Spot-Perp Arbitrage: Step-by-Step Cash-and-Carry Guide for Crypto Traders [2026]

This article contains affiliate links. Yieldo may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Spot-perp arbitrage is a lower-risk yield strategy, not a risk-free one — see the risk section before deploying capital.

Written by Eugen Voyager · Updated 19 August 2026

TL;DR — Spot-Perp Arbitrage in One Paragraph, Plus Live Scanner

Spot-perp arbitrage (a.k.a. cash-and-carry) is a delta-neutral crypto strategy where you buy a coin on spot and short an equal notional of that coin's perpetual futures on the same exchange, so the price direction cancels and you keep the funding rate the longs on the perp keep paying to the shorts. In calm markets net APR on BTC/ETH sits in the mid-single digits to low double digits after fees; during squeeze regimes it can push into the 20-40% range on majors and higher on mid-caps. All executable numbers on this page are live — the widget below already nets out taker fees and interval mismatch (Hyperliquid's 1h funding vs Bybit's 8h) so you do not have to.

Where this article fits in Yieldo's funding cluster (read the right sister for your strategy):

• Cross-exchange perp/perp delta-neutral — long the perp on the cheap-funding venue, short the perp on the expensive-funding venue → see the funding rate arbitrage guide.
• Hyperliquid 1h × CEX 8h normalization — a DEX-vs-CEX funding gap playbook → see CEX vs DEX funding arbitrage.
• Same-exchange spot + perp (cash-and-carry) — this article. Best fit for readers with a unified-margin CEX account who want a hands-on carry trade without moving USDT between venues.
• Screeners & tooling → funding rate arbitrage scanner.

Live executable spreads as of 19 August 2026 — read them from the scanner below, not from any hard-coded number in the prose.

The widget above is the source of truth for every "current" claim in this guide. Column-by-column: coin, long-leg venue and its funding rate, short-leg venue and its rate, spread, and annualized net APR after taker fees on both legs. For a same-exchange spot-perp cash-and-carry you read the SHORT-leg venue and rate — that is the perp side of your trade, and the spot side sits on the same venue's unified account.

What Is Spot-Perp Arbitrage (Cash-and-Carry in Crypto)

The mechanism in one sentence

You buy $X of BTC on spot, you short $X notional of BTC perpetual on the same account, and you collect the funding rate the perp longs pay you every 4-8 hours (or every hour on Hyperliquid) — because the two legs are equal and opposite, the coin's price direction is neutral to your P&L and only the funding cash flow accrues. It is the crypto analogue of the classic cash-and-carry trade from futures markets, adapted for perpetuals that never expire.

Same-exchange execution vs cross-exchange arbitrage

This is the point where readers often confuse two different strategies. Cross-exchange delta-neutral (the funding rate arbitrage guide's subject) is perp × perp across TWO venues — you long a perp on Venue A and short a perp on Venue B, capturing the funding spread. That construction needs USDT balancing between exchanges, watches for withdrawal-status changes, and generally suits traders comfortable with cross-venue plumbing. Same-exchange spot-perp is spot × perp on ONE venue. It needs a unified-margin CEX (Bybit Unified Trading Account, OKX Unified Account, or Bitget Unified USDT-M) so the spot BTC can collateralize the short perp inside a single margin pool — otherwise the spot and perp wallets are separate and you burn double the capital to hold both legs.

Who this strategy is for

The natural fit is a leverage-comfortable retail trader who already understands margin ratios and liquidation math, a USDT holder looking for something structurally more attractive than a 5-7% stablecoin park, or the audience of Yieldo's arbitrage hub scanning executable carries. It is not a fit for pure spot-only long-term holders — every rebalance is a taxable event in most jurisdictions, and a perp-leg liquidation in a sharp rally unwinds the trade in a way passive holding never would.

How Funding Rate Creates the Carry

Positive funding = longs pay shorts (why our short perp earns)

A funding rate is the periodic payment that pins a perpetual future's price to spot. When the perp trades above the index (crowded-long regime), the exchange makes longs pay shorts a small percentage of notional every settlement. When the perp trades below the index, shorts pay longs. Because BTC and ETH spend most of their time in a bull-biased regime, funding on majors sits positive far more often than negative — which is why the "short perp + long spot" side of the trade is the retail default. See funding rate as a trading indicator for how to read the sign as sentiment, and BTC funding page for the live cross-venue print.

