Perpetuals vs Futures: How the Two Contracts Differ in 2026
Last Updated: September 15, 2026
Perpetuals vs futures is a question of expiry. Perpetuals never expire and use funding to track spot; dated futures settle on a fixed day. On September 15, 2026, the 100 largest derivatives exchanges on CoinGecko listed 29,579 perpetual pairs and just 580 dated futures pairs, while CME has run 24/7 regulated crypto futures since May 29, 2026.
The words get mixed up, so it helps to fix them first. Perpetuals, perps, perpetual swaps and perpetual futures all name the same contract: a future with no settlement date, and our perpetual contract explainer goes deeper into mark price and liquidation. Futures in this comparison means dated contracts, also called standard, quarterly or delivery futures, which stop trading on a known day. BitMEX launched the first perpetual, its XBTUSD swap, on May 13, 2016, and CME listed its first bitcoin futures in 2017. For years the two lived in different worlds: perps on offshore crypto exchanges, dated futures on regulated venues. That split is closing fast, which is why this guide looks at where each contract trades today as well as how it works.
For how funding is calculated period by period, see perpetual swaps vs futures, and if owning the coin is still an option, weigh perpetual futures vs spot first. Hybrid venues are covered too, including the EVEDEX perp DEX and its crypto futures offering.
Perpetuals vs Futures: Key Differences
| Criterion | Perpetuals | Dated futures | On EVEDEX (September 15, 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expiry | None; a position stays open until you close it or the exchange liquidates it | A fixed last trading day, commonly weekly, monthly or quarterly, followed by settlement | No dated contracts: all 52 public pairs are perpetuals without an expiry date |
| Link to the spot price | Funding payments between longs and shorts pull the contract toward a spot index | The price converges with spot as expiry nears, because settlement uses the spot price | Funding is calculated every 8 hours and charged or credited hourly, one-eighth at a time |
| Holding cost | Variable funding, paid or received for as long as the position stays open | A premium or discount to spot fixed at entry, plus trading fees at every roll | 0.015% maker and 0.045% taker fees, plus funding while the position is open |
| Rollover | Never needed, so a one-year position takes one trade to open and one to close | Needed at each expiry; a year in quarterly contracts takes about eight trades | No rollover; positions sit under cross margin with USDT as collateral |
| Listings on the top 100 exchanges | 29,579 perpetual pairs in total; Hyperliquid alone lists 404 and Bybit 860 | 580 pairs, led by Binance with 204, Derive with 148, and Bybit and Deribit with 77 each | 52 perpetual pairs and no dated futures, with $678.6M in open interest |
| Worked example: one-year $20,000 BTC long | Two taker trades cost $18; funding at an assumed 0.01% per 8 hours adds $2,190 | Eight taker trades cost $72; basis at an assumed 10.95% a year adds $2,190 | At 0.045% taker, each $20,000 trade costs $9 before cashback of up to 35% |
| Typical use | Open-ended directional trades, active short-term trading and hedges with no fixed end date | Hedges tied to a calendar date, basis trades and institutions that need regulated venues | Traders who want 24/7 perps on crypto, stocks, FX and commodities |
Data as of September 15, 2026. Pair counts and open interest: CoinGecko derivatives exchanges. US products: CFTC, Kalshi contract specifications, CME Group. EVEDEX fees: EVEDEX docs; funding: EVEDEX docs. Funding and basis rates in the worked example are assumptions, not market quotes.
What "Perpetuals" Means in 2026
The perpetual started as an offshore crypto product and has since split into several versions. The differences matter because two contracts both called perpetual can carry very different terms.
- Crypto-native perps. Offshore centralized exchanges and on-chain venues list thousands of them. Hyperliquid, the largest decentralized one by open interest, pays funding every hour and caps it at 4% per hour, according to its documentation.
- US perpetual-style futures. Coinbase Financial Markets launched nano Bitcoin (0.01 BTC) and nano Ether (0.10 ETH) contracts on July 21, 2025. They behave like perps, with 24/7 trading and funding that accrues hourly and settles twice a day, but they legally expire after five years.
- CFTC-approved true perpetuals. On May 29, 2026, the CFTC approved KalshiEX's BTCPERP, "a perpetual contract that references the spot price of bitcoin, as a futures contract." Kalshi's specifications list a 0.0001 BTC contract, funding at 12:00 AM, 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM ET, and a cap of plus or minus 2% per 8-hour interval.
