# What a perpetual futures trade costs

Updated: 24 September 2026. Rate pages read 18 September 2026. Books timed 00:00 to 23:54 UTC on 21 September 2026, at ten-minute stops. The Cost Per Trade pricing desk

## What a $10,000 round trip costs, venue by venue

A rate page tells you half the bill. The other half is the book: the distance a market order travels
past the mid price on the way in and again on the way out. The dark part of each bar is the published
fee, the orange part is what the order-book readings show the book taking, and the figure on the right is
the two added together on a $10,000 position.

| Venue | Published fee on $10,000 | Paid to the order book | All-in on $10,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lighter | $0.00 | $0.86 | $0.86 |
| Extended | $5.00 | $0.12 | $5.12 |
| Aster | $8.00 | $0.16 | $8.16 |
| edgeX | $9.00 | $0.04 | $9.04 |
| Hyperliquid | $9.00 | $0.12 | $9.12 |
| EVEDEX | $9.00 | $4.12 | $13.12 |
| Paradex | $0.00 | $191.52 | $191.52 |

Cheapest on this sheet: Lighter at $0.86. Dearest: Paradex at $191.52. Both are a $10,000 position opened and closed at market.

## The rate card

Seven order-book venues for perpetual futures, put through one formula that was fixed before a single rate
was looked up. The strip along each row says where the points were earned, which is how a cheap venue on
a thin book ends up reading nothing like a dear one on a deep book.

| Line | Venue | Maker | Taker | Fees on $10,000 | Score of 50 | Points by criterion, each out of ten | Open interest | 24-hour volume | Perp markets | Model |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lighter | 0% | 0% | $0.00 | 42.8 | cost 10.0 · liquidity 6.4 · custody 10.0 · security 7.0 · coverage 9.2 · access 8.0 | $585.4 million | $2.0 billion | 214 | Hybrid, ZK-proven |
| 2 | Extended | 0% | 0.025% | $5.00 | 38.4 | cost 8.5 · liquidity 5.8 · custody 7.0 · security 10.0 · coverage 9.6 · access 8.0 | $84.0 million | $612.8 million | 325 | Hybrid |
| 3 | Aster | 0% | 0.040% | $8.00 | 36.3 | cost 7.0 · liquidity 6.3 · custody 7.0 · security 10.0 · coverage 10.0 · access 8.0 | $1.4 billion | $3.2 billion | 578 | Own layer 1, operator-run |
| 4 | edgeX | 0.040% | 0.045% | $9.00 | 36.2 | cost 6.5 · liquidity 6.9 · custody 10.0 · security 7.0 · coverage 8.0 · access 8.0 | $635.5 million | $2.5 billion | 172 | Hybrid |
| 5 | Hyperliquid | 0.015% | 0.045% | $9.00 | 33.1 | cost 6.5 · liquidity 5.7 · custody 7.0 · security 7.0 · coverage 9.6 · access 8.0 | $8.7 billion | $13.4 billion | 324 | On-chain order book |
| 6 | EVEDEX | 0.015% | 0.045% | $9.00 | 32.5 | cost 6.5 · liquidity 6.5 · custody 5.0 · security 7.0 · coverage 7.8 · access 8.0 | $704.9 million | $700.5 million | 52 | Hybrid |
| 7 | Paradex | 0% | 0% | $0.00 | 31.9 | cost 10.0 · liquidity 0.0 · custody 7.0 · security 10.0 · coverage 7.0 · access 8.0 | $23.7 million | $21.8 million | 63 | Hybrid, Starknet appchain |

Weights: Published rate 40 · Execution cost 30 · Where the money sits 12 · Security record 8 · What the rate buys 6 · Who may pay it 4. One formula for the whole site, fixed 22 September 2026: https://thundermessage.com/how-we-price

Open interest and 24-hour volume is what the venue says of itself, priced into the CoinMarketCap list of 22 September 2026; market counts come from each venue's own documentation.

## The surcharge no rate card prints

| Venue | Median spread | Resting within 10 bps | Walk on $10,000 | Walk on $100,000 | Readings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| edgeX | 0.04 bps | $29.2 million | 0.02 bps | 0.02 bps | 134 |
| EVEDEX | 4.12 bps | $18.3 million | 2.06 bps | 2.06 bps | 133 |
| Lighter | 0.01 bps | $16.2 million | 0.43 bps | 0.71 bps | 52 |
| Aster | 0.01 bps | $14.9 million | 0.08 bps | 0.34 bps | 135 |
| Extended | 0.12 bps | $7.8 million | 0.06 bps | 0.06 bps | 53 |
| Hyperliquid | 0.12 bps | $7.3 million | 0.06 bps | 0.06 bps | 135 |
| Paradex | 7.45 bps | $870.00 | 95.76 bps | 157.79 bps | 133 |

Readings from each venue's public order-book endpoint, taken 00:00 to 23:54 UTC on 21 September 2026, at ten-minute stops. No account was opened and no order was sent.

