What are perpetual futures? Perps explained like you're ten

People hear "perpetual futures" and picture a trading floor full of screens. The idea underneath is much smaller. You think Bitcoin will go up in the next hour, or down. You put a little money on it. If you are right, you win. If you are wrong, you can lose what you put in, plus fees. That is a perp. Everything else is detail, and this page explains every detail in plain words.

What is a perp, in one sentence?

A perp is a bet on whether a coin's price goes up or down, paid in dollars, that stays open until you close it. You do not buy the coin. You only win or lose the price change.

Say Bitcoin is at $100,000. You think it goes up. You open a perp "long" with $20. Bitcoin rises 1% to $101,000. Your bet is up 1% of its size. If you used no multiplier, that is 20 cents. You close the bet and get $20.20 back. You never touched a single Bitcoin. You only traded the move.

That is why perps are popular. You can trade a price going up or going down with the same few taps, and you only need dollars to do it. On Hyperliquid, those dollars are USDC, a digital dollar that stays at about $1.

Why are they called "perpetual" futures?

Because they never expire. A normal futures contract has an end date, like the third Friday of March. A perp has no end date, so you can hold it for one minute or for months.

Classic futures were made for farmers and factories. A wheat farmer agrees today on a price for wheat delivered in three months. When the date comes, the contract ends and everyone settles up. Crypto traders wanted the same kind of bet without the date. So exchanges built a version that rolls on forever. That is the "perpetual" part.

Hyperliquid's own contract specifications put it simply: its perpetuals are derivatives with no expiration date, and instead of a delivery day, there are funding payments every hour (>Hyperliquid docs, contract specifications).

What does "long" and "short" mean?

Long means you bet the price goes up. Short means you bet the price goes down. In CopyHype, the buttons simply say ▲ Up and ▼ Down.

Being able to bet on a fall is the big difference with buying a coin. If you buy a coin, you only make money when it rises. With a perp, a crash can be a winning day. We go deeper in long vs short, explained.

What is the multiplier?

The multiplier, also called leverage, makes every price move count several times for you, both ways. At x5, a 1% move becomes a 5% move for your money, up or down.

Here is the same $20 bet with different multipliers, when Bitcoin rises 2%:

Fees not included. Notice what stays the same: your $20. The multiplier works the same way when the price falls, so what changes is how fast your amount moves. The multiplier is not free money. It is speed. Our full guide is leverage explained.

How much can I lose on a perp?

With isolated margin, the most you can lose on a trade is the amount you put in. If the price moves too far against you, the trade closes by itself and that amount is gone, but nothing else is touched.

The automatic close is called a liquidation. It happens when your losses have eaten almost all of the amount you put in. At x10, that is a move of a bit less than 10% against you. At x20, a bit less than 5%. Hyperliquid checks this against the mark price, a fair price built from several big exchanges and its own order book, so one strange trade does not wipe you out by itself (>Hyperliquid docs, liquidations).

"Isolated" means each trade has its own little pot of money. When one trade is liquidated, the others keep going. CopyHype runs every trade this way, so the line "your amount is the most you can lose" is literally true per trade. We explain the other mode, cross margin, in isolated vs cross margin.

Who pays me when I win?

The traders on the other side do. For every long there is a short. When the price goes up, money flows from shorts to longs, and the exchange keeps the books.

On Hyperliquid, orders meet in an order book, like a big list of buyers and sellers. The other side of your trade can be another trader or a market maker, including HLP, a community vault that trades on the book. Your win is someone else's loss, and the exchange takes a small trading fee on each side. That is why fees matter so much: they are the only sure thing in a trade.

What is funding, and why do I pay it?

Funding is a small payment between longs and shorts, made every hour, that keeps the perp's price close to the coin's real price. When more people bet up, longs pay shorts. When more people bet down, shorts pay longs.

Since a perp never expires, something has to stop its price drifting away from the real coin price. Funding is that something. If the perp trades above the real price, longs pay a little to shorts, which makes going long less attractive and pulls the price back down. On Hyperliquid, funding is paid every hour and goes straight between traders: the exchange does not take a cut (>Hyperliquid docs, funding).

For a small trade held a few hours, funding is usually cents. Held for weeks, it can add up. More in funding rate explained.

Where can I trade perps?

On big exchanges like Binance and Bybit, and on onchain exchanges like Hyperliquid. Hyperliquid is one of the largest onchain perps exchanges, and every trade on it is public.

That public part matters. Because every Hyperliquid account and every position is visible, you can see exactly what the best traders hold and copy them. On a normal exchange, other people's trades are hidden. We compare the options in Hyperliquid vs Binance and Bybit.

What is the easiest way to start with perps?

Start with practice money, copy a trader who holds positions for hours, and keep your amount small. You learn how a perp feels before any real money moves.

1. Open CopyHype in Telegram. Open @copyhypefamilybot and tap Start. You get $1,000 of practice money for 24 hours, on live Hyperliquid prices.
2. Look at the whales. Each one shows their profit and ROI over 24 hours, 7 days or 30 days, from Hyperliquid's leaderboard. Tap one to see the trades they have open right now.
3. Tap Copy. Their next trades happen for you, at your amount, from $5 a trade. Same coin, same direction, same multiplier.
4. Watch a trade close. They exit, you exit. You see the win or the loss in dollars, after fees.

When you know how it feels, you can switch to real money in your own wallet. Practice lasts 24 hours, plus 24 hours for each friend you invite whose first trade opens. Practice has the same rules and trading fees as real money, so it does not flatter you.

What are the main risks of perps?

The multiplier, speed and overconfidence. Perps move fast, and a high multiplier can close a trade in minutes.

• A high multiplier shortens the leash. At x40, a 1.25% move against you on Bitcoin can be enough for a liquidation.
• Losses add up. Each trade is capped at its amount, but ten losing trades are ten amounts.
• Fees and funding are certain, wins are not. A trade has to beat its costs before it makes anything.
• Nobody wins every time. Even the best whales have losing weeks.

Perps are a game of many small bets. Keep each bet small enough that losing it does not change your day.

Frequently asked questions

Are perps the same as futures?

They are a kind of futures contract with no end date. Classic futures expire on a set day. Perps stay open until you close them, and funding payments keep their price close to the real coin price.

Do I own the coin when I trade a perp?

No. You only win or lose the price change, in dollars. You cannot send or hold the coin from a perp position.

Can I lose more than I put in on a perp?

With isolated margin, no: the trade closes when its own money runs out, and the rest of your wallet is untouched. With cross margin, a bad trade can use money from your whole account. CopyHype uses isolated margin on every trade.

What is a good multiplier for beginners?

A low one. x2 to x5 gives a trade room to breathe. When you copy a whale on CopyHype, you use their multiplier, so pick whales whose multipliers you are comfortable with.

Are perps gambling?

They can be, if you bet big on gut feelings. Used with small amounts, low multipliers and a plan for exits, they are a way to trade price moves both ways. Either way, only use money you can afford to lose.

What is the minimum to trade perps on Hyperliquid?

Hyperliquid needs at least $10 of position per order (>Chainstack, Hyperliquid order precision). On CopyHype you can start from $5 a trade: the multiplier is raised just enough to reach the $10 position, which at $5 means at least x3.

Where do these facts come from?

From Hyperliquid's official documentation and CopyHype's own product rules. Third-party sources used on this page:

• >Hyperliquid docs: contract specifications
• >Hyperliquid docs: liquidations
• >Hyperliquid docs: funding
• >Chainstack: Hyperliquid order precision and minimums

Every perps word on this page is defined in the perps glossary. The full beginner path is in perps for beginners.