Leverage and tier comparison
Perpetual max leverage and margin tiers compared across 8 venues
The 150x or 200x on an exchange's page is the limit for the first, smallest tier. As a position grows, available leverage steps down the ladder and the maintenance rate steps up. This guide puts the maximum leverage and first two tiers of BTC and ETH perpetuals on eight venues side by side, from this site's collection at 2026-11-11 06:02–06:18 UTC.
Answer: the highest BTC and ETH leverage is 200x on Gate and Aster, but Aster's 200x stops at 400 USDT of notional, while Gate's runs to 500,000 USDT on BTC and 300,000 USDT on ETH. Binance, Bybit and Bitget offer 150x and OKX 100x; on-chain, Lighter offers 50x and Hyperliquid 40x on BTC and 25x on ETH. For large positions at 100x or more, Gate (up to 3 million USDT) and Bybit (up to 2 million) leave the most room on BTC.
Why maximum leverage only applies to small positions
Venues split positions into tiers by notional value (quantity × price, leverage already included), and each tier has its own maximum leverage and maintenance margin rate. The table is the margin ladder; Bybit and Gate call it a risk limit, OKX and Bitget position tiers.
The larger the position, the higher its tier: lower maximum leverage and a higher maintenance rate. Maintenance margin is the least margin that keeps a position open; when the margin balance falls to it, the position is liquidated. Binance states that larger positions allow lower leverage, and that maintenance margin is worked out from brackets whatever leverage is chosen.
- Notional: the position's total value at the current price. 10,000 USDT of margin at 10x is 100,000 USDT notional.
- Maintenance rate: the share of notional that must be held as maintenance margin. A higher rate puts liquidation closer to entry.
- Deduction (maintenance amount): a fixed sum some venues subtract from notional × rate so that maintenance margin does not jump when a position crosses a tier.
BTC perpetual max leverage and first two tiers compared
BTC perpetuals settled in USDT (USDC on Hyperliquid) as collected by this site at 2026-11-11 06:02–06:18 UTC, highest leverage first. OKX tiers by BTC quantity; the others by notional.
| Venue | Max leverage | Tier 1 range | Tier 1 maintenance rate | Tier 2 (range · leverage · rate) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gate | 200x | 0 – 500,000 USDT | 0.30% | 500,000 – 1,000,000 · 150x · 0.35% |
| Aster (BTCUSDT) | 200x | 0 – 400 USDT | 0.25% | 400 – 300,000 · 150x · 0.33% |
| Binance | 150x | 0 – 300,000 USDT | 0.40% | 300,000 – 800,000 · 100x · 0.50% |
| Bybit | 150x | 0 – 300,000 USDT | 0.33% | 300,000 – 2,000,000 · 100x · 0.50% |
| Bitget | 150x | 0 – 200,000 USDT | 0.40% | 200,000 – 1,000,000 · 100x · 0.50% |
| OKX | 100x | 0 – 10 BTC | 0.40% | 10 – 50 BTC · 66.66x · 0.50% |
| Lighter | 50x | No tiers | 1.20% | — |
| Hyperliquid | 40x | 0 – 150,000,000 USDC | 1.25% | Above 150 million · 20x · 2.50% |
Aster is the one most easily misread: its 200x covers only 400 USDT of notional, 2 USDT of margin, and anything larger is 150x. Gate's 200x runs to 500,000 USDT, the widest first tier of the eight.
Binance and Bybit share a 300,000 USDT first tier, but Bybit's maintenance rate is lower (0.33% against 0.40%) and its second tier much wider: 100x runs to 2 million USDT on Bybit and 800,000 on Binance.
OKX's first tier is 10 BTC, so its USDT size depends on the price: about 1 million USDT with BTC at 100,000 dollars. Check that an OKX ladder is in BTC, not USDT, before reading it.
ETH perpetual max leverage and first two tiers compared
ETH's maximum leverage matches BTC's almost everywhere. The differences are in tier width: most venues give ETH narrower first and second tiers than BTC, and Hyperliquid allows less leverage.
| Venue | Max leverage | Tier 1 range | Tier 1 maintenance rate | Tier 2 (range · leverage · rate) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gate | 200x | 0 – 300,000 USDT | 0.30% | 300,000 – 500,000 · 150x · 0.35% |
| Aster (ETHUSDT) | 200x | 0 – 400 USDT | 0.25% | 400 – 300,000 · 150x · 0.33% |
| Binance | 150x | 0 – 300,000 USDT | 0.40% | 300,000 – 800,000 · 100x · 0.50% |
| Bybit | 150x | 0 – 300,000 USDT | 0.33% | 300,000 – 900,000 · 100x · 0.50% |
| Bitget | 150x | 0 – 200,000 USDT | 0.40% | 200,000 – 1,000,000 · 100x · 0.50% |
| OKX | 100x | 0 – 500 ETH | 0.40% | 500 – 1,000 ETH · 66.66x · 0.50% |
| Lighter | 50x | No tiers | 1.20% | — |
| Hyperliquid | 25x | 0 – 100,000,000 USDC | 2.00% | Above 100 million · 15x · 3.33% |
Against BTC: Gate's ETH first tier shrinks from 500,000 to 300,000 USDT; Bybit's 100x tier from 2 million to 900,000; Bitget's third tier (1 million – 3 million) carries 1.00% against 0.70% for BTC. Binance's and Aster's first ETH tiers are the same as BTC's.
