Updated Rules checked 2026-10-21
The biggest difference between spot and futures is whether you actually own the coin. On spot you buy BTC with USDT, the coin sits in your account, and a falling price will not force a sale. With futures you trade a contract that tracks the coin’s price: you can go long or short and use leverage, but if the price moves against you to the liquidation price, the system closes the position and you lose all of the margin.
The costs differ too. For a regular Binance user (VIP 0), the spot fee is 0.1% and USDⓈ-M futures are Maker 0.02% and Taker 0.05%. The futures rate looks lower, but it is charged on the position value, not on your principal: opening 10x with 1,000 USDT costs 10 USDT for the round trip, while buying and selling 1,000 USDT of spot costs only about 2 USDT. Perpetual futures also carry funding fees; delivery futures do not.
I’ve put the rules for spot, margin trading, perpetual futures and delivery futures in one table, run the same 1,000 USDT through a 10% rise and a 10% drop, and listed spot and futures fees at 13 exchanges, each number with an official source. Leverage magnifies both gains and losses. If the price moves against you, the position may be forcibly liquidated and the margin you put in is lost in full.
Key points
On spot you buy the coin itself and there is no liquidation. Futures are contracts settled against the coin’s price; if the price moves against you to the liquidation price, the system closes the position.
Binance VIP 0 spot fees are 0.1%; USDⓈ-M futures are Maker 0.02% and Taker 0.05%. Futures fees are charged on position value: opening 10x with 1,000 USDT costs 10 USDT in Taker fees in and out, 5 times the roughly 2 USDT a spot round trip costs.
With the same 1,000 USDT and a 10% price drop: spot loses about 101.80 USDT; 3x futures lose about 302.85 USDT; a 10x isolated long is liquidated at a 9.64% drop, and the full 1,000 USDT of margin is lost.
Perpetual futures have no expiry date, and longs and shorts pay each other funding every 8 or 4 hours. Binance quarterly futures (delivery futures) have no funding fee and are delivered at 08:00 UTC on the last Friday of the quarter month.
HTX’s user agreement lists Taiwan among the regions barred from trading derivatives, so Taiwanese users can only use spot and other non-derivative services on HTX.
The information below was verified against official pages on 2026-10-21 (check date) and is shared for your reference.
Spot vs futures: the differences in one table
An exchange’s “Trade” menu usually has four things: spot, margin, perpetual futures and delivery futures. The last three can all use leverage. They differ in what you hold, how costs are calculated and when you get liquidated.
| Item | Spot | Margin trading | Perpetual futures | Delivery futures |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Do you own the coin? | Yes, it sits in your spot account | Yes, but partly bought with borrowed money or coins | No, you hold a futures position | No, you hold a futures position |
| Can you go short? | No, only buy first and sell later | Yes, by borrowing coins and selling them | Yes, open a short directly | Yes, open a short directly |
| Leverage | None (1x) | Binance cross margin 3x or 5x; isolated depends on the trading pair | Binance BTCUSDT up to 150x; new futures accounts limited to 20x for the first 30 days | Depends on contract specifications |
| Fees (Binance VIP 0) | 0.1% (on trade value) | Trading fees + borrowing interest (charged hourly) | Maker 0.02%, Taker 0.05% (on position value) | Trading fees + delivery fee at expiry (same as Taker rate) |
| Funding fee | None | None; you pay borrowing interest instead | Yes, longs and shorts pay each other periodically | None |
| Can it be liquidated? | No | Yes, cross margin is liquidated when the risk ratio ≤ 1.1 | Yes, liquidated when the margin ratio reaches 100% | Yes |
| Expiry date | None | None, but the loan keeps accruing interest | None | Yes, settled automatically at expiry |
| Situation the rules suit | You want to hold coins long term and not be liquidated | You want to add to a position or short with borrowed funds and are willing to pay interest | You want to short or trade short term and can watch the market to manage the liquidation price | You want to lock in a set expiry date and not pay funding |
Sources: Binance’s explanation of perpetual and quarterly futures (updated 2026-03-04), Binance’s cross margin trading guide (updated 2026-09-09), Binance’s margin risk ratio explanation (updated 2026-09-28) and Binance’s futures fee explanation (updated 2026-05-01), checked 2026-10-21; the maximum leverage and the 20x limit follow the Binance futures guide check of 2026-10-17.
The key row in the table is “Do you own the coin?” If spot BTC falls 50%, you still hold the same amount of BTC, and whether to wait for it to recover is up to you. A futures position gives you no such choice: once losses leave too little maintenance margin, the system closes the position for you, and if the price recovers later, that no longer has anything to do with you.
