[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"guide:how-to-trade-futures::en":3,"guides-all::en":10},{"slug":4,"title":5,"excerpt":6,"topic":7,"updated_at":8,"body":9},"how-to-trade-futures","How to Trade Crypto Futures, Starting With the Risk","A perpetual costs you money whether you are right or wrong, and the venue picks the moment your position closes. The numbers to know before the entry, not after it.","market-literacy","2026-08-17T16:27:44+00:00","\u003Cp>A crypto futures contract is not a coin. It is an agreement whose value tracks a coin, held against collateral you post, on a venue that can close it without asking you. Most introductions to the subject start with entries and exits. The order that keeps people solvent is the reverse: understand what closes a position for you before you learn what opens one.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>What a perpetual contract is\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>Almost all crypto futures volume sits in perpetuals — contracts with no expiry date. Because they never settle, the price has to be tethered to the underlying some other way, and that mechanism is a periodic payment between the two sides of the market. When the contract trades above spot, holders of long positions pay holders of short ones; when it trades below, the payment reverses. You are charged or credited that every few hours simply for holding, in either direction.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>Leverage is a collateral ratio, not a confidence setting\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>Ten-times leverage does not mean the venue considers you ten times more likely to be right. It means your collateral covers a tenth of the position, so roughly a ten per cent adverse move exhausts it. The number to decide is the position size; the leverage figure should fall out of that. Choosing the leverage first and sizing to it is how a reasonable view on direction turns into a forced close on a move the same trader would otherwise have sat through.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>Three costs run whether you are right or not\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>The trading fee is charged on the notional value of the contract rather than on your margin, so a position at twenty times leverage pays twenty times the fee your collateral would suggest — \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fglossary\u002Fmaker-taker-fees\">maker and taker pricing\u003C\u002Fa> covers why placing the order differently changes it, and the \u003Ca href=\"\u002Ftools\u002Fexchange-fee-calculator\">fee calculator\u003C\u002Fa> turns it into a number. The funding payment runs every few hours for as long as the position is open. And execution costs: a large order eats through the \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fglossary\u002Forder-book\">order book\u003C\u002Fa> and fills at progressively worse prices, which is \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fglossary\u002Fslippage\">slippage\u003C\u002Fa>, and it is worst in exactly the fast market where you most want out.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>Know the liquidation price before you know the target\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>Every leveraged position has a price at which the venue's risk engine takes it over, and the venue computes that from its own index rather than from the last trade on its own book. Read it off the order screen before confirming and treat it as the real risk of the trade. Isolated margin caps the loss at what you assigned to that one position; cross margin backs it with the entire account balance, which means a single bad position can consume the funds standing behind all the others.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>Where you trade this is part of the trade\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>Derivatives concentrate everything on the venue. It holds the collateral, publishes the index price, runs the engine that closes you, and operates the fund that absorbs whatever a liquidation could not cover. That makes venue quality a trading input rather than a background detail: our \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fsafety\">graded ledger\u003C\u002Fa> scores fifteen venues on what they disclose about custody, reserves and incident history, and \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fexchanges\u002Fdydx\">dYdX\u003C\u002Fa> is the one in that set where the contract settles on a public chain instead of inside a company's database.