Perpetual futures (perps)

Perpetual futures are derivative contracts with no expiry date that track an underlying such as BTC through a periodic funding payment between longs and shorts rather than through settlement at maturity. On crypto exchanges they trade alongside the spot pair with their own volume and aggression, and the two markets must be read separately.

Senzoukria · Glossary · Updated September 2026

How a contract with no expiry stays near spot

A dated future converges to the underlying at settlement. A perpetual never settles, so the exchange applies a funding mechanism: at fixed intervals, holders on one side pay holders on the other an amount derived from the gap between the contract price and an index of spot prices. When the perp trades above the index, longs typically pay shorts, and the reverse below it. The rate and interval are set by each exchange and vary over time.

The contract also has a mark price, derived from the index, used for margin and liquidation, while the last traded price is what the tape shows. Liquidations are executed as market orders by the exchange's engine, so they appear on the tape as aggression like any other order.

  • No roll, no front month, one continuous tape per pair on each exchange.
  • Quantity may be expressed in contracts, base asset or quote notional depending on the product line.
  • Leverage lives in the margin system, not in the trade records.

Reading perp order flow next to spot

  • The same coin at the same instant can show different aggression on spot and on the perp; neither is the whole market.
  • A cascade of same-side aggression at a round distance from the mark is worth checking against liquidation behaviour, but the tape does not label liquidations.
  • Funding timing can shift activity around the funding timestamp; note the exchange's schedule before reading a pattern.
  • Align units before comparing a spot footprint and a perp footprint on one screen.

In Senzoukria

Binance USD-M Perp is a Chart data source of its own, described on the connection card as the public perpetuals feed where the volume and the aggression live, with no API key required. The crypto page lists BTC, ETH, SOL and the listed pairs with spot and perpetuals side by side, each with its own price step, and the same footprint, heatmap, drawings, indicators and scripts as the futures desk.

Deep history for the perp is imported progressively under the Crypto history and profiles setting, up to six months at coarser chart grains, with real volume at price rebuilt from aggregated trades. Perps are analysis only: there is no crypto order ticket, no autopilot on crypto, and no funding or margin data is presented as if it were executed volume.

Common mistakes

  • Applying a size filter defined in contracts on one exchange to base-asset quantities on another.
  • Reading the mark price as a traded price.
  • Treating perp delta as a statement about the spot market, or the reverse.
  • Copying futures-session logic from CME onto a market that trades continuously.

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Frequently asked questions

Why can a perp show different aggression from spot?
Perpetuals allow leveraged and short exposure without holding the coin, so the participants sending market orders are not the same population as on spot, and exchange-driven liquidations execute on the perp only. Which side carries more aggression at a given moment is not fixed; measure it on the pair and period you trade.
Does a perpetual footprint need a continuous contract adjustment?
No. There is no expiry and no roll, so one pair on one exchange has a single unbroken tape. That removes the roll problem that CME futures have, but it does not merge the perp with the spot pair or with the same perp on another exchange.

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