Mark Price Coming to WhiteBIT on August 19: A More Transparent Way to Value PERP Positions

Sharp market fluctuations can make position valuation more sensitive to short-term price movements. To support more accurate assessment of PERP positions, we’re introducing Mark Price (MP) — a metric designed to reduce the impact of temporary price noise and help lower the risk of unfair liquidations.

WhiteBIT uses Mark Price as the base price for calculating unrealized profit and loss (PnL) and as a liquidation criterion across all perpetual futures (PERP) markets.

Mark Price is designed to reflect the fair market value of a contract while remaining connected to external market factors. This helps reduce the impact of short-term activity in the internal order book and makes position valuation more stable, even during periods of market noise. At the same time, trades continue to be executed at the price formed in the order book.

Mark Price is used solely for assessing risk metrics, including unrealized profit and loss (UPL), margin checks, and liquidation.

Useful Things to Know About Mark Price

• Positions are liquidated based on Mark Price, not the last trade price. A single sharp price spike or individual trade does not, by itself, trigger position liquidation.

• Mark Price is tied to external market data. It cannot deviate significantly from the spot index price solely due to internal order book activity.

• Mark Price helps smooth out market noise. Under normal conditions, it closely follows the contract price. During periods of increased volatility, it remains closer to the index price.

How Does Mark Price Differ from Last Price?

Last Price is the price of the most recent trade executed on the exchange.

Mark Price is a calculated price that accounts for not only the most recent trade but also the broader market situation. It is based on the index price and additional market parameters, making it less sensitive to random price spikes.

For example, if a small trade is executed at a price that differs significantly from the prevailing market price, the Last Price will change immediately, while the Mark Price will remain closer to the asset’s fair market value.

Mark Price Calculation Formula

The Mark Price is calculated as the median of the following three values:

MP = median (Price, Price, Price), where

Price — the index price, adjusted to account for funding accrued until the next funding period (fair value component).

Price — the index price, adjusted for the smoothed premium or discount of the contract (i.e., the futures price is higher or lower than the spot price of the underlying asset, respectively).

Price — the most recent trade price of the perpetual contract.

What Is the Index Price?

The Index Price is a consolidated spot price of the underlying asset, weighted by trading volume. It is calculated using data from leading external spot exchanges and the WhiteBIT spot market. The Index Price is updated frequently to reflect current market changes and support a more accurate Mark Price calculation.

The following mechanisms are used to improve the reliability of the Index Price:

1. Aggregation that takes into account the volume of each platform. This prevents any single trading platform from having an excessive influence on the Index Price.

1. Outlier filtering. If data from a particular market deviates significantly from the median value across all markets, it is restricted by pre-configured limits (set separately for each market and subject to change depending on market conditions).

If the volume-weighted Index Price is temporarily unavailable, for example, due to connection issues, the system uses the average contract price as the Index Price.

If the data required to calculate the Index Price cannot be obtained, Mark Price is calculated based on the latest transaction price on the WhiteBIT futures market.

Mark Price has already been applied to all PERP pairs on WhiteBIT. Try trading with the updated position valuation mechanism now.