US stock perpetuals compared: leverage, funding and depth on 6 venues

What a stock perpetual is, and how it differs from owning the stock

A stock perpetual is a linear perpetual contract margined and settled in USDT (Aster also lists USD1 contracts) whose price tracks a US stock or ETF, such as NVDAUSDT or SOXLUSDT. It never expires, can be long or short, can be leveraged, and uses funding payments to keep the contract near its index price.

It is not a share. OKX states that stock perpetual holders receive no dividends or voting rights; what you hold is price exposure. Each venue builds its own index: during market hours it relies mainly on external stock prices, and when the market is closed each venue does something different (see the trading-hours section below).

• Margin and settlement: USDT-linear, P&L in USDT, the same as a USDT-margined crypto perpetual.
• Funding: longs and shorts pay each other periodically. Positive funding is paid by longs, negative by shorts. OKX sets the interest-rate term to 0 for its stock perpetuals.
• Mark price: liquidation is judged on the mark price, not the last trade, so how a venue computes it while the market is closed decides how exposed a position is to weekend wicks.

Maximum leverage: which venues offer 100x

Maximum leverage per contract as collected by this site at 2026-11-05 06:13 UTC. A dash means this site found no such contract on that venue.

These figures hold for the first tier only. On SOXL, Bybit's 100x covers up to 10,000 USDT of notional and drops to 50x above it; Gate's 50x also stops at 10,000 USDT; Bitget's 50x runs to 50,000 USDT; OKX bounds its first tier by contracts, 20x up to 3,000 contracts of 1 SOXL each. Bitget's NVDA is 100x up to 10,000 USDT and 75x above.

Lighter's SOXL has a single tier at a 3% maintenance rate and 20x; Aster's SOXLUSD1 allows 50x up to 1,000,000 USD1. Maximum leverage tells you what a small position can open; as a position grows, both the leverage available and the distance to liquidation change.

Funding settlement intervals and rate caps

Stock perpetuals on these venues settle funding every 8 hours, at 00:00, 08:00 and 16:00 UTC. The exception is Lighter, which settles hourly but displays an 8-hour-equivalent rate; do not multiply it by eight again. Funding is paid only by positions open at a settlement; closing before it pays nothing.

Limits vary by ticker. In this site's 2026-09 collection, Bybit capped NVDA, TSLA and AAPL at ±0.5% a period and QQQ, MSTR, COIN and SMH at ±2%; OKX and Gate were generally ±1% on these tickers. A wider limit allows a larger single payment in extreme markets.

Not every contract settles every 8 hours: 4-hour and hourly settlement is common among crypto perpetuals, and venues change intervals. Check the contract page before trading.

Funding rates compared: what a week of SOXL costs

SOXL is a 3x leveraged semiconductor ETF. Its perpetuals are long-crowded, funding has been persistently positive, and the gap between venues is the widest of these tickers. Latest rates at 2026-11-05 06:13 UTC; annualised as three periods a day.

Method: funding = notional × rate per period × periods. Seven days is 21 periods (168 hourly periods on Lighter, each one-eighth of the 8-hour equivalent, which gives the same total). The rate is assumed constant for the week; in practice it changes every period, so the example shows scale only.

Other tickers on the same day: NVDA ranged from +8.10% annualised on Gate to +48.76% on Bybit, MSTR from +0.95% on OKX to +40.41% on Bitget, while TSLA and AAPL were 0 on several venues. A zero rate usually reflects a balanced contract and says nothing about future periods.

Shorts receive these payments. If you are short SOXL, a high-funding venue works in your favour, but weigh its depth and liquidation risk too.

Depth and slippage: use 24-hour turnover to rule out thin contracts

Slippage depends on the order book at the moment you trade, and this site does not collect order books. What can be compared consistently is 24-hour turnover: thin turnover usually means a thin book, where a large order moves the price. Figures in USDT (USD on Lighter; Aster is the sum of its two contracts).

Reading the table: SOXL turns over hundreds of millions on each of the four centralised venues, so orders of a few thousand to tens of thousands of USDT are usually absorbed during US hours. SMH turns over less than 1M across all venues combined; market orders slip easily there, so use limit orders. SPY is one of the few tickers where Lighter leads.

Checking depth yourself: before a large order, open the order book and look at the bid-ask spread and the amount resting within 0.5% of the mid price. If it is smaller than your order, split it into limit orders. Books are usually thinner while the US market is closed, so the same order slips more then.

This site's stock perpetual pages do not currently show open interest, so it is not compared here.

Trading hours: can you trade on weekends and while the market is closed

All six venues keep trading while the US market is closed (pre- and post-market, overnight, weekends and holidays). How each prices its index during those hours differs, and that decides whether a few trades can move the weekend price.

The practical weekend risk is the Monday gap. News after Friday's close moves only the contract over the weekend; when the market reopens and the index returns to external prices, the contract can be pulled sharply toward the stock. Hold weekend positions with spare margin or lower leverage.

Earnings are usually released after the US close, when contracts still trade on thin books and prices can move sharply within minutes.

Which venue suits which trade

• Short-term, small size, high leverage on NVDA, TSLA or AAPL: Bybit, Bitget and Gate all offer 100x in the first tier, OKX 25–50x. The first tier usually stops at 10,000 USDT of notional.
• Large size, depth first: look at turnover. OKX led on SOXL, NVDA, TSLA, QQQ, AAPL and COIN; on MSTR Bybit and OKX were close.
• Holding a long for days: funding matters more than fees. On 2026-11-05 a week of SOXL funding on 10,000 USDT was about 32 USDT on Gate and about 244 USDT on Bitget. Price fees and funding together in the holding-cost calculator.
• Trading from an on-chain wallet: Lighter and Aster are on-chain perpetual venues. Lighter charges no trading fee but offers lower leverage, and most tickers there turn over less than on centralised venues.
• Thinly traded ETFs such as SMH: turnover is small everywhere, so use limit orders only.

Risks to know before trading stock perpetuals

• No dividends or votes; splits, dividends and other corporate actions are handled by each venue as it announces.
• Leveraged ETFs rebalance daily: SOXL is a 3x daily ETF, so over time it does not return three times the semiconductor index, and the contract tracks SOXL's own price.
• Liquidity is thinner after hours and at weekends, and mark-price methods differ, so the same position carries different liquidation risk on different venues.
• Funding moves: the rates here are a snapshot, recalculated every period while you hold.
• Regional restrictions: some venues do not offer derivatives or stock-linked contracts in some countries. Check availability where you live before opening an account.

Common questions