What are futures? What are perpetual futures?
A futures contract is an agreement in which the two sides do not exchange coins; they only settle profit and loss on price changes. Going long means you expect the price to rise, going short means you expect it to fall, and opening a position only takes part of the funds as margin: position value = margin × leverage.
Perpetual futures are the most heavily traded contracts today. Binance’s explanation states that “perpetual futures have no expiry date” and that funding keeps the contract price close to spot: when the rate is positive, longs pay shorts; when it is negative, shorts pay longs, and the exchange does not take this money. Funding fee = position value × funding rate, and you only pay or receive it if you hold a position at the moment of settlement. For how it works and each exchange’s settlement interval, see what is a funding rate.
Futures fees are charged on position value, once when you open and once when you close. The formula in Binance’s futures fee explanation is “fee = position value × fee rate,” so with the same principal, the higher the leverage, the more you pay in fees. For the full calculation, see how futures fees are calculated.
Same 1,000 USDT: how far apart are spot and futures on a 10% move?
Assumptions (for illustration, not a quote): 1,000 USDT of principal at Binance VIP 0 rates, all buys and sells as market orders (spot 0.1%, futures Taker 0.05%), with fees deducted separately from the account balance. The futures trade is an isolated long with 1,000 USDT of margin, BTCUSDT tier 1 maintenance margin rate 0.40%, and funding is left out for now.
| Scenario | Position value | Open + close fees | Price up 10% | Price down 10% | Drop that triggers liquidation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spot | 1,000 USDT | About 2.10 / 1.90 USDT | +97.80 USDT (+9.78%) | −101.80 USDT (−10.18%) | No liquidation |
| 3x futures | 3,000 USDT | 3.15 / 2.85 USDT | +296.85 USDT (+29.69%) | −302.85 USDT (−30.29%) | About 33.07% |
| 10x futures | 10,000 USDT | 10.50 USDT (on the rise) | +989.50 USDT (+98.95%) | Already liquidated at a 9.64% drop: the full 1,000 USDT of margin is lost, plus the 5 USDT opening fee | About 9.64% |
Sources and method: rates from Binance’s spot fee page (checked 2026-10-11) and Binance’s futures fee explanation (checked 2026-10-21). The liquidation price uses a simplified isolated version of Binance’s USDⓈ-M liquidation formula: long liquidation price = (entry price − margin ÷ quantity) ÷ (1 − maintenance margin rate), excluding fees and funding. In the fee column, the figure before the slash is for closing after a 10% rise and the one after the slash is for closing after a 10% drop.
The math, step by step:
- Spot: the buy fee is deducted from the coins you receive, so you get 999 USDT worth of BTC. A 10% rise makes it 1,098.90 USDT, and after another 0.1% on the sale you have 1,097.80 USDT; a 10% drop makes it 899.10 USDT, and after the sale you have 898.20 USDT.
- 3x futures: the opening fee is 3,000 × 0.05% = 1.5 USDT. A 10% rise earns 300 USDT; at close the position is worth 3,300 USDT and the fee is 1.65 USDT, for a net gain of 296.85 USDT. A 10% drop loses 300 USDT, the closing fee is 1.35 USDT, and the net loss is 302.85 USDT.
- 10x futures: the opening fee is 10,000 × 0.05% = 5 USDT. A 10% rise earns 1,000 USDT, the closing fee is 11,000 × 0.05% = 5.5 USDT, and the net gain is 989.50 USDT. On the way down, liquidation price = (1 − 0.1) ÷ 0.996 ≈ 90.36% of the entry price, so a 9.64% drop triggers liquidation and the position is gone before the price falls 10%.
What’s easy to miss is that the 10x position’s “98.95% gain on a 10% rise” only holds if the price goes straight up. If the price first falls 9.64% and then recovers, the position has already been liquidated at the low, and the later rise has nothing to do with you. Spot doesn’t have this problem: after a 10% drop your paper loss is about 101.80 USDT, but you still have the coins. Shorts work the other way round: a 10x short is liquidated when the price rises about 9.56%, and a 3x short at about 32.80%.
Hold a position for more than a day and funding comes on top. Assume a rate of +0.01% per period (BTCUSDT’s previous rate when I read the Binance API on 2026-10-17) and a long held for 3 days. A contract that settles every 8 hours charges 9 times: 3,000 × 0.01% × 9 = 2.7 USDT at 3x and 9 USDT at 10x. A contract that settles every 4 hours charges 18 times, so the amounts double: 5.4 USDT at 3x and 18 USDT at 10x. Holding spot for 3 days costs nothing. To run your own position, use the perpetual futures cost calculator and the liquidation price calculator.
