Polymarket Perps Is Live: Up to 50x, Not on Predictions
Polymarket Perps is Polymarket's perpetual futures exchange, and it has been live for international users since September 3, 2026. It lets you go long or short on crypto, stocks, indices and commodities with leverage and no expiry date: as of October 11, Polymarket lists 88 perps markets and advertises up to 50x, up from the 20x headline at launch. What it does not do is add leverage to Polymarket's YES/NO prediction markets, and its own Perps lead said in September she was "not sure" that will ever come from the perps side.
If you want leverage on the event outcomes themselves, that already exists as a separate layer: PredMart lets you trade Polymarket markets with up to 4x leverage from a USDC margin account on Base.
This article covers what Polymarket Perps actually offers after launch, how margin, funding and fees work, why a $0/$1 event contract can't simply be turned into a perp, and a worked example comparing a BTC perp with a leveraged position on a Bitcoin price-threshold market.
What is Polymarket Perps?
Polymarket Perps is a perpetual futures product: a contract that tracks an asset's price with no expiration date, held open as long as your margin holds. Polymarket's own Perps page describes it as a way to "trade stocks, crypto, indices, and commodities 24/7 with up to 50x leverage."
It went live on September 3, 2026. The launch announcement covered 10 markets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, HYPE, gold, silver, the S&P 500, the Nasdaq 100, WTI oil and a SpaceX-linked contract (Crypto Times). Later, The Defiant reported 67 contracts. On October 11, Polymarket's public instruments list showed 88: 40 crypto, 38 single stocks, 6 indices and 4 commodities.
Perps runs on a central limit order book, with "funding payments that anchor contract prices to the underlying index," and margin and liquidation based on "a mark price that tracks an asset's price across multiple venues" (The Oracle by Polymarket). It is a price product. Nothing on it resolves to $1 or $0.
How much leverage does Polymarket Perps offer?
Leverage is set per market and shrinks as your position grows. At launch, coverage and Polymarket's docs described caps of up to 20x on crypto, the S&P 500, oil, gold and silver, and up to 10x on other real-world assets (Polymarket Perps FAQ). Since then the top tier has risen. On October 11, Polymarket's instruments data listed these opening caps:
| Market group | Examples | Max leverage (smallest positions) |
|---|---|---|
| Crypto majors and US indices | BTC, ETH, S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 | 50x |
| Other large assets | SOL, XRP, HYPE, gold, silver, WTI and Brent oil | 20x |
| Single stocks and most altcoins | NVDA, TSLA, AAPL, MU, DOGE, LINK | 10x |
| Smaller tokens | TAO, LDO, PENDLE and others | 3x-5x |
Those caps only apply to small positions. On BTC, 50x is available below $250,000 of notional, falling to 25x above that, 20x above $1 million, and in further steps to 2x above $10 million. Polymarket's own pages are not fully consistent (the BTC page's description still says 20x while its FAQ says 50x), so check the leverage slider before you trade.
Higher leverage also means a tighter liquidation line. The maintenance margin rate is "0.5 / max_leverage," so 1% on a 50x market and 2.5% on a 20x one (FAQ). On October 11, with BTC near $83,600, Polymarket's BTC page put a 50x long's liquidation price "around $82,734" at current settings, about 1% lower (BTC Perps).
How do margin, funding and fees work on Polymarket Perps?
Collateral. Perps are settled in pUSD, Polymarket's dollar token on Polygon, which its docs say is backed by USDC (pUSD docs). Polymarket describes perps as tradable "from the same balance" used for polymarket.com prediction trades. Under the hood, the developer docs describe moving pUSD from your Polymarket wallet into a Perps account, with a 10 pUSD minimum deposit (Fund your account).
Margin modes. The web app opens positions in isolated margin by default, so a liquidation closes only that position. Cross margin, where one balance backs several positions, is opt-in through the API and only on markets that allow it (FAQ).
Funding. Funding is charged hourly. The rate comes from a premium index sampled every 5 seconds, is capped at 4% per hour in either direction, and passes between longs and shorts with no protocol cut (same source).
