Data definitions & methodology
The canonical definition of every metric on PerpFinder — what the number means, exactly how it is computed, and how often it refreshes. Machine-readable version: /llms-full.txt. Last reviewed 2026-07-23.
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Funding rate
The periodic payment between longs and shorts that tethers a perpetual futures price to its underlying index; positive funding means longs pay shorts.
Methodology: Pulled live from each exchange’s public API (predicted/current rate for the upcoming interval). Rates are shown per exchange interval (typically 8h, some 1h) and are NOT re-annualized in tables unless labelled as such.
Update cadence: Refreshed every 60–300 seconds
Shown on: /tools/funding-rates · /asset/{symbol} · /perps/{venue}
Open interest (OI)
The total notional value of all outstanding perpetual futures positions on a venue — one side counted, in USD.
Methodology: CEX OI is fetched directly from each exchange’s public API (contracts × mark price where the API reports contracts). DEX OI comes from on-chain venue APIs or DefiLlama’s open-interest dimension. The aggregate "Total perp OI" sums CEX + DEX — a combined figure most trackers do not publish.
Update cadence: Refreshed every 60–300 seconds; daily snapshot committed to history
Shown on: /open-interest · /tools/open-interest · /asset/{symbol}
Reported volume (24h/7d/30d)
Trading volume as reported by the venue itself, in USD notional, over the trailing window.
Methodology: CEX perpetual/futures volume comes from each exchange’s public derivatives ticker API; spot and margin are excluded. DEX volume comes from DefiLlama’s derivatives dimension. 24h is live; CEX 7d/30d is shown only when our rolling daily snapshot is no more than 36 hours old. Reported volume is not adjusted for wash trading or zero-fee inflation.
Update cadence: Refreshed every 5–15 minutes; daily snapshot committed to history
Shown on: /perps · /tools/volume
Bid-ask spread
The distance between the best bid and best ask, expressed in basis points of the mid price; the cost of crossing half the book once.
Methodology: Computed from a live order-book snapshot per venue: (bestAsk − bestBid) / midPrice, halved for a one-way fill and expressed in bps.
Update cadence: Live snapshot per request (≤90s cache)
Shown on: /tools/cost-comparison
Slippage (price impact)
How far your average fill price moves away from mid when a market order walks the order book at your chosen size, in basis points.
Methodology: We simulate filling the selected USD size against a live depth snapshot from each venue’s public order-book API, compute the volume-weighted average price (VWAP) of that fill, and express slippage as the book impact BEYOND the best quote (VWAP vs best ask for buys) in bps. Total cost adds the taker fee and half the bid-ask spread as their own separate terms, so the half-spread is counted exactly once — slippage never includes it. Venues whose books are too thin for the size are flagged "insufficient depth". Oracle-priced venues (GMX, Jupiter, Gains, Ostium and similar) execute at the oracle price, so book slippage is 0 by design and only the fee applies.
Update cadence: Live snapshot per request (≤90s cache)
Shown on: /tools/cost-comparison
Total trading cost
The all-in cost of a round trip at your size: taker/maker fee + half the bid-ask spread + slippage, in bps and USD.
Methodology: total_cost_bps = fee_bps + spread_bps + slippage_bps. Fees are the venue’s verified base schedule (no promos) unless a VIP tier or referral discount is explicitly toggled on. No other public comparison combines all three components from live books.
Update cadence: Live per request
Shown on: /tools/cost-comparison
VIP fee tier
The maker/taker schedule a CEX grants at a given 30-day trading volume, per that exchange’s published ladder.
Methodology: Each exchange’s full published VIP ladder is stored verbatim (volume thresholds → maker/taker) and verified against the exchange’s fee page. The simulator picks the tier your entered 30-day volume qualifies for.
Update cadence: Verified manually; CI guard blocks drift between datasets
Shown on: /tools/vip-fees · /tools/cost-comparison
Referral discount
The fee reduction (usually rebated) a new account gets when signing up through a partner link, as a fraction of the trading fee.
Methodology: Rates reflect the actual kickback configured in each partner program for PerpFinder’s links — they are program-specific settings, not public defaults. Applied after any VIP tier in the cost model. PerpFinder earns a commission on referred accounts; rankings are never affected.
Update cadence: Operator-maintained
Shown on: /deals · /tools/cost-comparison
Liquidations (24h)
The USD notional of leveraged positions force-closed by exchanges’ risk engines over the trailing window, split long vs short.
Methodology: Aggregated across major CEX and DEX venues from liquidation feeds (Coinalyze plus venue APIs). CEX liquidation prints are known to be under-reported by some venues; treat absolute totals as a floor.
Update cadence: Refreshed every 60–300 seconds
Shown on: /tools/liquidations
Long/short ratio
The balance of long vs short positioning among accounts (or notional) on a venue, as published by that venue.
Methodology: Venue-reported ratios (account-based unless noted). Definitions differ per exchange — ratios are comparable over time on one venue, not directly across venues.
Update cadence: Refreshed every 5 minutes
Shown on: /tools/long-short
TVL (total value locked)
The USD value of assets deposited in a DEX’s contracts (vaults, margin, LP pools) — a solvency/liquidity signal, not a volume signal.
Methodology: From DefiLlama’s TVL dataset per protocol (their open-source adapters). CEXs have reserves, not TVL; the two are never mixed in one column.
Update cadence: Refreshed hourly
Shown on: /tvl · /perps/{venue}
Protocol fees & revenue
Fees = what traders paid the protocol over the window; revenue = the share kept by the protocol/token holders after supply-side payouts.
Methodology: DEX fees are user fees reported by DefiLlama. CEX fee revenue is not public, so PerpFinder shows an estimated gross perpetual trading fee: matched notional × (maker rate + taker rate), with a transparent blend across the venue’s published 30-day VIP ladder and base-to-deep-tier bounds in the API. Spot, margin, options, funding, liquidation fees and non-trading revenue are excluded.
Update cadence: Refreshed every 15 minutes
Shown on: /fees
Fear & Greed Index
A 0–100 composite of market sentiment (volatility, momentum, dominance, social signals); 0 = extreme fear, 100 = extreme greed.
Methodology: Sourced from alternative.me’s published index; shown with its own history.
Update cadence: Daily
Shown on: /tools/fear-greed
Spotted an error or a venue where our number disagrees with yours? See how we test for the verification process, or use the data via the free public API— attribution “Data: PerpFinder” appreciated.