#美国就业数据表现强劲超出预期 Recently, many beginners playing clone perpetual contracts have fallen into the same trap.

What I want to say is: the funding rate is originally just a balancer, preventing the contract price from deviating too far from the spot. But now? It has long become a meat grinder for high-controlled market makers.

Have you noticed? Many clone coins have their settlement cycles shortened to one hour, with rates directly reaching 2% per hour—doing nothing and just leaving it be, the principal can be halved in a day. This is not a natural disaster; it’s a carefully designed trap by the market makers.

Why have clone contracts become a cash machine for market makers now? Frankly, over 70% of these clone coins are highly controlled. No trading volume, all chips held together, and more story than substance. The market maker’s tricks are actually not complicated:

Quietly accumulating positions at low levels, releasing some positive news to boost a wave, while offering low fees to attract you in—at this point, you think there’s profit to be made. As more follow the trend, the contract price is pushed up, and the funding rate suddenly skyrockets to 1%, 2% per hour or even higher. Then, the market maker stops moving, consolidates sideways, neither sharply rising nor crashing, just squeezing long traders hour by hour with this high rate. When your account runs out of money, they hit the market again to harvest. Even more ruthless, market makers also play arbitrage between exchanges: creating false prosperity with high rates on one exchange, while opening opposite positions on another with stable rates—earning on both ends.

Most retail traders lose money mainly due to three misunderstandings:

Misunderstanding 1: The higher the rate, the more it surges. Actually, when the rate is excessively high, it’s often a sign that the rally is almost over and the market is about to be harvested.

Misunderstanding 2: Short-term trading can avoid fees. With such short settlement cycles and volatile rates, the transaction costs and fee expenses from frequent entries and exits might actually outweigh the profits.

Misunderstanding 3: Shorting guarantees steady income. In a highly controlled market, although the rates are long-term positive, market makers can suddenly launch a violent rally, wiping out your short positions instantly.

At this point, the core issue is clear: in clone contracts, the funding rate is no longer a risk indicator—it is itself a risk.

The smartest choice when facing such high-controlled, high-rate coins is actually very simple—stay away from them. If you insist on participating, you must carefully calculate the fee costs for each trade. More importantly, you need to recognize a fact:

You are not making an investment; you are gambling on a fully controlled table with a dealer who can see your cards.