Market Types

Aftermath supports two types of perpetual markets: linear and inverse.

Linear Markets

In a linear market, the collateral asset is a stablecoin (USDC). All PnL is calculated and settled in USD terms. This is the simpler model, your margin and profits are denominated in the same unit as the contract's quote currency.

Linear markets are ideal when you want straightforward USD exposure without additional price risk from your collateral.

Examples:

• BTC/USD collateralized by USDC

• SUI/USD collateralized by USDC

• EUR/USD collateralized by USDC

Inverse Markets

In an inverse market, the collateral asset is the base asset itself (or a wrapped version). The contract is still denominated in USD, but settlement occurs in the collateral asset. This means your margin value fluctuates with the underlying price.

Inverse markets let you maintain long exposure to an asset while using it as collateral. If you're bullish on BTC and want to trade BTC/USD perpetuals, collateralizing with BTC means your margin grows when BTC appreciates.

Examples:

• BTC/USD collateralized by BTC

• SUI/USD collateralized by BTC

• SUI/USD collateralized by ETH

Adding New Markets

Both the base asset (index price) and collateral asset require oracle price feeds. Any onchain asset with a reliable oracle can serve as collateral, enabling rapid deployment of new markets without protocol upgrades.