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>The bottom line\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>Futures are a leverage product with a carrying cost, priced on notional and closed at the venue's discretion. If you cannot state your liquidation price, your funding cost per day and what you are risking in the currency you actually spend, the position is larger than the plan behind it.\u003C\u002Fp>",[11,16,21,26,30,35,39,43,47,52,56,60,64,68,72,73,77,81,85,89,93,97,101,105,109,113,117,121,125],{"slug":12,"title":13,"excerpt":14,"topic":7,"updated_at":15},"an-etf-share-or-the-coin-itself","An ETF Share or the Coin Itself","Both track the same price and they are not the same asset. What each one actually makes you own, the three-way choice most people mistake for a two-way one, and which risk you are picking up.","2026-08-18T03:30:02+00:00",{"slug":17,"title":18,"excerpt":19,"topic":20,"updated_at":8},"api-keys-and-third-party-trading-tools","API Keys and Third-Party Trading Tools","Bots, trackers and tax tools all ask for exchange API keys. What each permission actually grants, and the one you should almost never hand over.","exchange-safety",{"slug":22,"title":23,"excerpt":24,"topic":25,"updated_at":15},"bridging-crypto-between-chains","Bridging Crypto Between Chains Without Losing It","A bridge is a custody decision dressed up as a transfer. What the three designs actually do with your coin, why bridges are the most attacked component in crypto, and the checks that survive all of them.","wallet-security",{"slug":27,"title":28,"excerpt":29,"topic":25,"updated_at":8},"checking-a-crypto-address-before-you-send","How to Check a Crypto Address Before You Send","A crypto transfer cannot be recalled, and the most common way people lose money is sending to an address that was never the one they meant. Here is the check that catches it.",{"slug":31,"title":32,"excerpt":33,"topic":34,"updated_at":8},"crypto-tax-guide","The Crypto Records to Keep Before Tax Time","What you owe is set where you live, and this page does not touch it. What travels between jurisdictions is the record-keeping — and the fact that exchanges are not archives.","tax",{"slug":36,"title":37,"excerpt":38,"topic":25,"updated_at":8},"custodial-vs-non-custodial-wallets-explained","Custodial vs Non-Custodial Wallets Explained","The single biggest decision in how you hold crypto: who controls the keys, and what that means for security and responsibility.",{"slug":40,"title":41,"excerpt":42,"topic":20,"updated_at":8},"exchange-safety-checklist","How to Evaluate a Crypto Exchange's Safety","Before you deposit a dollar, run any exchange through this checklist — proof-of-reserves, custody model, licensing, and security track record.",{"slug":44,"title":45,"excerpt":46,"topic":25,"updated_at":8},"hardware-wallets-explained","Hardware Wallets Explained","What a hardware wallet actually protects you from, what it does not, and how to buy and set one up without undoing the point of owning it.",{"slug":48,"title":49,"excerpt":50,"topic":51,"updated_at":8},"how-crypto-withdrawals-work","How Crypto Withdrawals Work","Networks, addresses, confirmations and fees — what actually happens when you withdraw crypto, and the mistakes that make it unrecoverable.","crypto-basics",{"slug":53,"title":54,"excerpt":55,"topic":51,"updated_at":8},"how-to-buy-bitcoin","How to Buy Bitcoin for the First Time","The purchase takes ten minutes. What takes longer are the four decisions around it: where the coin will live, which venue may legally sell to you, and what the quote really costs.",{"slug":57,"title":58,"excerpt":59,"topic":7,"updated_at":8},"how-to-check-a-token-before-you-buy","How to Check a Token Before You Buy","Six checks you can run yourself on any token, with a block explorer and the contract. None of them require trusting the project's own description.",{"slug":61,"title":62,"excerpt":63,"topic":20,"updated_at":8},"how-to-check-an-exchange-licence-claim","How to Check an Exchange Licence Claim","A licence badge in a footer is a claim, not evidence. Four steps to verify it against the register, and what the answer does and does not cover.",{"slug":65,"title":66,"excerpt":67,"topic":7,"updated_at":8},"how-to-read-a-crypto-whitepaper","How to Read