Funding rate
The hourly fee that keeps perps near the real price.
Why it exists. A perp has no expiry, so nothing forces its price back to the real one. Funding does that: a small payment between longs and shorts every hour.
Who pays whom. When funding is positive, longs pay shorts. When it is negative, shorts pay longs. The exchange keeps nothing; it moves between traders.
How much. Payment = position size times oracle price times the hourly rate. A $10,000 position at 0.00125% an hour pays about 12 cents an hour, or $3 a day.
When it bites. In a hot market funding can hit 0.1% an hour. A $10,000 long then pays $240 a day. Holding a leveraged long through a mania can cost more than the move earns.
In MemeSim. Every open position pays or receives the real Hyperliquid rate each hour, taken from or added to its margin, and every payment is logged on the position.
Academy · Lesson 19
Funding rate
Why it exists
A perp has no expiry, so nothing forces its price back to the real one. Funding does that: a small payment between longs and shorts every hour.