: FBYT vs Neutral Trade
Neutral Trade lists audits by Halborn (January 2025), Quantstamp (June 2025), Offside Labs (December 2025) and Adevar Labs (October 2026) (security page). We read the Halborn report: no critical or high findings and one medium. One finding, rated low, about centralisation risk from the manager's control over receiver accounts was marked "risk accepted", meaning acknowledged but not changed. We did not review the other three reports.
On the Drift exploit of 1 April 2026 (CoinDesk): Neutral Trade has run Drift-based vaults, which its docs now list as deprecated (deprecated vault). We have not found a primary statement from Neutral Trade on its exposure, so before depositing, ask or check whether any current vault still depends on Drift. See FBYT vs Drift Vaults for the wider context.
FBYT. FBYT's vault program has been through an internal security audit, and FBYT is working with external auditors. No independent audit report has been published yet. Weigh that against Neutral Trade's four listed external audits when you compare the two, and check for a published report before you deposit.
A Worked Example: $1,000 on Each Platform
The figures below are illustrative, not a forecast. Assume you deposit $1,000, the strategy makes 10% before fees over a year, and you then withdraw.
- Neutral Trade, once-weekly vault: the 1% management fee, charged on the average balance over the year, costs about $10.50, leaving about $1,089.50. If that vault also charged a 20% performance fee, about $17.90 more would go on the profit above your high-water mark, leaving about $1,071.60. A withdrawal requested on a Monday is redeemed that Friday, and your balance moves with the vault until then.
- FBYT, a vault whose manager set 2% management and 20% performance: the management fee, charged the same way, costs about $21 and the performance fee about $16, leaving about $1,063. Once the raise period and any cooldown are over, the withdrawal settles in one transaction you sign, and you receive your share of each token the vault holds. Swapping that mix back to USD can cost swap fees and some price movement.
The comparison turns on the fees each vault actually charges, so read them on the vault page before you deposit. A vault with lower fees on either platform changes the result.
FBYT vs Neutral Trade at a Glance
| Criterion | FBYT | Neutral Trade |
|---|---|---|
| Chain | Solana | Deposits on Solana; capital deployed across exchanges, DEXs and DeFi |
| Who runs strategies | Any manager (permissionless) | Curated quant firms |
| Where capital sits | Token accounts owned by the vault PDA | Mixed: custody partners, exchange sub-accounts, MPC wallets, on-chain |
| Manager access to principal | No withdrawal instruction; manager can collect set fees and trade within a slippage limit | No withdrawal rights; whitelisted destinations only |
| Management fee | Set by each manager at launch, up to 15% a year, visible per vault | 1% a year base on all 12 current strategy vaults |
| Performance fee | Up to 20%, at withdrawal, if the vault has traded, against your USD deposit value | Varies by vault; rates not in the docs |
| When you can withdraw | After the raise ends and any cooldown; none for closed vaults | After any lockup, in weekly or twice-weekly windows; three vaults have their own terms |
| What you receive | Pro-rata share of each token the vault holds | Funds returned to your wallet, net of fees |
| Audits | Internal audit done; external audit in progress, no public report yet | Four external audits listed (Halborn, Quantstamp, Offside Labs, Adevar Labs) |
| Launch your own vault | Yes | No, curated |
| Strategy focus | On-chain spot via Jupiter | Market-neutral and quant, including CEX and perp venues |
Who Should Use FBYT and Who Should Use Neutral Trade
- Choose FBYT if you are a money manager who wants to launch a vault without approval, or an investor who wants to check a manager's full trade history on-chain and keep funds in program-controlled accounts.
- Choose Neutral Trade if you want exposure to market-neutral or quant strategies that need centralised exchanges or perp venues, you prefer screened professional firms, and you accept exchange and custodian counterparty risk.
- Use both if you want to split between an open on-chain approach and a curated off-chain one. Size each position as you would any other risk, and read each platform's terms first.
For how vault models differ in general, see types of DeFi vaults compared and how to read a Solana vault on-chain.
