What the page shows
The same coin costs one thing on spot and another in a perpetual contract. The gap is called the basis. The futures arbitrage page looks for routes where the basis is wide enough to take: buy the coin on spot and at the same time open a short of the same size on the perpetual, or the other way round.
When the perpetual is above spot, that is contango: you buy spot and short the perpetual. When it is below, that is backwardation: you sell spot and go long the perpetual. Backwardation needs the coin already in your account or borrowed.
The position is neutral to price: one leg gains what the other loses. Income comes from the basis, captured when prices converge, and from funding, which accrues while the position is open.
How the basis and the income are computed
For contango the basis is the contract’s mark price divided by the best spot ask, minus one. For backwardation it is the best spot bid divided by the mark price, minus one. Only positive values in the chosen direction reach the table.
The fee is subtracted four times: two trades in and two out. At 0.05% that is 0.2% of the amount, and a basis below that earns nothing.
The spot leg is walked down the order book for your position size, only while the next unit still gains after fees. Without a book younger than a minute, the size at the best price stands in — a lower bound. The futures leg is taken at the mark price in full: the contract’s book is not walked.
Funding becomes an hourly rate by the contract’s own settlement interval, times the holding period. The sign follows your side: a short in contango receives a positive rate, a long in backwardation a negative one.
The columns
- Coin — marked “perp above” or “perp below”.
- Spot and Futures — the venue, the price and what to do: buy or sell on spot, short or long on the perpetual.
- Basis — the price gap in percent.
- Net — profit from the basis after four fees, as a percentage of the capital you typed. If only part of the amount fills, a ⚠ mark shows how much.
- Usually lives — how long this route’s spread holds: median and 90th percentile of closed episodes, plus the age of the open one. Spreads shorter than the sampling step in the header are not visible.
- Funding APR — the yearly yield of the rate alone, signed for your side. Under it: the rate per period, the interval in hours and the time to the next payment.
- From basis, $ and From funding, $ — the two parts of the income in dollars, kept apart.
- Total, $ and APR — their sum and its yearly figure for the holding period you set.
- Vol 24h — the spot pair’s turnover.
Rows are sorted by Net; rows that cannot be computed go last. The page refreshes every 5 seconds.
The filters
- Position size, USDT — the size of each leg, 1000 by default.
- Trade fee, % — your rate, 0.05% by default.
- Holding, days — the period for From funding, Total and APR, 7 by default.
- Basis from / to, % — the band, 0.3% to 20% by default. The upper bound removes rows that are plainly unreal.
- Min 24h volume, $ — the spot pair’s minimum turnover, 50,000 by default.
- Search coin and the Exchanges list.
Same venue pairs spot and the perpetual on one exchange, in both directions. Across venues takes, per coin, the cheapest spot against the highest perpetual for contango, and the reverse for backwardation. A second switch shows all routes, contango only or backwardation only.
Venues that list perpetuals but no spot appear only in Across venues mode.
What the page leaves out
- The futures book. The mark price is not a fill price; on a thin contract you will get less.
- Rate changes. From funding uses today’s rate for the whole period, while the rate resets every period and can turn against you.
- Borrowing the coin for backwardation, and its cost.
- Margin and liquidation on the futures leg.
- Stablecoins: USDC, FDUSD, DAI and the rest are not in the table — a basis between two dollars is not a route.
- Transfers. Across venues a route is dropped only when the coin’s contracts on the two venues point to different tokens; a closed or unknown network does not matter, since nothing is moved.
Frequently asked
How is this different from funding arbitrage? On the funding page the income is the gap between two perpetuals’ rates. Here the main number is the spot–perpetual gap, and the rate comes on top. More on the rate in the funding arbitrage guide.
Why is Net lower than the basis minus fees? Deeper spot levels are worse than the best price, and the percentage is over all the capital you typed, while profit comes only from what fills. A smaller position brings them closer.
Why is funding negative in some rows? The rate is working against the chosen side right now. The basis can outweigh it, and Total shows what is left.
How often does the data refresh? The page refreshes every 5 seconds. No keys and no sign-up.
Do I need to move the coin between exchanges? No. Each leg is backed by money in its own account, so across venues the funds must already sit on both exchanges — see the risk management guide.