## What the rate buys

| Venue | Asset classes beyond crypto | Perpetual markets | Trading hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lighter | crypto, stocks, FX, commodities, indices, pre-IPO, bonds | 214 | not stated in the documentation we read |
| Extended | crypto, stocks, FX, commodities, indices, pre-IPO | 325 | not stated in the documentation we read |
| Aster | crypto, stocks, FX, commodities, indices, pre-IPO | 578 | not stated in the documentation we read |
| edgeX | crypto, stocks, commodities, FX | 172 | not stated in the documentation we read |
| Hyperliquid | crypto, stocks, FX, commodities, indices | 324 | not stated in the documentation we read |
| EVEDEX | crypto, commodities, FX, stocks, indices, pre-IPO | 52 | All markets 24/7, shares and commodities included |
| Paradex | crypto, stocks, commodities, indices | 63 | not stated in the documentation we read |

## Sheet figures

- **Venues priced:** 7 — order-book venues, each read on its own rate page and its own book
- **Taker rates on this sheet:** 0% to 0.045% — the gap between the cheapest and the dearest published taker rate on 18 September 2026
- **Dearest published round trip:** $9.00 — in fees alone on a $10,000 position, against $5.00 on the cheapest flat schedule
- **BTC resting within 10 bps:** $93.8 million — added across the books on this sheet, each a median of 52 to 135 readings a book
- **Open interest:** $12.1 billion — each venue's own figure as published by CoinMarketCap on 22 September 2026

The rate page, the terms and the documentation of every venue here are read on the day printed beside
the figure; the part no rate page prints — how much rests in each BTC perpetual order book and how far a
market order has to walk through it — is measured instead. One published formula turns those two numbers, and four other criteria, into a score. Every
figure carries the day it was taken.

## How a price becomes a score

Six criteria, fixed on 22 September 2026 before any venue was priced: the published
rate 40, execution cost 30, where the money sits 12, security record 8, what the rate buys 6 and who may
pay it 4. The first of those is read off each venue's own rate pages, documentation and terms, along with
its market count, its sign-in rules, the places it turns away and its audits. The second is our own work:
the BTC book of every venue here is read at 10-minute intervals, and what reaches the tables is the
median of those readings with their number beside it. What a page is about decides which venues make its
sheet, never what the weights are. The whole method, worked example included, is on
[how we rate](/how-we-price).

## Three things a rate page will not tell you

**The spread is part of the price.** A venue quoting 0.045% to takers with a
0.04 bps median spread is cheaper in practice than one quoting the same rate on a book
twice as wide, and neither number appears on a fee page.

**Zero is a rate, not a total.** Lighter and Paradex charge nothing on their default retail orders, and
both slow those orders down by 300 milliseconds to do it ([Lighter fee
documentation](https://docs.lighter.xyz/trading/trading-fees), [Paradex fee
documentation](https://docs.paradex.trade/trading/trading-fees), read 18 September 2026). A zero-fee
order that fills a tick worse than a paid one is not free.

**Size changes the answer.** On the books as they were read, a $10,000 market order walked
0.43 bps past the mid price on Lighter and 95.76 bps on Paradex. At
ten times the size the gap widens to 0.71 bps against
157.79 bps. Which venue is cheap depends on how much you are trading.

## Every sheet on this site

**Sheets by price**

- [Crypto exchange with lowest fees](https://thundermessage.com/crypto-exchange-with-lowest-fees) — the whole tariff ordered by what a $10,000 round trip costs
- [Best crypto exchange with low fees](https://thundermessage.com/best-crypto-exchange-with-low-fees) — price weighed against custody, execution and market coverage
- [Crypto exchanges with no maker fee](https://thundermessage.com/crypto-exchanges-with-no-maker-fee) — four venues charge makers nothing, and each pays for it differently
- [Lowest fee crypto exchange for large orders](https://thundermessage.com/lowest-fee-crypto-exchange-for-large-orders) — what a cheap rate is worth when the order is bigger than the book

**Lists and comparisons**

- [Crypto exchange fee list](https://thundermessage.com/crypto-exchange-fee-list) — every venue on file with its published charge, order-book and pool-priced alike
- [Crypto exchange fees comparison](https://thundermessage.com/crypto-exchange-fees-comparison) — four ways of charging for the same trade, and what each one costs
- [Lighter alternatives](https://thundermessage.com/priced-against-lighter) — where else a round trip costs almost nothing, and what the discount buys
- [Lighter vs Extended](https://thundermessage.com/lighter-vs-extended) — two venues that charge makers nothing, priced on the side that still costs money
- [Extended vs Hyperliquid](https://thundermessage.com/extended-vs-hyperliquid) — one flat rate for everyone against a ladder that rewards volume

**Method and terms**

- [What is a maker-taker fee](https://thundermessage.com/what-is-a-maker-taker-fee) — why two sides of the same trade are charged different amounts
- [How we rate](https://thundermessage.com/how-we-price) — six criteria, their weights and a worked example of the arithmetic
- [About this desk](https://thundermessage.com/about) — who writes the sheet, what it reads and who paid for the run

The Cost Per Trade pricing desk, 24 September 2026. Corrections: desk@thundermessage.com.

This price desk is paid to publish, and a venue on the sheet may be the party that paid; the order of every column is the published formula.