Introduction to USDT Perpetual & Expiry Contracts

Bybit offers a wide range of derivatives products designed to support both short-term trading strategies and longer-term exposure. Among them, USDT Perpetual and Expiry Contracts are two of the most commonly used contract types. This article provides a simple introduction to how they work, key specifications, and how they differ from inverse contracts.

What are USDT Perpetual & 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 a certain date. On the settlement date, 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.

Bybit provides two types of USDT-settled futures contracts: USDT Perpetual Contracts and USDT Expiry Contracts. Both contract types use USDT as margin and settle all profits and losses in USDT, but they differ mainly in contract duration and settlement mechanics.

USDT Perpetual Contract

The USDT 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, Perpetual Positions 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.

USDT Expiry Contract

The USDT 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 USDT Perpetual and Expiry Contracts

Contracts	USDT Perpetual	USDT Expiry
Symbols	Bybit will periodically list new USDT perpetual contracts as long as they meet the listing requirements.	BTC, ETH, SOL, DOGE, XRP and MNT expiry contract
Expiration	No expiration	Yes, fixed settlement date
Settlement	USDT
Fees	Trading fees Funding fees	Trading fees Settlement fees if the position is held until expiration
Position Mode	One-Way or Hedge mode	Only One-Way mode
Order Placement	By Quantity; By Value; By Cost (By Cost only in Hedge Mode)	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 USDT Expiry Contracts

For standard expiry contracts, the symbol follows the format XXXUSDT-DDMMMYY. For example, a BTCUSDT expiry contract with a settlement date of 25 September 2026 will be represented as BTCUSDT-25SEP26.

New contracts are listed every Friday at 08:00 UTC, which is also the settlement time.

USDT expiry contracts have settlement dates based on 08:00 UTC on Fridays for the following tenors:

BTC & ETH:

Current week
Next week
Third week
Current month
Next month
Current quarter
Next quarter

Other trading pairs:

Current week
Next week
Third week
Current month

Margin and P&L Calculation for USDT Contracts

Margin and P&L calculations for USDT Contracts are more straightforward as it uses USDT as the margin, settlement currency and produces a payoff in USDT. If a trader holds a 1 BTC contract and BTC price increases by $100, the trader earns 100 USDT (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 users do not necessarily need to hold USDT, as other assets such as BTC or ETH can be used as collateral to open USDT contract positions.

This means that while profits and losses are still settled in USDT under UTA CM or PM mode, users do not necessarily need to hold USDT to open USDT contract positions. Instead, they can use other supported assets, such as BTC or ETH, as collateral to open and maintain USDT 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.

On the other hand, USDT Perpetual Contracts are settled in USDT. You don’t have to worry about the market risk of collaterals such as BTC. However, stablecoins may not be 100% stable and USDT is not entirely risk-free. Please manage your own trading risks.