Spot vs futures in crypto: what perpetual futures are and how they differ
On spot you buy the coin itself and own it right away. On futures you open a contract on the coin's price: you hold no coin, only a position that gains or loses as price moves. Most crypto futures trading happens in perpetual contracts (perpetual futures): they have no expiry date, and funding keeps them tied to the spot price.
In short
- Spot means owning the coin: you can withdraw it to a wallet, and there is no liquidation.
- A futures contract is a position on price: you can go short and use leverage, but the position can be liquidated.
- A perpetual never expires, so every few hours longs and shorts exchange funding.
- Open interest, funding, and liquidations exist only on futures: spot leaves no open positions behind.
What the same $1,000 gets you on spot and on futures
An illustrative example: BTC is at $60,000 and you have $1,000. On spot you buy 0.0167 BTC. Price rises 10% — your coins are worth $1,100. It falls 10% — they're worth $900, but the coins stay yours, and nobody sells them without your decision.
On futures the same $1,000 becomes margin, the collateral for a position. A long with no leverage for $1,000 gives the same result: +$100 or −$100. The difference lies elsewhere: you can open a short and make +$100 on a 10% price drop. You can't withdraw a coin, because you don't have one. On plain spot without borrowed funds you can't profit from a drop.
What perpetual futures are and why they need funding
A classic futures contract has a settlement date, and by that date its price converges with spot. A perpetual contract has no date, so its price could drift away from spot indefinitely. To prevent that, the exchange regularly moves a payment between longs and shorts — funding.
When the contract trades above spot, the rate is positive and longs pay shorts: holding a long costs more, which pulls the contract price back toward spot. When it trades below, the rate is negative and shorts pay. The interval depends on the exchange and pair: often 8 hours, sometimes 4 or 1. You can compare venues on the funding intervals page.
An illustrative calculation:
- A $10,000 long at +0.01% per 8 hours. The payment is $1 per funding, $3 a day, about $90 over 30 days.
- The same position at +0.1%. $10 per funding and $30 a day: on a leveraged position that is a noticeable share of margin.
- A $10,000 short at the same rates receives these amounts.
The payment is based on position size, not margin, and applies only to positions open at the funding time. More in the funding rate article; coins with the largest rates right now are on the funding extremes page.
Why the futures price differs from spot: last, index, and mark
A perpetual contract usually shows three prices on the exchange, and liquidation isn't calculated from the one on the chart:
| Price | What it is | What it's used for |
|---|---|---|
| Last price | The price of the latest trade on the contract | The chart and market order fills |
| Index price | The average spot price of the coin across several exchanges | The reference the contract is tied to |
| Mark price | The fair contract price the exchange derives from the index | Unrealized PnL and liquidations |
An illustrative example: the BTC index is $60,000 and the contract trades at $60,120. The premium over spot is 0.2%, and with such a premium the funding rate is usually positive. Then a large market sell knocks the last price down to $59,400 for a second, while the mark price barely moves. Major exchanges generally calculate liquidation from the mark price, so a wick like that doesn't close a position by itself. Each exchange has its own exact rules.
Leverage and liquidation: what a futures position risks
Leverage is covered in detail in the leverage article; here is the gist in numbers.
How leverage multiplies the result
An illustrative example: $1,000 margin at 10x leverage is a $10,000 position. Price moves 5% your way — +$500, or +50% on margin. It moves 5% against you — −$500, half your margin.When liquidation happens
At 10x a move of about 10% against the position wipes out the whole margin, and the exchange closes the position earlier, because maintenance margin has to stay in the account. The higher the leverage, the closer the liquidation price is to your entry.The same drop on spot
Coins bought for $1,000 are worth $900 after a 10% drop. There is a loss, but no forced sale: you decide whether to hold or sell.How much you can lose
In isolated margin mode the loss on a position is limited to its margin. In cross mode the whole futures account balance serves as collateral, and a liquidation can take it. The mode is shown in the position settings on the exchange.Spot vs futures, point by point
| Aspect | Spot | Perpetual futures |
|---|---|---|
| What you hold | The coin | A position on the coin's price |
| Profit from a drop | Only via margin trading | Yes, a short |
| Leverage | Only in margin trading | Yes, within the exchange's rules |
| Expiry | None | None |
| Holding cost | None | Funding: you pay or receive it |
| Liquidation | No | Yes, when margin runs short |
| Coin withdrawal | Yes | No |
| OI and funding | No | Yes |
Spot is for owning the coin: no leverage, funding, or liquidation. It's the usual way to hold a position long term.
Futures are for trading moves in both directions: shorts, leverage, hedging spot. The price is funding and liquidation risk.
Which data exists only on futures and which screener watches which market
Open interest counts open contracts, funding is a payment between the sides of a contract, and a liquidation is a forced close of a position. A spot purchase completes at once and leaves no open position, so spot has none of this data. Price and turnover exist on both markets but can diverge: compare them on the crypto prices page, where the table switches between futures and spot.
| Screener | Market |
|---|---|
| Price | Spot, futures, or both — your choice |
| 24h turnover | Spot, futures, or both — your choice |
| Custom screener | Spot, futures, or both — your choice; the OI condition is futures only |
| Technical signals | Spot, futures, or both — your choice |
| Open interest | Futures only |
| Funding | Futures only |
| Funding arbitrage | Futures only |
| Liquidations | Futures only |
How the screener helps
Comparing markets across hundreds of coins by hand doesn't work. The price, 24h turnover, custom, and technical signals screeners have a “Which market to watch” field: spot and futures, spot only, or futures only. The open interest, funding, funding arbitrage, and liquidation screeners check only futures pairs across 9 exchanges, while the others read spot on 10 exchanges. No need to pick a coin: the alert arrives by push or Telegram.
Spot and futures FAQ
What are perpetual futures in simple terms?
A futures contract with no expiry date. You can hold the position as long as you like, and funding, a regular payment between longs and shorts, keeps the contract tied to the spot price.
What is the difference between spot and futures?
On spot you buy the coin and own it. On futures you open a position on price: you can short and use leverage, but there is funding and liquidation risk, and you cannot withdraw a coin.
Can you lose more than your margin on futures?
In isolated mode the loss on a position is limited to its margin. In cross mode the whole futures account balance is collateral, and a liquidation can take all of it.
Why does the futures price differ from spot?
The contract trades with its own buyers and sellers. The gap to the spot index is called the premium, and funding narrows it: when the contract is above spot, longs pay shorts.
What is the mark price?
The fair contract price the exchange derives from the spot index. Unrealized PnL and, as a rule, liquidations are calculated from it, so a brief wick in the last price does not close positions.
How much does funding cost?
Position size multiplied by the rate, at each funding time. A $10,000 position at 0.01% pays $1 per funding; with an 8-hour interval that is $3 a day.
Do funding and open interest exist on spot?
No. They describe open futures positions. On spot a trade completes at once, and no open position remains.
How the liquidation price is calculated is covered in the leverage article. What open positions tell you is in the open interest article, and how to read price, turnover, OI, and funding together is in the crypto metrics article.
Read next
What is leverage in crypto trading
What leverage is in trading: margin, a worked liquidation price example, isolated vs cross margin, and why liquidations cascade.
Crypto market sentiment: fear, greed, funding
What the Fear & Greed Index measures and where it falls short, how to read a coin's sentiment from funding, the long/short ratio, and OI, and not over-read it.
What is open interest in crypto
What open interest (OI) is in plain words: how trades change it, how it differs from volume, and how to read it together with price, with examples.
