Home / Glossary / Perpetual futures
What are perpetual futures?
A perpetual future — a perp — is a derivative that tracks an asset's price and never expires. You go long or short with leverage; instead of settling on a date, longs and shorts exchange a funding payment every few hours that keeps the contract's price close to the underlying index. On SilkDEX all 137 perpetual markets are margined and settled in USDC on Orderly Network's order book.
How a perp trade works on SilkDEX
- You post USDC as margin and open a long (you profit if the price rises) or a short (you profit if it falls).
- Profit and loss = position size × (mark price − entry price) for a long, the reverse for a short, settled in USDC.
- Leverage is capped per market: 100x on BTC, ETH and SOL; 50x on BNB, DOGE, EURUSD and 2 more; 20x on 1000BONK, 1000PEPE, ADA and 26 more; 10x on AAOI, AAPL, AAVE and 96 more; 5x on FASTX.
- Funding is exchanged every 8 hours on 80 markets and every 4 hours on 57 markets.
- There is no expiry and no delivery: you never receive the asset itself — for stock perps that also means no dividends or voting rights.
Example
Deposit 500 USDC and open a 0.1 BTC long at 80,000 USDC (8,000 USDC notional, 16x). If the mark price rises to 81,000, the position shows +100 USDC of unrealized profit before fees and funding; at 79,000 it shows −100 USDC.
What you can trade
Besides crypto: US stocks, indices and ETFs, gold, oil and other commodities and forex. See all markets.
FAQ
Do perpetual futures expire?
No. A perp has no expiry date; you hold it until you close it or it is liquidated. The funding payment replaces the price convergence a dated future gets from expiring.
What do I need to trade perps on SilkDEX?
An EVM or Solana wallet on one of 12 supported chains (Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Mantle, Ethereum, Sei, Avalanche, Solana, Sonic, Berachain, Abstract and BNB Chain) and some USDC. Deposits land in one USDC balance on Orderly that backs all your positions; the minimum order is $10.
Are perpetual futures risky?
Yes. Leverage magnifies losses, and if your margin falls below the maintenance requirement the position is liquidated with a fee. Start small, use stop-losses and keep leverage well below the maximum.
Related: What is a funding rate? · How do margin and leverage work on SilkDEX? · What is the mark price? · What is liquidation on SilkDEX? · All terms
Source: Orderly: Margin, leverage and PnL. SilkDEX figures from Orderly's public API as of 2026-10-13.