Every futures trade you place on a crypto exchange gets sorted into one of two buckets: maker or taker. That single distinction quietly shapes how much you pay in fees, how referral rebates get calculated, and how close your position sits to liquidation. Once you understand the mechanics behind it, the math becomes a lot less mysterious.
How Maker and Taker Fees Work on a Futures Order Book
A crypto order book is simply a running list of buy and sell orders waiting to be matched at specific prices. When you place a limit order that sits on the book instead of filling right away, you’re adding to that list, which is why exchanges classify you as a maker.
When your order matches an existing one immediately, you’re removing liquidity from the book, which makes you a taker. Investopedia’s overview of the maker-taker fee model breaks down why exchanges typically charge takers more than makers: makers help keep the book deep and the spread tight, while takers consume that depth on demand.
On BTSE, this distinction is documented in detail on the futures trading fees page, which lays out exactly how each fee type is calculated.
Calculating Your Net Fee Cost
The starting point for any fee calculation is the notional value of your position, which is simply your mark price multiplied by your position size.
From there, BTSE applies a separate rate depending on whether you opened or closed as a maker or a taker.
As a real example, a General User taker fee is charged at a materially higher rate than a maker fee on the same notional value, so a trader who consistently uses limit orders can end up paying a noticeably smaller share of their position in fees over time.
VIP tiers based on 30-day trading volume adjust these rates further, so the percentages you see in any published example are illustrative rather than fixed for every account.
Calculating Your Maintenance Margin
Fees aren’t the only number working in the background of a futures position. Maintenance margin is the minimum balance your account needs to hold relative to your position size, and it directly determines how much room you have before liquidation kicks in.
BTSE’s maintenance margin formula multiplies your notional value by the sum of your maintenance margin percentage, your taker fee percentage, and the absolute value of your funding rate, and the full walkthrough with worked numbers lives on the liquidation and partial liquidation support page.
This isn’t a calculator that spits out a single universal number; it’s a formula you apply to your own position size and leverage, and it changes as the mark price and funding rate move.
Thin liquidity can make that math matter fast: bitcoin’s brief slide below key support levels was amplified by weekend order books with less depth than usual, which is exactly the kind of environment where a tight maintenance margin buffer gets tested.
Rebate Calculation Methods for Referral Commissions
Referral rebates are calculated as a percentage of the trading fees your referred users actually pay, not as a flat bonus disconnected from their activity.
On BTSE, the referral program pays a 25% commission on the spot and futures trading fees generated by anyone who signs up through your unique link, and there’s no cap on how much you can earn as their trading volume grows. The commission itself follows the same maker and taker split described above, since it’s calculated directly from the fees your referral pays on each trade.
One important detail worth remembering is that you need to complete BTSE’s identity verification before any commission gets credited to your account, even though you can still build your referral network and invite new users beforehand.
Reducing Trading Slippage to Protect Your Net Return
Fees and margin are only half the picture, because slippage can quietly erode returns that look fine on paper. Slippage happens when the price you expect to pay or receive differs from the price your order actually fills at, and thin liquidity and fast-moving markets are the usual culprits.
Since perpetual futures now account for the majority of crypto trading activity and price discovery of bitcoin’s liquidity dynamics, the order book depth on a futures market has an outsized effect on execution quality. Using limit orders instead of market orders during volatile stretches, and checking depth on tools like the all-in-one orderbook before placing a larger trade, are two of the simplest ways to keep slippage from eating into the fee savings you’ve already worked to calculate.
Putting the Net Calculation Together
Once you add it all up, your true net trading cost is your maker or taker fee, adjusted for any referral rebate you’re generating or receiving, minus whatever slippage crept in during execution. None of these pieces move independently. A wider maintenance margin buffer can give you room to use limit orders instead of chasing the market, which in turn reduces both your fee tier and your slippage exposure on the same trade.
If you’re ready to put this math to work, register for a BTSE account and head to the trading page to see live maker and taker rates before you place your next order.