Perpetual vs delivery futures: what’s the difference?
Delivery futures (Binance calls them quarterly futures) have a fixed expiry date, and at expiry the system closes positions automatically at the settlement price. Binance’s page on delivery futures settlement and delivery (updated 2026-03-04) sets out these rules:
- Expiry time: quarterly futures expire at 08:00 UTC (16:00 Taiwan time) on the last Friday of each quarter month.
- Settlement price: the arithmetic average of the spot index price, taken every second over the 30 minutes before expiry.
- The 10 minutes before delivery: you cannot open positions, only reduce or close them.
- Delivery fee: charged at settlement on the delivery date, at the same rate as Taker.
- Funding fee: Binance’s explanation states that “unlike perpetual futures, quarterly futures have no funding fee.”
Other exchanges’ delivery futures rules are not all the same. OKX’s fee page states that all users pay a 0.01% delivery fee when delivery futures are delivered at expiry (checked 2026-10-11). Gate’s Maker rate on delivery futures is negative, so a filled limit order actually earns you a rebate (Gate’s fee page, checked 2026-10-11). The fee pages of Bitget, Gate and KuCoin also state that delivery futures have no funding fee.
How do the costs compare? Perpetual futures use funding in place of an expiry date, so the longer you hold, the more you pay (or receive, when the rate is negative). Delivery futures have no funding, but the contract price may trade at a premium or discount to spot. Binance settles at the average spot index price at expiry, and changes in that gap while you hold also show up in your profit and loss. A 10x perpetual long held for 3 days at +0.01% per period pays 9 to 18 USDT in funding, and that is the number to set against delivery futures when comparing the two.
What is margin trading, and how is it different from futures?
Margin trading means borrowing money or coins from the exchange to trade on the spot market. Borrowing USDT to buy BTC is a long; borrowing BTC to sell for USDT is a short. You get real coins, but part of them is bought with borrowed funds, and you pay interest and have to repay the loan.
Binance’s cross margin trading guide (updated 2026-09-09) states that in a cross margin account “all assets serve as shared collateral,” with two leverage options, 3x and 5x. Interest starts the moment you borrow: the first charge covers the actual time from borrowing to the next full hour, and after that it is charged once every hour on the hour. Binance’s isolated margin guide (updated 2026-08-26) gives each trading pair its own margin account, and the available leverage varies by pair.
Margin trading is governed by the “risk ratio.” The formula in Binance’s margin risk ratio explanation (updated 2026-09-28) is: cross classic account risk ratio = collateral value ÷ (total debt + unpaid interest). A 3x account cannot borrow more when the risk ratio is ≤ 1.5, gets a margin call between 1.1 and 1.3, and is liquidated at ≤ 1.1. For a 5x account the margin call range is 1.1 to 1.16, and the liquidation threshold is also 1.1.
Compared with perpetual futures, margin trading differs in three ways. First, you buy spot coins, which you can withdraw or transfer out (after repaying). Second, the cost is trading fees plus borrowing interest, with no funding. Third, leverage is lower: Binance cross margin goes up to 5x. The cross margin guide also states that in extreme markets “you may lose all of the margin in your cross margin account.”
Spot and futures fees at 13 exchanges
The table below shows each exchange’s VIP 0 spot and USDⓈ-M perpetual futures rates. The two middle columns are round-trip costs I calculated under the same conditions: buying and then selling 1,000 USDT of spot with Taker orders, and opening and then closing a 10x futures position on 1,000 USDT of margin with Taker orders (assuming the price does not change).
