付鹏: Bitcoin perpetual contract's essence is large holders collecting rent, retail pays for leveraged longs

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

Today, Bitcoin platforms rely on the funding rate settled every 8 hours for perpetual contracts. When longs dominate, retail investors continuously pay fees to shorts. Although the platform does not directly collect this fee, it uses this mechanism to boost trading activity, open interest, and liquidity, indirectly generating substantial transaction fees. This model is essentially a business model where large holders or institutions collect rent from long-term positions, retail investors pay for leveraged longs, and the platform indirectly takes a cut.