12 Best Crypto Futures Trading Platforms 2024

Crypto derivative products like perpetual and delivery futures are a huge market; more than $374 billion was traded in the past 24 hours. Futures not only allow traders to go long or short but they come with leverage facilities—often at 100x or more.

Read on to discover the best crypto futures trading platforms for low fees, available markets, and other important factors. Learn how crypto futures work, how to trade them, and what risks to consider.

A Closer Look at the Top Crypto Futures Trading Platforms: Detailed Reviews 

Crypto trading with futures requires a secure platform with competitive commissions, a wide selection of markets, and a suite of analysis tools. Other important factors include leverage limits, KYC requirements, deposit methods, and withdrawal speeds.

Read on to learn more about the top crypto futures platforms for 2024.

1. MEXC – The Overall Best Crypto Futures Platform With 200x Leverage

MEXC is the overall best crypto futures trading platform. It offers premium liquidity, rock-bottom fees, and a huge selection of markets. This includes thousands of perpetual futures, including Bitcoin, Solana, Fantom, Chainlink, and Aave. Popular meme coins can also be traded, such as Dogecoin, dogwifhat, Popcat, and Sundog.

MEXC offers leverage of up to 200x, meaning you can trade with $20,000 for every $100 risked. It also supports long and short positions via limit and market orders. Commissions cost 0% or 0.02% per slide, depending on whether you’re a market maker or taker. What’s more, crypto deposits are processed for free. Fiat payments are also supported via on-ramp providers.

That said, MEXC also comes with drawbacks. It doesn’t accept clients from the US, nor does it offer delivery futures or options. Nonetheless, futures traders can open an account without KYC verification. Moreover, MEXC offers fully-fledged charting features, including technical indicators and drawing tools. MEXC also supports copy trading.

2. OKX – Trade Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, and Bi-Annual Bitcoin Futures

The next platform to consider is OKX, especially if you prefer delivery futures. It offers weekly, monthly, quarterly, and bi-annual futures for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP. These derivatives are ideal for longer-term positions, considering funding fees can be avoided. That said, the maximum leverage limit on delivery futures is 20x.

This increases the 100x when trading perpetual futures. What’s more, OKX offers hundreds of markets when trading perpetuals, including some of the best meme coins. This covers everything from BOOK OF MEME, Degen, and FLOKI to Dogecoin, Milo, and Pepe. Both delivery and perpetual futures come with extensive trading tools.

This includes advanced charts, with time frames ranging from 1 second to 3 months. Technical indicators and drawing tools are also available, not to mention TradingView integration and deep order books. OKX trading fees are competitive; futures traders pay 0.05% when placing market orders. Limit orders are cheaper at 0.02%. Fiat and crypto payments are welcome.

3. Binance – Access $125,000 Worth of Futures Capital for Every $1,000 Risked  

Binance is the largest crypto derivative platform globally, with over $35 billion traded in the past 24 hours. It supports more than 350 perpetual futures markets, including some of the best altcoins. This covers everything from Sui, XRP, and ApeCoin to Ethereum, Avalanche, and Toncoin. The maximum leverage on perpetual futures is 125x.

This means $1,000 turns into $125,000 worth of trading capital. Binance also offers delivery futures on a selection of large-cap cryptocurrencies. This includes quarterly and bi-quarterly settlements, but there’s no support for weekly or monthly. This is in addition to options chains for Bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies.

Binance is also a great option for automated trading. It offers trading bots that specialize in futures. This includes the arbitrage strategy, allowing traders to profit from price divergence. You can also create a grid strategy to profit from sideways markets. In terms of fees, Binance charges 0.02% and 0.05% for market makers and takers, respectively.

4. Bybit – Offers Perpetual Futures on 440 Crypto Markets With High Leverage   

Bybit is another popular futures trading platform with over $18 billion traded in the prior day. It offers a huge selection of markets, including 440 perpetual futures. This covers every crypto imaginable, from Pepe, the Sandbox, and Gala Games to Helium, Filecoin, and Chainlink. Large caps like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana are also supported; these come with leverage limits of 125x.

Bybit makes it easy to find a suitable market. You can filter perpetuals by category, such as DeFi, DePIN, meme coins, or GameFi. Bybit also sorts perpetuals by their profit or loss over the prior 24 hours. It also has a Fear and Greed index based on cumulative longs and shorts. In addition, Bybit also supports delivery futures.

