Order management (Futures)

Futures accounts are maintained by Coinbase Financial Markets, which is a CFTC registered futures commission merchant and a member of the National Futures Association. Spot accounts are maintained by Coinbase Inc., which is not CFTC registered and is not a member of the National Futures Association. Funds held with Coinbase Inc. do not benefit from the CFTC’s customer protection regime.

Minimum order size

The smallest futures order that can be placed is one contract. 

To ensure broader access to the futures markets, we offer the ability to trade futures contracts with a low notional contract value. Our nano BTC futures contracts are sized at 1/100th of a Bitcoin, and Nano ETH futures contracts are sized at 1/10th of an Ether.  

Cancel an open order

To cancel an open order, make sure you're viewing the market your order was placed for (e.g. BTC - 25JAN23, BTC-29SEP23, etc). Your open orders will be listed in the Orders panel on the trading dashboard. Select the open order and then select Cancel order. You can also cancel futures orders from the full page Coinbase Advanced orders page.

Funds on hold

Funds reserved for open orders are placed on hold and will not appear in your available balance until the order is executed or canceled. Additionally, funds reserved to satisfy margin requirements for open futures positions will not be available to trade or withdraw. 

If you would like to release your funds from being on hold, you’ll need to cancel the associated open order and/or close your futures positions.

Partially filled orders

When an order is partially filled, it means there is not enough liquidity (trading activity) in the market to fill your entire order, so it may take several orders to fill your order completely. For your order to get filled at a specified price, there has to be a matching order on the opposite side.

Order executed incorrectly

If your order is a limit order, it will only fill at the specified price or a better price. For example, if in your limit order you've specified a price to buy a contract that exceeds the best offer price on the sell side, your buy will execute at the best offer price (which is lower than your limit price). You end up paying less for the contract than your limit price. 

Additionally, depending on the volume and prices of orders on the order book at the time when a market order is posted, the market order may fill at a price less favorable than the most recent trade price (this is called slippage).

Order did not execute

Sometimes orders may not get filled because of the limit price you chose. If your order is a limit order, it will only fill at the specified price or a better price. For example, if in your limit order you've specified a price to buy a contract that is less than the best bid, your buy order will not execute unless the market moves and the price becomes marketable.

Order missing from order history

Please contact us to help get this sorted out.

Can't place an order due to position limits

If you believe you qualify for a higher position limit, please contact us and provide updated income and net worth values.

To learn more about futures, go to our full list of Coinbase futures articles.

Information provided is not investment advice. Funds held with Coinbase Inc. do not benefit from the CFTC’s customer protection regime. Access to the referenced financial products requires user eligibility, and may not be available in all jurisdictions. The risk of transacting in futures can be substantial and may not be suitable for everyone, possibly resulting in a loss of funds greater than the total amount of funds you have on deposit in your CFM account, together with any funds in your Coinbase Inc. account or any other accounts held with Coinbase affiliates. Leverage in futures trading can work for you or against you. The risk of loss using leverage can exceed your initial investment amount. Please review the CFM Futures Risk Disclosure Statement for more information. Coinbase Financial Markets makes no representation on the suitability of information provided or to a particular financial product.

Coinbase Financial Markets is a member of National Futures Association (NFA) and is subject to NFA's regulatory oversight and examinations. However, NFA does not have regulatory oversight authority over underlying or spot virtual currency products or transactions or virtual currency exchanges, custodians, or markets.