A funding interval is the period between scheduled funding events for a perpetual contract. It helps identify when funding is assessed and how a quoted rate should be interpreted. There is no single interval that applies to every venue or trading pair.
Timing and eligibility
Some contracts exchange funding at discrete timestamps and charge or credit holders eligible at those times. Other designs can accrue funding differently. The calculation window for a rate and the moment a payment is applied are related but distinct details.
For a hypothetical contract settling every four hours, an unchanged schedule would produce six funding events in a 24-hour day. This is an illustration, not a product rule. The venue’s time zone and current contract schedule must be checked.
Why intervals matter for comparisons
A rate per hour cannot be compared directly with a rate per eight hours without adjusting for time and assumptions about changing rates. Multiplying one observed rate does not establish a future return.
Venues may adjust intervals during unusual market conditions. Opening or closing close to a funding timestamp may not reliably avoid a payment because processing and eligibility rules vary. Funding history provides evidence of actual payments, while countdowns and predicted rates describe upcoming events.