A year ago, "trading stocks 24/7 with crypto in your account" was a thought experiment. In April 2026 it's three live products from three very different companies, and they collectively cover almost every motive a retail trader has for wanting stock exposure outside US market hours.
The three I actually have accounts on:
- OKX Equity Perpetual Swaps — 22 USDT-settled stock and index perps, up to 10× leverage, margined directly from a unified crypto trading account (OKX equity perps launch announcement, as of 2026-04).
- Bybit TradFi Perpetual Contracts — a USDT-settled perpetuals product covering both stocks and commodities, sharing fee structure with regular USDT perps (Bybit TradFi help center, as of 2026-04).
- Interactive Brokers (IBKR) — the regulated traditional broker for actually buying shares of a stock, voting them, and collecting dividends, with the lowest commission tier in mainstream retail brokerage (IBKR stock commissions, as of 2026-04).
> Note: I'm a daily user of OKX (since 2023) and IBKR (since 2021), and the OKX equity perp side has been part of my workflow since the product went live in March 2026. The Bybit numbers in this article come from Bybit's public help center and TradFi product pages; I have not run live trades on Bybit's TradFi perps. Treat the Bybit-specific claims as based on official documentation, not my own fills. Verify all fees against the current published schedule before trading.
What each product actually is
A "stock perp" and a "stock" are different financial products even when the ticker looks identical. This matters more than the fee comparison, so let's get the mechanics straight first.
OKX Equity Perpetual Swaps
OKX launched its Equity Perpetual Swaps in March 2026 with a 22-contract list: NVDA, TSLA, AAPL, GOOGL, MSFT, AMZN, META, MSTR, COIN, HOOD, CRCL, INTC, AMD, MU, SNDK, TSM, ORCL, NFLX, PLTR, plus the SPY S&P 500 ETF, EWJ (iShares MSCI Japan), and EWY (iShares MSCI South Korea) (OKX equity perpetuals, as of 2026-04). OKX has indicated additional listings are likely; check the product page for the live universe before sizing.
Each contract is:
- USDT-denominated and USDT-settled. P&L is in stablecoins, not in shares.
- Up to 10× leverage.
- Available 24/7. No close at 4 PM ET; the contract trades through weekends.
- Margined from your Unified Trading Account. Your BTC, ETH, USDT, and other supported crypto contribute to margin across spot, derivatives, and equity positions from a single shared pool. Crypto sitting in OKX Auto Earn can simultaneously back equity positions, which is the part that doesn't have an analog elsewhere.
- No dividends, no voting, no real shares. OKX's stock perp documentation is explicit: positions "do not receive dividends, interest, or distributions" (OKX stock perpetuals page). Corporate actions like splits trigger contract adjustments.
- Restricted in some jurisdictions including the United States.
Bybit TradFi Perpetual Contracts
Bybit's TradFi line is a parallel idea: USDT-denominated, USDT-settled perpetual contracts that "track the price of traditional financial (TradFi) assets," covering both stocks (Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and others through the xStocks Alliance / Backed Finance, with Chainlink oracles) and commodities like gold, silver, and crude oil (Bybit TradFi help center, as of 2026-04).
Mechanically it sits in the same conceptual bucket as OKX equity perps — synthetic price exposure, no shares, USDT settlement, perpetual funding rate. The difference is the asset basket: Bybit emphasizes commodities and a smaller equity list of mega-caps, while OKX leans heavily into US tech and crypto-adjacent names like Coinbase, Robinhood, Circle, and MicroStrategy.
Bybit's TradFi perps share the standard USDT-perp fee structure, so the 0.02% maker / 0.055% taker base rate (Bybit TradFi help center, as of 2026-04) applies. Verify the current rate against your account's VIP tier before sizing trades.
Interactive Brokers (real shares)
IBKR is the odd one out, and that's the point. When you buy AAPL on IBKR you receive Apple shares — actual equity, registered through DTC, with dividend rights and voting power. The trading happens during US market hours (with extended-hours sessions before and after), settlement is in USD (or your account's base currency), and the regulatory framework is the SEC, FINRA, MAS or equivalent depending on your IBKR entity.
IBKR Pro pricing is the relevant reference point for active traders (IBKR commission schedule, as of 2026-04):
- Tiered: $0.0035 per share, $0.35 minimum, capped at 1% of trade value.
- Fixed: $0.005 per share, $1.00 minimum, capped at 1% of trade value.
