Private desk

Briefing

A short course on chains, wallets, and the tools this desk actually runs. Read it once before you size a trade.

1. 01

   A chain is a shared ledger

   A blockchain is a public record that many computers keep in agreement. Once a transaction is included, changing it means convincing the rest of the network, which is why people treat confirmed transfers as final. Proteus does not run its own chain. The desk sits on public networks and asks your wallet to sign what happens there.

2. 02

   Your wallet is the signature

   A wallet holds keys, not a balance in the way a bank account does. The chain stores who owns what. The key proves you are allowed to move it. On Proteus, self-directed swaps, liquidity, and bridges are signed by the wallet you pick. Embedded desks are Privy wallets you can export. Linked wallets stay in Phantom, Solflare, MetaMask, or whatever you connected. If you do not control the key, you do not control the funds.

3. 03

   Coins, tokens, and gas

   The native coin pays the network to include your transaction: SOL on Solana, ETH on Ethereum and most of its rollups, POL on Polygon, BNB on BNB Chain, AVAX on Avalanche, HYPE on HyperEVM, MON on Monad. Tokens are separate assets issued on that chain, including stablecoins such as USDC. A swap can fail with a full token balance if you have nothing left for gas. Leave a little native coin in the signing wallet.

4. 04

   Why there are many chains

   Solana is its own network, with its own wallets and its own routing. Ethereum and the other EVM chains share one address format, so one EVM desk can sign on Ethereum, Base, Robinhood Chain, Monad, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, BNB Chain, Avalanche, HyperEVM, and Unichain. Assets do not automatically follow you between those networks. USDC on Ethereum is not the same pile of USDC as USDC on Arbitrum until something bridges it.

5. 05

   Markets on this desk

   The market book blends public discovery feeds: Jupiter, DexScreener, and GeckoTerminal, plus Helius for Solana detail. Filters such as Desk, New, Leaders, Heat, Stables, and Launchpads are views of that book, not separate exchanges. Prices and volumes are venue data. They can lag, disagree, or miss a thin pair.

6. 06

   A swap is a route, not a cashier

   Solana swaps are quoted and built by Jupiter. EVM swaps are quoted by LiFi, which searches decentralized exchanges and returns one transaction for you to sign. You set slippage, which is how far the price may move before the trade should fail rather than fill badly. Proteus does not take custody of that flow. You approve the wallet prompt, or you do not.

7. 07

   The book on Trade is an estimate

   Most of this liquidity lives in automated market makers, pools that price a pair from the assets inside them. The Trade panel draws a depth ladder from reported pool liquidity so you can see how a market is behaving. It is not a central limit order book, and the tape beside it is not a live exchange print.

8. 08

   Bridging moves value across chains

   The profile bridge asks LiFi for a route from the chain you are leaving to the chain you are entering, then your EVM wallet signs that transaction. Native sends the gas token into the gas token on the other side. Stable sends USDC, except on Robinhood Chain, where that side is USDG. Solana can be a destination. It cannot be the chain you start from here, because this bridge only signs with the EVM desk. A route is not guaranteed for every amount.

9. 09

   Liquidity is a position, not a trade

   On Solana, the Liquidity desk opens and manages pool positions on Raydium, Orca, and Meteora. You deposit both sides of a pair and earn fees when others trade through it. You also take the pool’s price risk: if one asset runs away from the other, the position rebalances into the one that fell. Those transactions are built, checked, and then signed by your active Solana wallet.

10. 10

    Launchpads are where new tokens appear

    A launchpad lets someone create a token and open a market quickly. On Solana that often means Pump.fun and neighboring pads, which the Launchpads filter groups together. New tokens can have thin liquidity, unlocked supply, and prices that move on very little size. The desk can show them. It does not vouch for them.

11. 11

    Self-directed and managed are different

    Self-directed desks never move funds unless you sign. A managed mandate is separate: you explicitly send assets to a Proteus custody address, and that transfer is custodial. Read the terms before you use it. Nothing on the desk is investment, legal, or tax advice, and every one of these assets can go to zero.