A trader opens a leveraged position on one of Coinbase’s new stock index perpetual futures late on a Friday afternoon. The closing bell rings on Wall Street. The stock market shuts for the weekend.
His position doesn’t.
For the next two days it can continue to accrue funding payments, remain exposed to liquidation, and be priced against a reference that isn’t coming from a live U.S. stock market. Many traders assume that when equities stop trading, their exposure effectively pauses. Coinbase’s own documentation makes clear that this isn’t how its new perpetual products work.
A 24/7 Product Tracking a 24/5 Market
Coinbase recently launched perpetual futures linked to major U.S. equity themes, including artificial intelligence, China, defense, and the Nasdaq-100, allowing eligible U.S. traders to trade these markets with leverage around the clock. The launch is part of the company’s push beyond cryptocurrencies into a broader “everything exchange” strategy, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Unlike traditional stock futures, these contracts trade virtually 24/7. The underlying U.S. equity market, however, does not.
That creates an obvious question:
What determines the value of your position on a Saturday afternoon when Wall Street has been closed for nearly 24 hours?
Coinbase answers that question in its official US Perpetual-Style Futures Overview, explaining that its perpetual futures continue trading outside normal equity market hours, including weekends:
During these periods, prices may differ from the underlying stock market because there is no live cash equity market providing continuous price discovery. Coinbase also warns that when U.S. markets reopen, price gaps can occur as the underlying market catches up with where the perpetual market has been trading.
The Weekend Gap Risk
This isn’t simply an academic pricing issue.
Coinbase’s own documentation explains that during weekends and other periods when the underlying equity markets are closed, pricing relies on an internal methodology rather than live stock exchange prices. The company explicitly warns that off-hours prices may differ from underlying equity values and that weekend gaps are a risk traders should understand before opening positions.
In practical terms, this means a trader who opens a position on Friday afternoon remains exposed throughout Saturday and Sunday, even though the stocks making up the underlying index are not trading.
If sentiment shifts in crypto markets, global macro events unfold, or traders aggressively buy or sell the perpetual contract itself, prices can continue moving despite the underlying stock market remaining closed.
Then, when Wall Street reopens on Monday, the real equity market may open at a materially different price.
Funding Doesn’t Stop Either
Unlike conventional futures contracts, perpetual futures use periodic funding payments to help keep contract prices aligned with the underlying market.
Coinbase explains in its documentation that perpetual futures accrue funding hourly while positions remain open, including outside regular market hours:
That means traders aren’t simply waiting for Monday morning—they’re holding an actively priced leveraged product that continues to incur funding costs throughout the weekend.
For traders unfamiliar with how these products work, Coinbase also provides a broader introduction to the contracts in its US Perpetual Futures 101 guide.
Why Mark Price Matters
One of the biggest misunderstandings among newer perpetual futures traders is believing liquidation occurs at whatever price appears on the chart.
It doesn’t.
Perpetual futures positions are liquidated using the mark price, not the last traded price.
The mark price is a calculated reference designed to reduce manipulation and reflect the fair value of the contract. During normal trading hours it is typically anchored to live underlying markets.
Over the weekend, however, that anchor becomes much weaker because there is no continuously updating U.S. equity market feeding into the calculation.
Leverage.Trading explains the difference between mark price, index price and last price in detail here.
Understanding this distinction is particularly important because traders can be liquidated based on the mark price even if the last traded price shown on their chart never reaches that level.
The Risk Is Already Disclosed
None of this is hidden. Coinbase openly explains how weekend pricing works and warns that off-hours prices may diverge from underlying equity markets before they reopen.
The issue isn’t whether the disclosure exists.
It’s whether traders understand what they’re agreeing to when they leave a leveraged stock perpetual open over a weekend.
As Anton Palovaara, founder and lead analyst at Leverage.Trading, puts it:
“Many traders assume a closed market means a parked position. With these perps, Wall Street closes on Friday and the contract does not. Coinbase’s own risk page says the weekend price may differ from the real stock price, and the position stays marked and funded against it for 48 hours. The disclosure is right there. The real question is how many traders read it before they go home on Friday.”
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