What is Blackboard (crypto)? | Aster competition rules, fees and how to use it

Blackboard (blackboard.fi) is a crypto trading terminal that runs no order book of its own and instead routes orders to existing onchain trading protocols such as Aster and Hyperliquid. From a single wallet, you can trade perpetual futures (perps) on crypto and stocks as well as prediction markets. It is currently in an Alpha that anyone can sign up for, and it is running a trading competition co-hosted with Aster until November 10, 2026.

Blackboard does not take custody of user funds. It is for people who juggle a separate app and wallet for each market and want to bring their trading onto one screen.

Image: screenshot of the Blackboard website (captured October 14, 2026)

Markets and connected venues

Each live product is routed to a different venue.

Crypto perps moved to Aster on August 25, 2026. There is no mobile app yet.

How one wallet places orders everywhere

You deposit into a single Blackboard Wallet and then move funds from there into a sub-account for each market. The trading key (Session Key) can only place and cancel orders and view data; it cannot withdraw funds.

Even if Blackboard's servers go down, you can manage your positions by connecting the same wallet directly to the underlying venue. CEO Jace Choi acknowledges that competitors will appear and says the difference ultimately comes down to UI and UX.

Company and CEO

Blackboard is operated by BLACKBOARD SOLUTIONS LTD., a company in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). The only person identified by name is CEO Jace Choi, whom Crypto Times describes as having held senior roles at Bitget and Gate.io.

In exchange for putting everything on one screen, you pay a "builder fee" on top of the connected venue's fees. There are six fee tiers, set per market by your trading volume over the last 30 days.

Fees for crypto perps (Aster)

At Bronze, where most users sit, market orders (taker) cost 0.065% and limit orders (maker) cost 0.025%, and 0.025% of that goes to Blackboard. The builder fee applies to every fill, so even limit orders are not free.

Fees for stock/FX perps and prediction markets

HIP-3 perps have two fee schedules, and the trading screen shows which one applies. At Bronze, a market order costs either 0.034% or 0.07%, roughly a twofold difference, so check the display before you place an order.

Prediction markets and Up/Down charge a fee on notional value in addition to the venue's own fees. At Bronze it is 1.0% taker and 0.5% maker, an order of magnitude higher than perps.

The prize is billed as "up to $100,000," but the actual amount depends on how many eligible traders there are at the end of the period and which level the volume reaches. There are three programs.

Image: screenshot of the Blackboard Trading Arena (captured October 14, 2026)

Rewards and schedule

Trading runs from October 10, 2026 to 23:59 UTC on November 10, and registration closes at the same time. There is a Volume track that ranks trading volume and a PnL track that ranks profit and loss, and the combined prize pool scales across seven levels from $17K to a maximum of $100K. In both tracks, 1st place receives 5,000 Board Points and every eligible trader receives 8.

The competition page says trades are counted from the start of the competition, while the announcement page still says only trades made after joining count, so the official descriptions are not consistent.

Eligibility and which trades count

You only qualify for ranking and prizes once your eligible volume during the period reaches $88,888. Participation is limited to one account per person.

Only fills sent to Aster through Blackboard count. Trading on Aster directly, or on Hyperliquid or Polymarket, does not. The team can exclude self-trades and trades between related accounts before results are finalized.

Prize-pool unlock conditions and current status

The pool only unlocks up to the level at which both volume and the number of eligible traders exceed their thresholds. Lv1 requires 50 traders, Lv2 requires $100M and 100 traders, and the top level, Lv7, requires $1B and 250 traders.

As of October 13, the Volume track had 221 registrations, of which 8 were eligible traders, with roughly $4.29M in eligible volume. The pool was shown as locked at $0, 42 traders short of Lv1. The announcement page says "$17K guaranteed," but the pool stays locked until 50 traders qualify.

How the PnL track is ranked

The PnL track ranks net profit after all fees, including the builder fee, and adds unrealized PnL on any positions still open at the end. The more you trade, the more the markup fee eats into your net PnL. On the October 13 leaderboard, only 1st place ($137.23) and 2nd place ($19.80) were in profit.

Are the prizes worth the fees?

Of the roughly $4.29M in eligible volume in the Volume track, 1st place accounts for about $1.35M and the top four for about $3.37M. Volume is concentrated in a handful of large traders. Payouts are 6% for 1st and 1.4% each for 36th–50th, so even if Lv1's $14K unlocks, the lowest ranks receive $196.

