Briefing
Futures are financial derivatives that standardize commodity and financial assets. Unlike spot trading, futures trading allows traders to earn benefits from going long when the price rises and going short when the price drops.

AscendEX futures are USDT-margined perpetual futures contracts settled in USDT. Users can trade multiple contracts such as BTC-Perp, ETH-Perp, etc. using multiple assets as margin collateral. Learn more about Multi-Asset Collateral.  

 

Key Features

  1. No Expiration Date: Unlike futures contracts, perpetual contracts do not have an expiration date or a specified time in the future that buyers and sellers are obligated to settle a contract. Traders can hold long or short positions for as long as they’d like (i.e., “in perpetuity”), as long as they maintain sufficient margin to avoid liquidation.
  2. Funding Mechanism: Tokens’ price may have a discount or premium in the futures market compared with the spot market. To keep futures prices in accordance with spot price flexibly, perpetual contracts employ “funding” to facilitate payouts between long and short positions at various intervals.

For example, if contract prices are trading at a discount to the market, funding rates will be negative and short positions will pay long positions. Conversely, if contract prices are trading at a premium to the market, funding rates will be positive and long positions will pay short positions.

 

Key Mechanics

  1. Leverage: 1-100x Learn More
  2. Funding Interval: The funding fee is settled once every 8 hours. (00:00; 08:00; 16:00 UTC)
  3. Index Price: The Index Price is calculated by taking an average last trade price from the BTC/USDT order books from the following five spot market trading platforms - AscendEX, Binance, Huobi, OKEx and Poloniex, and then removing the highest and the lowest price.
  4. Mark Price: The notional value of an account’s positions along with PnL is calculated using a robust composite price referred to as “Mark Price.” Index Price will be used to calculate account assets and forced liquidation.
  5. Discount Factor: the factor by which an asset can be used as collateral. Details
  6. Conversion Factor: the factor by which an asset can be used as collateral in the liquidation scenario. Details
  7. Insurance Fund: AscendEX Futures maintains a segregated insurance fund for each derivative product on its platform. Each Insurance Fund is used to cover losses incurred by accounts that are beyond bankruptcy; therefore, the Insurance Fund seeks to minimize instances of “clawbacks” and “socialized losses.” Learn more about Risk Management.
  8. Backstop Liquidity Provider Program: A backstop liquidity provider will help to reduce the particle risk according to its takeover ability on a 1-minute and hourly basis.
  9. Auto-deleveraging: If the capacity of the BLPs is insufficient during the forced liquidation, the remaining contracts will be given to accounts with the top-10 largest opposing positions, in proportion to their position size.
  10. Futures Bonus Credit: AscendEX’s Futures Bonus Credit USDTR (equivalent to USDT) refers to the virtual assets offered by AscendEX to users who trade futures contracts on the platform. 20% of the USDTR bonus credits can be used as collateral to open or maintain positions. In addition, the credits can be used to pay for up to 50% of trading fees. Please note that Futures Bonus Credits cannot be withdrawn or transferred off the platform.

 

AscendEX Futures Details

Trading Pairs

BTC-Perp

ETH-Perp

BNB-Perp

BCH-Perp

LINK-Perp

DOT-Perp

SOL-Perp

Token

BTC

ETH

BNB

BCH

LINK

DOT

SOL

Contract Size

1 BTC

1 ETH

1 BNB

1 BCH

1 LINK

1 DOT

1 SOL

Tick Size

(USDT)

1

0.1

0.01

0.05

0.001

Lot Size

0.0001

0.01

0.1

Leverage

1-100x

Quoted In

USDT

Settled In

USDT

Funding Fee Interval

00:00; 08:00; 16:00 (UTC)

 

Trading Pairs

ADA-Perp

MATIC-Perp

XRP-Perp

TRX-Perp

UNI-Perp

Token

ADA

MATIC

XRP

TRX

UNI

Contract Size

1 ADA

1 MATIC

1 XRP

1 TRX

1 UNI

Tick Size (USDT)

0.0001

0.00001

0.001

Lot Size

1

Leverage

1-100x

Quoted In

USDT

Settle In

USDT

Funding Fee Interval

00:00; 08:00; 16:00 (UTC) 

 

Trading Pairs

OMI-Perp

DOGE-Perp

ONE-Perp

VET-Perp

SRM-Perp

Token

OMI

DOGE

ONE

VET

SRM

Contract Size

1 OMI

1 DOGE

1 ONE

1 VET

1 SRM

Tick Size (USDT)

0.000001

0.00001

0.0005

Lot Size

1

Leverage

1-50x

Quoted In

USDT

Settled In

USDT

Funding Fee Interval        

00:00; 08:00; 16:00 (UTC)  

 

Trading Pairs

EGLD-Perp

ETC-Perp

FIL-Perp

CSPR-Perp

SOL-Perp

FTT-Perp

WOO-Perp

Token

EGLD

ETC

FIL

CSPR

SOL

FTT

WOO

Contract Size

1 EGLD

1 ETC

1 FIL

1 CSPR

1 SOL

1 FTT

1 WOO

Tick Size (USDT)

0.01

0.001

0.0001

Lot Size

0.1

1

Leverage

1-50x

Quoted In

USDT

Settled In

USDT

Funding Fee Interval        

00:00; 08:00; 16:00 (UTC)  

References:

Introduction to Futures Fee

Introduction to Perpetual Futures Contracts Margin