Perpetual funding rates, ranked for action
Raw funding tables are useful, but traders need context: where the rate is coming from, how it compares, and whether a spread can be executed.
What funding rates show
Funding rates show payments exchanged between long and short perpetual traders. Positive and negative rates reveal pressure in the perp market, but the useful signal depends on comparison across venues.
SypherScore's Funding page gives a broad table view, while AI Top Pairs turns the same market surface into candidate long/short routes.
- Compare the same symbol across venues.
- Sort by APY, spread, or symbol.
- Filter CEX and DEX venues depending on the workflow.
From table to trade idea
A funding table is the starting point. The next step is evaluating the route: entry price, borrow or margin constraints, open interest, and whether funding behavior has persisted.
- Use Funding for the broad market map.
- Use AI Top Pairs for curated route candidates.
- Use Backtester to review historical periods.
How the number is computed
A funding rate is the mechanism that keeps a perpetual contract tethered to spot. When the perp trades above the index, longs pay shorts; when below, shorts pay longs. Most venues build the rate from two parts: a premium measured from the book against the index, and an interest component that is often a fixed constant.
The details differ enough to matter. Venues sample the premium at different frequencies, clamp it to different caps, and settle it on different schedules. Two exchanges can show the same asset with visibly different funding for reasons that have nothing to do with market opinion.
- Premium plus interest, sampled and clamped differently on each venue.
- The cap matters: a clamped rate hides how far the perp really is from spot.
- Same asset, two venues, different numbers: often a mechanism difference, not a signal.
Why the interval changes everything
An 8-hour funding rate and a 1-hour funding rate are not comparable until you normalise them, and the normalisation hides a real difference: the shorter interval settles more often, so the position is repriced more often and a reversal costs you sooner.
It also changes what a snapshot means. On an 8-hour schedule, a rate you see now may be settled hours from now at a completely different level, because most venues use the average of the interval rather than the instant. Reading a live rate as «what I will be paid» is one of the most common mistakes.
- Normalise to a common period before comparing venues.
- A live rate is a running estimate, not the amount that will settle.
- Shorter intervals reprice faster: less to collect per settlement, less to lose per reversal.
Questions
What is funding APR?
Funding APR annualizes the current or recent funding rate so venues can be compared on a common scale.
Why can different venues show different funding?
Venue-specific demand, liquidity, index behavior, margin design, and market-maker activity can all create funding differences.
What does a negative funding rate mean?
The perpetual is trading below the index, so shorts pay longs. It usually indicates that the market is positioned short, often after a sharp fall, and it is the side of the trade that collects rather than pays.
Why do two exchanges show different funding for the same coin?
Because they compute it differently: different premium sampling, different interest components, different caps and different settlement intervals. A visible gap between venues is often a mechanism artefact rather than a difference of opinion about the asset.
Is a high funding rate a signal to trade?
By itself, no. Extreme rates concentrate on thin markets and on assets in the middle of a violent move, which are exactly the conditions in which the position is hardest to hold. Persistence and depth decide whether the rate is collectable.