Where the spot leg fits (neutralizes price direction)

A standalone short perp earns funding but keeps full downside price exposure the other way — if BTC rips higher, the short bleeds unrealized P&L faster than any funding cash flow can compensate. The spot leg is the hedge. Buying $10,000 of spot BTC gives you $10,000 of long-delta; shorting $10,000 of perpetual gives you $10,000 of short-delta; the two cancel and you are left with only the funding stream. On paper the position is directionally flat. In practice there is still margin geometry to manage (see the risk section below).

Composite payoff formula

The math that turns funding cash flow into a net APR you can compare to a stablecoin staking product:

Net APR = (funding rate × settlements per year × 100) − (round-trip taker fees on both legs, amortized over the hold)

Where settlements per year is 24 / interval hours × 365 — 1,095 on an 8h CEX venue, 2,190 on OKX's 4h liquid pairs, and 8,760 on Hyperliquid's 1h cadence. Round-trip taker on a typical Bybit trade is roughly 0.055% × 2 legs × 2 fills = 0.22% of notional, amortized across every funding hit over the hold. On a 30-day carry that fee cost spreads over ~90 8h settlements, so per-settlement drag is small and net APR sits close to gross. Model your own numbers in the funding rate calculator.

What the annualized carry actually is (illustrative range)

Historically on BTC and ETH cash-and-carry on major CEX, executable net APR has ranged from roughly 4-8% in quiet markets to 15-25% during bull euphoria when funding compresses upward, with brief spikes into 40-100%+ territory during the March 2024 rally toward $73k and the November 2024 post-election squeeze. Mid-caps and long-tail alts show wider swings — both up and down — and pair notably higher gross funding with materially higher slippage. The live executable band, as of 19 August 2026, is in the widget above.

Step-by-Step: Same-Exchange Execution (Bybit / OKX / Bitget Unified Margin)

The six-step playbook below matches the HowTo schema emitted with this article one-for-one. Read the ordered list as a checklist you can execute in the next hour.

1. Open a unified / cross-margin account on one exchange. Sign up for Bybit, OKX or Bitget and enable the unified (cross-margin) account mode. Spot-perp arbitrage requires spot and perpetual futures to share a single margin pool — otherwise the spot leg cannot collateralize the short perp and the trade turns into two independent positions with double the capital lock-up. Venue reference pages: Bybit funding, OKX funding, Bitget funding.
2. Deposit USDT or USDC into the unified wallet. Fund the unified account with USDT (TRC-20 for the cheapest transfer) or USDC (Arbitrum / Solana). Send the full notional you plan to trade — a $10,000 cash-and-carry needs roughly $10,000 in the wallet, since spot buys $10,000 of the asset and the perp short sits at 1×-equivalent notional against it. Keep a 20-30% USDT buffer on top for margin swings.
3. Buy the spot leg at the current mark price. Place a limit buy on the spot pair (e.g. BTC/USDT) for the full notional. Use a limit order near the top of the book to pay maker fee (~0.02%) instead of taker (~0.055%). This is your long-exposure leg — it earns the coin's price direction, which is exactly what the short perp will neutralize. Executing directly on Bybit keeps both legs on the same UTA collateral.
4. Open a short perpetual position of equal notional simultaneously. On the same account, open a SHORT perp on the same asset (BTC/USDT perpetual) with equal USD notional to the spot leg. Fire the perp short within seconds of the spot buy so the two legs neutralize before any price move. Use a limit order to pay maker fee where possible. Position is now delta-neutral. Keep perp leverage at 1-2× so a fast rally does not thin margin on the short leg.
5. Monitor funding accrual, margin health, and rate direction. Every funding interval (4h or 8h on CEX, 1h on Hyperliquid) the short perp receives funding when the rate is positive. Watch two dashboards: cumulative funding P&L (upward trend = trade working) and margin utilization on the perp leg (should stay well below the liquidation buffer since the spot leg collateralizes). Yieldo's live scanner and the Bybit vs OKX funding comparison both surface the cross-venue picture at a glance.
6. Close both legs together on rate reversal or better opportunity. When funding turns persistently negative, net APR drops below break-even after fees, or a better opportunity appears on the live scanner above, close BOTH legs simultaneously: sell the spot and buy back the short perp within the same seconds-window. Never close one leg without the other — that reintroduces full directional exposure. Executing the exit on the same venue keeps the two fills tightly aligned.