Side-by-side comparison
| Feature | OKX Equity Perps | Bybit TradFi Perps | IBKR (Pro) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product type | Synthetic perpetual | Synthetic perpetual | Real share ownership |
| Settlement currency | USDT | USDT | USD (base currency) |
| Trading hours | 24/7 | 24/7 | US market + extended |
| Leverage | Up to 10× | Up to 10× (TradFi) | ~4× intraday / 2× overnight (Reg T) |
| Fees (base tier) | 0.02% maker / 0.05% taker (OKX fees) + funding | ~0.02% maker / 0.055% taker + funding (verify on Bybit) | $0.0035–0.005/share |
| Stock count | 22 contracts (incl. SPY, EWJ, EWY) | Mega-caps + commodities | Thousands across global markets |
| Dividends | None | None | Yes (real shareholder) |
| Voting rights | No | No | Yes |
| Collateral type | Crypto (Unified Trading Account) | USDT/USDC | Cash / margin |
| US users | Restricted | Restricted | Available |
| Regulation | Crypto-derivatives framework | Crypto-derivatives framework | SEC / FINRA / equivalent |
Where each one wins
This is the part that actually matters. None of these are "better" in a vacuum — they're better at different jobs.
When OKX equity perps are the right answer
The pitch I'd make to my own account: you already hold crypto on OKX, you want directional exposure to US tech outside US hours, and you don't want to liquidate crypto and bridge to a broker. The Unified Trading Account is the crucial detail — your BTC and USDT can margin a TSLA long while still earning yield in OKX Simple Earn. In a traditional broker, the same capital has to choose: it can be cash earning the broker's sweep rate, or it can be margin for a position; it can't be both.
Other strong fits:
- Asia-time traders who want to react to overnight news (earnings, geopolitics, crypto-adjacent stock moves like COIN or MSTR) without waiting for US open.
- Crypto-native risk: if your accounting unit is USDT, taking and closing a TSLA position never round-trips through fiat.
- Index hedges: SPY, EWJ, and EWY perps are useful for hedging a global crypto/equity portfolio without needing index futures access through a broker.
When Bybit TradFi perps are the right answer
Bybit's TradFi product is most differentiated when you want commodity exposure alongside stocks in the same crypto-style perp wrapper. Gold, silver, and crude oil sit next to AAPL and MSFT on the same TradFi tab. If your strategy is "I want to short oil while long Microsoft, all margined in USDT, all 24/7," Bybit covers that surface in a way OKX (which leans more equity-heavy) and IBKR (where commodity exposure means futures contracts on a separate clearing) don't replicate without spreading across products.
The maker/taker structure sits in the same neighborhood as OKX equity perps at base tier, so for taker-heavy retail flow OKX is fractionally cheaper at the same level, but the difference is small and is dominated by your VIP tier and funding cost.
When IBKR is the right answer
IBKR is the only correct answer when you want any of these:
- Real ownership. Voting your AAPL shares, transferring them out to a different custodian, tendering them in a buyback. Perps give you P&L; only shares give you ownership.
- Dividends and tax-efficient long-term holding. Holding NVDA for two years on IBKR triggers long-term capital gains in most jurisdictions; rolling a NVDA perp for two years pays funding every 8 hours and doesn't qualify for any equivalent tax treatment.
- Breadth. Beyond the 20–30 large-caps that perp exchanges list, IBKR gives you thousands of US stocks, plus global markets — Hong Kong, Tokyo, London, Frankfurt, ASX. Want to buy a small-cap Japanese semiconductor name? IBKR is your option.
- Regulated counterparty. SIPC protection on US accounts, FCA/MAS oversight on regional entities, segregated client assets. None of the perp exchanges offer the same investor-protection regime.
- Algorithmic trading. IBKR's TWS API and FIX gateway are the standard for retail systematic trading. For my own systematic stack, see Interactive Brokers Review 2026.
Fees in context — why "cheap" depends on what you're doing
The flat number "0.05% taker" sounds smaller than "$0.0035 per share." It usually isn't.
A worked example with a 100-share TSLA-equivalent trade at $250 (notional $25,000):
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Sign up on OKX →| Venue | Cost basis (one side) | Round trip (open + close) |
|---|---|---|
| OKX equity perps | 0.05% × $25,000 = $12.50 | $25.00 |
| Bybit TradFi perps | ~0.055% × $25,000 ≈ $13.75 | ≈ $27.50 |
| IBKR Tiered | 100 × $0.0035 = $0.35 (hits $0.35 floor) | $0.70 |
| IBKR Fixed | max($1.00, 100 × $0.005 = $0.50) = $1.00 | $2.00 |
- Versus IBKR Fixed ($2.00 round trip): OKX is $25.00 / $2.00 = 12.5× more expensive, Bybit is $27.50 / $2.00 ≈ 13.75× more expensive. So vs Fixed, the perp venues run roughly 12–14× the commission.
- Versus IBKR Tiered ($0.70 round trip): OKX is $25.00 / $0.70 ≈ 35.7× more expensive, Bybit is $27.50 / $0.70 ≈ 39.3× more expensive. So vs Tiered — which is the pricing most active traders qualify for and the cheaper of IBKR's two tiers — the gap is closer to 36–39×.
