TradFi perpetuals on Flipster: gold, US stocks and ETFs settled in USDT

A TradFi perpetual is a perpetual futures contract whose price follows a traditional asset, such as gold, crude oil, a US stock or an ETF, in place of a cryptocurrency. It is a derivative: you hold a position on an index price, and you own no share, no fund unit and no metal.

The design is the one used for crypto contracts. There is no expiry date, the contract is quoted and settled in USDT, you post margin to open a long or short position, and funding is exchanged between the two sides at fixed times. A separate page explains how crypto perpetual futures work on Flipster.

Price exposure, not ownership

Your result is the change in the contract price multiplied by your position size, less fees, plus or minus funding. Nothing else comes with it.

Result in USDT = price change x position size - fees +/- funding

A long position in a stock perpetual does not make you a shareholder: no dividend is paid to you, you have no vote, and you have no claim on the company. A long position in XAUUSDT gives you no claim on a bar, a coin or a vault.

Leverage cuts both ways. A small move against you is a large loss on your margin, and the position can be liquidated before the price comes back.

A TradFi perpetual does not keep the hours of the market it tracks. Flipster’s Derivatives Trading Terms describe a service that runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and say that margin calls and liquidations can occur at any time. A stock exchange trades in sessions and closes at weekends and on public holidays.

That mismatch is the source of gap risk. News that arrives while the underlying market is closed is priced in when it reopens, often in a single step. A contract that keeps trading through the closure has less to anchor it, and a stop or a liquidation price can be passed without a trade at that level.

For gold, the contract page lists one index constituent, Binance XAUUSDT, against eight exchanges for BTCUSDT, so the gold index follows a single venue. For stock and ETF contracts, the sources read for this page do not say how the index price is formed while the stock market is closed. Read the index section of a contract’s rules page before you hold a position over a weekend or an earnings date.

TradFi perpetuals use the fee schedule published for all perpetual swaps: a maker fee and a taker fee, each a percentage of the trade’s notional value, set by your VIP tier. At the entry tier, VIP0, that is 0.02% maker and 0.06% taker. The fee guide gives one schedule and names no separate TradFi rate. All twelve tiers are listed under maker and taker fees by VIP tier.

Funding is a separate item, and it is not paid to the exchange. Flipster’s guide says traders “exchange funding fees with each other with no additional costs levied by the platform”. If the rate is positive, longs pay shorts; if it is negative, shorts pay longs. Only positions open at the funding timestamp take part.

Intervals vary by contract: 4 hours for XAUUSDT, 8 hours for BTCUSDT. The guide explains how funding rates are set and paid.

What the example shows: the two trading fees depend only on the size of the order, while funding depends on how long you hold and on which side pays. On the receiving side the same 0.60 USDT would be a credit, and the day would cost 0.60 USDT net.

What it leaves out: the spread, slippage on a market order (the contract’s maximum slippage is 3.00%), and the liquidation fee if the system closes the position. At the funding cap of 0.5000%, a single funding payment on 1,000 USDT would be 5.00 USDT.

Margin works as it does on every Flipster perpetual. You choose isolated margin, where collateral is set aside for one position, or cross margin, where positions share collateral and a liquidation may affect all of them. Initial margin opens the position; maintenance margin is the minimum that keeps it open.

This page prints no leverage multiplier. The maximum is set per contract and can differ by region, and it is shown in the margin table of each contract. Higher leverage moves the liquidation price closer to your entry price.

One regulatory limit is public. In Dubai, where Flipster FZE holds VASP Licence VL/26/07/002, the VARA Exchange Services Rulebook, Part V, section G says: “VASPs shall not permit Retail Investors to use or access ETD Services with greater than 5-to-1 leverage, as the minimum requirement for ETD Initial Margin is twenty percent (20%).” That is the regulator’s rule, stated here as a fact. It does not mean that TradFi perpetuals are offered under that licence.

When the mark price reaches your liquidation price, the position is closed automatically. The guide gives the liquidation price formula and examples.

TradFi perpetuals are provided by Flipster Corp to eligible users, and eligibility depends on where you live. The live site puts it this way: “Eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Check your country status before registering.”

One point is specific to this product. A perpetual on a stock or an ETF may be treated as a securities-related derivative in some countries, under rules that differ from those for crypto contracts. Flipster’s Terms of Use make the user responsible for complying with local regulations, so check the rules where you live before you trade.

What the Dubai licence does and does not cover is set out under Flipster FZE licence scope.

Gaps when the underlying market is closed

A stock or an ETF can reopen far from its last close. A perpetual that trades through the closure can move on thin information, and your stop or liquidation price can be passed in one step. Liquidation is automatic and comes without prior notice.

Leveraged ETFs as an underlying

TQQQ and MVLL are leveraged ETFs: funds that aim at a multiple of the daily move of an index or a stock and reset each day. Over longer periods their return drifts from that multiple, and in choppy markets it decays. A margined perpetual on such a fund is a leveraged product on a leveraged product.

Corporate actions

A dividend or a split changes a share price mechanically, and a merger can move it overnight. The holder of a perpetual receives no dividend. How Flipster adjusts a contract or its index for a corporate action is not in the documents read for this page.

These risks sit on top of the general one. As with every perpetual, your loss is not limited to the margin you post: the Derivatives Trading Terms say the amount you may lose “is potentially unlimited and can exceed the amount which you originally deposit with us”.

Read the risk disclosure for TradFi perpetuals before you open a position.

TradFi perpetuals are provided by Flipster Corp, a company incorporated under the laws of the Republic of Panama, under its Terms of Use and its Derivatives Trading Terms. The site states no regulator and no licence for Flipster Corp. More on who operates Flipster.

A second company, Flipster FZE, is licensed by the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), Dubai, under VASP Licence VL/26/07/002. The licensed activity is Exchange Services, and the Flipster FZE Public Disclosure describes spot trading only. This page does not claim that the licence covers TradFi perpetuals.

The contract is one question and the custody of your assets is another: see how client assets are held and verified.

This page is for information only and is not investment advice. It is not an offer or a recommendation to open a position.