Futures arbitrage screener
The same asset, the same second, two different prices: one on spot, one on the perpetual. Buy where it is cheaper, sell where it is dearer, keep the gap. Funding pays on top.
The site's sections in the chat, and route tracking on your own thresholds: the bot reports in numbers that a condition is met. It places no orders and asks for no API keys. Access is opened by the bot's owner.
Open the botWhere the spot–futures gap comes from
A perpetual contract is under no obligation to match the spot price. It is a separate instrument with its own order book, and its price is driven by people trading on leverage. When the mood is bullish, longs outnumber shorts and the contract drifts above spot — that is contango. When sellers dominate, it slips below — backwardation. The distance between the two prices is the basis, and this page tracks it.
Exchanges keep the contract near spot with money rather than rules: every one, four or eight hours the two sides pay each other a funding rate. When the perpetual sits above spot, longs pay shorts, holding a long gets expensive, pressure eases and the prices converge. That is why the basis is usually small. Usually is not always: on sharp moves, on news and on thin contracts it widens visibly, and that is the moment worth taking.
How the trade works
The structure makes market direction irrelevant. You hold two opposite positions in the same asset at once: if the price rises, one leg gains and the other loses exactly as much. What is left is the gap you opened the trade for.
Contango: futures above spot. Buy the coin on spot and open an equal short on the perpetual. When the basis converges, close both legs and keep the difference. While the position is open, a positive funding rate pays you — the short collects it.
Backwardation: futures below spot. The mirror image: sell the coin on spot and buy the perpetual. A negative rate then works in your favour, because the long collects it. This side needs the coin already on your account, or a venue that will lend it to you.
No transfer between venues is required — and that is the key difference from spot arbitrage. The spot sits on one exchange, the perpetual is open on another, and each leg is backed by its own collateral. No network confirmations, no closed-withdrawal surprises: both trades execute instantly and independently.
What the table shows
Basis — the gap between the futures price and the spot price, in percent, taken from the best spot quote and the contract's mark price.
Net — the same basis after fees. The fee applies four times: two trades in, two trades out. That correction matters: at a 0.15% basis and a 0.05% taker fee there is nothing left.
Funding APR — the annualised return of the funding rate alone, signed for the side you are on. Next to it: the rate per period and the countdown to the next payment.
From basis and from funding — the two parts of the return in dollars, kept apart on purpose. Basis is taken once and only if the gap converges; funding accrues the whole time the position is open. Adding them up without naming a horizon would dress up a hope as a yield.
Total and APR are computed over the holding period you set in the "holding, days" field. Change the horizon and both columns change with it.
One venue or two
The switch above the table changes what is being searched. Same venue keeps spot and futures on one exchange: smaller gaps, but the simplest execution — one account, one collateral pool, instant entry. Across venues hunts the cheapest spot anywhere and the dearest perpetual anywhere, and they need not be the same place. The gaps are visibly larger, but you need two funded accounts.
Things worth remembering
The mark price is not a fill price. Exchanges derive it from an index and smooth it, while your order walks the contract's own book, which is thin on smaller coins. Check the size resting at your price before you trade.
The funding rate resets every period. Today's 40% annualised can be zero tomorrow, or negative — at which point the income stream runs against you. The APR column describes right now, not a promise for a year.
The position is neutral to the coin's price but not to liquidation. The futures leg lives on margin, and a sharp move can exhaust it even though you hold the matching coins on spot. Moderate leverage and spare collateral solve this.
Finally: the basis on a perpetual has no settlement date to converge to. It converges because funding makes the gap expensive to hold, but nobody guarantees when.
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from funding arbitrage?
Funding arbitrage earns the difference in rates between two venues and takes prices as they come. Here the headline number is the price gap between spot and the perpetual, with the rate as a bonus. The two combine: one futures short can both hedge your spot purchase and collect funding.
Do I have to move coins between exchanges?
No. Spot is bought on one venue, the perpetual is opened on another, and each leg is backed by its own funds on its own account. That removes withdrawal fees, network waiting time and closed-network risk, unlike cross-venue spot arbitrage.
What counts as a normal basis?
On major coins the usual gap is hundredths of a percent, which is the market working, not an opportunity. A sensible threshold starts around 0.3%, and anything beyond a few percent almost always sits on an illiquid contract where the book will not give you that size.
Why is funding negative on some rows?
Because the rate currently runs against the side the route requires. That is not an error: the price gap can be wide enough to outweigh the funding payments. The "from funding" column goes negative on those rows and the total shows the honest remainder.
Where do the prices come from?
Spot from the best book quotes, futures from each contract’s mark price, both via the exchanges’ public APIs. The page refreshes every 5 seconds; no keys and no sign-up.