As one of the world's leading cryptocurrency exchanges, MEXC is committed to providing users with high-quality investment options. Choosing the right investment target for futures trading is theAs one of the world's leading cryptocurrency exchanges, MEXC is committed to providing users with high-quality investment options. Choosing the right investment target for futures trading is the

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Master these 6 methods to choose "cryptocurrency futures trading pairs" and make your futures trading no longer confused

Oct 17, 2025MEXC

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As one of the world's leading cryptocurrency exchanges, MEXC is committed to providing users with high-quality investment options. Choosing the right investment target for futures trading is the primary challenge for novice users. This article aims to provide MEXC users with ideas and help you choose the right futures trading target.

Abstract of this article

Different trading pairs have different price fluctuation characteristics, liquidity, and risk levels, so it is necessary to make reasonable choices based on personal trading objectives, market conditions, and funding conditions.

Mainstream currency futures trading pairs often have the characteristics of good liquidity, large trading volume, and relatively small fluctuations, which are suitable for conservative investors or entry-level futures trading users. Counterfeit products currency futures trading pairs often have larger price fluctuations and slightly lower liquidity than mainstream currencies. It is recommended that investors with certain trading experience choose trading carefully.

The funding rate is an important mechanism used in perpetual futures trading to anchor futures prices to spot prices. However, in some special market situations, some futures trading pairs may have abnormally high funding rates in the short term, which may lead to higher holding costs for users. Special attention is needed.

1. What is a cryptocurrency futures trading pair?

Cryptocurrency futures trading pair is the smallest trading unit that investors can choose when trading futures. For example, Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency with broad consensus, but in the trading process, a certain value scale needs to be used to price "1 Bitcoin". For example, eligible investors can directly purchase Bitcoin using US dollars, then Bitcoin-US dollars form a fiat currency trading pair; while in MEXC , users can use USDT to purchase Bitcoin, BTC/USDT forms a spot trading pair.

The concept of futures trading pair is no different from the above two. Taking Bitcoin as an example, in MEXC's futures trading , users are provided with multiple trading pairs to choose from, such as BTCUSDT trading pair, BTCUSDC trading pair and BTCUSD trading pair. Among them, the BTCUSDT trading pair supports up to 500 times leverage, which can provide users with more efficient capital utilization solutions.

2. Understand the mainstream futures trading pairs on the market

2.1 Mainstream currency futures trading pairs

Including Bitcoin , Ethereum and other well-known currencies with large trading volume. The futures trading of these cryptocurrencies has the following characteristics:

Price fluctuations are relatively stable, suitable for trend trading and low to medium risk investors.

High liquidity, low transaction costs, and small slippage.

Due to the overall market sentiment, volatility is usually lower than that of small-cap currencies.

On the MEXC platform, the futures trading liquidity of mainstream coins such as BTCUSDT and ETHUSDT has an absolute leading advantage.

Taking the BTCUSDT perpetual futures trading pair as an example, by calculating the total number of limit orders within ± 5 basis points of the BTCUSDT futures middle price, the MEXC platform is about 81.89 million USDT, while another global top three competing platform is about 33.35 million USDT. MEXC is about 2.5 times higher than the industry leader.

Taking the ETHUSDT perpetual futures trading pair as an example, the total number of limit orders within ± 5 basis points of the middle price of the ETHUSDT futures market is about 30.5 million USDT on the MEXC platform, while another global top three competing platform is about 9.86 million USDT. MEXC is about 3.1 times higher than the industry leader, with obvious advantages.

*BTN-开始期货交易&BTNURL=https://www.mexc.com/futures/BTC_USDT *

2.2 Futures of counterfeit products

Mainly includes small market cap tokens or tokens of emerging projects, such as SOL, AVAX, DOGE, SHIB, etc. The futures trading pairs of these cryptocurrencies have the following characteristics:

Volatility is high, suitable for short-term traders who pursue high returns.

The risk is high and may be subject to drastic fluctuations in news or market sentiment.

Liquidity may be low, and significant slippage may occur during trading.

However, according to the statistics of two professional institutions, Tokeninsight and Simplicitygroup, MEXC also has an absolute advantage in the liquidity of futures trading of the vast majority of counterfeit products. For example, in the SOLUSDT trading pair, the total amount of limit orders within ± 5 basis points of the middle price of the trading pair exceeded 33 million USDT, which is 18 times that of the top 3 competitors in the industry. The advantage in the SHIBUSDT trading pair has reached 19.2 times.

2.3 Stablecoin futures trading pairs

Such as USDCUSDT perpetual futures, with small price fluctuations, suitable for hedging strategies or fund management. Its characteristics are used for low volatility arbitrage or defensive investments, suitable for conservative investors with extremely low risk.

At present, MEXC has launched USDCUSDT perpetual futures, providing diversified investment products for users.

3. Consider the liquidity of futures trading pairs and trade with lower slippage

3.1 Trading pairs with high liquidity

Features : large order book depth, small bid-ask spread (spread), low slippage, high trading efficiency.

Suggestion : Prefer mainstream currencies (such as BTC/USDT, ETH/USDT) because of their high liquidity and large trading volume.

