Why expirables?
Last updated
Last updated
Contango is the expirable leader in DeFi. To understand why we need expirables, let's dive into the types of contracts available in CeFi:
The following table compares the main pros and cons of each contract type.
+
No expiration date
Control about the costs
-
No control about the costs
Expiration date
Perpetual contracts - Standardised instruments without an expiry date that can be held indefinitely and where funding fees are periodically exchanged between long and short on a regular basis, e.g. each 8h, to keep the futures price tethered to the spot price. These are unpredictable, i.e. depending on the market conditions you can receive or pay money. Over a longer-term horizon, funding fees can start biting into your profits, as high as 30% annualized (). In a nutshell, you can't reliably control your costs with perpetuals.
Expirable contracts - These instruments have , e.g. a monthly contract can be traded up to the end of the month. When a trader buys or sells a contract, all costs are known upfront.
In CeFi the total volume traded in 2021 was $112 trillions. Expirable futures represent a small portion ($6.6 trillion), yet their volume kept growing in 2021 - about 2.4x compared to 2020 (source: ).