Bitcoin futures on Deribit are cash settled rather than settled by physical delivery of BTC. This means that at expiration, the buyer of BTC futures will not buy the actual BTC, nor will the seller sell BTC. There will only be a transfer of profits/losses between the two opposing sides of the trade. When the contract expires, the expiration price is calculated as the 30 minute time weighted average price (TWAP) of the BTC index.
ETH futures work in the same way, but use the ETH index.
|
Futures |
BTC |
ETH |
|
Symbol |
BTC-DDMMMYY |
ETH-DDMMMYY |
|
Underlying Asset / Ticker |
Deribit BTC Index |
Deribit ETH Index |
|
Quoted Currency |
USD |
USD |
|
Margin Currency |
BTC |
ETH |
|
Settlement method |
Cash settlement in BTC. |
Cash settlement in ETH. |
|
Contract size |
10 USD |
1 USD |
|
Minimum order size |
10 USD |
1 USD |
|
Minimum tick size |
2.5 USD |
0.25 USD |
|
Minimum block size |
200,000 USD |
100,000 USD |
|
Minimum block tick size |
0.01 USD |
0.01 USD |
|
Max Amount (USD) |
75,000,000 |
75,000,000 |
Max Amount is the maximum allowed position size for Standard Margin accounts. For BTC and ETH inverse futures it is denominated in USD. These values apply from 24 September 2026 at 09:00 UTC.
Addition specifications that apply to all inverse futures:
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The symbol for each linear future is in the form: UnderlyingAsset-DDMMMYY For example: BTC-DDMMMYY Where the dates are displayed as a 2 numbered date, 3 letters of the month, and 2 numbers of the year, so DDMMMYY
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Type: Inverse
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Category: Future
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Trading hours: 24/7
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Daily settlement is at 08:00 UTC
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The delivery price is calculated as a time-weighted average (TWAP) of the relevant Deribit index, as measured between 07:30 and 08:00 UTC
Contract size
The contract size of an inverse future is denominated in USD, not in the coin that is used for margin and settlement. One BTC future contract represents 10 USD of exposure and one ETH future contract represents 1 USD, while the resulting profit, loss and margin are denominated in BTC and ETH respectively. Order amounts use the same USD unit, so an order amount of 1,000 on a BTC-DDMMMYY future is 1,000 USD, which is 100 contracts.
In the API, the base_currency field of an inverse instrument identifies the underlying and settlement coin; it does not indicate the unit of contract_size. A contract_size of 10 on a BTC future therefore means 10 USD, not 10 BTC. Inverse futures are also identified by instrument_type (or the deprecated future_type) being set to reversed.
The same instrument object also includes lot_size. That field is reserved for future use and does not affect order sizing, matching, or the minimum trade amount. Use contract_size and min_trade_amount for those. See API guidance.
This applies to inverse futures and perpetuals only. The contract size of an inverse option and of a linear future is denominated in the underlying coin instead.
Mark Price
When calculating unrealized profits and losses of futures contracts, not always the last traded price of the future is used.
To calculate the mark price, first, we must calculate the EMA (exponential moving average) of the difference between the bounded (around best bid and best ask) mid price and the Deribit Index.
The mark price is calculated as:
Index Price + EMA of the difference between bounded mid price and index price
Mark prices are determined by a mark-to-market model. When liquidity is low, the mark price is determined by the term structure. We bound the mark price around the index to prevent large swings.
Asymmetric Bandwidths
The mark price is constrained to not deviate beyond a certain percentage from the Deribit Index to prevent extreme fluctuations that could lead to liquidations. Normally, futures trade at a premium above the index. To manage this, we set bounds around this premium. For instance, if a future typically trades 2% above the index and we aim to restrict its movement to within 5% above or below, the effective bounds would be +7% (allowing for an increase) and -3% (limiting the decrease) relative to the index. By default, mark prices are permitted a deviation of up to 10% from the index for both BTC and ETH. However, this setup results in symmetric bandwidths around the index, so if one seeks to maintain the same premium bounds, a -7% bound is applied for discounts, which permits significantly larger decreases than what might be desired for asymmetrical bounds. If the market needs a wider premium or discount, for example in volatile periods or in pronounced contango or backwardation, the bandwidth can be adjusted accordingly.
Allowed Trading Bandwidth
Futures trades are limited by fixed trading bandwidth:
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Maximum Buy Price: The upper limit for buy orders is calculated as (1+fixed trading bandwidth) × MarkPrice. For example, with a fixed trading bandwidth of 3%, the maximum buy price would be set at 103% of the mark price.
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Minimum Sell Price: The lower limit for sell orders is determined as (1−fixed trading bandwidth) × MarkPrice. Using the same fixed trading bandwidth of 3%, the minimum sell price would be 97% of the mark price.
If market circumstances require so, bandwidth parameters could be adjusted at the sole discretion of Deribit.
Limit orders beyond the bandwidth will be rejected. Market orders will be adjusted to limit orders with the minimum or maximum price allowed at that moment.
Mis-Trade Rules
Due to various reasons, there can be a situation when futures contracts are traded at prices caused by an abnormal non-orderly market, with a high chance that one side of the trade has been done unwillingly. If a mistrade occurs at a price more than 2.5% away from the mark price, Deribit may adjust the prices or reverse the trades.
Please refer to Section 12 of the Exchange Rulebook for additional information.