What this playbook explicitly is not: a cross-exchange plumbing exercise. Nothing in the six steps requires you to move USDT between venues, monitor withdrawal-status flags, or hold parallel wallets. That simplicity is the whole reason the same-exchange spot-perp trade exists as a distinct strategy inside the funding hub.

Alternative: Hyperliquid Perp × CEX Spot (1h vs 8h Normalization)

Why this variant exists

Hyperliquid is a perp-only DEX with no native spot market for BTC or ETH, so you cannot run same-account cash-and-carry there. You can, however, pair Hyperliquid perp (short leg) with CEX spot (long leg) — buy BTC spot on Bybit or OKX, transfer USDC to Hyperliquid via Arbitrum, short the perp there. Two structural reasons to bother: Hyperliquid's 1h funding cadence compounds faster than the 8h CEX standard at the same per-interval rate, and Hyperliquid frequently prints wider absolute funding on select coins (HYPE, mid-cap perp-DEX natives) than CEX venues do. Non-KYC access on the perp leg is a bonus for some readers, not the primary edge.

Execution playbook: CEX spot → USDC bridge → Hyperliquid perp short

Order of operations: (a) buy BTC spot on your existing Bybit or OKX unified account, (b) withdraw USDC to your Hyperliquid Arbitrum deposit address, (c) open the short BTC perp on Hyperliquid against the USDC margin. The transfer fee is small on Arbitrum (typically a few dollars), but network-status and freeze risk on the withdrawal side is real — see how to transfer crypto between exchanges, and the Hyperliquid review for venue-specific mechanics. If Hyperliquid's join-code bridge does not resolve at click time, the Hyperliquid link falls back to the public app without a fee rebate — funding math is unchanged, only the taker rebate goes missing.

Interval normalization math: 1h Hyperliquid vs 8h CEX

The formula every retail arb-hunter should have memorized:

APR% = per-interval rate × (24 / interval hours) × 365 × 100

So 0.005% every hour on Hyperliquid annualizes to 0.005 × 24 × 365 = 43.8% APR. On Bybit at 0.01% every 8 hours: 0.01 × 3 × 365 = 10.95% APR. Raw numbers on the exchange screen are not comparable — always normalize before deciding which venue's short leg to run. The Yieldo scanner above already does this normalization; the annualized column is the one to read. For a deeper dive into the interval mismatch see the funding rate benchmark: Hyperliquid vs CEX.

Extra costs to account for

Compared to a same-exchange trade the DEX-hybrid adds three frictions: a one-off Arbitrum bridge fee (small but non-zero on the round trip), settlement-lag between the spot fill on CEX and the perp fill on Hyperliquid (basis drift, seconds to minutes), and network-status dependency (hiccup on the CEX withdrawal channel or on Arbitrum and rebalancing gets ugly). Deep-dive pillar: CEX vs DEX funding arbitrage.

Costs & Net APR — Fee-Drag Table

Round-trip fees on the spot leg

Every closed spot position has two fills — open and close. Taker (market) round-trip = notional × spot taker × 2. Typical spot taker on the venues that matter: Bybit ~0.10% (VIP0 down to ~0.08%), OKX ~0.08%, Bitget ~0.10%, MEXC ~0.05%, KuCoin ~0.10%. Maker rates 0.02-0.04% — worth the limit-order effort above a few thousand dollars notional.

Round-trip fees on the perp leg

Perp taker is lower than spot taker across the board: Bybit ~0.055%, OKX ~0.05%, Bitget ~0.06%, Hyperliquid ~0.045%. Maker rebates exist on Bybit and Binance for VIP tiers; Hyperliquid's maker rate can go slightly negative on select tiers. Round-trip perp on Bybit ≈ 0.055% × 2 = 0.11% of notional.