These are settled in USDC and cover weekly, monthly, and quarterly expiry dates. Options, covering Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, are also available. Bybit futures fees cost 0.02% and 0.055% for makers and takers. Fees are reduced when trading volumes increase. Fiat deposits and withdrawals are available in some countries—fees are determined by partnered processors.

5. PrimeXBT – Multi-Asset Platform Supporting Crypto, Commodities, Forex, and Indices   

PrimeXBT is a great option for trading crypto futures alongside other asset classes. Crypto markets include everything from Bitcoin, Cardano, EOS, and Litecoin to Ethereum, XRP, Cosmos, and Dogecoin. The maximum leverage on crypto futures is 200x. This increases to 1000x when trading major forex pairs like EUR/USD.

PrimeXBT also supports global indices like the S&P 500. You can also trade commodities, including gold, silver, and natural gas. Trading fees are competitive; futures positions cost just 0.01% when placing limit orders. Market orders cost 0.02% per slide. PrimeXBT offers advanced charting tools that are ideal for technical analysis.

Alternatively, beginners might opt for its copy trading tools. Simply pick a trader and automatically replicate their futures positions. Those joining PrimeXBT today will receive a generous welcome bonus. This includes a $500 bonus when depositing $300 or more. You’ll also receive a $5 bonus when trading volumes surpass $100,000.

6. KuCoin – High-Volume Trading Platform With Over 300 Altcoin Futures Markets

KuCoin is a top-rated crypto exchange with an extensive futures trading department. It supports over 300 futures markets, covering Bitcoin and a wide range of altcoins. This includes everything from Solana, DOGS, and FLOKI to Pepe, Internet Computer, and Polygon. What’s more, KuCoin has a minimum margin requirement of just 1%.

This makes it one of the best crypto leverage trading platforms. We found that KuCoin futures come with deep liquidity and tight spreads. More than $47 billion worth of futures were traded in the prior day. Most futures contracts are settled in USDT although USDC is also supported. KuCoin also offers coin-margined futures on a selection of large caps.

These are ideal for advanced hedging strategies. Another popular market is KuCoin’s leveraged tokens. These instruments offer leverage of up to 3x on popular cryptocurrencies. But unlike futures, they come without liquidation risks. KuCoin futures fees are 0.02% for marker makers, which aligns with the industry average. However, market takers pay 0.06%.

7. Gate.io – Cross-Collateral Feature Offers Margin From Spot Trading Balances

Gate.io is an established crypto exchange that lists more than 2,500 cryptocurrencies. It also has an extensive futures platform covering hundreds of perpetual markets. This includes Shiba Inu, Arbitrum, Chainlink, XRP, Ethereum Classic, and Cardano. Gate.io also offers delivery futures on multiple cryptocurrencies.

This covers weekly, bi-weekly, quarterly, and bi-quarterly settlements. One of its unique selling points is the cross-collateral feature. Put simply, this provides futures trading margin trading directly from the spot trading balance. For example, suppose you hold Bitcoin or Ethereum in your Gate.io wallet. Those coins can be used to trade futures without needing to cash out.

Best of all, the cross-collateral feature comes without additional interest. Gate.io also offers high leverage levels of 100x, not to mention advanced charting tools, copy trading, and automated bots. The latter includes a spot-futures arbitrage strategy for hedging. Gate.io is also suitable for institutional traders, with fully-fledged OTC facilities.

Futures Trading Cryptocurrencies: How Does it Work?

Futures trading can be complicated for new market entrants. We’ll now break down the most important factors to know before starting.

Perpetuals and Delivery Futures

First, you should understand the most common contract types. The best crypto futures platforms typically offer perpetual and delivery futures.

Perpetual futures are loosely correlated to the crypto asset’s spot price. If XRP/USD trades at $0.70, so should the respective perpetual futures contract. Perpetual futures never expire, so traders can keep positions open for as long as they want.

Delivery futures are priced based on market forces. This is determined by the contract length and market sentiment. For example, some futures have a weekly expiry date. Traders must speculate whether the price will be higher or lower when the futures expire in a week’s time.

Delivery futures can also come with monthly, quarterly, bi-quarterly, bi-annual, or annual settlements. Either way, the futures position will be closed automatically if you’re still holding the contracts on the expiry date.

