How to Trade Traditional Finance Assets with Crypto: Step-by-Step Guide to BitMEX TradFi Perps
Crypto traders have spent years on the sidelines looking in. Stock earnings gap overnight. Oil prices spike on a Saturday. Until now, capturing these moves required converting to fiat, opening legacy brokerage accounts, and obeying someone else’s trading hours.
TradFi Perps on BitMEX remove these barriers. You now have access to every major traditional asset class from a single account with a crypto deposit. These contracts allow you to trade the price of stocks, currency pairs, and commodities using crypto as collateral. Every contract trades 24/7/365, settles in USDT, and carries no expiry date.
TradFi Perps reached $30.7 billion in weekly volume in Q1 2026, and the momentum is growing. This guide provides a step-by-step breakdown on how to trade traditional assets using your crypto balance.
What Are Traditional Finance Assets?
Traditional finance (TradFi) assets are conventional, regulated investment instruments managed by centralised institutions like banks and exchanges. Key examples include stocks (equities), bonds (fixed income), bank deposits, mutual funds, and physical real estate or commodities. These assets are characterised by strong regulatory oversight, established market structures, and, typically, higher liquidity than decentralised alternatives.
BitMEX supports 20+ TradFi assets including:
Equities: Shares of publicly listed companies (Apple, Tesla, Nvidia) and stock indices (S&P 500, QQQ).
Foreign exchange (FX): Currency pairs like GBP/USD, EUR/USD, and USD/JPY. The forex market trades over $7.5 trillion daily, making it the largest financial market in the world.
Commodities: Physical goods like gold, silver, and crude oil. Commodity perpetuals recorded the most explosive growth of any TradFi Perps category in Q1 2026: a 65,463% increase from $38.1 million to $25.0 billion weekly volume, according to BitMEX’s Derivatives Report.
What Are BitMEX TradFi Perps?
BitMEX TradFi Perps are perpetual swap contracts that track the price of traditional financial assets. They work identically to the crypto perpetual swaps that BitMEX invented in 2016, with one difference: the underlying asset is a stock, currency pair, or commodity instead of a cryptocurrency.
A perpetual swap has no expiry date. Traders open long or short positions and hold them indefinitely, provided they maintain sufficient margin. The contract price stays anchored to the underlying asset’s spot price through a funding rate mechanism. Every eight hours, funding payments are exchanged between longs and shorts. If the perp trades above spot, longs pay shorts. If below spot, shorts pay longs. This creates a continuous incentive for the contract price to converge with reality.
Settlement happens entirely in USDT. When you trade TSLAUSDT (Tesla) on BitMEX, you are not buying Tesla shares. You are opening a leveraged position on Tesla’s price, collateralised by crypto, settled in stablecoins.
Crypto collateral: Use BTC, ETH, USDT, and other cryptocurrencies to open positions across all asset classes.
24/7 trading: Trade equities, currency pairs, and commodities continuously, including weekends and holidays.
Peer-to-Peer: You trade against other market participants on a visible order book, not against a broker who sets the price. No dealer desk, no re-quotes, no conflict of interest.
No expiry or delivery: All TradFi Perps are perpetual. No rollover, no settlement dates, no physical delivery.
Cash-settled in USDT: You do not own stocks, hold fiat currencies, or take delivery of commodities.
How Do You Trade TradFi Assets on BitMEX Step by Step?
Four steps take you from account creation to trading any traditional asset class.
Step 1: Register and Verify Your Account
You need a verified BitMEX account to trade TradFi Perps. Verification requires a valid ID and may include proof of address. KYC completion time varies by jurisdiction.
If you haven’t signed up for a BitMEX account yet, we’re currently offering $5,050+ worth of trading credits to new users - you can register here.
Step 2: Navigate to TradFi Perps
After logging in to the trading terminal, click the market dropdown menu at the top left. Select the ‘TradFi’ category to trade:
Equities like stocks and indices (e.g., AAPLUSDT).
