FX Perpetual Swaps are perpetual swap contracts on BitMEX that provide leveraged exposure to the price movements of currency pairs. Traders use crypto and stablecoins as collateral to trade perpetual contracts on FX pairs such as EUR/USD, USD/JPY, and GBP/USD – with up to 100x leverage. Like crypto perps, FX Perps never expire.
RDH Limited, Inc. lists perpetual swaps on currency pairs including EUR/USD, USD/JPY, and GBP/USD. BitMEX offers up to 100x leverage on these contracts.
How Do FX Perps Differ from Crypto Perpetual Swaps?
FX Perps function identically to crypto perpetual swaps. The only difference is the underlying asset. Instead of tracking Bitcoin or Ethereum, FX Perps track the price of fiat currency pairs.
Traders gain exposure to the price movement of the underlying currency pair without owning the actual currency pairs. Positions are cash-settled in USDT. There is no expiry date, so traders can hold positions indefinitely provided they maintain sufficient margin.
What assets can you trade with FX Perps on BitMEX?
BitMEX FX Perps cover major traditional currency pairs. Available contracts include EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF, and other popular pairs.
All contracts are margined and settled in USDT. Traders use crypto as collateral, meaning there is no need to convert to fiat or open a traditional brokerage account.
What are the key features of FX Perps?
FX Perps share the core features that made crypto perpetual swaps the dominant derivatives instrument:
- No expiry: Hold positions for as long as needed.
- Up to 100x leverage: Amplify exposure to currency pair price movements.
- Crypto collateral: Use BTC, ETH, USDT, and other supported assets. No fiat conversion required.
- 24/7 trading: Trade continuously, even when the FX market is closed.
- Long and short: Profit from both rising and falling prices. No borrowing costs or inventory limits for shorting.
- Cash-settled: All settlement occurs in USDT. Traders never take ownership of the underlying shares.
These features remove the barriers that traditionally prevent crypto-native traders from accessing currency pair markets.
Why is USD sometimes the base currency (numerator) and sometimes the quote currency (denominator) for FX Perps?
The quoting convention in FX pairs is driven by both legacy and practical reasons. Due to long-standing financial history and strict market convention, currencies like EUR, GBP, AUD, and NZD are usually quoted as the base currency when paired with USD in traditional financial markets (even if the exchange rate is smaller than 1).
In other cases, the current quoting convention for forex prevents the market from dealing with tiny, cumbersome decimals, as traders generally prefer exchange rates greater than 1. For instance, quoting USD/JPY yields a clean number like 160.00. If the pair were flipped to JPY/USD, the quote will result in 0.00625 instead, which complicates trading and calculations.
What is the contract type of FX Perps on BitMEX?
FX Perps on BitMEX are quanto perpetual contracts. A quanto contract is where the underlying asset is quoted in one currency, but margined and settled in a different currency, using a fixed multiplier.
For contracts with USD as the quote currency such GBP/USD, the contract references the exchange rate of GBP against the USD, so it tells you how many dollars it takes to buy 1 pound sterling. Although the quote is against USD, your PnL is calculated and paid in USDT at a fixed multiplier. As USDT is closely tied to the USD, these contracts usually behave like standard linear contracts.
For contracts with USD as the base currency such as USD/JPY, the contract is quoting the exchange rate of USD against JPY, so it tells you how many yen it takes to buy 1 dollar. Similar to the above, while the contract is quoted in JPY, your PnL is calculated and paid in USDT at a fixed multiplier. In the case of USD/JPY, the fixed multiplier is 0.01, meaning that a one point move in the USD/JPY rate equals 0.01 USDT in PnL per contract.