What Are Perpetual Futures and Where Can You Trade Them?

Perpetual futures have become one of the most widely used instruments in modern crypto trading. More recently, perpetual futures have begun moving into the regulated financial system. U.S. regulators have shown some willingness to allow certain firms to offer perp-like products onshore, with platforms such as Kalshi and Coinbase Financial Markets exploring ways to bring derivatives trading under domestic oversight. 

At the same time, major exchanges are expanding perpetual-style contracts beyond crypto. New listings like pre-IPO perpetual futures on private companies, offered through platforms including Coinbase and Kraken, show how the instrument is being used to trade companies before they’re even traded in public markets. 

What are perpetual futures?

Perpetual futures (often called perps) are a type of derivative contract that lets traders speculate on the future price of an asset, usually cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ether, without owning the asset itself. 

Both perpetual futures and traditional futures allow traders to gain exposure to an asset’s price movements without owning the underlying asset. The main difference is that perpetual futures do not expire, while traditional futures have a fixed settlement date.

Perpetual futures are more commonly used by active traders, because they provide continuous exposure without needing to manage contract expiration dates. But the use of leverage and funding payments means that holding a position for a longer period can become more costly, and by extension, carries greater risk. 

Popular with cryptocurrency circles, perpetual futures allow traders to take either long positions when they expect prices to rise. Or, they sell positions short when they expect prices to fall. As traders don’t need to buy the underlying (i.e., Bitcoin), they can often use leverage, such as 10x or 20x, to control a larger position with a smaller amount of capital.

Let's say a trader uses 10x leverage. Someone with $1,000 can open a position worth $10,000. If the asset rises 5%, the trader earns around $500 in profit. However, if the asset moves against the position, losses can quickly build up and result in liquidation.

Since perpetual futures do not expire, exchanges use a mechanism called a funding rate to keep the contract price aligned with the asset’s spot price. The funding rate is a periodic payment exchanged directly between traders holding long and short positions. It’s designed to balance market demand and prevent the perpetual futures price from drifting too far away from the spot market. 

When the perpetual futures price trades above the spot price, it tells us that more traders are betting on prices moving higher. To encourage balance, long traders pay funding fees to short traders, making it more expensive to maintain bullish positions.

Conversely, when the perpetual futures contracts trades below the spot price, there is greater demand for short positions. In this case, short traders pay funding fees to long traders, encouraging traders to take the opposite side and bring prices back toward the asset’s spot price. 

Let’s say Bitcoin’s spot price is $100,000, but the perpetual futures contract is trading at $101,000 because many are leveraged on the long side. To reduce this gap, the exchange applies a positive funding rate. Long traders pay a small fee to short traders, making long positions less attractive and helping push the perpetual futures price closer to Bitcoin’s actual market price. 

Funding rates can affect the profitability of leveraged positions, especially for traders who hold positions for extended periods. A trader may correctly predict an asset’s price movement but still lose money if funding costs accumulate over time.

Where can you trade perpetual futures?

Perpetual futures are available across three main types of trading platforms: regulated exchanges serving U.S.-based traders, offshore global exchanges, and decentralized, self-custodial platforms built on blockchain networks. The main differences between these platforms are regulatory access, available leverage, asset selection, and custody of funds. 

For U.S.-Based Traders (Regulated Platforms)

U.S. traders face stricter regulations, so access to perpetual futures is more limited compared to international markets. Regulated platforms operate under oversight from U.S. regulators and must comply with rules around customer protection, licensing, and risk management.

Kalshi is a prediction market platform, where users trade on the outcomes of real-world events rather than asset prices. After securing approval from the CFTC, it became the first U.S.-regulated platform allowed to offer cash-settled Bitcoin perpetual contracts. The landmark approval finally brought regulated, onshore perps to the U.S. 

Coinbase Financial Markets is focused on crypto-native products, including futures and other derivatives on Bitcoin and Ethereum. It functions more like a traditional derivatives venue, but within a regulated framework for U.S. traders. Through Coinbase Advanced, U.S. investors can trade CFTC-regulated perpetual-style futures, including nano Bitcoin and nano Ethereum contracts, with leverage of up to 10x.

For International Traders (Offshore Global Platforms) 

Outside the U.S., perpetual futures trading is dominated by large offshore crypto derivatives exchanges that offer higher leverage, more assets, and more experimental products than regulated U.S. venues. 
Binance Futures operates the world’s largest crypto derivatives platform by volume. Binance has expanded aggressively into TradFi-linked perpetual contracts, including stock and ETF-based perps. This allows traders to speculate on traditional equities with crypto-style leverage and 24/7 trading access. Examples of listed instruments include perpetual contracts on major U.S. equities and ETFs such as Netflix, Costco, and thematic funds like the Sprott Uranium Miners ETF. 

Coinbase International Exchange/Coinbase Bermuda Ltd provides access to a growing suite of perpetual futures with high leverage, including up to 50x on some crypto contracts, across a wide range of crypto assets. A notable expansion has been the introduction of pre-IPO perpetual futures, offering exposure to private companies. 

Bybit and Bitget are among the largest pure-play crypto derivatives exchanges globally, with a strong focus on retail trading. Both platforms offer a broad selection of perpetual futures contracts that offer up to 125x leverage across hundreds of crypto assets, available in either coin or stablecoin margin formats.

Kraken Futures offers international traders perpetual futures on major crypto pairs with leverage of up to approximately 50x. More recently, it has expanded into equity-linked perpetual products called xStocks, giving traders exposure to tokenized representations of traditional equities.

Decentralized and Self-Custodial Platforms (Global/DeFi) 

Besides centralized exchanges, perpetual futures can be traded on decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, which allow users to trade directly from self-custodied wallets using smart contracts. 

Hyperliquid (via platforms like TradeXYZ or MetaMask Perps) is a purpose-built layer-1 blockchain designed specifically for perpetual futures trading. Hyperliquid has become a notable innovator in synthetic and pre-IPO perpetual markets. Through integrations with MetaMask Perps and TradeXYZ, users can trade over 150 crypto and synthetic assets with up to 50x leverage. 

dYdX and GMX are two of the most established decentralized perpetual futures protocols in crypto. Both platforms rely on on-chain smart contracts and oracle pricing to allow leveraged trading without requiring users to surrender custody of their funds.

Final thoughts

With the landmark approval from the CFTC, perpetual futures are now becoming increasingly integrated into the broader financial system. What started on offshore crypto exchanges and decentralized protocols has now expanded into regulated U.S. venues. 

Centralized platforms dominate in scale and liquidity, while DeFi brings self-custody and transparency, with each platform pushing its own version of how perpetual-style trading should work. 

Perpetual futures have become one of the most widely used trading instruments in crypto markets due to their flexibility, liquidity, and ability to provide leveraged exposure. However, their use of leverage also introduces significant risks, including liquidation, funding costs, and amplified losses during periods of high volatility.