What is Futures?

A futures contract is an agreement to trade an asset at a set price on a future date, or, in crypto, more often a contract that simply settles the difference in price without any asset changing hands. Dated futures expire quarterly; perpetual futures never expire and use funding payments to stay near the spot price. Both let a trader take exposure, long or short, with leverage and without holding the coin.

The mechanics run on margin. A trader posts collateral, opens a position larger than the collateral, and the venue marks the position to a reference price continuously. Gains and losses accrue against the margin; if losses consume enough of it, the venue liquidates the position. The size of the position relative to the margin is the leverage, and it changes as the price moves.

Crypto futures trade on centralized exchanges, inside an account readable through a read-only API key, and on on-chain venues such as Hyperliquid and Lighter, where the account is a wallet address and the book is public. Basis trades, hedges and outright speculation all live here, and so does most of the leverage in the market.

The number that misleads is the position card. It shows unrealised PnL against entry, but the real result includes funding paid or received while holding, fees on every fill, and the difference between the mark price used for liquidation and the last trade. Across several venues, the account-level view, total exposure against total collateral, is the one that decides whether a portfolio is hedged.

That account-level view is what a tracker adds. TrueHold reads perp positions by address on Hyperliquid and Lighter and futures on connected exchanges by key, shows entry, mark, size and liquidation distance, accounts funding per position, and counts the exposure into the same book as spot and DeFi.