But "commission" isn't the full picture for perps. There's also funding. A 0.01% funding rate paid every 8 hours works out to 0.03% per day, and over a 365-day year that's 0.03% × 365 = 10.95% annualized (treating funding payments as simple, not compounded — perps charge against position notional each interval, so the simple-rate model is the right one here). On the same $25,000 TSLA position held for a year at that flat rate, the funding cost is 10.95% × $25,000 = $2,737.50 per year just in funding — a number IBKR has no equivalent to (though IBKR margin interest plays a similar role for margined longs). For longs especially, perps are an expensive way to express a multi-month view.
That makes the all-in cost comparison even more lopsided once you hold positions overnight: a year on a $25,000 perp long at flat funding is roughly $2,762.50 (round-trip commission $25 + ~$2,737.50 funding) before slippage. The same notional financed on IBKR margin pays IBKR's published margin interest (single-digit percent in most rate environments, varying by base currency and tier) plus the $0.70–$2.00 round trip — usually a fraction of the perp number unless you're shorting names with extreme borrow rates.
For a deeper funding-vs-margin comparison, see OKX Stock Perpetuals Funding Rate vs IBKR Margin Interest.
A decision tree for picking one
A simplified version of the framework I actually use when deciding where to put a stock trade on:
1. Do I want to own the share?Yes (dividends, voting, transferable, long-term hold) → IBKR. Done, no perp will do this.
No → continue.
2. Is the position open across US closes / weekends?Yes (and that's the entire point) → OKX or Bybit. IBKR can't trade closed markets.
No (intraday US-hours only) → IBKR will almost always be cheaper unless you want >2× leverage. (Remember: 36–39× cheaper on commission vs IBKR Tiered, and that's before funding.)
3. Do I want to use crypto as collateral?Yes → OKX (Unified Trading Account is the most ergonomic) or Bybit. IBKR's stablecoin deposit pipeline exists but you're depositing into USD, not margining a stock with BTC.
No → IBKR.
4. Am I in the US?Yes → IBKR is the only one of the three that fully serves US retail for these products. OKX equity perps and Bybit TradFi perps both restrict US access.
No → all three are options subject to your local entity's eligibility.
5. Do I need commodities and stocks together in a perp wrapper?Yes → Bybit TradFi is the most natural fit; OKX's stock list is equities-and-indices only.
No → OKX or IBKR per the above.
Common pitfalls
A few things I've seen people get wrong, including myself, with stock perps.
Treating "no expiry" as "no decay." A perp doesn't expire, but funding accrues every 8 hours forever. A position you "forgot about" for six months on a flat market still cost you funding the entire time — at the 10.95% reference rate above, that's around half the annual funding bill, or about $1,370 on a $25,000 position. This isn't theoretical; it's the most common reason people end up surprised at their P&L on a winning directional view that took longer than expected to play out. Confusing leverage with capacity. "10× leverage" doesn't mean putting 10× your account at risk is a good idea. It means the exchange permits margin requirements as low as 10% of notional. A 10× position on TSLA gets liquidated on a roughly 10% adverse move, before slippage. The Reg T 2× overnight cap on IBKR is annoying for active traders, but it's also a brake against blowups. Assuming the perp price tracks spot perfectly. Equity perps are oracle-fed and arbitraged, but the basis (perp price minus spot) can drift, especially during US market closures when no spot reference is updating. Funding rate is the mechanism that pulls perps back toward spot — if you're trading aggressively around US open you'll see basis snaps that don't happen on real shares. Forgetting US restrictions. If you're a US person trading an OKX or Bybit perp through a non-US entity or VPN, you're probably violating the platform's terms and possibly local law. IBKR is the only one of the three with a fully compliant US retail path for the products discussed here. Comparing only the loudest tier. A common framing error: comparing OKX taker fees to IBKR Fixed and concluding the gap is "10× or so." The right comparison for active traders is OKX taker against IBKR Tiered, which is closer to a 36× gap on a $25,000 trade. Don't let the marketing of "0.05% taker" trick you into thinking it's competitive with a real broker on intraday US-hours flow — it isn't.Bottom line
There's no single winner because the three products solve different problems.
- OKX Equity Perps is the best fit when you want leveraged, 24/7, USDT-settled exposure to a curated list of US tech and crypto-adjacent names, with crypto as collateral and a unified margin pool. The 22-contract list and Unified Trading Account are the strongest concrete differentiators.
- Bybit TradFi Perpetuals is the closest competitor in mechanics, with the unique advantage of stocks-plus-commodities in the same wrapper. If oil/gold/silver belong in your strategy alongside equities, it's the natural choice.
- IBKR is the only option for actual share ownership, dividends, voting, the broadest global market coverage, and a regulated brokerage relationship — at commission rates that beat the perp exchanges by roughly 36–39× on Tiered (and 12–14× on Fixed) for ordinary intraday US-hours flow.
Sign up for OKX through Sign up on OKX to access the Unified Trading Account and the full equity perp list (regional eligibility applies). For the regulated-broker side, Interactive Brokers referral is where I keep the long-term equity book — both the lowest commission tier and the broadest market access I've used.
The choice isn't binary. Match the product to the trade.