3.2 Trading pairs with low liquidity

Features : small trading volume, large spread, high slippage, easy to be affected by large orders.

Risk : may lead to increased transaction costs, and even difficult to position squaring in a timely manner.

Recommendation : Beginners should avoid trading pairs of small currencies with low liquidity.

As compared above, MEXC has long maintained a leading advantage in the liquidity of mainstream currency futures trading pairs and counterfeit products currency futures trading pairs, and is the first choice for novice futures investors and professional traders. For more information about the liquidity advantages of MEXC futures trading, please enter the MEXC market page to view.

*BTN-开始合约交易&BTNURL=https://www.mexc.com/futures/BTC_USDT *

4. Analyze the volatility of futures trading pairs and choose trading pairs that suit your trading style

4.1 High Volatility Trading Pairs

Characteristics : Prices fluctuate dramatically, which may bring high returns, but also higher risks.

Suitable for : experienced short-term traders or high risk appetite.

Examples : such as SHIBUSDT, DOGE/USDT , PENGUUSDT , etc.

4.2 Low volatility trading pairs

Features : The price is relatively stable, the return is low, but the risk is also small.

Suitable for : conservative investors or beginners.

Examples : such as BTC/USDT, ETH/USDT.

5. Consider funding rates to avoid increasing transaction costs by paying high funding fees

5.1 What is the funding rate?

Funding rate is a mechanism used in perpetual futures to ensure that the futures price is closely anchored to the spot price. It can be positive or negative and is exchanged between long and short positioning. When the positive funding rate is positive, the long pays the short; when the funding rate is negative, the short pays the long.

5.2 Select trading pairs with appropriate funding rates

Low funding rate: suitable for long-term investors, reduce holding costs.

High funding rate: Suitable for short-term traders, pay attention to the cost of funding rate. However, for perpetual futures trading pairs with high funding rates, investors can also consider using futures and spot arbitrage trading to earn funding fees with low risk.

For example, suppose there is a perpetual futures trading pair of ABC tokens, namely ABCUSDT. Investor Alice discovers that the current funding rate of ABCUSDT has reached 1%, then buys 100 ABC spot at a price of 100 USDT, sells 100 ABC short at a price of 100 USDT, and finally positions all spot and futures positions at a price of 90 USDT after the current funding fee settlement. Therefore, without considering the actual futures-to-futures price difference, trading slippage, and handling fees, Alice's final profit is (the price at the time of funding fee settlement is calculated at 100 USDT):

Comparison term	Spot positioning	Futures positioning
Average position price	100 USDT	100 USDT
Number of positions	100 ABC	100 ABC
Position value	10,000 USDT	10,000 USDT
Position squaring average price	90 USDT	90 USDT
Position squaring earnings	-1000 USDT	1000 USDT
Capital cost income	/	100 USDT
最终收益 Final benefit	100 USDT

6. Choose the most suitable futures trading pair based on your trading goals and style

6.1 Short-term Trading

Features : Pursuit of short-term volatility returns.

Trading pair selection : high volatility, good liquidity currencies, such as ETH/USDT, SOL/USDT.

Skills : Pay attention to technical indicators and market sentiment, and enter and exit quickly.

6.2 Medium and long-term investment

Features : Focus on trend market, long holding time.

Trading pair selection : mainstream currencies, such as BTC/USDT, ETH/USDT.

Tip : Combine fundamental analysis and choose currencies with long-term growth potential.

*BTN-开始合约交易&BTNURL=https://www.mexc.com/futures/BTC_USDT *

7. Pay attention to fundamentals and news, and avoid futures trading pairs with latent risks in a timely manner

7.1 Fundamental analysis

Choose currencies with mature ecosystems and wide applications (such as BTC, ETH).

Pay attention to the technical development, team background, and market recognition of the project.

7.2 Analysis of news

The impact of news on cryptocurrency price fluctuations is significant. Common positive news includes technological upgrades, partnerships, institutional investments, etc. Common negative news includes regulatory policies, project security bugs, and large-scale token unlocking.

Suggestion : In the message-driven market, choose the trading pairs that are greatly affected by the news for short-term operation. Users can timely and comprehensively understand the industry trends through MEXC's macro data information , and assist in trading decisions.

8 . Consider your risk tolerance

One of the attractions of futures trading lies in its leverage function. At MEXC, users can trade futures with different maximum leverage ratios. It is worth noting that leverage ratios amplify both returns and risks. Therefore, MEXCers need to choose the appropriate leverage ratio based on the maximum decline they can bear. For example, the maximum leverage ratio of SOL/USDT futures trading pair is 200; the maximum leverage ratio of BTC/USDT futures trading pair is 500. MEXCers can choose to use high leverage futures trading pairs to increase profit scale, or select futures trading pairs with conservative leverage ratios to complete the transaction (or choose a smaller leverage ratio in a futures trading pair to achieve this effect).

Currently, MEXC platform has launched a 0 fee activity . By participating in this activity, users can significantly reduce transaction costs and truly achieve the goal of "saving more, trading more, and earning more". On the MEXC platform, you can not only enjoy low-cost transactions with this activity, but also keep up with market trends, keenly capture every fleeting investment opportunity, and start a journey of wealth appreciation.