Funding-cut / rebate mechanics per venue

Some exchanges historically took a small cut of the funding cash flow itself before crediting your account (FTX-era). Bybit, OKX, Binance, Bitget and Hyperliquid all pass funding through gross today — the rate you see is the rate you receive.

Break-even funding rate table (per-exchange, USDT-M pairs)

Exchange	Spot taker	Perp taker	Round-trip both legs	Break-even per-interval funding (30-day hold)	Break-even APR (30-day hold)
Bybit UTA	0.10%	0.055%	0.31%	~0.003% / 8h	~3.8%
OKX Unified	0.08%	0.05%	0.26%	~0.003% / 8h	~3.2%
Bitget Unified USDT-M	0.10%	0.06%	0.32%	~0.004% / 8h	~3.9%
Hyperliquid (perp only, pair with CEX spot)	n/a (spot on CEX)	0.045%	0.19% + bridge	~0.0003% / 1h	~2.3% (plus bridge)
MEXC / Gate / KuCoin (separate spot & perp wallets)	0.05-0.10%	0.05-0.06%	0.20-0.32%	~0.002-0.004% / 8h	~2.4-3.9%

Model your exact rate and hold in the funding rate calculator before committing capital, and cross-reference the cross-venue live band with the funding rate arbitrage scanner to check whether a better hedged setup is sitting on a different pair. Withdrawal-fee schedule (matters if you ever move USDT off the venue): fees hub.

Risk Management: Where This Trade Actually Bleeds

Liquidation risk on the perp leg

Delta-neutral does not mean liquidation-proof. Each leg has its own margin geometry: if BTC rips higher, your short perp loses unrealized P&L faster than the exchange's margin engine credits your spot mark-to-market — unified margin haircuts spot BTC collateral at ~90-95%, not 100%. Under isolated margin the spot leg does not credit the perp at all, so a 5×+ leveraged short-perp gets torched on the first 5-10% up-move. Practical: keep perp leverage at 1-2×, keep a 20-30% USDT buffer inside the unified wallet, and prefer cross-margin. The March 2024 rally toward $73k and the November 2024 post-election squeeze both took out under-buffered carry traders who were technically delta-neutral but structurally under-margined.

Funding rate reversal (positive → negative flip)

Carry regimes flip regularly. After a squeeze the market gets over-long, longs deleverage, and funding compresses toward zero or inverts. Once funding is negative you now PAY the longs on your short-perp leg — the carry works against you. Exit rule of thumb: close the trade when net APR (after fees) drops below your USDT-staking benchmark for two consecutive settlements, or when funding stays negative more than 24-48 hours. Do NOT hedge-flip the perp mid-trade (long the perp instead) — that turns the position into short-spot, which retail rarely executes cleanly.

Exchange counterparty risk

Withdrawal freezes, hot-wallet compromises and delistings are still a real category of loss even for the "delta-neutral" trade. Any capital that lives on a single venue for weeks is exposed to that venue's proof-of-reserves quality and operational hygiene. Cash-and-carry is not a strategy for storing life savings — it is a strategy for productively deploying trading capital already allocated to venue risk. If the carry premium above a passive alternative like stablecoin staking is less than the incremental counterparty risk, the trade is not worth it.

Black-swan / gap risk (halt, delisting, oracle manipulation on the DEX leg)

Very rare, but the tail is fat. A perp market halt can leave you unable to close the short leg while spot continues to trade — exposure to whatever price moves during the halt. Oracle manipulation on the DEX leg (rare on Hyperliquid, more common on smaller perp DEXes) can create a fake liquidation. For Hyperliquid × CEX readers, review withdrawal exits in the cross-exchange transfer guide before you need them.

Best Exchanges for Spot-Perp Arbitrage (7 Ranked)

The ranking below is opinionated for the same-exchange cash-and-carry trade specifically — it is not the general "best perp DEX" or "best CEX" ordering. For that broader money-page comparison see best perpetual futures exchanges.

