Perpetual futures never expire, and neither does their cost

What is a perpetual future?

A traditional future locks in a price for a later date. When that date arrives, the contract ends and the price settles. A perpetual future drops the date. Per Reuters, perps "trade around the clock and do not expire, meaning investors can hold positions indefinitely," and they are usually leveraged, sometimes by as much as 50 times.

Leverage means the position is larger than the money put up for it. A position worth ₹10 lakh held on ₹1 lakh of margin is 10 times leveraged. The ₹1 lakh is the margin, the deposit the exchange holds against losses.

Perps are no longer an offshore curiosity. Reuters reports that crypto perps traded $61.7 trillion in 2025, up 29 percent from 2024, per CryptoQuant. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved US-listed crypto perps in May 2026 and has since approved single-stock perps. CME Group is suing the CFTC to overturn the first decision.

Source: Reuters via The Economic Times, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/us-stocks/news/trump-administrations-embrace-of-perp-futures-sets-off-risk-alarms-for-wall-street-stalwarts/articleshow/135688561.cms, read 11 November 2026.

How does funding turn time into a cost?

A contract with no expiry date has a problem. A normal future is pulled toward the spot price by its settlement date. A perp has no such date, so something else has to keep its price close to the price of the coin itself. That something is the funding rate.

Per IG's guide, a funding rate is "a periodic payment exchanged directly between traders holding long and short positions. It is not a fee collected by the exchange." When the perp trades above spot, the rate is positive and buyers pay sellers. When it trades below spot, sellers pay buyers.

Who pays, and when

Most centralised platforms settle funding every eight hours, typically at 00:00, 08:00 and 16:00 UTC, per IG. Some platforms settle every hour. The payment is calculated on the full notional size of the position, not on the margin behind it.

A ₹1 lakh margin does not pay funding on ₹1 lakh. It pays on the ₹10 lakh the margin controls.

What it adds up to

IG's own worked example is a $100,000 long position at a funding rate of +0.05 percent, which costs $50 at that settlement. The same logic applied to a ₹10 lakh position, as an illustration of the arithmetic and not a quote of any platform's rate:

• At 0.05 percent, one settlement costs ₹10,00,000 × 0.0005 = ₹500. Three settlements a day cost ₹1,500, and thirty days cost ₹45,000, which is 4.5 percent of the position.
• At 0.01 percent, the baseline interest figure IG says many platforms build in, one settlement costs ₹100. Three a day cost ₹300, and thirty days cost ₹9,000, which is 0.9 percent of the position.

Funding can also run the other way. When the rate turns negative, the holder of a long position receives the payment. The rate moves with the market, so no figure above is a forecast. The point is the shape: the cost scales with size and with the number of days the position stays open.

Source: IG, How Funding Rates Work in Perpetual Futures, https://www.ig.com/uk/trading-strategies/how-funding-rates-work-in-perpetual-future-260717, read 11 November 2026. The rupee figures are Qatobit's arithmetic on the rates IG describes.

What does holding a perpetual future ask of a person with a career?

A perp that never closes on its own needs somebody to close it. That is a job, and its spec is short to state.

The market never shuts. Per Reuters, because perps trade continuously, exchanges, clearing houses, brokers and traders must manage positions and meet margin calls around the clock. A position held through a working day, a flight or a night's sleep is still exposed.

Margin has a floor. When the margin behind a position falls below the required level, the platform closes the position automatically. Reuters reports that such mechanisms triggered the biggest ever liquidation of bitcoin positions in 2025, amplifying the selloff. The holder does not choose the exit price, and the exit can arrive while they are away.

Funding runs the whole time. The arithmetic above is the standing cost of an open position, and a person who checks the screen twice a day sees only two of the three daily settlements.

A person with a career can watch a screen for part of the day, and the contract bills for all of it. The case rests on arithmetic and attention alone.

How does the US dispute describe the product?

The exchanges suing the CFTC argue that perps are closer to swaps than to futures. Reuters reports their reasoning: a traditional future lets two parties lock in a price for a later date, while a swap has parties exchanging cash flows based on a benchmark. A perp does not expire and involves ongoing funding payments between counterparties, so the exchanges say it fits the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act's definition of a swap.

The CFTC has said perps have futures-like features and that the funding mechanism is a substitute for expiration. Both sides agree on the mechanics. They disagree on the label, and the label decides how much margin and capital regulation applies.

Whoever is right, the dispute has nothing to say about whether a perp fits an investor's plan. It concerns who writes the rules for a product that runs continuously and has no end date.

What does an investor's spec ask instead?

An investor's job description is the opposite shape. It asks for a thesis, a horizon and a schedule, and nothing that has to be watched hourly. The thesis is chosen once. The horizon is the investor's own, not a contract's.

A Qatobit QSI index is built to that spec. It is a basket held on a published methodology, rebalanced monthly, with no exit load, no lock-in and no minimum holding period, per Qatobit's product documentation. The only index fee is 0.35 percent applied per rebalance, with no annual management fee.

"No end date" means something different there. The index has no forced exit and no margin call. The investor leaves when their own horizon says to, and nothing is charged for leaving. Nothing in that describes how the basket will move, since the underlying coins still carry the full volatility of crypto.

One position bills for every day it stays open, and the other charges nothing to leave. The difference is who sets the holding period.

Take a ₹5 lakh allocation. A leveraged perp of that size has a margin level to defend and a funding bill that runs around the clock. A QSI index holding of ₹5 lakh has a monthly rebalance that the methodology performs without an instruction from the holder.

To read more on how an allocation is decided before any single pick, see what asset allocation is and what it decides. For why a few holdings can decide a whole portfolio, read concentration risk. Portfolio rebalancing when one holding falls 10 percent covers the monthly rule. What a crypto index is explains the basket itself.

What to take from it

A perpetual future turns time into a bill. The size of the bill depends on the position's full size and on every day it stays open, and the product never ends the arrangement on its own. Before holding one, a person can run the sum above on their own position: size times rate times three, times the days.

The next question is one a rule answers: if the holding period is the investor's to set, what decides what the basket holds?

Frequently asked questions

What is a perpetual future in crypto?

A perpetual future is a crypto derivative with no expiry date. A holder can keep it open indefinitely, and a funding payment between buyers and sellers, usually every eight hours, keeps its price close to spot. It is usually leveraged, sometimes by as much as 50 times, per Reuters.

What is the funding rate on a perpetual future?

The funding rate is a periodic payment between buyers and sellers of a perp. It is not an exchange fee. When the perp trades above spot, buyers pay sellers, and when it trades below spot, sellers pay buyers, per IG.

How often is funding paid?

Most centralised platforms settle funding every eight hours, at 00:00, 08:00 and 16:00 UTC, per IG. Some settle hourly. The payment is calculated on the notional size of the position, not the margin.

What is liquidation on a perpetual future?

Liquidation is the platform closing a leveraged position when its margin falls below the required level. Per Reuters, automatic liquidation mechanisms triggered the biggest ever liquidation of bitcoin positions in 2025.

Does a Qatobit index have an expiry or a holding period?

No. A Qatobit QSI index has no exit load, no lock-in and no minimum holding period. It rebalances monthly, and the only index fee is 0.35 percent per rebalance, with no annual management fee.

Crypto investments are subject to market risk. Not financial advice.