Perps Overview

Perpetual futures (perps) let you trade long or short with leverage — no expiry date, no rolling contracts. You hold the position until you close it, or until liquidation forces it shut.

The perps terminal — chart, order book, and order entry

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Where Perps Live

Perps share the Perps/Spot terminal with Spot. The two products also share one USDC balance — fund it once via the Transfer flow and both can use it. Margin locked by open perps positions reduces what’s spendable on Spot, and the account panel shows total and available at all times.

Beyond crypto, the perps market list also includes builder-deployed markets for stocks, commodities, forex, and indices — marked with a badge in the markets list. These trade like any other perp in the terminal — long or short, with leverage — but track non-crypto assets; each market’s leverage cap and specifics are shown on the market itself.

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Spot vs. Perps

	Spot	Perps
What you own	The asset itself	A leveraged contract on the price
Expiry	None	None (perpetual)
Leverage	No	Yes — set per market, up to 40x on majors
Direction	Long only (you own it)	Long or short
Costs	Maker/taker fee	Maker/taker fee + hourly funding
Settlement	Fills to your balance	Continuous, with funding payments

With perps you never hold the asset — you hold a contract that tracks its price. You can go long (profit if price rises) or short (profit if price falls).

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Powered by Hyperliquid

The onchain.cc perps product is built on Hyperliquid’s execution layer. You get the onchain.cc interface and experience — Hyperliquid handles order matching, mark pricing, funding, and settlement under the hood. You do not need a separate Hyperliquid account.

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Key Concepts

Before opening a position, understand these four mechanics. Each has its own page with full detail.

Concept	What it means
Leverage & Margin	Leverage multiplies exposure; margin is the collateral that backs the trade.
Funding	Hourly payments between longs and shorts that keep the perp price anchored to spot.
Liquidation	Automatic close when your margin falls below the maintenance threshold.
Fees	Hyperliquid’s volume-tiered maker/taker rate plus a small Onchain service fee.

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Note

Perps involve leverage and carry significantly higher risk than spot trading. Only trade with capital you can afford to lose. New to perps? Start at 1–2x leverage while you learn the mechanics.