1. Bybit — Unified Trading Account, deep spot books

The de-facto default for spot-perp cash-and-carry. Bybit UTA pools spot and USDT-M perp collateral in a single margin bucket — a $10,000 spot BTC buy directly backs a $10,000 short BTC perp with a modest haircut. BTC and ETH spot books are deep enough to absorb five-figure positions with sub-basis-point slippage, funding cap ±0.75% / 8h clamps extreme prints, and Bybit's own Help Center documents this exact use case. Trade via Bybit. Coin refs: Bybit funding, BTC funding cross-venue.

2. OKX — Unified Account, 4h liquid pairs

Close second. OKX Unified Account supports the same spot-as-collateral geometry as Bybit UTA, and OKX has moved a growing set of majors to a 4-hour funding cadence. More settlements per day = same per-interval rate compounds into higher annualized carry on OKX than on Bybit for identical prints. Trade via OKX. Reference: OKX funding page.

3. Bitget — Unified USDT-M, copy-trading integration

A solid third pick, especially for readers who want to run a copy-trading angle alongside the carry. Requires explicit opt-in to unified mode. Trade via Bitget. Reference: Bitget funding page.

4. Hyperliquid — 1h funding cadence, non-KYC (perp leg only)

Perp-only DEX — no same-account cash-and-carry, but you can pair Hyperliquid's short perp with a CEX spot leg for the DEX-hybrid variant. The 1h funding cadence and frequently wider absolute funding on select coins are the two edges. Trade via Hyperliquid. Full DEX playbook: CEX vs DEX funding arbitrage.

5. Binance — the elephant with no Yieldo referral

Binance Portfolio Margin technically supports the same-account spot-perp geometry with the deepest liquidity in the industry. Yieldo has no referral programme with Binance, so this section is prose only — no CTA. Readers with an existing Binance account can execute the same six-step playbook there; mechanics are identical.

6. MEXC / Gate.io — long-tail alt coverage for the spot leg

MEXC and Gate list a much wider set of long-tail alts on spot than Bybit or OKX. If your carry idea is on a coin that trades on those venues on spot but has a perp on Bybit or Hyperliquid, you are already in the cross-exchange regime (moving USDT, monitoring withdrawal status) — the sister cross-exchange guide is the better read. Spot-side coverage: MEXC, Gate.io.

7. KuCoin — fallback spot leg

KuCoin spot books are respectable on majors and pair reasonably with a Bybit or Hyperliquid short-perp leg if you already have a KuCoin balance. Not the first-pick venue, but a working fallback: KuCoin. Head-to-head reference: Bybit vs OKX funding rates.

Real Example with Live Data — BTC Spot-Perp on Bybit

This section takes the current cross-venue BTC funding print, drops it into the six-step playbook, and shows what a $10,000 notional cash-and-carry trade would look like at today's numbers. Rates below are illustrative diagnostic — the actual live snapshot lives in the widget.

Snapshot: current BTC funding across exchanges (19 August 2026)

The widget above shows the current BTC funding rate on every venue Yieldo tracks, with the annualized column already computed so 1h Hyperliquid rows sit comparable to 8h CEX rows. For same-exchange cash-and-carry on Bybit, the value that matters is the Bybit BTCUSDT row's 8h rate. Cross-check with the BTC funding: Binance vs Bybit vs OKX deep-dive if you want an intraday comparison, or the BTC funding page for the full cross-venue table.

Worked example: $10,000 notional × illustrative 8h rate × 30 days

Assume the current Bybit BTCUSDT print is a mid-single-digit-APR reading, say 0.012% per 8h (representative for a mildly-bullish regime — NOT a live number, just an illustrative anchor). Inputs:

• Spot BTC long: $10,000 notional at Bybit spot price
• Perp BTCUSDT short: $10,000 notional at 1× leverage on Bybit perp
• Funding rate: 0.012% per 8h (illustrative)
• Hold duration: 30 days

Step A — settlements over the hold. 24 / 8 = 3 per day × 30 days = 90 settlements.

Step B — funding cash flow per settlement. $10,000 × 0.00012 = $1.20 per settlement.