Trade Both Directions

We’ve established the difference between perpetual and delivery futures. Both instruments allow traders to speculate in either direction, meaning you can speculate that the futures price will increase or decrease. As such, futures are ideal for long and short trading, regardless of broader market conditions.

• You’d place a buy (long) order if you believe the futures price will increase
• You’d place a sell (short) order if you believe the futures price will decrease

This flexibility isn’t available when trading traditional spot markets.

Leverage Trading

Futures are the best instrument to trade cryptocurrencies with leverage. This means you can trade with more than you have in the trading account. You’re effectively borrowing funds from the platform, meaning interest will be charged.

However, this is only the case when trading perpetuals. Delivery futures have a settlement date, so no interest fees are required. Nonetheless, most crypto futures platforms offer leverage of up to 100x. Some offer even more. For instance, Binance and MEXC offer leverage of up to 125x and 200x, respectively.

Here’s an example of how leverage works when trading crypto futures:

• You want to trade SOL/USD futures and have $500 in your trading account
• You place a $500 buy order with 100x leverage
• The total trade size is $50,000
• SOL/USD has increased by 2% so you close the futures trade
• You made a 2% profit on a $50,000 position, so that’s a gain of $1,000
• The profit would have been just $10 without applying leverage

Leverage is a risky tool that can result in liquidation. This means you’ll lose the original stake, known as the ‘margin’.

Difference Between Crypto Futures and Spot Trading

Spot trading is the traditional way to invest in cryptocurrencies. Put simply, you exchange one asset for another, such as USD for Bitcoin or EUR for Ethereum. You own and control the purchased cryptocurrencies, meaning you can withdraw them to a private wallet.

Conversely, you don’t own anything when trading Bitcoin futures. They’re simply derivative products that track real-time prices. However, unlike spot trading, futures allow traders to go long or short. They also offer leverage, which is ideal for applying the trader’s bankroll.

In our view:

• Spot trading is the best option if you’re a long-term investor. You can buy cryptocurrencies, keep them in a wallet, and avoid paying funding fees. What’s more, you don’t need to worry about liquidation.
• Crypto futures are suited to experienced traders who seek advanced capabilities. For instance, trading with leverage or being able to short cryptocurrencies. Futures are also ideal for high-level strategies like arbitrage trading and hedging.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Cryptocurrency Futures Trading

Consider the following benefits and drawbacks before trading crypto futures:

Tutorial on Bitcoin Futures Trading

Here’s a quick tutorial on how to get started with the best crypto futures trading platform, MEXC:

• Step 1: Open a MEXC Account and Deposit Funds – Visit MEXC and register an account. Only an email address or mobile number is needed. Next, deposit some funds. MEXC supports fiat and crypto payments.
• Step 2: Choose Which Futures Market to Trade – Hover over the ‘Futures’ button and click ‘USDT-M Futures’. Then search for the crypto you want to trade. MEXC supports thousands of markets, from Bitcoin and Ethereum to Pepe and Bonk.
• Step 3: Create a Buy or Sell Order – Set up a buy or sell order depending on whether you want to go long or short, respectively. Choose between a limit or market order. The former is recommended if you’re trading futures with limited liquidity.
• Step 4: Specify the Trade Size – Next, specify how much capital you want to risk, alongside the required leverage ratio. For example, risking $100 with 20x leverage increases the trade size to $2,000.
• Step 5: Set Risk Management Orders – Set up a stop-loss order to mitigate the risks. This should be below the liquidation point. Also, deploy a take-profit order. This will close the futures trade when the profit target is met.

And that’s it—you can confirm the futures order. The trade will be closed automatically when either the stop-loss or take-profit order is triggered.

Conclusion

In summary, the best Bitcoin futures trading platforms offer a safe experience, high leverage, and competitive fees. Having researched dozens of providers, we found that MEXC is the overall best option.

It offers a huge range of futures markets, with new cryptocurrencies being added regularly. Futures can be traded with 200x leverage and there are no commissions for marker makers.

References

1. Top derivative exchanges ranked by open interest & trade volume (CoinGecko)
2. What are futures? (Charles Schwab)
3. Understanding futures expiration & contract roll (CME Group)
4. Bitcoin Futures CME (Sep′24) (CNBC)
5. Understanding the benefits and risks of margin (Fidelity)

FAQs