What you hold when you open one
A perpetual position is an agreement about a price movement, and no BNB changes hands at any point. You post margin, which is collateral the exchange holds against your losses, and you gain exposure to the BNB price in whichever direction you chose. When you close, the difference settles in the contract's currency.
Two consequences follow from that, and both catch people out. The position stays on the exchange, so there is nothing to withdraw to a wallet and nothing that can pay a transaction fee on BNB Smart Chain. And you can profit from a falling price by going short, which the coin itself does not allow.
The two contracts differ only in what they settle in. BNBUSDT settles in USDT and BNBUSDC in USDC, so the choice comes down to which stablecoin you hold. Both track the same BNB price and both offer the same leverage. How to trade BNB on BloFin covers placing the orders.
Mark price, and why it differs from the last trade
Your position is valued using the mark price, and that number comes from outside BloFin's own order book by design. It is anchored to an index built from spot prices across a range of major exchanges, including Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, OKX, Bybit and others, with each venue weighted and prices far from the median pulled back toward it (source: BloFin Help Center).
That design exists specifically to protect open positions. If liquidation were decided by the last trade on a single exchange, a brief spike caused by one large order could close positions that the wider market never justified. Anchoring to a broad index means a momentary move on one venue carries very little weight.
The practical effect is that the number attached to your position may differ slightly from the last trade on the chart, and the mark price is the one that governs your margin and your liquidation level. When you check how close a position is to being closed out, that is the price to watch.
Funding, and what it costs to hold
Funding is the mechanism that keeps a perpetual tethered to spot, and BloFin describes it as forcing convergence between the contract price and the underlying asset. The payment is calculated as the notional value of your position multiplied by the funding rate: when the rate is positive, longs pay shorts, and when it is negative, shorts pay longs (source: BloFin Help Center).
Settlement happens at fixed times instead of continuously, and on an eight-hour cycle those fall at 00:00, 08:00 and 16:00 UTC. The rate itself comes from how far the contract has traded from the index, plus an interest component, and BloFin clamps it within limits set for risk management.
One detail is worth knowing precisely, because it changes behavior: funding is charged only on positions open at a settlement time. Close before the settlement and no funding is payable for that interval, which is why some traders close ahead of a settlement when the rate is heavily against them.
Over a long hold, funding accumulates steadily. A rate that looks negligible for one interval is paid three times a day, and across weeks it can add up to more than the price move you were hoping to capture. That arithmetic is the main reason perpetuals suit shorter horizons than buying the coin.
Liquidation and leverage
Leverage lets a given amount of margin control a larger position, and it works in both directions. At 10x, 100 USDT of margin controls 1,000 USDT of exposure. At 75x, roughly 13 USDT controls the same 1,000 USDT.
What changes is how much room the position has. The margin is what absorbs losses, so a smaller margin behind the same exposure means a smaller adverse move exhausts it. When the mark price reaches the point where losses have consumed the margin, the exchange closes the position, and that closure is a liquidation.
| Leverage | Margin for 1,000 USDT exposure | Approximate move to liquidation |
|---|---|---|
| 5x | 200 USDT | Around 20% |
| 10x | 100 USDT | Around 10% |
| 25x | 40 USDT | Around 4% |
| 75x | About 13 USDT | A little over 1% |
These figures are approximate, since fees and the maintenance margin the exchange requires shift the exact level, and they are close enough to make the point. BNB routinely moves several percent in a day, so a 75x position is exposed to being closed out by an ordinary Tuesday. BNB price history shows how far it has moved in the past.
Margin mode matters as much as the leverage number. Isolated margin confines the collateral at risk to the amount assigned to that position, so a liquidation costs that margin and stops there. Cross margin lets the position draw on your whole futures balance, which makes liquidation less likely and considerably more expensive when it does happen.
What a position costs in fees
Trading fees are charged each time an order executes, and the rate depends on whether your order added liquidity to the book or removed it. The standard rates are 0.02% for a maker order, which rests in the book waiting to be matched, and 0.06% for a taker order, which executes immediately against orders already there (source: BloFin Help Center).
A market order is always a taker order, so it carries the higher rate in exchange for immediate execution. A limit order placed away from the current price will usually be a maker order when it fills.
The full cost of a trade is therefore three things: the fee to open, the fee to close, and any funding paid while the position was open. For a position held for minutes the fees dominate, while for one held for weeks the funding usually does.
When a perpetual is the right tool
Perpetuals suit three purposes well, and one purpose badly.
They suit short-term directional trading, where the ability to size a position with less capital tied up is genuinely useful. They suit shorting, since there is no other straightforward way to profit from a falling price. And they suit hedging, where someone holding BNB in their own wallet can open a short to offset price risk temporarily while keeping the coins.
What they suit poorly is long-term holding, because funding accrues indefinitely, liquidation risk never goes away, and the position produces nothing you can withdraw or use. Anyone who wants BNB for its own uses, such as staking it with a validator, is better served buying spot, where the coin is yours and holding costs nothing. How to buy BNB covers that route from deposit to withdrawal.
If you do open a perpetual, decide the exit before you enter. A stop-loss set at the moment you open is a decision made calmly, and take-profit and stop-loss orders can both be attached to a position so it closes automatically at levels you chose in advance.
Frequently asked questions
What is a perpetual future?
A contract that tracks an asset's price with no expiry date, so it can be held indefinitely. Because nothing forces it to converge with the asset at a deadline, a regular payment between long and short holders does that job instead. It offers leverage and the ability to short, and it never involves holding the underlying coin.
How often is funding charged on BNB perpetuals?
At fixed settlement times rather than continuously, which on an eight-hour cycle fall at 00:00, 08:00 and 16:00 UTC. Funding applies only to positions open at those moments, so a position closed beforehand pays nothing for that interval. Whether you pay or receive depends on the sign of the rate and which side you are on.
What leverage should you use?
Considerably less than the maximum, for most purposes. At 75x, a move of a little over 1% against you exhausts the margin, and BNB moves several percent on an ordinary day, so a position at that leverage is exposed to routine volatility. Lower leverage gives the position room to survive normal price movement, which is usually worth more than the extra size.
Why is my position valued at a different price from the chart?
Because positions are valued using the mark price, which comes from an index built across several major spot exchanges instead of from BloFin's last trade. The design protects you from liquidations triggered by a momentary spike on one venue. Small differences between the two numbers are normal, and the mark price is the one that governs margin and liquidation.
Can you lose more than your margin?
The liquidation mechanism exists to close a position before that happens, and with isolated margin the loss is confined to the collateral assigned to that position. Cross margin exposes your whole futures balance instead, which makes liquidation less likely and much costlier when it arrives. For anyone learning, isolated margin keeps the downside defined.
Can you get actual BNB from a perpetual position?
The contract never holds any coins in the first place. Closing it settles the profit or loss in the contract's currency, USDT or USDC, and getting BNB from there means a separate spot purchase. If holding the coin is the aim, buying spot directly skips a step and avoids funding costs entirely.
Researched and written by the BloFin Academy editorial team with AI-assisted drafting. Updated September 2026. Primary sources include BloFin's Help Center. All facts independently verified against cited documentation current as of September 2026.
This article is educational and general in nature, not financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrencies like BNB carry real risks, including price volatility, liquidation on leveraged positions, accumulating funding costs, and venue risk. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any asset. Do your own research, and consider speaking with a licensed professional before making financial decisions. BloFin does not provide investment advice.