Funding-rate arbitrage, ranked by what you keep

Opportunities

At $10,000 per side, held 7 days, after taker fees, order-book slippage and carry. † slippage estimated from the top of the book (no live order book for this pair); ‡ before slippage (no order book at all).

What is funding-rate arbitrage, and why rank by net?

Perpetual futures never expire. To keep a perp's price close to the spot index, exchanges make its longs and shorts pay each other a funding rate every few hours: when the rate is positive, longs pay shorts; when it is negative, shorts pay longs. Each exchange sets its own rate and interval, so the same coin is often paid very differently on two exchanges.

Funding-rate arbitrage holds two legs of the same size whose price moves cancel, and keeps the payments in between: long the perp where funding is lower and short it where it is higher (perp ↔ perp), or buy the coin on spot and short its perp (spot ↔ perp). When funding is negative, the reverse can pay: borrow the coin, sell it on spot and hold the perp long.

The headline rate is not what you keep. Opening and closing both legs takes four trades, each paying a taker fee and walking the order book, so a large position pays more slippage than a small one. Borrowed coins cost interest and the margin you tie up has a cost of its own. A spread that looks large once annualised can lose money after these costs, and a thin market cannot take a large position at all.

So AfterFees ranks every pair by net dollars: funding over your holding period (for most pairs at the lower of today's rates and the pair's own 7-day settled average), minus four taker fees, slippage walked through the live order books at your size, borrow interest and carry. Each pair also shows how large it can go, when it pays back its costs and whether the spread has actually been paying; it is marked actionable only when every check passes right now. 50 exchanges are covered, and the default view is $10,000 per side held 7 days.

Glossary · Methodology

Questions

How many exchanges does AfterFees cover?

50 right now: 20 with the full net calculation (live order books and reconciled fees) and 30 watch-only. Each Hyperliquid HIP-3 deployer counts as its own exchange.

How many funding-rate arbitrage pairs are actionable right now?

3 of the 157 pairs on the board pass every check at $10,000 per side held 7 days; the others are on watch, each with the reason shown.

Is AfterFees free?

Yes: the full board and the coin, exchange, funding-rate, borrow, Boros and basis tables are free at $10,000 per side held 7 days. Pro, from $39 a month, recalculates everything at your own size and holding period and opens the line-by-line breakdown.

Does AfterFees trade for me or hold my funds?

No. It is read-only analytics: it never holds funds or places orders, accepts only read-only exchange keys for position monitoring, and takes no exchange referral fees, so the ranking depends only on the net.

How is the net figure calculated?

Net = funding over the holding period − four taker fees − order-book slippage − borrow interest − carry. Every formula is published on the methodology page; Pro opens each figure into its line-by-line calculation.