Trading the $88,888 eligibility threshold entirely with Bronze market orders costs about $58 in fees (our calculation). Qualifying is cheap, but if 50 eligible traders do not show up, the prize stays at $0. CEO Jace Choi has said, "I don't believe in bringing people in by handing out incentives." Rather than a competition that drives you to trade more for prize money, it reads as one where people who want to trade Aster on this terminal anyway, markup fee and all, can also compete for rank.

👉 Check the current prize level and number of eligible traders on the official competition page

No token has been issued. CEO Jace Choi says one is under consideration but there are no concrete plans, and it will be announced once things are settled.

The earning rate and uses of Board Points have not been published, and there is no official announcement linking them to a token (as of October 14, 2026). Only some allocations, such as ranking-based points in the competition, have been set.

What leads to large losses is not missing out on prizes but leveraged trading itself. Safeguarding your assets is also mainly your responsibility.

How much can you lose to leverage and liquidation?

Even stock and index markets are perpetual futures that track a reference price; you do not own the actual shares. Maximum leverage is 50x for indices and FX, 20x for stocks and 25x for commodities. At 50x, a 2% move against you is enough to lose an amount equal to your margin. Up/Down has no leverage or liquidation, and your maximum loss is fixed when you open the position.

Protecting your assets is up to you

Alpha status and fund risks

Although it is an Alpha, it runs on production protocols, not a testnet. Because Blackboard does not deploy its own smart contracts, the fund risk lies with the connected protocols and the Privy wallet. Disputes are resolved by arbitration under BVI law.

Once you have completed four steps—creating an account, depositing, Enable Trading and clicking Join on the competition page—your trades count toward the competition.

Image: screenshot of the Blackboard app (captured October 14, 2026)

Can you use it from Japan? Restricted regions

Use is restricted in the United States, Ontario (Canada) and countries subject to international sanctions; Japan is not listed. However, the team does not solicit users residing in Japan. Prediction markets have a separate, broader list of restrictions and are unavailable in 10 countries and regions, including the UK and Taiwan. Circumventing restrictions with a VPN is also prohibited.

Getting started with Blackboard: creating an account

1. Open app.blackboard.fi and click Login in the top right
2. Choose Social login (Google, Apple or email), Connect wallet, or Continue with passkey
3. With Social login, a wallet is created automatically when you log in

Depositing to Blackboard

1. Decide which token and network to send
2. Deposit to your Blackboard Wallet
3. Move the funds for the competition to your Crypto Account (for Aster)

Enable Trading and registering for the competition

1. Open any Crypto market and click Enable Trading (first time only)
2. Sign in on the competition page
3. The Volume and PnL tracks have separate pages, so click Join on each
4. Trade Aster perps on Blackboard

Enable Trading creates your Aster account and approves a builder fee of up to 0.1%.

Claiming prizes and withdrawing

Prizes are not sent automatically. After the competition ends, the team finalizes the results, and once approved, a Claim button appears on the competition page. The claim window runs from November 12 to 26, and the PnL track closes at 12:00 UTC on the 26th. Unclaimed prizes are forfeited.

Withdrawals incur a network fee and arrive in about 1–3 minutes. Move any funds held in venue accounts back to your Blackboard Wallet first.

👉 Check the restricted regions and fee display in the official app

Blackboard is a trading terminal without its own order book: in exchange for putting everything on one screen, you pay a builder fee on top of the connected venues' fees. Only Aster fills routed through Blackboard count toward the competition, and the prizes stay locked until 50 traders qualify. How far the level will climb by the November 10 finalization is still unknown.

1. Blackboard official website (2026)
2. Blackboard Docs (2026)
3. Docs FAQ (2026)
4. Docs Fees (2026)
5. Docs Aster API (2026)
6. Docs Deposit (2026)
7. Docs Security (2026)
8. Docs Account Creation (2026)
9. Docs TradFi Perpetuals (2026)
10. Docs Points Program (2026)
11. Docs Changelog (2026)
12. Competition Volume track (2026)
13. Competition PnL track (2026)
14. Competition announcement (2026)
15. Blackboard Terms of Use (2026)
16. Crypto Times interview (2026)
17. Blackboard official Telegram (2026)