| Exchange | Spot Maker / Taker | Futures Maker / Taker | 1,000 USDT spot round trip | 1,000 USDT at 10x round trip | Notes | Official source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Binance | 0.1% / 0.1% | 0.02% / 0.05% | 2 USDT | 10 USDT | Paying with BNB: 25% off spot, 10% off futures | Spot, futures |
| OKX | 0.08% / 0.1% | 0.02% / 0.05% | 2 USDT | 10 USDT | Delivery futures charge an extra 0.01% at expiry | Fee page |
| Bybit | 0.1% / 0.1% | 0.02% / 0.055% | 2 USDT | 11 USDT | Fiat trading pairs 0.15% / 0.2% | Trading fee structure |
| Bitget | 0.1% / 0.1% | 0.02% / 0.06% | 2 USDT | 12 USDT | BGB: 20% off spot | Fee FAQ |
| MEXC | 0% / 0.05% | 0% / 0.02% | 1 USDT | 4 USDT | Spot Taker on smaller coins is often 0.08%, some 0.2% | Fee overview |
| Gate | 0.1% / 0.1% | 0.02% / 0.05% | 2 USDT | 10 USDT | GT: 10% off spot | Fee page |
| BingX | 0.1% / 0.1% | 0.02% / 0.05% | 2 USDT | 10 USDT | A few spot trading pairs have zero fees | Spot, futures |
| KuCoin | 0.1% / 0.1% (Class A) | 0.02% / 0.06% | 2 USDT | 12 USDT | Class B coins 0.2%, Class C 0.3% | Fee page |
| HTX | 0.2% / 0.2% | 0.02% / 0.06% | 4 USDT | Not available to Taiwanese users | The user agreement bars Taiwanese users from trading derivatives | Fee page, user agreement |
| XT | 0.2% / 0.2% | 0.02% / 0.06% | 4 USDT | 12 USDT | USDT/USDC zero fees since 2026-09-22 | VIP fee announcement |
| WEEX | 0.1% / 0.1% | 0.02% / 0.08% | 2 USDT | 16 USDT | USDC/USDT spot zero fees | Futures fees |
| Pionex | 0.05% / 0.05% | 0.02% / 0.05% | 1 USDT | 10 USDT | Higher rates on US stock tokens and MEME tokens | Fee page |
| Ourbit | 0% / 0% | 0.02% / 0.04% | 0 USDT | 8 USDT | The announcement for Taiwan VIP users gives a futures Taker of 0.05% | Fee announcement |
Data from each exchange’s official fee pages, checked 2026-10-11 to 10-12 (Binance futures rates rechecked 2026-10-21). I calculated the round-trip costs from the Taker rates in the table, without platform token discounts, VIP levels or funding. For each exchange’s details, see the fee articles such as Binance fees, OKX fees and MEXC fees.
The table shows that by “rate,” futures are cheaper than spot: Binance’s futures Taker of 0.05% is half the 0.1% spot rate. By “principal,” futures are much more expensive: a round trip at 10x on 1,000 USDT costs 5 times as much as spot, and 8 times at WEEX. Put another way, at 10x the price only has to move 0.1% to cover the fees (spot needs 0.2%), but each round trip uses up 1% of your principal, and with frequent trading that gap adds up fast. Also, Ourbit charges no spot fees, so there is no rebate on spot either; Pionex’s referral benefit is called a fee discount on this site.
On top of the fees themselves, signing up with a referral code gets part of them back. Take Binance: sign up with this site’s referral code KEVINWU and Binance automatically refunds 20% of your net trading fees on both spot (including margin) and USDⓈ-M futures. This rate syncs with the exchange every day.Each exchange’s effective rates after the rebate are compiled in effective fees after referral rebates and lowest-fee crypto exchanges. Bybit has no automatic fee rebate from the exchange on this site; its rebate channel is Fee Otter, see Bybit fee rebate.
Can you lose more than your principal on futures? What are the risks?
Neither futures nor margin trading protects your principal. These are the risks stated on official pages; only the last one applies to spot:
- Losing all of your margin: the risk warning in Binance’s futures beginner guide states that in extreme price swings, your entire margin balance may be liquidated. Isolated margin loses at most that position’s margin; cross margin may lose the balance of the same coin in your futures account. For the difference, see cross vs isolated margin.
- Negative balance: when the market gaps, a liquidation order may fill worse than the bankruptcy price. OKX’s liquidation FAQ states that a negative balance caused this way is covered by the insurance fund and the user does not bear it; at Pionex the insurance fund also covers it. Binance’s liquidation protocol only covers eligible accounts automatically (for example, accounts with no open positions left and not using Multi-Assets Mode); others need to contact customer support. In other words, in most cases the most you lose is your margin, but the rules differ by exchange.
- Auto-deleveraging (ADL): when the insurance fund is not enough, the system forcibly reduces profitable positions on the other side. Bybit’s auto-deleveraging explanation states that positions are ranked by leveraged return, with the most profitable first, so even a position that was not liquidated may be partly closed.
- Liquidation follows the mark price: Binance triggers liquidation on the mark price, not the last traded price; for the difference, see mark price vs last price. A stop-loss is not guaranteed to fill either, and the stop price should be set before the estimated liquidation price; see the take-profit and stop-loss guide.
- Extra liquidation fee: a liquidated position at Binance pays a liquidation clearance fee. When I read the official API on 2026-10-17, it was 1.25% of position value for BTCUSDT, higher than the 0.40% tier 1 maintenance margin rate, and Binance states that small positions are more likely to be wiped out completely when liquidated.
- Regional restrictions: Article 1.2 of HTX’s platform user agreement lists Taiwan among the regions barred from trading derivatives (per the check in the HTX review); new Binance futures accounts are limited to 20x leverage for the first 30 days.
