Introduction to Inverse Perpetual and Expiry Contracts

Bybit offers a wide range of derivatives products designed to support both short-term trading strategies and longer-term exposure. Among those products are Inverse Perpetual and Inverse Expiry Contracts. This article provides a simple introduction to how they work, key specifications, and how they differ from inverse contracts.

What are Inverse Perpetual and Inverse Expiry contracts

A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell a particular underlying asset at a predetermined price at a specified time in the future.

Using the futures contracts of Bitcoin as an example to illustrate this concept:

Both buyer and seller come to an agreement on the delivery of 5 BTC at the price of $72,000 on Feb 04, 2026. On the settlement date, Feb 04, 2026, the seller has the obligation to sell 5 BTC to the buyer at $72,000 regardless of the market condition. Conversely, the buyer also has the obligation to buy 5 BTC at $72,000 regardless of the spot price of BTC. Buyers and sellers may choose to close their exposure anytime before the settlement date.

For Bybit Inverse Futures, the contract value is calculated in USD equivalent and settled in the underlying asset. For example, when BTCUSD is at $35,000, entering a long position of 70,000 BTCUSD contracts is equivalent to holding a 2 BTC long position.

Bybit provides two types of inverse futures contracts: Inverse Perpetual Contracts and Inverse Expiry Contracts. Both contract types use the underlying asset as margin and as the settlement currency for profits and losses, but they differ mainly in contract duration and settlement mechanics.

Inverse Perpetual Contract

The Inverse Perpetual Contract is a futures contract with no expiration date. Traders may open long or short positions at any time and hold them as long as margin requirements are met. As a result, the Perpetual position holders will need to pay funding fees, which are periodically exchanged between long and short positions to keep the contract price close to the spot price, if they hold the position upon the funding interval.

Inverse Expiry Contract

The Inverse Expiry Contract is a futures contract with a fixed settlement date. Once a position is opened, traders may choose to close their exposure at any time before settlement or hold the position until the settlement date. If the position is held until the settlement date, it will be settled using the average Index Price within the last 30 minutes before expiration.

Specification of Inverse Perpetual and Expiry Contracts

Contracts	Inverse Perpetual	Inverse Expiry
Symbols	Bybit will periodically list new Inverse Perpetual contracts as long as they meet the listing requirements.	BTC and ETH expiry contract
Expiration	No expiration	Yes, fixed settlement date
Settlement	In underlying asset
Fees	Trading fees Funding fees	Trading fees Settlement fees if the position is held until expiration
Position Mode	Only One-Way mode
Order Placement	By Quantity; By Value
Settlement Rules	N/A	Settled on the 8AM of the expiry date Settlement Price based on the average Index Price within the last 30 minutes before expiration

Naming & Listing Rules for Inverse Expiry Contracts

For standard expiry contracts, the symbol follows the format XXXUSD-DDMMMYY. For example, a BTCUSD expiry contract with a settlement date of 27 September 2026 will be represented as BTCUSD0927

New expiry contracts are typically listed several months prior to their settlement date. For example, BTCUSD0927 was listed about 6 months before its settlement date.

We provide quarterly expiry trading pairs, which are settled at 08:00 UTC on the settlement date

Why Trade Bybit Inverse Futures?

Shared margin with BTCUSD perpetual contracts: One single BTC trading account to trade across perpetual and futures contracts
No funding fee involved: You won’t pay or receive any funding fee while holding a position.

Margin and P&L Calculation for Inverse Contracts

Inverse Perpetual and Expiry uses the underlying asset as the margin, settlement currency and produces a payoff in the underlying asset. If a trader holds a 1 BTC contract and BTC price increases by $500 value, the trader will earn equivalent value in BTC (before considering fees).

In the Unified Trading Account (UTA), three margin modes are available: Isolated Margin (IM), Cross Margin (CM), and Portfolio Margin (PM). Under Isolated Margin (IM) mode, positions are margined and settled in USDT, and users must hold sufficient USDT to open USDT contract positions.Under Cross Margin (CM) and Portfolio Margin (PM) modes, users can use any supported collateral assets as USD-equivalent margin for Spot Margin and derivatives trading.

This means that while profits and losses are still settled in the underlying assets under UTA CM or PM mode, users do not necessarily need to hold the underlying asset itself to open Inverse contract positions. Instead, they can use other supported assets, Example if user trade in BTC user can use USDT or ETH etc, as collateral to open and maintain BTCUSD Inverse contract positions.

For more information, please refer to Introduction to Bybit Unified Trading Account.

Risk Exposure

Inverse Perpetual Contracts are traded and settled in the underlying asset. Traders are naturally exposed to the market risk of the collateral itself, even if they don’t hold any positions. Please manage your own trading risks.