# Perpetual Assets

Perpetual Assets

A perpetual contract (perp) is a derivative product with no expiration date. It tracks the price of an underlying asset and stays near that price through a funding mechanism. Features of Hyperliquid perps include:

* **No expiry**: You don’t have to roll over or settle perps on a certain date. You can hold a position indefinitely as long as you have enough margin.
* **Funding rate**: To keep the perp’s price aligned with the real market price, traders make periodic payments to each other. If the perp price is above the index, longs pay shorts. If below, shorts pay longs. The funding rate shown in the interface tells you the next expected payment % (it can be positive or negative). This rate is charged at regular intervals (e.g., hourly or 8-hourly).
* **Oracle Price**: The oracle price is used to calculate funding rates. For crypto perps, it’s derived as described in Hyperliquid’s documentation [here](http://hyperliquid.gitbook.io/hyperliquid-docs/hypercore/oracle). For XYZ perps, it’s determined as set out under the XYZ Perpetuals, Oracle and Mark Price section of this documentation.
* **Mark price**: The mark price is a fair price for the asset used to calculate your PnL, margining, triggering TP/SL orders, and liquidation purposes. For crypto perps, it’s derived as described in Hyperliquid’s documentation [here](https://hyperliquid.gitbook.io/hyperliquid-docs/trading/robust-price-indices). For XYZ perps, it's detailed in the [Relayer](https://docs.trade.xyz/relayer) section of this documentation. 
* **Margin**:  For crypto perps, Hyperliquid has one main style of margining for perpetual contracts: USDC margining, USDT-denominated linear contracts. This means that the oracle price is denominated in USDT, but the collateral is USDC. For equities perps, collateral remains USDC, but the oracle price is denominated in USD. On trade\[XYZ], currently, margin is isolated to each market on our platform. That means your crypto perps account and equities account are separate. Within a specific wallet account (e.g. crypto perps), you may have the option to choose between cross-margining and isolated margin (see Margin for more).

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