> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://countertrade.gitbook.io/docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://countertrade.gitbook.io/docs/funds-and-settlement/entry-fees-and-escrow.md).

# Entry fees and escrow

What you pay to join a battle, how the on-chain escrow holds it, what the platform fee takes, and the two ways money comes back out.

The entry fee is the real token you pay to join a battle. It moves from your wallet into an on-chain escrow contract as you join, and stays there until the battle settles or is cancelled.

It is not your trading balance. Inside the battle you trade a separate paper balance — simulated, and never touched by anything that happens to your fee. See [Paper trading and real money](/docs/start-here/paper-trading-and-real-money.md).

## Where the money sits

Joining pulls your fee out of your wallet and records you as a participant. The fee sits in the contract's escrow balance alongside everyone else's for that battle. CounterTrade never takes custody of it, and nothing is paid out while the battle runs.

The contract never moves money on its own. Every payout is a claim somebody submits, and the contract pays the wallet the committed result names — not whoever sent the transaction. That is why CounterTrade can send your payout for you without being able to redirect it, and why the wallet you joined with is the wallet that gets paid. See [Claims and refunds](/docs/funds-and-settlement/claims-and-refunds.md).

## What can and cannot happen to it

Each battle's funds are tracked separately on-chain. There is no shared pool, and the contract holds exactly the sum of what every battle owes.

* **Your funds are not the platform's to move.** The escrow contract has no admin function that sweeps, withdraws, or redirects entry fees or prizes. Money leaves only through a participant's own claim, to their own wallet.
* **The platform fee comes out of the pool, not on top of it.** It is deducted from the pooled fees before the prize pool is worked out; winners share what is left.
* **An emergency pause halts movement, not ownership.** CounterTrade can pause the escrow. While paused, deposits, claims, and refunds are all halted. A pause delays movement; it does not take your funds.
* **A stuck battle can be recovered.** If a battle ends and its result is never settled within the settlement window, anyone can convert it to a cancelled battle after the deadline, and you claim your fee back. You do not depend on CounterTrade staying online for that. See [Settlement](/docs/funds-and-settlement/settlement.md).

## The platform fee

A **platform fee** is taken once, at settlement, from each battle's pooled entry fees, and winners share the rest. The fee depends on the format:

| Format                                              | Platform fee                                          |
| --------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- |
| 1v1, 5-player and 10-player free-for-all, 5v5 teams | 10%                                                   |
| Open Arena                                          | 0%                                                    |
| League season                                       | Set per season, at most 10%; 0% in a sponsored season |

Two things to keep separate from it:

* It is **not** a per-trade cost. Trading has its own maker/taker fee, set per battle and zero in every battle you can create — see [How your orders execute](/docs/trading/how-orders-execute.md).
* **Referral rewards are paid out of this fee**, not on top of it and never out of anyone's prize. See [Referrals](/docs/funds-and-settlement/referrals.md).

## The two ways money comes back

Only two, and they are not the same thing:

|                                   | Prize                               | Refund                                |
| --------------------------------- | ----------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- |
| When                              | The battle finalizes and you placed | The battle is cancelled and never ran |
| What you get                      | A share of the whole prize pool     | Your own entry fee back               |
| Can it differ from what you paid? | Yes — more or less                  | No                                    |
| If you don't place                | Nothing comes back                  | Not applicable                        |

Losing a battle that ran does **not** return your fee. The pooled fees became the winners' prizes; that is what you were competing for.

## What you need to pay one

A wallet signed in to your account, holding enough of the battle's entry-fee token. In most battles you do not need ETH: CounterTrade pays the Base network fee for joining, and you sign two requests instead of sending a transaction. Some battles fall outside that — see [Network and gas](/docs/funds-and-settlement/network-and-gas.md).

A Google-only account can explore and spectate but cannot join — see [Account and wallet](/docs/account-and-profile/account-and-wallet.md).

## Example

Ten players each pay a battle's entry fee. All ten sit in escrow for that battle while everyone trades their own paper balance. When it finalizes, the platform fee comes off the top and the rest is the prize pool — in a winner-takes-all format, one player claims it and the other nine claim nothing.

Now suppose only two of those ten had joined, and the battle needed more to start. It is cancelled, no battle runs, and each of the two claims their own fee back.

In both cases the tokens go only to the wallet that joined. CounterTrade usually sends them for you; if they haven't arrived, you send the claim yourself.

## Your wallet is your responsibility

If you lose access to the wallet you joined with — a lost seed phrase, a wiped device with no backup — you cannot claim its prize or refund, and nobody can move that payout to a different wallet for you. Keep the wallet you compete with recoverable.

## Related

* [Settlement](/docs/funds-and-settlement/settlement.md)
* [Claims and refunds](/docs/funds-and-settlement/claims-and-refunds.md)
* [Account security](/docs/account-and-profile/account-security.md)