Step C — gross funding over 30 days. 90 × $1.20 = $108.00.

Step D — annualize (simple APR). 0.012% × 3 × 365 = 13.14% simple APR.

Step E — round-trip fee drag. Bybit spot taker 0.10% + perp taker 0.055%, both legs, both fills = 2 × (0.10 + 0.055)% = 0.31% of notional = $31.00 on $10,000. Once, at open+close.

Step F — net over 30 days. $108.00 gross funding − $31.00 fees = $77.00 net. Annualized, that is roughly 9.36% net APR on the capital committed for 30 days.

What changes if you split the perp leg to Hyperliquid

If instead of shorting the perp on Bybit UTA you bridge USDC to Hyperliquid and short the BTCUSDC perp there, three numbers move: perp taker drops from 0.055% to 0.045%, settlements per day jump from 3 to 24, and you pick up the Arbitrum bridge friction. On the same $10,000 notional at a representative Hyperliquid 1h rate of 0.0015%, gross funding = $10,000 × 0.000015 × 24 × 30 = $108.00 — coincidentally similar for that rate pair. The edge appears when Hyperliquid prints wider absolute funding than the CEX equivalent (routine on mid-caps, occasional on BTC/ETH), or in squeeze regimes where the 1h cadence compounds faster. Trade the CEX spot leg on Bybit or OKX in either case.

When Spot-Perp Arbitrage Stops Working (Exit Signals)

Rate flip to persistent negative

The primary exit trigger. Funding turning negative for one 8h settlement is noise; funding turning negative for three or four consecutive settlements is signal — the market has flipped short-biased, longs are being paid, and your short perp is now paying, not receiving. Close both legs simultaneously; do not try to hedge-flip the perp direction mid-trade.

Net APR compresses below break-even

Break-even for a Bybit BTC same-exchange trade sits around 3-4% net APR on a 30-day hold (see the fee-drag table above). If the annualized column of Yieldo's live scanner drops below that band and stays there for a day or two, the trade is no longer paying its way — a plain stablecoin staking product or a Treasury-yield allocation via USDT staking vs Treasury yields starts to look more attractive risk-adjusted.

Withdrawal disabled on either leg

If the venue disables withdrawals on either the spot or perp side (network maintenance, wallet incident, listing review), your ability to rebalance disappears. The trade is not immediately dangerous — the two legs are still delta-neutral inside the venue — but any need to close cleanly gets complicated. If withdrawals stay down more than 24-48 hours, close and wait it out.

Better opportunity elsewhere

Cross-exchange delta-neutral spreads on the funding arbitrage guide's watchlist can occasionally offer 2-3× the net APR of a plain same-exchange carry — at the cost of extra plumbing. The sister funding rate arbitrage scanner surfaces those spreads, and the CEX vs DEX funding arbitrage playbook explains when a Hyperliquid × CEX pair is more attractive than a same-exchange trade. If a wider spread is sitting there executable and your capital is still tied up in a low-yield carry, you are leaving money on the table.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is spot-perp arbitrage in crypto?

Spot-perp arbitrage (also called cash-and-carry) is a delta-neutral strategy where you buy a coin on spot and simultaneously short an equal notional of the same coin's perpetual future on the same exchange. The spot leg cancels the short perp's price exposure, and you keep the funding payments the shorts collect from longs when the rate is positive. Net yield is usually in the high single digits to low double digits annualized in calm markets, subject to fees.

Is spot-perp arbitrage risk-free?

No. It removes directional price risk but not liquidation risk on the perp leg (if margin thins during a sharp rally), rate-reversal risk (funding can flip negative and you start paying), counterparty risk (exchange freeze or hack), and execution risk (any lag between the two fills creates unhedged exposure). It is lower-risk than one-sided funding hunting, not zero-risk.

How much can you actually earn from spot-perp arbitrage?

Historically, executable net APR on BTC and ETH spot-perp on major CEX has ranged from about 4-6% in quiet markets to 15-25%+ during bull-market euphoria when funding spikes. On long-tail alts and on Hyperliquid × CEX pairs, gross rates are higher but so are execution costs. Not guaranteed — model your specific rate in the funding rate calculator before committing capital.

