⏳Fixed Maturity & Auto-Roll

Quarterly markets, and exactly what happens to your position at maturity

Quarterly markets

Each currency trades in up to eight order books at once, with maturities from 3 months to 2 years spaced 3 months apart. Eight is the standard full set; depending on liquidity, a market may offer fewer maturities (the app shows what is currently open). Maturity falls on the last Friday of March, June, September, and December, aligning with listed futures conventions so rates are easy to reference and hedge.

Markets are named by contract month: DEC2026 matures on the last Friday of December 2026.

Standardized maturities concentrate liquidity: instead of fragmenting orders across arbitrary dates, everyone trades the same eight points on the curve — which is also what makes a readable yield curve possible.

Fixed Maturity Standard of 8 distinct order books ranging from 3 months to 2 years

The quarterly cycle

When the nearest market matures, three things happen at once:

1. The maturing order book is deactivated and recycled.

2. A new 2-year order book opens via the Itayose opening auction (pre-orders accepted for 7 days prior).

3. All positions in the matured market Auto-Roll into the nearest 3-month market.

Technical details of the rotation: Orderbook Rotation.

Auto-Roll

Auto-Roll is protocol-wide. Every matured position rolls automatically into the nearest 3-month market — it cannot be enabled, disabled, or configured per user. The protocol has no automatic settlement: to get funds back, unwind your position manually (possible before or after maturity).

Auto-Roll moves an open position into the nearest 3-month order book at maturity

Why Auto-Roll exists

• No reinvestment gap — in traditional fixed income, a matured bond sits idle until you reinvest. Auto-Roll keeps capital working at a fair, close-to-mid price.

• No counterparty hunt — you don't need to find a new match on the order book at maturity.

• Gas efficiency — the roll is computed lazily via Genesis Value accounting, not per-position transactions.

What it costs

Each roll charges the auto-roll fee (same rate as the taker fee, prorated — see Fees), embedded in the roll price. The roll price itself is determined by a transparent waterfall — see Auto-Roll Price Discovery.

Worked example

1. In January, Alice lends 1,000 USDC in the MAR2027 market (3-month maturity).

2. On the last Friday of March, MAR2027 matures. Alice does nothing.

3. Her position rolls into JUN2027 — now the nearest 3-month market — at the auto-roll price, minus the roll fee.

4. If Alice wants her USDC instead, she unwinds the JUN2027 position (or unwinds before the March maturity) and withdraws.

Your choices at maturity

You want to…	Action
Stay invested at the new market rate	Nothing — Auto-Roll continues each quarter
Exit	Unwind (before or after maturity), then withdraw
Choose a different maturity	Unwind, then place a new order in the market you prefer
Use the position elsewhere in DeFi	Tokenize it as an ERC-20 ZC Token before maturity

Related

• Auto-Roll Price Discovery — how the roll price is set

• Itayose — how new markets open

• Fees — roll fee details