a Crypto Whitepaper","A whitepaper has no standard, no reviewer and no obligation to stay true. What to read first, what to verify elsewhere, and which sections to skip.",{"slug":69,"title":70,"excerpt":71,"topic":51,"updated_at":8},"how-to-spot-a-crypto-scam","How to Spot a Crypto Scam","The patterns behind almost every crypto scam are older than crypto. Learn the five that keep working, and the checks that defuse them.",{"slug":4,"title":5,"excerpt":6,"topic":7,"updated_at":8},{"slug":74,"title":75,"excerpt":76,"topic":7,"updated_at":8},"market-cap-and-supply-explained","Market Cap and Supply, Explained","Why a coin's unit price tells you nothing, what market cap actually measures, and the supply figures that quietly change the answer.",{"slug":78,"title":79,"excerpt":80,"topic":20,"updated_at":8},"proof-of-reserves-explained","Proof of Reserves Explained","What a proof-of-reserves report actually proves, what it quietly leaves out, and how to read one without mistaking it for a full audit.",{"slug":82,"title":83,"excerpt":84,"topic":51,"updated_at":8},"reading-a-block-explorer","How to Read a Block Explorer","A block explorer is the public record every claim about a transaction can be checked against. What the fields mean, and the three things worth verifying yourself.",{"slug":86,"title":87,"excerpt":88,"topic":25,"updated_at":8},"seed-phrase-security","How to Store a Seed Phrase Safely","Your recovery phrase is the account. Here is how to back it up so a fire, a flood, a thief or a phishing site cannot take your crypto with it.",{"slug":90,"title":91,"excerpt":92,"topic":25,"updated_at":8},"token-approvals-and-how-to-revoke-them","Token Approvals and How to Revoke Them","Most wallet drains are not stolen keys. They are permissions the owner granted once and forgot. Here is what an approval is and how to take it back.",{"slug":94,"title":95,"excerpt":96,"topic":20,"updated_at":8},"two-factor-authentication-for-crypto-accounts","Two-Factor Authentication for Crypto Accounts","Not all second factors are equal. Why SMS codes are the weakest option, what a security key does that an app cannot, and what to fix first.",{"slug":98,"title":99,"excerpt":100,"topic":7,"updated_at":8},"understanding-crypto-exchange-fees","Understanding Crypto Exchange Fees","Trading fees are the smallest part of what an exchange charges you. Here is where the rest of the cost hides, and how to measure it.",{"slug":102,"title":103,"excerpt":104,"topic":7,"updated_at":8},"what-a-smart-contract-audit-proves","What a Smart Contract Audit Does and Does Not Prove","An audit is a review with a scope and a date, not a guarantee. How to read one, and the four things a badge on a website never tells you.",{"slug":106,"title":107,"excerpt":108,"topic":51,"updated_at":8},"what-backs-a-stablecoin","What Actually Backs a Stablecoin","A stablecoin is only as stable as whatever stands behind it. The three designs, what an attestation does and does not prove, and the question that matters most.",{"slug":110,"title":111,"excerpt":112,"topic":20,"updated_at":8},"what-happens-when-a-crypto-exchange-fails","What Happens When a Crypto Exchange Fails","If an exchange freezes withdrawals or files for bankruptcy, what actually happens to your balance — and what you can do before that day.",{"slug":114,"title":115,"excerpt":116,"topic":51,"updated_at":8},"what-staking-actually-involves","What Staking Actually Involves","Staking is not a savings account. What you commit, what can reduce it, and the difference between doing it yourself and letting a platform do it.",{"slug":118,"title":119,"excerpt":120,"topic":25,"updated_at":8},"what-to-do-if-your-wallet-is-drained","What to Do If Your Wallet Is Drained","The first hour matters, and instinct gives the wrong advice. What can still be saved, what cannot, and why recovery services make it worse.",{"slug":122,"title":123,"excerpt":124,"topic":20,"updated_at":15},"when-an-exchange-freezes-your-withdrawal","When an Exchange Freezes Your Withdrawal","Most frozen withdrawals are a compliance review, not a collapse. How to tell which one you are in, what shortens a hold, and the signals that mean stop waiting.",{"slug":126,"title":127,"excerpt":128,"topic":51,"updated_at":8},"why-a-transaction-is-stuck","Why a Transaction Is Stuck, and What to Do","A pending transaction has not failed and has not happened. Why fees, ordering and nonces leave transactions waiting, and which fixes are real."]