付鹏: The essence of Bitcoin perpetual contracts is that major holders collect rent, while retail investors pay fees for leveraged long positions

Odaily News Fu Peng, Chief Economist at Xinhuo Group, posted on X platform stating that the underlying business model of Bitcoin perpetual contracts is essentially the same as the deferred delivery fees or overnight charges in traditional financial markets such as gold and industrial commodity spot exchanges. Fu Peng pointed out that gold exchanges once employed daily forced liquidation settlements, requiring long and short positions to pay deferred delivery fees to each other. When retail investors hold high-leverage long positions, these deferred fees become a stable source of revenue for the exchange.

Today, Bitcoin platforms rely on perpetual contracts settling funding rates every 8 hours. When long positions dominate, retail investors continuously pay fees to short positions. Although the platform does not directly collect this fee, it boosts trading activity, open interest, and liquidity, thereby indirectly generating substantial transaction fees. This model essentially functions as a business mechanism where major holders or institutions collect rent from long-term holdings, retail investors pay fees for leveraged longs, and the platform indirectly takes a cut.