Crypto Perpetual Futures: Institutional-Grade Access to Digital Assets

What are crypto perpetual futures?

Crypto perpetual futures are derivative contracts that provide continuous exposure to digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum without any expiry date. Instead of settling on a fixed maturity, positions roll forward with funding payments that keep futures prices anchored to spot levels. These products allow investors to go long or short crypto markets using margin, enabling capital-efficient directional, hedging, and arbitrage strategies.

Unlike traditional quarterly or monthly futures, perpetual contracts are designed for uninterrupted participation, making them particularly attractive for active traders and institutions seeking continuous market access. They also remove the need to repeatedly roll over expiring contracts, reducing operational complexity and transaction costs.

Why institutional-grade matters

Institutional investors require more than just price exposure; they need robust infrastructure, transparent risk frameworks, and reliable clearing to deploy significant capital in volatile markets. When perpetual futures are offered on a regulated, exchange-cleared platform anchored in a strong jurisdiction like AAA-rated Singapore, they start to look and behave like any other institutional-grade asset class.

Central clearing, resilient trading systems, and well-defined margin policies reduce counterparty and operational risk. For asset managers, hedge funds, and proprietary trading firms, this combination of crypto-native innovation with established market infrastructure is essential for scaling participation in digital assets.

Key features of SGX Bitcoin and Ethereum perpetuals

SGX’s Bitcoin and Ethereum Perpetual Futures are designed specifically for accredited, expert, and institutional investors, with contract structures that support professional workflows. Contracts are cash-settled in USD, with Bitcoin contracts sized at 0.2 BTC and Ethereum contracts at 5 ETH, allowing meaningful exposure while maintaining position granularity.

Trading is available for nearly 22 hours a day across T and T1 sessions in Singapore time, supporting global participation and around-the-clock risk management. A minimum lot size of five contracts and support for block trades make the products suitable for institutional ticket sizes and execution needs.

How the funding rate mechanism works

Perpetual futures use a funding rate mechanism to keep futures prices close to the underlying spot market. On SGX, funding rates reference real-time iEdge CoinDesk Bitcoin and Ethereum indices, ensuring that the funding process is tied to transparent, rules-based benchmarks.

The framework includes defined caps, floors, and stabilising bands on funding rates, which helps manage extreme market conditions and improve predictability for strategy design. Frequent publication of funding parameters enhances transparency and supports compliance and reporting requirements for institutional users.

Use cases: yield, hedging, and arbitrage

Perpetual futures open several strategy avenues for sophisticated investors. Market-neutral traders can seek to generate yield by capturing funding differentials, for example by combining perpetual positions with spot or other derivatives to earn the net funding spread.

Hedgers such as miners, treasuries, and funds can manage crypto price risk with perpetual coverage that does not require constant contract rolls. Arbitrage-focused participants can exploit price discrepancies and basis opportunities across exchanges, including differences in funding rates between SGX and other venues.

Risk management and capital efficiency

Disciplined risk controls are central to the design of SGX’s perpetuals. The contracts sit within a comprehensive risk framework that includes margin floors, member-level exposure thresholds, dynamic “fat finger” limits based on reference prices, and no cross-product margin offsets, all aimed at managing systemic and operational risk.

Margins are set based on notional value, which supports capital efficiency while maintaining robust coverage against market volatility. With no hard position limits but defined position accountability, large users can build meaningful exposure while remaining within a transparent oversight structure.

Contract specifications at a glance

Both Bitcoin and Ethereum perpetuals are cash-settled in USD, reducing the need for direct crypto custody for investors who prefer not to hold spot coins. Price discovery and settlement reference the iEdge CoinDesk Bitcoin and Ethereum Reference Rate Indexes, which aggregate data from multiple underlying markets according to transparent index methodologies.

The use of these benchmark indices, licensed for SGX’s products, provides a consistent, rules-based link between the derivatives and the underlying crypto markets. Combined with SGX’s clearing ecosystem, this structure enables diversified, institutional-grade exposure to digital assets without direct spot holdings