Leverage & trading · 6 min read · Live · every 8 hours

Funding rates: what longs pay shorts

One-minute answer: Funding is a fee paid between traders in perpetual futures. Positive funding means rise-betters pay fall-betters; negative funding means fall-betters pay rise-betters. On SafuTrading, each bar is one real Binance eight-hour settlement.

What it actually means

A perpetual future is a price bet with no expiry date. Funding helps keep that contract close to the real Bitcoin price by charging the more crowded side and paying the less crowded side.

The rate is a percentage of the open position, not a percentage move in Bitcoin. A trader may pay it repeatedly while keeping the position open.

What to look for

Positive green bar — Longs are more crowded and pay shorts at that settlement.
Negative red bar — Shorts are more crowded and pay longs.
Large repeated bars — The same side is paying heavily to stay open, which can make a forced move more violent.
Near zero — The contract is relatively balanced at that settlement.

Worked example

Funding of +0.05% every eight hours is about 0.15% per day if it stays unchanged. A $100,000 long position would pay about $50 at that settlement. The rate can change at the next settlement.

What this cannot tell you

SafuTrading's chart shows Binance funding, not a weighted total across every exchange.
Positive funding can remain positive throughout a strong rise. Crowded does not mean immediately wrong.
The daily price line is context only and is coarser than the eight-hour funding bars.

Data source

Binance public funding history, stored at each real eight-hour settlement; daily Binance Bitcoin close for context.

Open Funding Rates — Actual Binance funding settlements with Bitcoin's daily price for context.