Fees. New accounts start at 0.04% taker and 0.0125% maker, so "a $10,000 taker fill costs you four dollars" (The Oracle). Rates fall with 30-day volume, and liquidation fills pay an extra liquidation fee.
Access. Orders can't be placed from the United States, Canada, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Crimea, Donetsk or Luhansk (FAQ).
Does Polymarket Perps give leverage on prediction markets?
No. The perps list covers prices, not outcomes: there is no perp on an election, a Fed decision or a match result, and Polymarket's YES/NO shares are still bought at 1x on Polymarket itself.
The question came up directly. In a September 9 interview, Polymarket's Perps Lead, Xtine Fang, was asked whether perps could one day offer leverage on contracts like "Democrats to win the House." Her answer: "The genuine answer is I'm not sure, because that's more on the prediction market side. For the perps side that I'm in charge of, we want to be more like the traditional perp exchanges, where we list the traditional assets and the cryptos" (The Oracle by Polymarket).
That is not a "no," but it is clear about direction: Perps is being built as a traditional perp venue. Exchange-native leverage on event contracts is moving through a different channel, regulation. Polymarket's FCM license application and Kalshi's pending CFTC margin request are covered in our article on Kalshi margin trading. Neither is live for event contracts today.
PredMart is the live alternative for the event side. You pick a Polymarket market, choose YES or NO, and post margin in USDC on Base. The vault takes the other side, and positions settle at $1 or $0 when the market resolves. The trade-offs come up in the example below.
Why can't a $0/$1 event contract be a funding-rate perp?
A perp works because three things are true of its underlying: there is an outside price to anchor to, that price moves continuously, and the asset never stops existing. Funding is the mechanism that ties the two together. When the perp trades above the index, longs pay shorts, which pulls the price back.
An event contract breaks all three:
- No outside index. The "price" of "Will Bitcoin be above $84,000 on October 17?" is the market's own probability. There is no spot market elsewhere to anchor to, so funding would only be pointing the contract at itself.
- A fixed end date. The contract stops existing when it resolves. A perpetual contract with a resolution date is just a dated contract.
- A jump to 0 or 1. At resolution the price jumps to $1 or $0 in a single step. Funding is built to correct small, gradual gaps, not a 50-cent jump at a known time.
That is why event leverage uses a different structure. Kalshi's proposal uses risk-based margin that rises to full collateral near expiry. PredMart uses fixed margin rates: 25% of the position at 4x, a 20% maintenance level, and a holding fee in place of funding. Our earlier piece on whether prediction markets have perps walks through the theory. The example below shows what it means in dollars.
Worked example: a BTC perp vs. a leveraged Bitcoin price-threshold market
On October 11, Bitcoin traded near $83,600, and Polymarket's "Bitcoin above ___ on October 17?" ladder priced the $84,000 line at about 47 cents YES. That market resolves on the Binance BTC/USDT 1-minute candle closing at noon ET on October 17. Take $1,000 of margin either way. Fees, funding and PredMart's holding fee are left out.
Trade A: BTC perp long at 10x. You control $10,000 of BTC. Every 1% move is $100, or 10% of your margin. If BTC sits at $84,000 on October 17, you are up about $48. With a 1% maintenance rate, you are liquidated after a drop of roughly 9%, near $76,000. Opening and closing as a taker costs about $8.
Trade B: YES on "above $84,000" at 4x (using PredMart's terms, for a market listed there). You control $4,000, about 8,510 YES shares at $0.47. If the noon candle closes above $84,000, they settle at $1: about $8,510 of value and $4,510 profit. At $83,999 they settle at $0.
