Master advanced crypto trading with derivatives, futures, options, and perpetual contracts. Learn professional strategies, risk management, and compliance.
Lessons
8 Chapters
Duration
~2.5 Hours
Level
Advanced
Imagine you and a friend play a game where you bet on whether a toy's price will go up or down — but you don't actually buy the toy, you just make a promise about it. That's basically what a derivative is: it's a contract whose value "derives" from another asset, like a toy's price. In crypto terms, a derivative is a contract tied to the price of a cryptocurrency.
Specifically, in crypto we see futures, options, and perpetual contracts (sometimes called perpetual swaps) — each has its own quirks.
Why does it matter? Because with derivatives you can do things you can't easily do with plain-buying coins: you can bet on price going down ("short"), or use less money to control more asset (leverage). That means higher potential reward — and higher risk.
In plain terms: if owning a crypto coin is like having a balloon, then a derivative is like having the right to say whether the balloon will rise or shrink — you don't necessarily own the balloon, you own the bet.