Carry
Carry is the ongoing cost (or income) associated with holding a leveraged position on Marks.
It is made up of two parts:
Funding fees - exchanged between longs and shorts depending on market imbalance
Borrowing fees - the cost of leverage paid to liquidity providers for the capital your position uses
Carry = funding fees + borrowing fees.
Borrowing fees are always a cost, but funding fees can be positive or negative depending on the market. This means carry can be negative or positive, with positive carry only occurring when funding fees outweigh borrowing fees.
Funding Fees
Funding fees help keep the market balanced by transferring fees between longs and shorts based on positioning.
How funding works
Funding depends on the total size of long positions compared to short positions in each market:
If the total long position size is larger than the total short position size, longs pay funding to shorts.
If the total short position size is larger, shorts pay funding to longs.
If the total long and short size are about the same, funding is close to zero.
Funding is exchanged directly between traders.
How the rate is determined
Each market has a maximum funding rate. That maximum rate applies when the market is at maximum imbalance (when one side of the market is much larger than the other).
The rate scales down as the market becomes more balanced:
When one side is heavily larger than the other → funding moves toward the maximum
When the difference between long and short size is smaller → funding is somewhere in the middle
When longs and shorts are close in size → funding moves toward zero
The maximum funding rate for each market is set by the Marks team and is based on recent volatility and trading behavior for that pair. These values may be updated over time as conditions change.
Current Funding Rate Parameters
Here’s how the current maximum annualized funding rates are configured for the markets on Marks:
USDT / ARS
96% per year
USDT / NGN
48% per year
(Additional markets will be added as they go live)
Borrowing Fees
Borrowing fees are the cost of using liquidity from the pool to hold a leveraged position. When you open a long or short position, part of the liquidity pool is reserved for your trade. Borrowing fees compensate the pool for providing that capital.
How Borrowing Fees Work
Borrowing fees are based on pool utilization - how much of the pool’s liquidity is currently being used by open positions.
When utilization is low, borrowing fees are low.
When utilization is higher, borrowing fees increase.
If there are no open positions, borrowing fees are zero.
This ensures that the cost of holding positions reflects how much liquidity is being demanded in that market.
Current Borrowing Rate Parameters
Similar to funding, each market has a maximum borrowing rate that applies when the pool is fully utilized. Below is a table that shows the maximum borrow rate for markets on Marks
USDT / ARS
15.8% per year
USDT / NGN
15.8% per year
(Additional markets will be added as they go live)
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