AscendEX Futures Overview

Briefing
Futures are financial derivatives that standardize commodity and financial assets. Unlike spot trading, futures trading allows traders to earn benefits from going long when the price rises and going short when the price drops.

AscendEX futures are USDT-margined perpetual futures contracts settled in USDT. Users can trade multiple contracts such as BTC-Perp, ETH-Perp, etc. using multiple assets as margin collateral. Learn more about Multi-Asset Collateral.  

Key Features

1. No Expiration Date: Unlike futures contracts, perpetual contracts do not have an expiration date or a specified time in the future that buyers and sellers are obligated to settle a contract. Traders can hold long or short positions for as long as they’d like (i.e., “in perpetuity”), as long as they maintain sufficient margin to avoid liquidation.
2. Funding Mechanism: Tokens’ price may have a discount or premium in the futures market compared with the spot market. To keep futures prices in accordance with spot price flexibly, perpetual contracts employ “funding” to facilitate payouts between long and short positions at various intervals.

For example, if contract prices are trading at a discount to the market, funding rates will be negative and short positions will pay long positions. Conversely, if contract prices are trading at a premium to the market, funding rates will be positive and long positions will pay short positions.

Key Mechanics

1. Leverage: 1-100x Learn More
2. Funding Interval: The funding fee is settled once every 8 hours. (00:00; 08:00; 16:00 UTC)
3. Index Price: The Index Price is calculated by taking an average last trade price from the BTC/USDT order books from the following five spot market trading platforms - AscendEX, Binance, Huobi, OKEx and Poloniex, and then removing the highest and the lowest price.
4. Mark Price: The notional value of an account’s positions along with PnL is calculated using a robust composite price referred to as “Mark Price.” Index Price will be used to calculate account assets and forced liquidation.
5. Discount Factor: the factor by which an asset can be used as collateral. Details
6. Conversion Factor: the factor by which an asset can be used as collateral in the liquidation scenario. Details
7. Insurance Fund: AscendEX Futures maintains a segregated insurance fund for each derivative product on its platform. Each Insurance Fund is used to cover losses incurred by accounts that are beyond bankruptcy; therefore, the Insurance Fund seeks to minimize instances of “clawbacks” and “socialized losses.” Learn more about Risk Management.
8. Backstop Liquidity Provider Program: A backstop liquidity provider will help to reduce the particle risk according to its takeover ability on a 1-minute and hourly basis. 
9. Auto-deleveraging: If the capacity of the BLPs is insufficient during the forced liquidation, the remaining contracts will be given to accounts with the top-10 largest opposing positions, in proportion to their position size.
10. Futures Bonus Credit: AscendEX’s Futures Bonus Credit USDTR (equivalent to USDT) refers to the virtual assets offered by AscendEX to users who trade futures contracts on the platform. 20% of the USDTR bonus credits can be used as collateral to open or maintain positions. In addition, the credits can be used to pay for up to 50% of trading fees. Please note that Futures Bonus Credits cannot be withdrawn or transferred off the platform. 

AscendEX Futures Details

Trading Pairs	BTC-Perp	ETH-Perp	BNB-Perp	BCH-Perp	LINK-Perp	DOT-Perp	SOL-Perp
Token	BTC	ETH	BNB	BCH	LINK	DOT	SOL
Contract Size	1 BTC	1 ETH	1 BNB	1 BCH	1 LINK	1 DOT	1 SOL
Tick Size (USDT)	1	0.1	0.01	0.05	0.001
Lot Size	0.0001	0.01			0.1
Leverage	1-100x
Quoted In	USDT
Settled In	USDT
Funding Fee Interval	00:00; 08:00; 16:00 (UTC)

Trading Pairs	ADA-Perp	MATIC-Perp	XRP-Perp	TRX-Perp	UNI-Perp
Token	ADA	MATIC	XRP	TRX	UNI
Contract Size	1 ADA	1 MATIC	1 XRP	1 TRX	1 UNI
Tick Size (USDT)	0.0001			0.00001	0.001
Lot Size	1
Leverage	1-100x
Quoted In	USDT
Settle In	USDT
Funding Fee Interval	00:00; 08:00; 16:00 (UTC)

Trading Pairs	OMI-Perp	DOGE-Perp	ONE-Perp	VET-Perp	SRM-Perp
Token	OMI	DOGE	ONE	VET	SRM
Contract Size	1 OMI	1 DOGE	1 ONE	1 VET	1 SRM
Tick Size (USDT)	0.000001	0.00001			0.0005
Lot Size	1
Leverage	1-50x
Quoted In	USDT
Settled In	USDT
Funding Fee Interval	00:00; 08:00; 16:00 (UTC)

Trading Pairs	EGLD-Perp	ETC-Perp	FIL-Perp	CSPR-Perp	SOL-Perp	FTT-Perp	WOO-Perp
Token	EGLD	ETC	FIL	CSPR	SOL	FTT	WOO
Contract Size	1 EGLD	1 ETC	1 FIL	1 CSPR	1 SOL	1 FTT	1 WOO
Tick Size (USDT)	0.01			0.001			0.0001
Lot Size	0.1					1
Leverage	1-50x
Quoted In	USDT
Settled In	USDT
Funding Fee Interval	00:00; 08:00; 16:00 (UTC)

References:

Introduction to Futures Fee

Introduction to Perpetual Futures Contracts Margin