BackQuant Glossary
Perpetual Swap (Perp)
A futures contract with no expiry, anchored to spot via funding payments between longs and shorts. Perps are the dominant derivative in crypto, vastly larger in volume than dated futures. BTC and ETH perps trade 24/7 across every major venue.
Related terms
BTC
Bitcoin, the largest crypto asset by market cap. The dominant underlying for crypto options, with the deepest options market on Deribit. BTC options open interest typically exceeds the rest of the crypto options market combined.
ETH
Ethereum, the second-largest crypto asset by market cap and the second-largest options market. ETH options track BTC closely but show distinct skew and term-structure dynamics, especially around protocol-level catalysts.
Expiry
The date and time at which an options contract settles. After expiry, an option pays out its intrinsic value or expires worthless. Crypto options on Deribit expire Fridays at 08:00 UTC.
Futures
A standardized contract to buy or sell an asset at a set price on a future date. Crypto futures with fixed expiries exist alongside perpetual futures (perps) which never expire. Quarterly futures concentrate the most open interest.
Long
A position that profits when price rises. Buying spot, going long a perp, owning a call, or being short a put are all long positions. Opposite of short.
Go deeper
See Perpetual Swap (Perp) live on the terminal.
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