A quick guide to understanding RWA futures

What are RWA futures?

1.       RWA futures are Bitget's innovative perpetual futures based on tokenized real-world asset (RWA) indices. The underlying asset is a composite index of tokenized RWA shares of U.S. stocks that are already circulating in the market. Each index includes at least one RWA token and may combine tokens from multiple issuers. Bitget calculates and publishes the index weights according to trading volume and liquidity. For example, NVDA RWA perpetual futures on Bitget may track a composite index made up of NVDA RWA tokens issued by xStock, ONDO, and others. Trading is available 24 hours a day, five days a week.

2.       Bitget may add or remove tokens or markets from the index based on market activity and trading volume, updating the index sources as needed.

Key difference between RWA futures and perpetual futures

Risk management in RWA futures

Liquidation mechanism

1.       Same as conventional isolated-margin futures: liquidation risk is determined by the liquidation price or margin ratio.

2.       Positions are not liquidated while the market is closed. However, if the underlying asset opens significantly higher or lower when trading resumes, users may face liquidation. Traders are advised to monitor prices and add margin before the market reopens.

Insurance fund

1.       Each RWA futures has auto-deleveraging (ADL) enabled by default. At launch, 50,000 USDT is allocated to the initial risk fund.

2.       ADL is triggered once the insurance fund balance drops to zero.

RWA index calculation logic

The RWA index is a weighted composite based on the prices of circulating tokenized U.S. equity shares from multiple issuers. It reflects the weighted value of a basket of RWA tokens for a given stock. The index does not directly track the underlying stock itself; instead, it serves as a pricing benchmark for tokenized stock assets.

Index rules

Components include USDT-quoted RWA tokens issued on platforms such as xStock and ONDO. The calculated index price serves as the anchor for RWA futures pricing. Index weights are recalculated periodically (or upon rebalancing events), but stay constant until the next rebalance.

Index rebalancing

1.       Regular rebalancing

The index components and their weights are rebalanced daily at 8:01:00 AM (UTC) to reflect market changes.

2.       Special adjustments

Special adjustments are triggered when any component faces delisting, liquidity issues, or extreme volatility. These include:

•         Removing the affected components and updating the weights and divisor.

•         Replacing them with alternate components, with weights and divisor adjusted accordingly.

3.       Hard forks/Airdrops/Token mapping adjustments

Adjustments to blockchain asset price indices in the event of hard forks, airdrops, or token mappings follow these principles:

•         No adjustment is required for soft forks or for hard forks that do not generate new tokens.

•         If a hard fork or airdrop generates new tokens, they are added to the index according to the original component weights. If the new tokens fail to meet the component selection criteria, they will be removed at the next scheduled rebalance.

•         For components resulting from airdrops or token mappings, in the case of a token split or reverse split, the original component is replaced by the new token, with its weight adjusted to reflect the split ratio.

Important notes for trading RWA futures

1.       To ensure fair pricing, Bitget RWA futures are suspended on weekends (Sat–Sun) and may also be halted during certain special periods. Any additional suspensions will be announced in advance.

2.       Mark prices do not update while the market is closed, so positions cannot be liquidated during that time. However, if the underlying asset reopens with a significant price gap, positions may still be at risk of liquidation. Traders are advised to add margin beforehand to reduce this risk.

3.       During closures, users may cancel existing orders but cannot place new ones.

4.       Funding fees do not accrue during closures,  so holding positions over these periods does not incur additional funding costs.

How to trade RWA futures on Bitget

1.       RWA futures are listed under the same product type as standard USDT futures. Users can search by ticker name or find them under the RWA tab in USDT futures.

2.       RWA futures are available on the website, app, and API, but are not supported in unified trading accounts.

3.       Only isolated margin is supported. Multi-asset mode is not available for RWA futures. Traders must switch to single-asset mode before trading RWA futures.