All terms
A futures contract with no expiry, kept in line by a funding rate.
Perpetuals let you take leveraged long or short exposure indefinitely. A funding payment passes periodically between longs and shorts to keep the contract price near spot.
Funding is a useful sentiment gauge. Persistently high positive funding means longs are crowded and paying to stay in, which often precedes a flush.
Hyperliquid and dYdX offer perpetuals onchain. Most crypto derivative volume is in perps, not spot.
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