Polymarket launches crypto perpetual futures product with up to 20x leverage, expanding to 67 markets on day one.
DeFi & Yields ·
Polymarket rolled out its perpetual futures product on September 3, launching with 10 markets that grew to 67 within hours, covering cryptocurrencies, equities, indices, and commodities. The new offering, called Perps, allows traders to access leverage ranging up to 20x, though the maximum varies by asset class. Crypto, the S&P 500, oil, gold and silver can reach 20x leverage, while individual stocks and other real-world assets are capped at 10x.
Unlike Polymarket's traditional prediction contracts that resolve to $1 or zero, perpetual futures track underlying prices continuously with no expiration. A funding rate mechanism, capped at 4% per hour in either direction, keeps prices anchored to spot by redistributing payments between long and short positions hourly. Maintenance margin equals half the maximum leverage rate, meaning a fully leveraged position faces liquidation after a roughly 2.5% loss of posted collateral.
U.S. traders cannot access Polymarket Perps directly; they are instead routed to Polymarket US, a separate CFTC-regulated venue. This geographic split stems from the company's 2022 settlement with the CFTC over running an unregistered swaps facility. Meanwhile, rival prediction market Kalshi received CFTC approval for a Bitcoin perpetual futures contract in May and has filed for additional altcoin and commodity contracts, establishing an earlier foothold in the regulated U.S. market.