The funding spread trade, worked out live

Funding rates differ from one exchange to the next, and that opens a trade. Hold a long where funding costs longs the least, and a short where it pays shorts the most, the same number of coins on each. Whatever the price does, one leg gains what the other loses. What's left is the difference in funding, for as long as it lasts. Every coin's perpetuals page on the site finds the widest pair from the live rates and works the trade out for an amount you choose.

How it works

Funding passes between longs and shorts on each exchange: when the rate is positive, longs pay shorts; when it's negative, shorts pay longs. So a short is paid where the rate is high, and a long pays least, or is paid, where the rate is low or below zero. Hold one of each, and the funding comes from both sides of the gap between the two rates, while the two positions cancel each other's price moves.

Bitcoin, worked out

At 13:49 UTC on 2 October, with the four exchanges the site starts with, Bitcoin's widest pair was a short on Hyperliquid, where longs were paying shorts 0.00125% every hour, and a long on OKX, where shorts were paying longs 0.00822% every 8 hours. Both legs were being paid. Together, 0.0547% a day: 19.95% a year at those rates. For $50,000 a leg, the page worked it out like this.

Bitcoin’s funding spread trade, $50,000 a leg

ShortHyperliquid

0.00125% every hour, longs pay shorts

+$15.00 over 24 hours

24 payments of $0.62; filled at its best bid, no price impact

LongOKX

−0.00822% every 8 hours, shorts pay longs

+$12.33 over 24 hours

3 payments of $4.11; 0.005% price impact, $2.49

Funding, next 24 hours

+$27.33

Cost to open

$2.49

price impact, before fees

Net, 24 hours

+$24.84

Opening paid back in

about 2 hours

0.5760 BTC a leg, with the four exchanges on by default, at the rates at 13:49 UTC on 2 October 2026 and as if they held for a day.

Funding over the next 24 hours, if the rates held: $15.00 from Hyperliquid's 24 hourly payments and $12.33 from OKX's three, $27.33 in all. Opening both legs cost $2.49 in price impact, before fees, so the day came to $24.84, and the cost of opening was paid back in about two hours.

With all eleven exchanges the site reads for Bitcoin's perpetual switched on, a minute earlier, the widest pair was a short on Deribit by Coinbase and a long on OKX: 21.72 points a year, and $29.76 of funding a day on the same amount. More exchanges usually mean a wider spread, but check you can use both ends: Deribit by Coinbase, for one, isn't open to customers in the US or to retail customers in the UK.

What it leaves out

The card is a snapshot of today's rates, not a promise.

• Rates move. Each exchange resets its rate at every settlement, so the spread can shrink, vanish or turn round within hours.
• Closing isn't counted. The cost is for opening both legs, not for closing them later.
• Fees are off until you switch them on, at your own tier on each exchange.
• Each leg needs its own margin, on its own exchange, and a big move against one leg can force it closed before the other's gain helps.
• The two prices aren't the same. In the example, the short sold at $86,827.97 and the long bought at an average of $86,790.92. The difference between two exchanges' prices moves too, and it's settled when you close.

Where to find it

On any coin's perpetuals page, under Open interest & funding: the pair, the spread a day and a year, and "Work it out for an amount" for each leg's fill, the cost to open, the net and a countdown to the next payment. The perpetuals index's Spread column shows the same spread for every coin, so the widest are a sort away.

Not financial advice. Rates move while you read them.