Trading basics

What is derivatives trading? Derivatives trading refers to the agreement between a buyer and a seller to trade a certain asset at a specified price and quantity at a certain time in the future. More specifically, derivatives trading in crypto refers to futures trading based on crypto assets, like expiry futures or perpetual futures.

OKX offers both crypto-margined and U-margined (USDT-margined and USDC-margined) futures products. They're different in terms of: Quote currency One important difference is the quote currency, which affects the price index of crypto-margined vs. U-margined pairs. For example, a U-margined BTC/USDT perpetual futures uses the price of OKX spot BTC converted to USDT. Meanwhile, a crypto-margined BTC/USD perpetual futures uses the price of OKX spot BTC converted to USD.

Perpetual futures are a type of cryptocurrency derivative . While perpetual futures are very similar to expiry futures, they differ in two significant ways: Expiry Where expiry futures have expiry dates set in advance, perpetual futures don’t, meaning buyers and sellers can hypothetically keep their positions open 'perpetually' — as long as their account holds enough margin to cover losses and prevent liquidations.