A perpetual contract is a derivative with no scheduled expiration date. Traders can hold long or short exposure while satisfying the venue’s margin requirements, although liquidation, delisting or other contract provisions can still end a position.
How funding connects prices
Many perpetual markets exchange funding payments between long and short holders to encourage alignment with a spot reference. Under the common convention, positive funding means longs pay shorts; negative funding reverses the payment. The calculation, interval and eligibility depend on the contract.
Funding is a holding cost or receipt separate from trading profit and fees. A quoted rate is not a guaranteed future rate, and receiving funding does not ensure an overall profit.
What owning the position means
A BTC perpetual gives contractual exposure to BTC prices rather than ownership of transferable BTC. Collateral and profit settlement may use a stablecoin or a cryptocurrency, with different payoff formulas.
Before holding a position, distinguish its traded price, index price and mark price. Risk checks often use the mark price or account-level measures. Leverage, changing funding, collateral volatility and execution liquidity can all affect how long a position remains open.