Glossary
Perpetual futures
A futures contract with no expiry date, common in crypto, that uses a funding rate to keep its price near the underlying spot market.
Standard futures have a settlement date when the contract ends. Perpetual futures, often called perps, have none, so a position can stay open as long as the trader keeps enough margin.
Without an expiry to pull the contract back to the spot price, exchanges use periodic funding payments between longs and shorts. Those payments push the perp price toward an index of spot prices.
Perps are usually traded with leverage and are among the most heavily traded instruments in crypto. Their open interest, funding rates and liquidations are widely tracked as signs of how traders are positioned.
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For education only, not financial advice. Crypto assets and stocks are volatile, and leveraged positions can lose more than the money you put in.