How to get started with Bybit Pre-Market Perpetuals

Trading crypto tokens before their official public launch often lets you access high-potential assets before the wider market affects their prices. While the majority of these opportunities are limited to over-the-counter (OTC) transactions, Bybit Pre-Market Perpetuals allow you to trade Tether (USDT)–denominated Perpetual contracts on selected tokens before their public launch, meaning that you can speculate on the asset price without a direct ownership commitment.

In this guide, we cover the key operational details of this product, such as finding available contracts, placing orders and canceling orders when required. Before you start, you’ll need to fund your Unified Trading Account (UTA) with Tether (USDT) and complete Identity Verification.

Key Takeaways:

• Pre-Market Perpetuals let you trade USDT-settled contracts on tokens ahead of their standard Bybit listings.

• Two trading modes are available for these contracts: Call Auction Mode opens with a call auction before continuous trading, while Continuous Auction Mode starts continuous trading right away.

• You'll need to fund your UTA and complete your Identity Verification before you can place an order.

What you need before trading

Below is a list of the fundamental requirements you need to meet before you can trade Pre-Market Perpetuals. 

• A Unified Trading Account (UTA)

• A USDT balance, since Pre-Market Perpetual contracts are denominated exclusively in the USDT stablecoin

• Complete your Identity Verification

• Select Isolated or Cross Margin mode (Portfolio Margin mode isn't supported for this product, so please switch out of it if that's your default)

Please note that these requirements are only the basics you’ll need to start using the product. Since Pre-Market Perpetuals carry more risk than standard trading products, familiarity with derivatives trading in general is highly recommended.

Want to learn more about derivatives trading? Explore the Bybit Derivatives learning path to learn how perpetual contracts, futures and options work on Bybit.

How to find Pre-Market Perpetuals contracts

On the Bybit App, go to the homescreen and tap on Markets at the bottom. Then, select the Futures tab and set the filters to Perpetual and Pre to browse the full list of contracts. On the web version of Bybit, go to Trade in the top menu, then Futures, and select the Pre tab.

The list will show Pre-Market Perpetuals available in the Continuous Auction stage. In the following section, we’ll cover the two main stages. 

If there are any contracts available at the Call Auction stage, you’ll find them on the Bybit App by going from the home screen to More, then to Pre-Market Perpetuals. Each contract here shows its current status directly on the list. Contracts already open for trading display a Join Auction Now button, while contracts that haven't started yet show their details and start times instead. You can subscribe to get notified once trading opens.

How to place an order

Call Auction Mode

If a contract launches under Call Auction Mode, only Good-Till-Cancel limit orders are accepted while the auction runs. Therefore, Market orders aren't an option here. 

Set your price, quantity, leverage and margin mode (Isolated or Cross), then tap on Long or Short to submit your order.

During Auction 1, you can create and cancel orders freely. Once Auction 2 begins, you can still submit new orders, but canceling is off the table. By the time Price Matching starts, the order book is locked entirely, and no new orders or cancellations are possible. A typical Call Auction sequence runs Auction 1 for 20 minutes, Auction 2 for five minutes and Price Matching for five minutes. Please note that timing can vary by listing.

Continuous Auction Mode

Contracts that skip the call auction, or that clear it successfully, move into Continuous Auction trading, which works much like standard Perpetuals trading. You get access to Limit, Market and Conditional orders alongside TP/SL, Post-Only, GTC and Reduce-Only. You can set your leverage and margin mode (either Isolated or Cross) the same way you would for any other Perpetual contract.

Price limits apply throughout this phase: 

• The maximum buy price is the last traded price multiplied by 1.05. 

• The minimum sell price is 0.95 times the last traded price. 

No trading or funding fees apply while Call Auction is active. However, once Continuous Auction begins, standard Pre-Market Perpetual trading fees kick in, and funding settles every four hours at a fixed 0.005% rate. For detailed fee tiers, please check out Bybit's FAQ — Pre-Market Perpetual Trading.

What happens when a contract transitions?

A transition doesn't reset your position — it carries it forward. If a Pre-Market Perpetual contract meets Bybit's listing criteria and converts into a standard Perpetual, any open positions and active orders stay exactly where they were, with no forced closure and no reentry required.

What does change is the operating environment around those positions. Trading fees shift to the standard Perpetual and Futures fee schedule, index price components may be recalculated, and risk parameters (such as margin tiers) can be adjusted. Bybit announces these changes separately from the transition itself, so it's worth it to check the announcement, rather than to assume your existing settings carry over unchanged.

Please note that not every contract is guaranteed to reach the transition point.

How to cancel an order

Canceling an order isn't available at every stage. You can cancel during Auction 1 and throughout the Continuous Auction phase. To do so, open your Orders tab and tap on Cancel next to the order you want removed. 

Please note that Auction 2 and Price Matching don't allow cancellations at all.

The bottom line

Pre-Market Perpetuals give you a way to position on a token's price before it's tradable anywhere else on Bybit. This early access comes with unique trade-offs you won't find in standard perpetual markets, particularly those that involve popular, high-liquidity assets. 

Lower liquidity, wider spreads, sharper price volatility and tracking differences from the eventual spot price are all realities of trading Pre-Market Perpetuals. Because Pre-Market Perpetuals are leveraged derivatives, your positions can be liquidated if the market moves against you. If you're comfortable with these risks, and have familiarity with derivatives in general, open the Bybit App and check which contracts are currently available for auction.

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