Comprehensive Guide to Futures Trading
1.What is Futures Trading in Crypto?
Futures trading lets you bet on the future price of assets like Bitcoin or Ethereum—without owning them. Instead of buying the actual cryptocurrency, you trade contracts that reflect their price movements. You only need to deposit a small margin (typically 5–10%) and can use leverage to control a much larger position — allowing for greater potential returns from smaller capital.
There are different types of contracts:
Perpetual contracts (most popular—no expiry date)
Settlement contracts
Options
How Do Crypto Futures Contracts Work?
Margin & Leverage:
You don’t need the full amount to trade. With just 5%–20% margin, you can use 1x to 125x leverage to amplify your trades.
Long or Short (Two-Way Trading):
You can go long if you think prices will rise or go short if you expect a drop, allowing you to trade in any market condition.
Standardized Contracts:
These contracts are clearly defined—covering things like the asset being traded, how much, and whether it’s a perpetual contract or has a fixed end time.
2.futuresTrading vs. Spot Trading: Comparison of Core Differences
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Contrast dimension
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futures transactions
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Spot trading
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Transaction object
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Standardized contract (future value certificate)
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Actual cryptocurrencies (such as BTC, ETH)
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Funding model
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Margin trading (leverage 1-125x)
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Full payment (1:1 principal)
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Long and short bidirectional (can buy up/buy down)
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One-way (can only buy up)
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Holding period
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Perpetual contracts have no fixed term/settlement contracts have an expiration date
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Hold indefinitely (until actively sold)
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Risk characteristics
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High risk (leverage amplifies profit and loss, may lead to liquidation)
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Medium-low risk (only affected by price fluctuations)
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Core features
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Speculation, hedging, arbitrage
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Asset Allocation and Value Storage
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3.Why choose futures trading?
Core advantages of futures trading
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Advantage type
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Specific manifestations
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Financial efficiency
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Under 10x leverage, a principal of 1000 yuan can trade assets of 10000 yuan, and the return is multiplied by 10 times under the same increase (such as a 10% increase corresponds to a 100% return).
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Two-way profit
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When the market falls, you can profit by "shorting", and in a bear market, you can hedging the risk of holding spot positions (such as holding BTC spot when shorting BTC contracts to lock in profits).
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Trading flexibility
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24-Hour continuous trading, supporting instant opening and closing of positions; customizable leverage ratios (1-125 times) to adapt to different risk preferences
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Risk hedging
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Institutions commonly use futures to hedging spot price fluctuations, such as locking in more than 30% of spot position risk through reverse positions
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Futures trading latent risk
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Risk type
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Specific manifestations
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Liquidation risk
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When the loss reaches 70% -80% of the margin, a forced liquidation is triggered. In extreme market conditions, a 100% principal loss may occur instantly (such as in the BTC flash crash event in March 2024, when a 50-times leverage long position was liquidated within 1 minute).
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Mechanism complexity
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It involves complex calculations such as capital costs (perpetual contract long and short mutual payment), margin rate (Maintenance Margin 2% -5%), settlement premium (quarterly contract often discounted 5% -10%), etc
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Liquidity Risk
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Niche currency futures may have "pin insertion" (such as price fluctuations of 20% +), resulting in stop loss failure; when the depth is insufficient, the market price slip can reach 1% -3%
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4.What are the advantages of trading contracts on BitUnix?
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Advantage dimension
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Core highlights
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0 threshold trading experience
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Support a minimum investment of $10, and it only takes an average of 3 minutes for new users to register and complete their first transaction
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Liquidity guarantee
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Connect with 20 + top market makers, industry average slippage of 0.35%, daily average 5 billion USD trading volume, BTC slippage less than 0.01%
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Leverage flexibility
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Up to 125 times leverage, supporting independent adjustment of long and short positions
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Trading experience
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Intelligent copy trading system (copying Top 10 trader strategies, greatly improving winning rate); The visual K-line system has a built-in TradingView framework, and the mobile end supports 21 technical indicators, custom line drawing, and multi-window trading, making the trading experience more concrete
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5.Classification of Crypto Market Contracts:
Two mainstream forms of perpetual contracts
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Contract type
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USDT-margined Futures
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Coin-margined Futures
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Margin unit
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USDT (such as 100USDT with 10x leverage)
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Underlying assets (such as 0.1 BTC with 10x leverage)
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Profit and loss calculation
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Profit from a 10% increase in USDT: 1000 USDT × 10 times × 10% = 1000 USDT.
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Calculate a 10% increase in profit based on underlying assets: 0.1 BTC × 10 times × 10% = 0.1 BTC)
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Overview
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In the USDT-margined system, futures use the stablecoin USDT as the settlement target. For example, in the case of BTC/USDT trading pair futures, whether you are going long or short, you need to transfer USDT into the futures account, and USDT is used to settle the final profit and loss. Since the price of USDT itself is more stable, it can avoid the additional price fluctuations that are often caused by the prices of certain currencies themselves in futures trading.
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In the coin-margined system, futures are settled in the native cryptocurrency. Take the BTC/USD trading pair futures as an example. During the processes of margin determination and profit/loss settlement, it is the BTC assets in the futures account that are used to complete these operations. Since Bitcoin itself has significant price fluctuations, apart from the price movements of the futures themselves, the price of Bitcoin is constantly changing. Therefore, in the coin-margined system, it is easier to magnify both profits and losses.
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Three types of futures by settlement mechanism
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Contract type
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Perpetual contract(futures)
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Settlement contract
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Option contract
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Settlement time
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No fixed maturity date (anchored spot through funding fees)
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Fixed maturity (weekly/quarterly/perpetual settlement)
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Call-over on expiration date (European style) or call-over before expiration date (American style)
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Core mechanisms
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Balanced price of long and short funds (settled every 8 hours, rate ± 0.01%)
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Compulsory settlement at the spot price upon expiration may result in premium/discount (such as quarterly discount of 8%).
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The buyer pays the premium to obtain the call-over right, and the maximum loss is the premium
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Market share
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Accounting for over 70% of encrypted contract trading volume, suitable for short-term trading
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Accounting for 25%, suitable for trend trading
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Accounting for 5%, suitable for risk hedging
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6.Encrypted Perpetual contracts vs traditional futures:
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Contrast dimension
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Encrypted perpetual contract(futures)
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Traditional futures (such as CME crude oil futures)
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Trading hours
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7 × 24 hours continuous trading
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Subject to exchange time restrictions (such as CME day trading from 9:00-16:00 + night trading).
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Leverage flexibility
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1-125 times custom leverage, dynamically adjustable in position
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Fixed leverage (usually 5-20 times), fixed leverage after opening a position
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Price anchoring
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Funding cost mechanism (automatic balance of long and short positions, deviation ≤ 0.5%)
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Spot settlement at maturity may result in a basis difference of 5% -10% before maturity
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Cost of position
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Two-way funding fee (about 0.01%/8 hours)
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No position cost (only transaction fees are charged)
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Subject of transaction
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Cryptocurrency (200 + varieties such as BTC and ETH)
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Commodities, financial indices, foreign exchange and other traditional assets
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Conclusion：
Futures trading provides efficient tools for speculation and risk management in the cryptocurrency market. However, its high volatility and complexity require users to have strict risk control capabilities. Only by choosing a platform like Bitunix that supports professional tools and offers high security, and by combining an in-depth understanding of the differences between perpetual contracts (futures) and traditional futures, can one seize opportunities in the market. Investors need to rationally allocate leverage and position sizes according to their own risk preferences, so as not to merely pursue high returns.