Starbase: A New Era of High-Performance Trading on Deribit
Deribit announced Starbase, a next-generation matching engine delivering microsecond execution. The upgrade consolidates Coinbase International Exchange and Deribit into one venue, with testnet on April 8, 2026 and production in July 2026.
Deribit has revealed the most significant upgrade in its history: the Starbase high-performance matching engine. The new system, which provides microsecond-level execution speeds, is a central part of the planned consolidation of Coinbase International Exchange (INTX) and Deribit into a single institutional-grade trading venue.
Key technical improvements
Starbase is a complete architectural redesign. Deribit says the engine delivers ultra-low latency with a 1,000x improvement in p95 exchange latency compared to current systems, moving from milliseconds to microseconds. Throughput is designed to handle extreme volatility without degradation. The engine also enforces First-In-First-Out (FIFO) order priority much earlier in the process, and Deribit is equalizing cable lengths and network hops inside the LD4 data center to give all co-located and cross-connected traders identical access speeds.
The exchange remains a bare-metal venue at Equinix LD4 in London. Connectivity options include hosted co-location, physical cross-connect, AWS PrivateLink (London eu-west-2 and Tokyo ap-northeast-1), and public internet. All existing APIs (Websocket, FIX, REST, Multicast) remain supported. New Starbase-specific APIs include SBE Binary Order Entry (lowest latency), SBE Binary Market Data (L3 data), FIX Drop Copy, and a REST utility endpoint (docs pending).
Rollout timeline
Starbase launches in two stages. The testnet (UAT) goes live on April 8, 2026 on test.deribit.com. Participants will receive gateway IPs, usable ports, a list of migrated instruments, and XML specs for SBE APIs. A Python SDK (.whl) is available for integration. Production launch is scheduled for early July 2026.
Impact by user type
Retail traders using the website or mobile app will see no change to their setup but will benefit from tighter spreads and better liquidity as faster engine attracts more competitive market makers. HFTs and institutional market makers are advised to integrate with the new SBE Binary APIs to capture the lowest latency; Deribit is also introducing speed bumps on options to protect passive liquidity providers from latency arbitrage. Brokers and technology providers can continue using the existing Websocket API for millisecond-latency needs.
Source: Deribit