The two numbers that decide what a perpetual position actually costs: the funding rate, and how much open interest is sitting behind it. Read for the week ending 30 August 2026.
Carry is cheap and positioning is large. Bitcoin's annualised funding printed 4.95% with a z-score of +0.01; ether's 5.36% at +0.38. Meanwhile six of the eight largest perps closed the week above a +2 open interest z-score. Across the Hyperliquid tracked cohort, open interest stood at $9.49bn with an open-interest-weighted funding rate of 12.24% annualised.
Perpetuals do not share a settlement clock, and the clock changes the annualised figure completely. An eight-hour settlement annualises as rate x 3 x 365; a one-hour settlement annualises as rate x 24 x 365. Hyperliquid settles hourly. Its 0.0013% per hour on bitcoin is therefore roughly 11.4% annualised, not 1.4% - a factor-of-eight error that is easy to make and expensive to act on.
| Venue or source | Raw rate | Settlement | Annualised | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin, CryptoQuant blended | 0.00906% | 8 hours | 9.92% | CryptoQuant, 1 Sep 2026 |
| Bitcoin, 8h average | 0.00821% | 8 hours | 8.99% | CryptoQuant, 1 Sep 2026 |
| Bitcoin, 24h average | 0.00725% | 8 hours | 7.94% | CryptoQuant, 1 Sep 2026 |
| Bitcoin, Hyperliquid | 0.0013% | 1 hour | 11.39% | Hyperliquid API, 1 Sep 2026 |
| Bitcoin, blended reading | not disclosed | not disclosed | 4.95% | TradingRiot, 1 Sep 2026 |
| Ether, blended reading | not disclosed | not disclosed | 5.36% | TradingRiot, 1 Sep 2026 |
| NEAR, blended reading | not disclosed | not disclosed | 24.31% | TradingRiot, 1 Sep 2026 |
The table below applies the current Hyperliquid large-cap rate of 0.0013% per hour to a $100,000 notional position over holding periods from one day to one quarter. It assumes the rate does not change, which it will - the purpose is to show scale, not to predict.
| Holding period | Funding cost (USD) | Cost as % of notional |
|---|---|---|
| 1 day | $31.20 | 0.03% |
| 1 week | $218.40 | 0.22% |
| 1 month | $936.00 | 0.94% |
| 1 quarter | $2,847.00 | 2.85% |
The arithmetic is the point. At roughly 11% annualised, carrying $100,000 of bitcoin perpetual for a quarter costs about $2,848 - material, but not enough on its own to deter a directional view. At NEAR's 24.31% annualised it would cost about $6,078 over the same period. At the SKR rate quoted on Hyperliquid, it would exceed the notional several times over, which is how you know that quote is a liquidity artefact rather than a real cost.
| Asset | Hyperliquid APR | Binance APR | Bybit APR | Max spread (pp) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SKR | -4,079.6% | -4,376.8% | 11.0% | 4,387.7 |
| PONS | 345.7% | not listed | 11.0% | 334.7 |
| 0G | -67.7% | -319.5% | -178.9% | 251.8 |
| SAND | -101.8% | -230.2% | -206.4% | 128.5 |
| ZORA | -215.4% | -277.9% | -172.2% | 105.7 |
Every name on that table is a small-cap listing. That is not a coincidence. Dispersion of this size appears where books are thin, where mark-price construction differs between venues, or where one venue is actively pricing a listing another has effectively abandoned. The desk's standing rule: before treating a funding spread as an opportunity, check the book depth on both sides and assume the spread exists for a reason.
There are two different numbers in circulation for bitcoin open interest, and they are not interchangeable. Perpetual-only open interest stood at $20.77bn at the weekly close. Broader futures open interest, which includes dated contracts and CME, was reported near $136bn. Confusing the two produces nonsense conclusions about leverage, so this desk prints both and labels them.
| Asset | Open interest (USD) | Z-score | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| BTC | $20.77bn | +2.49 | large-cap reading; weekly change in book not disclosed |
| ETH | $12.19bn | +2.01 | large-cap reading; weekly change in book not disclosed |
| HYPE | $2.70bn | +2.14 | large-cap reading; weekly change in book not disclosed |
| SOL | $2.51bn | +2.33 | +10.2% of book added in a week |
| ZEC | $1.15bn | +2.52 | 99th percentile of own history |
It depends on settlement convention. Bitcoin funding was 0.00906% per eight hours, which annualises to about 9.9%. Hyperliquid, which settles hourly, printed 0.0013% per hour on bitcoin, annualising to roughly 11.4%. A separate blended reading put bitcoin at 4.95% annualised.
Multiply by the number of settlement periods per day and by 365. For eight-hour settlement: rate x 3 x 365 x 100. For one-hour settlement: rate x 24 x 365 x 100. The convention must match the venue.
At the current Hyperliquid large-cap rate of about 11.39% annualised, holding $100,000 notional costs roughly $31 per day, $936 over a month and about $2,848 over a quarter, assuming the rate is unchanged.
Different settlement clocks, different mark-price construction, different books and different listing activity. On thin small-cap markets the spread can reach thousands of percentage points annualised, which reflects illiquidity rather than a genuine arbitrage.
Perp DEX venues held $22.44bn of open interest at the 30 August 2026 DefiLlama snapshot, down -12.74% on the week. Bitcoin perpetual open interest alone was $20.77bn. Broader crypto futures open interest including dated contracts was reported near $136bn - a different and larger measure.