- Perps on traditional assets. Several venues now use the same structure for stocks, commodities and currencies. EVEDEX lists perpetuals on five US stocks, gold, silver, WTI oil, EUR/USD, USD/JPY and the SPY index alongside crypto.
Dated futures have changed too. CME Group moved its cryptocurrency futures and options to 24/7 trading on Friday, May 29, 2026, and reported more than 7,200 contracts, about $50 million in notional, over the first weekend. Round-the-clock access used to be the main practical advantage of perps; for bitcoin on regulated venues it no longer is.
Worked Example: Holding a BTC Position for One Year
The example isolates the two structural differences, trade count and cost certainty, by giving both contracts the same average carry. It uses these assumptions:
- Position: a $20,000 notional BTC long held for 365 days.
- Fees: 0.045% taker on every trade for both contracts, which is EVEDEX's taker rate.
- Perpetual carry: funding averages 0.01% per 8 hours, or 1,095 payments over the year.
- Futures carry: each quarterly contract is bought at an annualized premium of 10.95% to spot, the same yearly total.
Perpetual. One trade to open and one to close cost 2 × $9 = $18. Funding costs $20,000 × 0.01% × 1,095 = $2,190. Total: $2,208.
Quarterly futures. The position opens once, rolls three times and closes once. Each roll means selling the expiring contract and buying the next, so the year takes eight trades: 8 × $9 = $72. The premium adds $2,190 across four quarters. Total: $2,262, plus the bid-ask spread paid at every roll.
On average the costs look similar, and the perpetual is slightly cheaper because it never rolls. The real difference is variance. A dated future fixes the premium for its quarter at the moment you buy it. A perpetual reprices every funding period. If a rally pushed funding to 0.03% per 8 hours for one quarter, the perpetual long would pay $20,000 × 0.03% × 270 = $1,620 in those 90 days, while the futures long would still owe the $540 premium locked in at entry. If funding turned negative, at −0.005% per 8 hours, the same perpetual long would instead receive $270 for the quarter. Trading more often or in smaller clips widens the fee gap further, which is one reason active traders cluster in perps. The perpetual swaps vs futures guide shows how funding payments are calculated period by period.
How to Decide Between Perpetuals and Dated Futures
Match the contract to what you know about your trade.
- Do you know the end date? A hedge that runs until a known event, such as a quarter end or a token unlock, fits a dated contract that expires close to that day. An open-ended view fits a perpetual.
- Do you need a fixed cost? Futures lock the carry for each contract at entry. Perpetual funding can swing from paying to receiving within days, so budget for a range rather than a single number.
- Where are you allowed to trade? Check that the venue accepts clients from your country before you deposit.
- How is liquidity split? A perpetual concentrates trading in one contract per asset. Dated futures spread it across expiries: Deribit listed 77 dated futures pairs against 57 perpetuals on September 15, 2026, and far-dated months usually trade thinner than the front one.
- How does the contract settle? Dated futures settle at expiry against a reference price, which can differ from the price you could have closed at earlier. Perpetuals settle only when you close the position.
- What assets do you need? Dated crypto futures cover a limited list of coins. Perps now reach stocks, commodities and currency pairs on some venues.
For the contract itself, the explainer on the perpetual contract covers margin, mark price and liquidation in more depth. If you are also deciding whether to use a contract at all, compare perpetual futures vs spot.
Trading Perpetuals on EVEDEX
On EVEDEX the word perpetuals covers every market it lists, because it has no dated contracts at all. The 52 public pairs span 39 cryptocurrencies, five US stocks (TSLA, COIN, MSTR, CRCL and SPCX), three commodities (Tether Gold, silver and WTI oil), two currency pairs, the SPY index and two pre-market contracts, ANTHROPIC and OPENAI, and none of them closes for the weekend. The exchange is hybrid: it matches orders off-chain and settles them on Arbitrum L2 against USDT margin. Costs follow the perpetual model described above, with a flat 0.015% for makers or 0.045% for takers on every pair, plus funding set every 8 hours and collected in hourly slices. Maximum leverage depends on the pair and the position size, from 200x on BTC-USD, ETH-USD and SOL-USD for up to $50,000 of notional down to 50x on 18 smaller pairs.
What it lacks matters for this comparison: no dated futures for calendar hedges, no spot market, no options, and a list of 52 pairs against hundreds on the biggest venues. Check how EVEDEX structures its crypto futures offering and the perp DEX model before depositing; deposits start at 6 USDT. Perpetual futures carry a high risk of loss.
