Crypto Perpetual Futures Explained: Funding, Leverage and Fees

Quick answer. Crypto perpetual futures ("perps") are contracts that track a coin's price and never expire. You post margin (collateral), go long or short, and choose your leverage. A funding payment between longs and shorts keeps the contract near the spot price. You get price exposure, not coins. On Blackboard, Crypto perps route to Aster.

Two perps with the same leverage chip can still differ in funding, fees and distance from liquidation. Here is how each part works, and what a snapshot of every Crypto market on Blackboard shows.

What are crypto perpetual futures?

A perpetual future is a futures contract with no expiry date. You hold it until you close it or it is liquidated (force-closed by the venue when margin runs low).

On Blackboard, Crypto perps trade on Aster, which uses USDT as its trading currency (Blackboard docs).

Three prices matter:

• Index price: a weighted average of major spot exchanges' prices.
• Mark price: built from the index. It drives your unrealized profit and loss, and it triggers liquidation.
• Last price: the most recent trade on the perp's own order book.

A perp is not a coin. You cannot withdraw bitcoin from a BTC perp, stake it or send it. You hold a leveraged position on a price.

How does the crypto funding rate work?

Funding is a payment between traders, usually several times a day. When the rate is positive, longs pay shorts. When it is negative, shorts pay longs.

The rate rises when the perp trades above the index, and Aster takes no cut (Aster docs). While the perp stays close to the index, the rate is 0.01% per eight hours, scaled to each market's interval. That is about 0.03% a day, paid by longs.

Longs were paying on most markets in our snapshot. Over 30 days, a $10,000 BTC long paid about $70 in funding.

The interval sets how fast a rate adds up. Take a 0.05% rate on a $10,000 position. It costs $15 a day on an eight-hour market, $30 on a four-hour one and $120 on an hourly one.

Most markets pay every four hours. But the eight-hour markets, which include BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP and DOGE, carry about nine-tenths of the volume. The hourly ones are all small.

!Funding intervals across 411 crypto perps: 77% of markets pay every 4 hours, but the 8-hour markets carry 90% of the volume

Aster can change a market's interval in extreme volatility, without notice when the rate hits its cap. Read the rate together with the Funding / Countdown in the market header. TradFi markets on Blackboard work differently: those Hyperliquid markets pay every hour.

How much leverage can you use on crypto perps?

Leverage is capped per market, and the cap falls as your position grows (Aster docs). The chip beside a market's name shows its highest cap.

More than two-thirds of markets cap leverage at 5x. Only ten allow 100x or more, led by HYPE at 300x and BTC and ETH at 200x. The 200x markets alone carry about four-fifths of the volume.

!285 of 411 crypto perps were capped at 5x leverage, and only ten allowed 100x or more

How close is liquidation?

A high cap is a ceiling, not a recommendation. Leverage sets how far the price can move against you before your margin is gone. At 10x, a 10% move erases it; at 200x, a 0.5% move does.

That cushion is thin next to normal price swings. Over 30 days, BTC's typical daily range was nearly 2.5% from high to low. That is more than the 2% cushion at 50x, and BTC moved more than 0.5% every day.

!The price move that erases your margin shrinks from 20% at 5x to 0.5% at 200x, while BTC's typical daily range was 2.45%

Real liquidation comes sooner. The venue keeps a maintenance margin (the minimum a position must hold), and fees and funding eat into your collateral. Liquidation triggers on the mark price, and a stop-loss can fill too late.

Cross margin shares collateral across positions, so one loss can hit the others. Isolated margin ties collateral to one position.

What does it cost to trade crypto perps on Blackboard?

At Bronze, the starting tier, opening and closing a $10,000 position with market (taker) orders costs $13.00. With limit (maker) orders, it costs $5.00. Higher tiers pay less.

!Round-trip fee on $10,000: $13.00 at Bronze to $8.60 at Diamond with market orders, $5.00 to $0.60 with limit orders

Funding can cost more than fees. Over 30 days, the BTC long above paid about five times its trading fees in funding.

The order estimate combines Aster's fee and Blackboard's fee, and your account rate can differ from the schedule (Blackboard fees). Some small markets sit in Aster's "Group B", with a 0.1% venue taker fee.

