An Introduction to Futures and Perpetual Swaps
In the past year, we’ve seen an influx of new market participants to crypto, including large financial institutions and respected investment funds. This wasn’t an overnight process — it started happening over the course of the last bear market and has continued into the current bull market. While this was brewing on the sidelines, crypto exchanges were building the necessary infrastructure and products to cater to this growing audience.
The biggest difference between the market today and during the last cycle is the proliferation of derivatives — notably, perpetual swaps. Perpetual swaps are derivatives that let you buy or sell the underlying asset at any point in time. They’re basically futures contracts with no explicit expiration date. And because of that, they’re usually bunched in with futures. Perpetual swaps are also called perpetual futures.
Perpetual swaps