- Spot has risks too: spot cannot be liquidated, but the coin’s price may fall for a long time, and coins held on an exchange also carry the risk of the exchange itself. See the proof of reserves comparison and exchange security track records.
New to futures? What to check first
This is not trading advice. It is a list of the settings in the official rules that people most often trip over; check each one before your first order:
- Margin mode: Binance, Bybit and XT default to cross margin. At Binance you cannot switch while you have positions or open orders, so change it before your first order.
- Leverage: if you choose “Advanced” when opening a Binance account, the default leverage is 20x, and if you don’t change it before ordering, the position opens at 20x.
- Liquidation price: after opening, check the liquidation price in the positions panel. For a quick mental estimate, use “1 ÷ leverage − maintenance margin rate”; at 10x that is about 9.6%.
- Funding interval: on 2026-10-17, 420 of Binance’s 525 USDT perpetual contracts settled every 4 hours, which means paying the same rate 6 times a day.
- Try demo trading first: Binance futures has demo trading, and the testnet account comes with 3,000 USDT of virtual funds, so you can get used to the order and close buttons first.
The items above follow the official rules checked on 2026-10-17 and 10-18 for the Binance futures guide and cross vs isolated margin. Each exchange’s activation steps, where to find the margin mode and the leverage limits differ; they are compiled in each exchange’s futures guide.
FAQ
What is the difference between spot and futures?
On spot you buy the coin itself and cannot be liquidated. Futures are contracts that settle profit and loss against the coin’s price; you can short and use leverage, and if the price moves against you to the liquidation price, you lose all of the margin. On cost, spot only charges trading fees on buys and sells, while perpetual futures charge fees on position value plus funding.
What are perpetual futures?
Perpetual futures are contracts with no expiry date. Longs and shorts pay each other funding at regular intervals, which keeps the contract price close to spot. Binance settles funding every 8 hours by default, but the official API on 2026-10-17 showed that most USDT perpetual contracts settle every 4 hours. When the funding rate is positive, longs pay shorts; when it is negative, shorts pay longs.
Can you lose more than your principal on futures?
In most cases the most you lose is your margin, but the rules differ by exchange. OKX states that a negative balance from a liquidation is covered by the insurance fund and the user does not bear it, and Pionex’s insurance fund covers it too. Binance only covers eligible accounts automatically; others need to contact customer support. In cross margin mode, margin means the entire available balance of the same coin in your futures account.
Can spot be liquidated?
Regular spot cannot be liquidated: however far the price falls, you still hold the same amount of the coin. Margin trading is different. At Binance, cross margin is forcibly liquidated to repay the loan when the risk ratio falls below 1.1.
Are futures fees cheaper than spot fees?
Cheaper by rate, more expensive by principal. Binance VIP 0 futures Taker is 0.05% against 0.1% for spot, but futures fees are charged on position value: opening 10x with 1,000 USDT costs 10 USDT in Taker fees in and out, while buying and selling 1,000 USDT of spot costs about 2 USDT.
How are perpetual futures different from delivery futures?
Perpetual futures have no expiry date and charge funding; delivery futures have an expiry date and no funding, and positions are closed automatically at the settlement price at expiry. Binance quarterly futures expire at 08:00 UTC on the last Friday of the quarter month, the settlement price is the average of the spot index taken every second over the 30 minutes before expiry, and the delivery fee equals the Taker rate.
How is margin trading different from futures?
Margin trading means borrowing money or coins to trade on the spot market. You buy real coins, and the cost is trading fees plus borrowing interest calculated hourly. With futures you do not hold the coin, and the cost is trading fees plus funding. Binance cross margin only offers 3x and 5x, while BTCUSDT futures go up to 150x.
Can you trade futures on HTX from Taiwan?
No. Article 1.2 of HTX’s platform user agreement lists Taiwan among the regions barred from trading derivatives, so Taiwanese users can only use spot and other non-derivative services on HTX, where the main cost is the 0.2% spot fee.
Each exchange’s futures activation steps, margin modes and leverage limits are compiled in the Binance futures guide, OKX futures guide, Bybit futures guide, Bitget futures guide, MEXC futures guide, Gate futures guide, BingX futures guide, KuCoin futures guide, XT futures guide, WEEX futures guide, Pionex futures guide and Ourbit futures guide. To work out costs and liquidation, use how futures fees are calculated, what is a funding rate, the perpetual futures cost calculator and the liquidation price calculator; for settings, see cross vs isolated margin, mark price vs last price and the take-profit and stop-loss guide. Referral codes for every exchange are compiled in the exchange referral code hub.