FX pairs (e.g., GBPUSD).
Commodities like metals and energy (e.g., XAGUSDT).
Step 3: Select Your Contract and Configure Your Order
Choose the specific contract you want to trade and configure the following:
Set leverage. Use the leverage slider. Maximum leverage varies by asset class: up to 20x for equities, up to 100x for FX, and up to 25x for commodities.
Choose order type. Limit Orders execute at a specific price whilst Market Orders execute at the best available price on the order book. Learn more about order types here.
Input order price. For Limit Orders, specify the exact execution price.
Choose direction. Go long (bet the asset price rises) or short (bet the asset price falls).
Step 4: Monitor and Manage Your Position
Once filled, your position appears in the “Overview” and “Positions” tabs.
Monitor metrics: View PnL, funding rate, margin, and other data at a glance.
Track your breakeven: Expand position details to find your breakeven price for Stop Loss placement.
Watch funding rates closely: TradFi Perps funding rates can be significantly more volatile than crypto perps. The BitMEX Q1 2026 Derivative report documented SPY funding at -266.60% APR on weekends and COIN funding at -106.67% weekday APR. These rates create both risk and opportunity.
What Risk Management Tips Apply to TradFi Perps Trading?
Each traditional asset class has a distinct volatility profile. Three principles protect your capital across all of them.
Match leverage to asset volatility: Equities can gap 5-10% on earnings reports. Currency pairs typically move 1-3% on central bank decisions. Set leverage conservatively: 2-5x for equities, 5-10x for forex, and research each commodity’s historical range before choosing leverage.
Factor in weekend mechanics: BitMEX applies a rolling 2% hourly price limit when price sources are not printing. Hyperliquid caps oil at +/-5% on weekends. Understand the specific weekend mechanics on your exchange before holding positions through the gap.
Use stop losses before high-impact events: Earnings reports affect equities. FOMC decisions and employment data affect forex and gold. OPEC meetings affect crude oil. Set stop losses before these events to cap your downside.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you trade stocks, forex, and commodities using Bitcoin or crypto?
Yes. BitMEX TradFi Perps allow you to trade equities (Apple, Tesla, SPY), forex pairs (GBP/USD), and commodities (gold, silver, crude oil) using cryptocurrency as collateral. Supported collateral includes BTC, ETH, and USDT. One BitMEX account covers all three asset classes with no fiat conversion required.
What traditional assets can you trade on BitMEX?
BitMEX offers 20+ TradFi contracts across three categories. Equities: AAPLUSDT (Apple), TSLAUSDT (Tesla), NVDAUSDT (Nvidia), SPYUSDT (S&P 500), and more. FX: GBPUSD and other major currency pairs. Commodities: XAGUSDT (silver), XAUTUSDT (gold), BRENTUSDT (Brent crude), and WTIUSDT (WTI crude).
What leverage is available for TradFi Perps?
Leverage varies by asset class. Equity Perps offer up to 20x leverage. FX Perps offer up to 50x leverage. Commodity Perps leverage varies by contract. Starting with lower leverage is recommended for traders new to each asset class, as TradFi assets can experience sharp moves during earnings, central bank decisions, and geopolitical events.
How do you earn yield from TradFi Perps funding rates?
Three strategies: collect weekend funding premiums (XAG averaged 56.69% APR on weekends in Q1 2026), run cross-exchange funding rate arbitrage (COIN spread reached 106.27% APR between BitMEX and Hyperliquid), or hold the less-crowded side of directional trades to accumulate funding payments. Monitor the funding rate on each contract page before entering a position.
Do TradFi Perps trade on weekends?
Yes. All TradFi Perps on BitMEX trade 24/7/365, including weekends and public holidays. This applies equally to equities, forex, and commodities. Weekend liquidity is typically thinner, and exchanges apply price mechanisms (BitMEX: 2% hourly rolling limit) to manage deviation. Adjust position sizes and stop losses accordingly.