Which exchange is best for spot-perp arbitrage in 2026?

Bybit is the top pick for beginners — its unified trading account lets spot collateralize the short perp with a single margin pool, and the spot books are deep enough for majors. OKX (unified account) and Bitget are close seconds. For Hyperliquid × CEX combos, use the DEX for the perp leg (1-hour funding) and Bybit or OKX for the spot leg.

How does spot-perp arbitrage differ from cross-exchange funding arbitrage?

Cross-exchange arbitrage opens a long perp on one exchange and a short perp on another to capture the funding-rate spread — no spot involved, no bridging on entry. Spot-perp arbitrage runs both legs on ONE exchange (spot + perp) and captures the absolute funding rate, not the spread. Cross-exchange requires transfers between venues; spot-perp does not. Yieldo covers cross-exchange in a separate guide.

What happens if the funding rate turns negative?

If funding turns negative, longs receive from shorts — your short perp leg starts PAYING instead of earning. If the negative print is small and short-lived, hold. If it looks persistent (multiple intervals below zero) and net APR drops below your break-even after fees, close both legs together and redeploy capital.

Can I use Hyperliquid for spot-perp arbitrage?

Hyperliquid is a DEX perp venue with no spot market — so the spot leg must live on a CEX (Bybit, OKX, Bitget, MEXC, Gate.io, KuCoin). Buy spot on the CEX, transfer USDC via Arbitrum to Hyperliquid, and short the perp there. Hyperliquid pays funding on a 1-hour cadence (vs 8-hour on most CEX), so annualization math uses ×24 per day, not ×3.

How do I calculate net APR after fees for a spot-perp trade?

Net APR = (funding rate × settlements per day × 365) − (round-trip taker fees on both legs × cycles per year to reset). For a Bybit BTC pair with 0.01% per 8h funding and 0.055% × 2 legs × 2 fills round-trip, gross APR is ~10.95% and per-round-trip fee cost is ~0.22% (perp side) plus spot leg fee. Hold for 30 days = fees are amortized over ~90 funding hits, so net APR sits close to gross. Model the exact numbers in the Yieldo funding rate calculator.

Related Reading

• Funding rate arbitrage guide — cross-exchange perp/perp delta-neutral, the sister strategy to same-exchange cash-and-carry.
• CEX vs DEX funding arbitrage — the Hyperliquid 1h × CEX 8h playbook in full detail.
• Funding rate arbitrage scanner — live screener across 10+ venues.
• Funding rate calculator — model your exact position size, hold, and net APR.

About the Author, Disclaimer and Reproducibility

Written by Eugen Voyager — crypto analyst and blockchain entrepreneur. Founder of Telochain blockchain and GameFi project @telomeme. Author of the Russian-language Telegram channel "Scam & Dot" (@tonsdot) covering crypto market analysis, exchange reviews, and DeFi opportunities. With hands-on experience building blockchain infrastructure and analyzing market dynamics. Article and live rates last verified 19 August 2026.

Reproducibility. Formulas used across this article: Net APR ≈ (funding rate × settlements per year × 100) − (round-trip fee cost, amortized over the hold); settlements per year = (24 / interval hours) × 365; APR% = per-interval rate × (24 / interval hours) × 365 × 100. Cross-check by re-running the Real Example above (Bybit BTC, $10,000, 0.012% per 8h, 30 days): expect $108 gross, $31 fees, $77 net, ~9.36% net APR. Data sources: exchange public funding endpoints across Bybit, OKX, Binance, Bitget, MEXC, Gate, KuCoin, Hyperliquid and Aster, polled every 10 minutes into Yieldo's funding widgets.

Risk warning. Spot-perp cash-and-carry is a lower-risk crypto yield strategy, not a risk-free one. The perp leg can be liquidated in a sharp rally if margin buffer is inadequate; funding can flip negative and turn the carry into a cost; exchanges can freeze withdrawals or delist pairs without warning; every rebalance is a taxable event in most jurisdictions. Nothing in this article is investment advice. Always model position size against your own risk tolerance and account for exchange-specific mechanics before opening a leveraged trade.

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