Binance is making its first move into foreign exchange derivatives with the launch of a USDBRLUSDT perpetual futures contract, scheduled to begin trading on September 21 at 14:00 UTC. The USDT-margined contract tracks the US dollar against the Brazilian real, settles in USDT, and offers up to 100x leverage with 24/7 trading, according to an official announcement on September 18.
The new instrument has a tick size of 0.0001 and a minimum notional of 5 USDT. Funding settlements occur every eight hours, with the funding rate capped at plus or minus 0.375% and the interest component set at zero. The contract also supports multi-assets mode, allowing traders to use a wider pool of collateral rather than holding US dollars or Brazilian reais.
Because traditional foreign exchange markets close on weekends and public holidays, Binance will use two pricing mechanisms. From Sunday 17:00 ET through Friday 17:00 ET, the index price updates every second as a weighted average of quotes from third-party data vendors. During weekends and public holidays, the platform switches to an orderbook exponentially weighted moving average, or EWMA, mode so the contract remains tradable while underlying FX liquidity is closed.
Binance derivatives head Shunyet Jan said the structure allows price discovery outside the normal hours of traditional FX venues. He added that traders can use the contract to hedge currency exposure or take directional positions. Eligible users must meet Binance’s regional rules and futures trading requirements.
The FX listing is part of a wider multi-asset push. Binance has already reported strong traction in its TradFi perpetual contracts and added ETF wealth management with US Treasury and bond funds earlier in September. In May, the exchange introduced perpetuals linked to companies including Oracle, Disney, Uber, Cisco and Home Depot. Other crypto exchanges such as Bybit and Kraken have also launched perpetual products linked to traditional currency pairs.
For crypto markets, a USDT-settled FX perpetual removes the need to hold fiat currency to express a view on foreign exchange, while extending the crypto futures market’s all-hours model to a market with trillions of dollars in daily turnover. However, high leverage also raises liquidation risk, as relatively small adverse price moves can erode collateral on 100x positions.
