Want to trade your favorite stocks like Tesla or Nvidia—anytime, anywhere, with crypto collateral and up to 50x leverage?
That’s the power of stock perpetuals (perps), which just launched on BTSE this week. Stock perps combine 24/7 access to the U.S. stock market with the flexibility of crypto trading.
Unlike traditional brokerages (like Fidelity or Schwab) where you buy shares during market hours and wait days for funds to settle, stock perps offer a faster, more leveraged way to get price exposure.
And on BTSE, you can also gain exposure through our AI-assisted automated trading platform, AutoTrader. Access long and short strategies that buy and sell stock perps on your behalf, complete with take-profit and stop-loss orders built in.
Without further ado, here are the answers to the questions traders ask most.
1. What are stock perps on BTSE?
Stock perps are perpetual futures contracts that track the price of popular stocks, indices, and commodities.
You aren’t buying the underlying asset (like a Tesla share); instead, you’re taking a long or short position on its price movement.
These contracts never expire, so you can hold them as long as you maintain your margin and pay the funding rate, which is subtracted from your margin every eight hours.
2. How are they different from buying stocks in a traditional brokerage?
This is the most common question. Here’s a quick comparison:
Features |
BTSE Stock Perpetuals |
Traditional Brokerage (e.g., Schwab, Fidelity) |
What you own |
Price exposure via a contract |
Actual shares (ownership, dividends, voting rights) |
Trading Hours |
24/7, including nights and weekends |
9:30 AM – 4 PM ET (Mon-Fri); limited after-hours |
Funding Speed |
Instant (deposit USDT or crypto) |
1-5 business days for ACH; instant with wire/debit |
Leverage |
Up to 50x (amplifies both gains and losses) |
None (1x); limited margin loans available (e.g., 2x) |
Settlement |
No expiry; positions settle via funding every 8 hours |
T+1 (trade date plus one day for settlement) |
Minimum Trade |
Very low (e.g., $10 position with leverage) |
$1+ for fractional shares |
Risk Protection |
Liquidation risk, funding costs |
SIPC insurance (up to $500K), market risk only |
3. Which assets can I trade?
We offer perps on the world’s most-watched tickers and benchmarks, including:
- U.S. Stocks: Tesla (TSLA), Nvidia (NVDA), Coinbase (COIN), Meta (META), Google (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Robin Hood (HOOD), Apple (AAPL), Circle (CRCL)
- Commodities: Gold (GOLD)
- ….and 300+ more assets coming soon!
4. How does funding work? (Why do I pay or receive payments?)
Since stock perps never expire, we use a funding rate to keep the contract price anchored to the real-world stock price.
- If the perp trades above the spot price, long positions pay a funding fee to short positions.
- If it trades below the spot price, shorts pay longs.
- Funding happens every 8 hours. It’s simply a mechanism to keep the market fair and synced with the underlying asset.
5. What are the fees, leverage, and risks?
- Fees: You pay typical crypto perp fees. On BTSE, Maker fees start at 0.02% and taker fees at 0.055%. High-volume traders (VIPs) qualify for discounts.
- Leverage: You can use up to 50x leverage. This means $1,000 in margin can control a $50,000 position, allowing you to make larger bets on corporate events like earnings reports and mergers.
- Risks: Leverage is a double-edged sword. It amplifies gains, but it also amplifies losses. Because of this, there is a liquidation risk. If the market moves against you and your margin drops too low, your position may be automatically closed. This is different from a cash stock account, where you can simply wait out a dip.
6. How fast can I start trading?
Instantly. Unlike a traditional brokerage where you might wait days for an ACH transfer to settle, BTSE allows you to deposit crypto or stablecoins and start trading immediately.
If you already trade futures on BTSE, you can use the same margin in cross-margin mode to trade stock perps right away.
7. What are the trading hours, and how do I trade after U.S. market hours?
Stock perps trade 24/7, and our market makers will be there to provide liquidity all day, every day.
This is a game-changer for active traders. You can react instantly to earnings reports, Fed announcements, or global news that happens after the closing bell or over the weekend. No more waiting for the market to open. Simply put in a trade order and it’ll execute.
Keep in mind that liquidity may thin after typical market hours, but you’ll still be able to execute your transaction.
8. Do I get dividends or voting rights?
No. Because you don’t own the underlying stock, you don’t receive dividends or voting rights. However, the price impact of dividends is factored into the perpetual contract’s pricing and funding rates to ensure the perp price stays aligned with the spot price.
9. Who are stock perps for?
They are ideal for:
- Active Traders: Those who want to speculate on price movements or hedge existing portfolios.
- Crypto-Native Users: Traders who prefer to manage all their assets—collateral and positions—in one place using digital assets.
- Global Users: Stock perps are available to a wider range of users across different countries, whereas traditional U.S. brokerages often require local residency and bank accounts.
If you are a long-term investor focused on collecting dividends and holding shares for years, a traditional brokerage is likely a better fit.
10. How do I get started?
- Create & Verify: Set up and verify your BTSE account.
- Deposit: Fund your account with crypto or stablecoins, and move your assets to your futures wallet as margin.
- Trade: Go to the Futures section, select your market (e.g., TSLA, GOLD), review the specs (leverage, funding rate), and open your position.
Ready for 24/7 stock trading? Start trading here.
