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Decibel offers both perpetual futures (perps) and spot trading. Both are live, and both run on the same fully on-chain order book.

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What Are Perpetual Futures?

Perpetual futures are a contract for difference. You’re speculating on whether an asset’s price will go up or down, without the actual asset changing hands.

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Key Characteristics

  • No expiration. Unlike traditional futures, perps never expire.
  • Leverage. Trade with more capital than you deposit.
  • Long or short. Profit from both rising and falling prices.
  • Cash settlement. Positions settle in USDC, not the underlying asset.

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Example

If you believe BTC will increase in price:
  1. Open a long BTC-PERP position with 10x leverage
  2. Deposit $1,000 USDC as collateral
  3. Control $10,000 worth of BTC exposure
  4. If BTC rises 5%, your position gains $500 (50% return on collateral)
Leverage amplifies both gains and losses. A 10% adverse move with 10x leverage would result in a 100% loss of your collateral.

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What Is Spot Trading?

Spot trading involves actually swapping tokens. When you buy BTC on a spot market, you receive real BTC in your Decibel account. Spot launches with two markets, both quoted in USDC:

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Key Characteristics

  • You own the asset. A buy settles in the base asset, a sell settles in the quote asset. There is no position to manage and nothing to close.
  • Fully collateralized. Every spot order is backed before it reaches the book: buys escrow the quote asset, sells escrow the base asset.
  • No leverage, no funding, no liquidation. Spot is 1x. There are no funding payments, no margin requirements, and nothing to be liquidated.
  • Fees come out of what you receive. On a buy you pay the fee in the base asset; on a sell you pay it in the quote asset. Perps always charge fees in USDC. See Fees.

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Order Types

Spot supports limit and market orders with GTC, POST_ONLY, and IOC time-in-force. Features that only make sense for positions — take-profit/stop-loss, reduce-only, and TWAP — are perps-only.

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How It Differs from Perps

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Spot and Perp Markets Are Separate

A spot BTC market and a perp BTC market are two different markets with two different market addresses. Buying BTC on spot does not affect a BTC perp position, and the two order books are independent. This matters when you trade programmatically: request the product-specific market address you want, and read each row’s asset_type (perp or spot) to tell the two apart. See the REST API overview for which endpoints cover which product.

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Which Should You Use?

Perpetual futures represent the majority of crypto trading volume. They offer capital efficiency (trade larger positions with less capital), hedging capabilities (protect existing holdings without selling), and price discovery that often leads spot markets. Spot is the better fit when you want to actually hold the asset, or when you want exposure without leverage, funding costs, or liquidation risk.

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Roadmap