Cheapest round trip
$0.86
Lighter
$0.00 in published fees and $0.86 paid to the order book, on a $10,000 position opened and closed at market.
Dearest round trip
$191.52
Paradex
$0.00 in published fees and $191.52 paid to the order book, on the same $10,000 position.
Rate sheet of 24 September 2026
What a perpetual futures trade costs
One line per venue: what the rate card charges on a $10,000 round trip, what the order book takes without printing it, and the sum of the two.
The whole tariff, cheapest firstHow a price becomes a score
The Cost Per Trade pricing deskUpdated:
The rate card
Seven order-book venues for perpetual futures, put through one formula that was fixed before a single rate was looked up. The strip along each row says where the points were earned, which is how a cheap venue on a thin book ends up reading nothing like a dear one on a deep book.
| Line | Venue | Maker | Taker | Fees on $10,000 | Score of 50 | Where the points came from | Open interest | 24-hour volume | Model |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lighter | 0% | 0% | $0.00 | 42.8 | cost 10.0 · liquidity 6.4 · custody 10.0 · security 7.0 · coverage 9.2 · access 8.0 | $585.4 million | $2.0 billion | Hybrid, ZK-proven |
| 2 | Extended | 0% | 0.025% | $5.00 | 38.4 | cost 8.5 · liquidity 5.8 · custody 7.0 · security 10.0 · coverage 9.6 · access 8.0 | $84.0 million | $612.8 million | Hybrid |
| 3 | Aster | 0% | 0.040% | $8.00 | 36.3 | cost 7.0 · liquidity 6.3 · custody 7.0 · security 10.0 · coverage 10.0 · access 8.0 | $1.4 billion | $3.2 billion | Own layer 1, operator-run |
| 4 | edgeX | 0.040% | 0.045% | $9.00 | 36.2 | cost 6.5 · liquidity 6.9 · custody 10.0 · security 7.0 · coverage 8.0 · access 8.0 | $635.5 million | $2.5 billion | Hybrid |
| 5 | Hyperliquid | 0.015% | 0.045% | $9.00 | 33.1 | cost 6.5 · liquidity 5.7 · custody 7.0 · security 7.0 · coverage 9.6 · access 8.0 | $8.7 billion | $13.4 billion | On-chain order book |
| 6 | EVEDEX | 0.015% | 0.045% | $9.00 | 32.5 | cost 6.5 · liquidity 6.5 · custody 5.0 · security 7.0 · coverage 7.8 · access 8.0 | $704.9 million | $700.5 million | Hybrid |
| 7 | Paradex | 0% | 0% | $0.00 | 31.9 | cost 10.0 · liquidity 0.0 · custody 7.0 · security 10.0 · coverage 7.0 · access 8.0 | $23.7 million | $21.8 million | Hybrid, Starknet appchain |
Published rate 40Execution cost 30Where the money sits 12Security record 8What the rate buys 6Who may pay it 4
Maker and taker rates are the entry tier on each venue's own interface, read on 18 September 2026. The fee column is twice the taker rate applied to a $10,000 position, which is what it costs to open and close that position at market. One formula prices the whole sheet, fixed on 22 September 2026 before any venue was scored, and how we rate sets out the arithmetic in words. Open interest and 24-hour volume is what the venue says of itself, priced into the CoinMarketCap list of 22 September 2026.
The surcharge no rate card prints
A published rate is the part of the bill the venue writes down. The rest is the book: how far a market order walks from the mid price on the way in and again on the way out. Every BTC perpetual book on this sheet was read every 10 minutes and the figures below are medians of those readings.
| Venue | Median spread | Resting within 10 bps | Against the deepest book | Walk on $10,000 | Walk on $100,000 | Readings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| edgeX | 0.04 bps | $29.2 million | 0.02 bps | 0.02 bps | 134 | |
| EVEDEX | 4.12 bps | $18.3 million | 2.06 bps | 2.06 bps | 133 | |
| Lighter | 0.01 bps | $16.2 million | 0.43 bps | 0.71 bps | 52 | |
| Aster | 0.01 bps | $14.9 million | 0.08 bps | 0.34 bps | 135 | |
| Extended | 0.12 bps | $7.8 million | 0.06 bps | 0.06 bps | 53 | |
| Hyperliquid | 0.12 bps | $7.3 million | 0.06 bps | 0.06 bps | 135 | |
| Paradex | 7.45 bps | $870.00 | 95.76 bps | 157.79 bps | 133 |
Readings taken from each venue's public order-book endpoint 00:00 to 23:54 UTC on 21 September 2026, at ten-minute stops. Spread is the gap between the highest bid and the lowest ask as a share of the mid price. Depth counts the orders resting within 10 basis points of the mid on both sides. The walk is the distance between the mid price and the average price a market order of that size would actually get. No account was opened and no order was sent.
What the rate buys
The same fee does not buy the same market list. This is what each venue lets that rate be spent on, how many perpetual markets its own documentation counts, and whether the book ever closes.
| Venue | Asset classes beyond crypto | Perpetual markets | Trading hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lighter | crypto, stocks, FX, commodities, indices, pre-IPO, bonds | 214 | not stated in the documentation we read |
| Extended | crypto, stocks, FX, commodities, indices, pre-IPO | 325 | not stated in the documentation we read |
| Aster | crypto, stocks, FX, commodities, indices, pre-IPO | 578 | not stated in the documentation we read |
| edgeX | crypto, stocks, commodities, FX | 172 | not stated in the documentation we read |
| Hyperliquid | crypto, stocks, FX, commodities, indices | 324 | not stated in the documentation we read |
| EVEDEX | crypto, commodities, FX, stocks, indices, pre-IPO | 52 | All markets 24/7, shares and commodities included |
| Paradex | crypto, stocks, commodities, indices | 63 | not stated in the documentation we read |
Market counts and asset classes as each venue's documentation and trading terms reported them on 18 September 2026. A stock or a currency listed here is a perpetual contract on that price, not the instrument itself.
00
The sheet in one paragraph
The rate page, the terms and the documentation of every venue here are read on the day printed beside the figure; the part no rate page prints — how much rests in each BTC perpetual order book and how far a market order has to walk through it — is measured instead. One published formula turns those two numbers, and four other criteria, into a score. Every figure carries the day it was taken.
01
How a price becomes a score
Six criteria, fixed on 22 September 2026 before any venue was priced: the published rate 40, execution cost 30, where the money sits 12, security record 8, what the rate buys 6 and who may pay it 4. The first of those is read off each venue's own rate pages, documentation and terms, along with its market count, its sign-in rules, the places it turns away and its audits. The second is our own work: the BTC book of every venue here is read at 10-minute intervals, and what reaches the tables is the median of those readings with their number beside it. What a page is about decides which venues make its sheet, never what the weights are. The whole method, worked example included, is on how we rate.
02
Three things a rate page will not tell you
The spread is part of the price. A venue quoting 0.045% to takers with a 0.04 bps median spread is cheaper in practice than one quoting the same rate on a book twice as wide, and neither number appears on a fee page.
Zero is a rate, not a total. Lighter and Paradex charge nothing on their default retail orders, and both slow those orders down by 300 milliseconds to do it (Lighter fee documentation, Paradex fee documentation, read 18 September 2026). A zero-fee order that fills a tick worse than a paid one is not free.
Size changes the answer. On the books as they were read, a $10,000 market order walked 0.43 bps past the mid price on Lighter and 95.76 bps on Paradex. At ten times the size the gap widens to 0.71 bps against 157.79 bps. Which venue is cheap depends on how much you are trading.
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