Like many other crypto services, trading crypto futures comes with fees. Every time you open, hold, or close a position, fees are involved that can affect your profits or deepen your losses. Lesson 4 of the Kanga University Future Series explains the full cost structure of futures trading, from visible fees like maker/taker charges to hidden risks such as slippage. We will use real-world examples to demonstrate how these fees are applied in practice.
Understanding Transaction Fees: Maker and Taker
In most crypto futures exchanges like Kanga, two main types of transaction fees apply: maker and taker fees.
You are a maker when you place a limit order that does not immediately match with another order. This action adds liquidity to the order book. For example, if Bitcoin is currently trading at $101,000 and you place a buy limit order at $100,000, you are acting as a maker.
You are a taker when you submit an order that matches instantly with an existing one on the order book. If you decide to buy Bitcoin at the current market price of $101,000, you are a taker.
The fees each of these people pays are different. On many exchanges, you will see maker fees between 0% and 0.02%, while taker fees can range from 0.05% to 0.075%.
Example:
Suppose you open a $10,000 futures position as a taker at a 0.075% fee.
You immediately pay:
10,000 × 0.00075 = $7.50
If you instead placed a limit order (maker) with a 0.02% fee, the same position would cost:
10,000 × 0.0002 = $2.00
Funding Rate: An Intra-Day Cost
Because perpetual futures don’t have expiry dates, they rely on a funding rate to maintain parity with the spot price. The funding rate is exchanged between long and short traders every 8 hours.
So, when the funding rate is positive, long traders pay shorts. If negative, shorts pay longs. This fee can be tiny in the short term, but over days or weeks, it adds up.
Example:
If you hold a $20,000 long position with a funding rate of +0.01%, you will pay:
20,000 × 0.0001 = $2 every 8 hours, or $6 per day.
Hold it for a week? That’s $42 gone, solely in funding.
Liquidation Fees and Risks
Liquidation happens when your margin can no longer support a losing position. Hence, exchanges liquidate your position to protect against more losses. During this process, a liquidation fee is charged.
Suppose you open a 10x leveraged long position on ETH/USDT worth $10,000. If the price falls 10%, you hit your liquidation threshold.
Now, let’s say the exchange charges a 0.5% liquidation fee:
$10,000 × 0.005 = $50 fee charged during liquidation.
Slippage and Liquidity
Slippage is the difference between the price you expected and the price at which your trade is executed. Volatility or low liquidity in the crypto market is the cause of this issue.
Example of a Negative Slippage:
You try to buy 2 BTC at $100,000, but liquidity is low. Your order gets filled at $100,300 instead.
That’s a $300 × 2 = $600 loss, without price moving against you.
Example of a Positive Slippage:
You place a limit order to buy BTC at $100,000. The price suddenly dips to $99,800 and fills there.
You just gained an extra $200 due to favorable market conditions. Please note that high slippage tolerance may lead to unwanted price fills. On the other hand, low tolerance can cause unfilled orders.
Funding In and Out
Although they are not part of your trade execution, deposit and withdrawal fees will still affect your net trading results. It also depends on your method of deposits and withdrawals because there are exchanges that don’t charge deposit fees.
On the other hand, some exchanges charge a flat fee for withdrawals. For example, Bitcoin may have a 0.0005 BTC fee, while Ethereum may have a 0.01 ETH fee.
Furthermore, wire transfer deposits or fiat-based funding can also incur fees ranging from $10 to $30, depending on the method.
If you are an active trader who moves funds frequently, these can quietly remove some of your capital before and after trading.
PnL and Fee Reconciliation
Profit and Loss (PnL) calculation in futures trading doesn’t stop at entry and exit prices. Every fee, from funding to execution, needs to be subtracted before you understand your real return.
Let’s walk through a detailed example so you can understand better.
Example Trade
You go long on BTC/USDT with:
- Entry Price: $90,00
- Exit Price: $94,000
- Mark Price at peak: $95,000
- Leverage: 10x
- Contract Size: 1 BTC
- Taker Fee: 0.02%
- Funding Rate: 0.1% (once during the holding period)
Unrealized PnL
While the position is open, unrealized PnL is based on the market price:Unrealized PnL = (Mark Price – Entry Price) × Contract Size
= 95,000 minus 90,000 multiplied by 1 = 5,000 USDT
Realized PnL
Once you close at 94,000:
- Profit = 94,000 minus 90,000 multiplied by 1 = 4,000 USDT
- Opening Fee = 90,000 multiplied by 0.02% = 18 USDT
- Closing Fee = 94,000 multiplied by 0.02% = 18.8 USDT
- Funding Fee = 90,000 times 0.1% = 90 USDT
Realized PnL = 4,000 minus 18 minus 18.8 minus 90 = 3,873.2 USDT
Position PnL
It shows total net gain/loss:
Position PnL = Closing Profits – Opening/Closing Fees – Funding
Today’s PnL / 7-Day PnL
These time-based metrics depend on when the trade occurred. Let’s say your wallet at midnight UTC was 20,000 USDT, and it’s now 23,800 USDT:
Today’s PnL = 23,800 – 20,000 = 3,800 USDT
Summary
If you focus only on price movement, you miss the full story of futures trading. Here are some of the fees that add up before, during, and after you trade:
- Trading fees (especially if you’re a taker)
- Regular funding rate debits.
- Unexpected liquidation charges.
- Poor order execution due to slippage.
- In-and-out fees from deposits or withdrawals.
- Hidden costs in long-term holding, like overnight fees.
