A perpetual future (a "perp") is a futures contract with no expiry date. You go long or short with leverage, you never own the underlying asset, and you close whenever you want. If you have traded CFDs, that description will sound familiar, because day to day the two feel very close.

A regular future settles on a fixed date, and that date is what pulls its price toward the real asset's price. A perp has no date, so it uses a different anchor: every hour a small funding payment flows between longs and shorts, nudging the contract price back toward the underlying. That is the one genuinely new mechanic on this product, and it is covered in full in Funding rates, explained.

Your Upcomers Perpetuals account is simulated, exactly like our CFD and futures accounts. You trade a simulated balance against real, live market data. Your orders are filled against the live Hyperliquid order book as it stands at that moment, but the order itself is not sent to the exchange under your name, and no cash of yours is posted as margin.

This matters in one direction only: it removes your personal capital from the risk, not the difficulty. The prices, the depth, the slippage and the funding are all genuine market behavior, so a profitable perpetuals trader here is doing the same work as a profitable trader anywhere else.

In short: real prices, simulated execution, real payouts.

Around 130 perpetual contracts, all priced in USD, all carrying a -PERP suffix in the platform (BTC-PERP, NVDA-PERP, GOLD-PERP):

The full list, with each market's leverage cap and fees, is in The perpetuals symbol catalog.

Perpetuals accounts are available on four Upcomers programs. Two are challenge products, two are instant funding.

Every target, drawdown limit and payout condition is set out in Upcomers Perpetuals programs: complete rules and overview.

Funding replaces swap. Instead of an overnight swap charged once a day and tripled on Wednesday, longs and shorts exchange a small payment every hour. It can go either way, so you sometimes receive it.

The market never closes. No sessions, no weekend gap, no Sunday open. Gold, oil and stock perps keep trading while their underlying exchanges are shut.

Leverage is a choice, not a fixture. Each symbol has its own cap and you set your own leverage anywhere below it. You are never required to use the maximum.

Everything that makes an Upcomers account an Upcomers account works exactly as it always has. The drawdown engine, the breach rules, the Best Day Rule, KYC, payouts, the profit split and the prohibited strategies framework are the same rules you already know, applied to a new market.

Balance, equity, floating P&L and stop loss all mean what they meant before. Your daily drawdown still resets at 00:00 UTC. What changed is the market underneath, not the rulebook on top.

This product, like all Upcomers programs, is subject to our standard trading rules and policies. These include our framework on prohibited strategies and our guidelines on responsible trading and gambling-style behavior, both of which apply across all our challenges, funded accounts, and products.

We recommend reviewing both articles before you begin trading:

Prohibited strategies: https://help.upcomers.com/en/articles/8703143-what-trading-strategies-are-prohibited-at-upcomers

Rules restricting gambling: https://help.upcomers.com/en/articles/11484528-rules-restricting-gambling

Start with Perpetuals vs CFDs: what actually changes if you are moving over from a CFD account. Then read Funding rates, explained and Leverage and margin on perpetuals, the two mechanics most worth understanding before your first trade. For the rules that keep your account alive, read Upcomers Perpetuals programs: complete rules and overview.