The question that every trader (who don’t know) will ask: why sometimes the coin that’s topping the gainers list has different prices in Futures and Spot? For example, a token might show $1.05 on Spot but just $0.97 on Futures—even though it's the same asset. This often confuses new traders who expect prices to match across markets.
The reason lies in how Spot and Futures markets work. Spot reflects real-time buying and selling—when you buy a coin on Spot, you own it instantly. Futures, however, are contracts where traders speculate on the future price without owning the asset. Because of this, Futures prices can be influenced by leverage, market sentiment, and open interest, rather than pure demand like Spot.
When the Futures market turns bearish—meaning more people are shorting the token—the funding rate can go negative. In this case, short traders are paying longs just to hold their position, and it often pushes Futures prices below Spot. So that visible price gap is not a mistake—it’s a signal of sentiment, positioning, and sometimes panic. Always DYOR before jumping in based on price alone.