The catch is liquidation. PredMart's liquidation price is entry × (1 − 1/leverage + 20%), so at 4x it is $0.4465, just 2.35 cents below entry. On the ladder, each $1,000 of BTC moves this contract about 11 cents, so the trigger corresponds to roughly a $200 BTC dip:
| Event leverage | Liquidation price | BTC drop that roughly triggers it |
|---|---|---|
| 2x | $0.329 | about $1,250 (1.5%) |
| 3x | $0.407 | about $550 (0.7%) |
| 4x | $0.4465 | about $200 (0.25%) |
These are rough estimates: the sensitivity steepens as October 17 gets closer, and PredMart's mark price reads order-book depth. The point still holds. An at-the-money binary at 4x can be more sensitive to BTC than a 50x perp, which liquidates after about a 1% drop. If your view is "BTC goes up," the perp is the cleaner tool. Event leverage makes sense when your view is about a specific outcome, or a market no perp tracks.
Polymarket Perps vs. leverage on event contracts: which fits your trade?
| Polymarket Perps | PredMart | |
|---|---|---|
| What you trade | Prices of crypto, stocks, indices, commodities | Outcomes of Polymarket markets (YES or NO) |
| Max leverage | Up to 50x (BTC, ETH, S&P 500, Nasdaq 100), 10x on most stocks | Up to 4x |
| Expiry | None | Settles at $1 or $0 when the market resolves |
| Ongoing cost | Hourly funding, capped at 4% per hour | Holding fee |
| Liquidation | At maintenance margin (0.5 / max leverage) | At 20% maintenance; seizes remaining margin |
| Collateral | pUSD on Polygon | USDC on Base |
The two products answer different questions. Perps fit a view on where a price goes. Event leverage fits a view on whether something happens, such as an election, a central bank decision or a match, where no perp exists. For a wider survey of options, see platforms offering leverage on Polymarket.
FAQ
What is Polymarket Perps?
Polymarket Perps is Polymarket's perpetual futures exchange, live internationally since September 3, 2026. It lets you go long or short on crypto, stocks, indices and commodities with no expiry date, using pUSD as collateral. As of October 11, 2026, it lists 88 markets, with leverage of up to 50x on the largest ones.
Can I use Polymarket Perps to trade elections or sports with leverage?
No. Perps track prices, not event outcomes, and there are no perps on elections, sports or other YES/NO markets. Polymarket's Perps Lead said in September she was "not sure" leverage on event contracts would come from the perps side. Third-party layers such as PredMart offer leverage on Polymarket event markets.
How often is funding paid on Polymarket Perps?
Funding settles every hour. Polymarket samples a premium index every 5 seconds, averages it over the hour, and caps the rate at 4% per hour in either direction. When the rate is positive, longs pay shorts, and when it is negative, shorts pay longs. Polymarket takes no cut of funding.
Is Polymarket Perps available in the U.S.?
No. Polymarket's docs say Perps orders can't be placed from the United States, Canada, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Crimea, Donetsk or Luhansk. Apps built on Perps are responsible for checking where a user is before sending orders. Availability elsewhere also depends on local law.
What fees does Polymarket Perps charge?
New accounts start at 0.04% taker and 0.0125% maker, charged on notional value in pUSD, so a $10,000 taker fill costs $4. Rates fall as 30-day volume rises, and only the top tier earns a maker rebate. Liquidation fills pay an extra liquidation fee, and funding is charged separately every hour.
The Bottom Line
Polymarket Perps is a real, fast-growing perp venue, with 88 markets and up to 50x on the majors five weeks after launch. It is also not a way to put leverage on prediction markets. Your YES and NO shares are still 1x on Polymarket, and the Perps team is building toward a traditional exchange, not event leverage. If your edge is on outcomes rather than prices, size carefully: as the example shows, a near-the-money binary at 4x can be closer to liquidation than a perp at much higher leverage.
Trade Polymarket markets with up to 4x leverage on PredMart: predmart.com/markets
Related
- Kalshi Margin Trading: What the CFTC Request Means for You - the regulated route to event-contract margin, still pending
- Do Prediction Markets Have Perps? - the theory behind why outcomes don't fit a funding-rate perp
- Polymarket Perps Explained - our pre-launch overview of the product
- Polymarket Perps: How to Trade With Leverage - pre-launch guide to leverage alongside Perps
- Platforms Offering Leverage on Polymarket - side-by-side comparison of the leverage layers
- Margin & Liquidation - PredMart's maintenance margin and liquidation rules