Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has announced it will exclude nearly three hours of US stock price data from the funding payments on its US stock perpetual futures after a technical disruption affected a major American trading venue overnight.
Technical issue impacts funding calculations
On Wednesday at 07:21 UTC, Binance stated through its official news channel on Binance Square that it would remove the premium index for the affected timeframe from the 08:00 UTC funding rate calculation on October 21 for its TradFi Perps linked to any US equity. The exchange attributed this decision to intermittent network connectivity issues that hit one of the largest US overnight alternative trading systems (ATS) between 03:46 and 06:30 UTC.
Binance did not directly name the impacted trading venue. However, Blue Ocean, an operator of an overnight US alternative trading system, suspended all trading at 11:46:41 p.m. ET on October 20 and resumed at 2:30 a.m. ET, matching the disruption period reported by Binance. Blue Ocean attributed the incident to network connectivity issues with its external network provider, which affected client access to the platform.
In South Korea, Seoul Economic Daily reported that the outage at Blue Ocean led to delayed or halted US stock quotes at several brokerages. Orders routed through alternative venues continued as normal, but brokers warned that orders sent to Blue Ocean that remained unfilled could potentially be canceled.
Mini dictionary: Alternative trading system (ATS): A regulated trading venue in the US that operates outside traditional public exchanges, often allowing for after-hours or specialized trading of stocks and other assets.
Implications for traders and funding rates
Perpetual futures contracts, which have no expiration date, settle funding payments between buyers and sellers at regular intervals. One of the inputs for these payments is the premium index, which tracks the difference between the contract’s price and a benchmark reference price. Disruptions in the underlying stock’s price feed can cause significant distortions in these calculations.
Binance cited Bybit’s SOXL perpetual contract as an example of market distortion, noting that funding rates shifted from 0.0000% to -0.1299% during the affected period due to irregular price feeds.
| Venue/Contract | Timeframe Affected | Funding Rate Change |
|---|---|---|
| Bybit SOXL Perp | 03:46–06:30 UTC | 0.0000% to -0.1299% |
Shunyet Jan, Binance’s head of exchange and trading, addressed the issue by stating that traders should not bear costs resulting from outages they did not cause. Jan explained that the distorted period was removed from funding calculations to ensure that user payments reflect genuine market conditions.
Shunyet Jan highlighted that Binance “kept the distorted period out of funding, so what users pay follows the real market,” emphasizing the importance of fair treatment for customers affected by external outages.
Broader tokenized stock trading trends
A recent International Monetary Fund study found that most trading of tokenized stocks takes place outside of standard US market hours, reflecting the growing demand for around-the-clock access to equity markets through digital platforms.
Binance’s tokenized stock platform, bStocks, reached more than $1 billion in assets last week. Ripple Prime, a division of Ripple Labs dedicated to institutional crypto solutions, has recently launched 24/7 swaps for stocks, metals, and currencies.
Most tokenized stock activity now occurs outside traditional trading hours, as institutions introduce continuous trading capabilities for global users.
