Perpetuals

Perpetual futures are the first market type on the Nexus Exchange and are live on testnet. Which markets are listed moves as markets are listed and delisted, so GET /markets is the authority rather than a count here; the configured set expands to 32. A perpetual is a leveraged long or short position with no expiry; it tracks an underlying index price through a periodic funding payment between longs and shorts.

Perpetuals are implemented natively in the exchange engine — matching, margin checks, funding, and liquidation all run in-protocol and settle deterministically, rather than through a smart contract on a general-purpose VM.

Market structure

• Live markets are all quoted and collateralized in synthetic USDX. GET /markets lists the set as it stands; the configured set expands to 32.
• Planned categories as the set expands: major crypto, altcoins, FX, commodities, and equity indices.
• Each market has its own contract specification — tick size, minimum/maximum order size, leverage, maintenance margin rate, funding interval, and open-interest cap. See Market Specifications for the full table.

How a position works

1. Fund collateral. Deposit (or, on testnet, faucet) synthetic USDX into your account. Collateral is shared across all positions (cross-margin).
2. Open a position. Submit a buy (long) or sell (short) order via the API. The engine checks initial margin atomically before accepting the order — see Margining.
3. Hold. Your position accrues unrealized PnL as the mark price moves and pays or receives funding each interval.
4. Close or get liquidated. Close by submitting an opposing order. If your account equity falls below maintenance margin, the position is liquidated.

Pricing

Each market has a mark price derived from an external index feed, used for margin and liquidation. Mark price is largely independent of the last trade price on the book, which prevents thin-book trades from triggering unfair liquidations. See Price Oracles.

Funding is priced differently. It measures the gap between the perp reference price — what the contract is actually trading at on our book — and the index. Using the mark there would understate the real deviation, because the mark is mostly the index by construction. See Funding Rates.

Leverage and margin

Leverage is configurable per market. Margin is whole-account (cross): your entire USDX balance backs all open positions. The leverage and maintenance margin rate for each market are listed in Market Specifications. See Margining for how initial and maintenance margin are calculated.

Sub-pages

• Margining
• Order Types
• Positions
• Funding Rates
• Liquidations
• Price Oracles