Like Hyperliquid, Aster lets an app you approve as a builder add its own fee: see how builder codes work. Spread and slippage (a fill worse than the price you saw) come on top.

What are the risks of trading crypto perps?

The main risks are liquidation, funding costs and thin markets, plus your reliance on the venue.

• Liquidation. High leverage leaves little room; you can lose your full margin.
• Funding drag. Holding the crowded side costs money every interval, and intervals can change.
• Thin markets. BTC and ETH took about three-quarters of the $972 million traded in one day. Outside the top few names, a market order can fill far from the last price, so use limit orders and smaller sizes.
• Venue and oracle risk. You rely on Aster's matching engine and its index, built from other exchanges' prices. In extreme moves, Aster can auto-deleverage (forcibly shrink) profitable positions (Aster docs).
• Local rules. Availability depends on where you live.

How do you trade crypto perps on Blackboard?

Blackboard is a non-custodial trading terminal: it does not hold your funds or keys. Crypto perps route to Aster, stock and index perps to Hyperliquid, and prediction markets to Polymarket. It is one account with one portfolio view.

!Blackboard's BTC/USDT Crypto market: chart, order book, order form, the 200x leverage cap and the funding countdown

1. Sign in with email, Google, Apple, X, a passkey or a supported wallet. Without a wallet of your own, one is created for you, with no seed phrase to write down.
2. Fund the Crypto account. Deposit USDC, then use Transfer to move it to Crypto. Supported USDC counts as collateral only in Multi-Asset mode, so check the asset mode first.
3. Pick a market under Crypto, and complete trading setup if prompted.
4. Set direction, leverage, margin mode and size. Market, limit, stop, take-profit, scale and Chase orders are available where the form shows them.
5. Read the estimate before you submit: the full fee, margin and estimated liquidation price.
6. Add a take-profit and stop-loss, and keep an eye on the funding countdown while you hold.

Read what an onchain trading terminal is, or how the same account lets you trade stocks 24/7.

Start trading crypto perps on Blackboard →

FAQ

How often is the crypto funding rate paid? It depends on the market: every one, four or eight hours. Check the funding countdown in the market header before you open a position.

What is the maximum leverage on crypto perps? It is set per market and falls as your position grows. Large markets allow far more than small ones. The chip beside a market's name shows its highest cap.

Do I own bitcoin when I trade BTC perpetual futures? No. A perp gives leveraged price exposure only. You cannot withdraw or transfer the coin.

What does a crypto perp trade cost on Blackboard? At the Bronze tier, 0.0650% taker and 0.0250% maker: $13.00 to open and close $10,000 with market orders. Funding, spread and slippage are extra.

Which crypto perps trade the most? BTC and ETH, by a wide margin, then SOL. Most other markets trade little, so use limit orders and smaller sizes there.

How we measured this

• Snapshot: Blackboard's Crypto market list (411 markets; leverage caps are its chips) and Aster's public futures API (/fapi/v1/: exchangeInfo, ticker/24hr, premiumIndex, fundingInfo), read November 12, 2026, about 10:26 UTC. Volume is 24-hour quote volume; funding rates are the latest per interval.
• 30 days: daily candles and funding history (klines, fundingRate) for October 13 – November 11, 2026. Daily range = (high − low) ÷ open. Funding paid = the sum of every rate in the window × $10,000, net of payments received, with price changes ignored.
• Margin cushion: 1 ÷ leverage, ignoring maintenance margin, fees and funding.
• Fees: Blackboard's published Crypto schedule, checked October 27, 2026. Round trip = $20,000 traded notional × rate.
• Limits: one snapshot of a market that changes daily. Treat it as a description, not a forecast.

Most traded markets

Leverage caps

30 days of price range and funding (Oct 13 – Nov 11, 2026)

Sources

• Blackboard docs: crypto perpetuals
• Blackboard docs: fees
• Blackboard docs: funding rates
• Blackboard docs: margin and leverage
• Blackboard docs: liquidation
• Blackboard docs: order types
• Blackboard docs: create an account
• Blackboard docs: deposit
• Aster docs: funding rate
• Aster docs: mark price
• Aster docs: liquidations
• Aster docs: fees
• Aster docs: auto-deleveraging
• Aster API documentation

Trading leveraged derivatives carries a high risk of loss. This article is for education and is not investment advice.