Hyperliquid's ETH tops out at 25x with a 2% first-tier maintenance rate, the highest of the eight. At the same 25x, an ETH position on a centralised venue liquidates further from entry than on Hyperliquid.
How large a position can you open at 100x?
"Up to 150x" does not say what a large position can use. The more useful question is how much notional is available at 100x or more. The table takes the upper bound of the last tier on each ladder that allows 100x or above.
| Venue | BTC | ETH | Above that |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gate | 3,000,000 USDT | 3,000,000 USDT | Below 100x |
| Bybit | 2,000,000 USDT | 900,000 USDT | 90x |
| Bitget | 1,000,000 USDT | 1,000,000 USDT | 75x |
| Binance | 800,000 USDT | 800,000 USDT | 75x |
| Aster | 800,000 USDT | 800,000 USDT | 75x |
| OKX | 10 BTC | 500 ETH | 66.66x |
| Lighter | No 100x | No 100x | 50x at most |
| Hyperliquid | No 100x | No 100x | 40x on BTC, 25x on ETH |
A venue will not open a position above a tier's bound at that tier's leverage: the maximum leverage offered at order entry already reflects the size. When adding to a position takes it across a tier, margin is required at the new tier.
How each venue's ladder is calculated: three models
The eight ladders fall into three kinds. Check which one a venue uses before reading its table or working out a liquidation price.
With a deduction: maintenance margin = notional × tier rate − tier deduction
Without a deduction: maintenance margin = notional × tier rate
Single rate: maintenance margin = notional × the market's maintenance rate
| Venue | Tiered by | Deduction | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binance | Notional (USDT) | Yes | The official formula includes a maintenance amount |
| Bybit | Notional (USDT) | Yes | Risk limit API returns mmDeduction |
| Gate | Notional (USDT) | Yes | Risk limit API returns deduction; tiers matched to size automatically |
| Aster | Notional | Yes | Documented formula is the same as Binance's |
| Hyperliquid | Notional (USDC) | Yes | Maintenance rate is half the initial rate at the tier's max leverage |
| Bitget | Notional (USDT) | No | The ladder this site collects has no deduction |
| OKX | BTC/ETH quantity (from contracts) | No | Position-tier API bounds tiers by minSz and maxSz |
| Lighter | No tiers | No | One maintenance rate per market |
Where the deduction comes from: on Binance BTCUSDT, the top of tier 1 is 300,000 × 0.40% = 1,200, while tier 2's 0.50% gives 1,500. The 300 difference is tier 2's deduction. Tier 3's is 300 + 800,000 × (0.65% − 0.50%) = 1,500, which matches the collected figure. Hyperliquid documents the same recurrence.
Without a deduction, crossing a tier is a step. On Bitget, 199,999 USDT carries about 800 of maintenance margin and 200,001 USDT about 1,000 at 0.50%. Near a tier boundary, a small addition can bring liquidation noticeably closer.
Example: the leverage a 1.2 million USDT BTC position gets on each venue
Take a BTC long of 1,200,000 USDT notional. On the ladders above, its tier, maximum leverage and maintenance margin on each venue are as follows (fees and funding excluded).
| Venue | Tier | Max leverage | Maintenance margin (USDT) | Working |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gate | Tier 3 | 125x | 4,050 | 1,200,000 × 0.40% − 750 |
| Bybit | Tier 2 | 100x | 5,490 | 1,200,000 × 0.50% − 510 |
| Aster | Tier 4 | 75x | 6,128 | 1,200,000 × 0.66% − 1,792 |
| Binance | Tier 3 | 75x | 6,300 | 1,200,000 × 0.65% − 1,500 |
| Bitget | Tier 3 | 75x | 8,400 | 1,200,000 × 0.70% |
| OKX | Tier 1 or 2 | 100x or 66.66x | 4,800 or 6,000 | At a BTC price of 120,000 or more it is at most 10 BTC, tier 1 (0.40%); otherwise tier 2 (0.50%) |
| Lighter | No tiers | 50x | 14,400 | 1,200,000 × 1.20% |
| Hyperliquid | Tier 1 | 40x | 15,000 | 1,200,000 × 1.25% |
For the same 1.2 million USDT, Gate requires a little over a quarter of Hyperliquid's maintenance margin. The lower the maintenance margin, the further the same margin sits from liquidation. For an actual liquidation price, enter the venue, size and leverage in the liquidation calculator, which works through the current ladder tier by tier.
How on-chain perpetual leverage differs from centralised venues
Of the three on-chain venues, Hyperliquid and Lighter offer clearly less leverage, higher maintenance rates and much simpler ladders; Aster's ladder looks like Binance's and reaches 200x.
Hyperliquid documents its rule: the maintenance rate is half the initial margin rate at the tier's maximum leverage. BTC's 40x is a 2.5% initial rate, so maintenance is 1.25%; the second tier starts at 150 million USDC, so ordinary positions effectively have one tier. Cross margin is the default and isolated is supported; leverage on an open position can be raised without closing it, and leverage is only checked when opening.
Lighter has one set of fractions per market: initial, maintenance and close-out, with close-out < maintenance < initial, and they do not tier by size. BTC and ETH both reach 50x with a 1.20% maintenance rate.
| Venue | Max leverage (BTC) | Tier 1 maintenance rate | Fall to liquidation | Same position at 10x |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gate | 200x | 0.30% | 0.20% | 9.73% |
| Aster | 200x (up to 400 USDT) | 0.25% | 0.25% | 9.77% |
| Binance | 150x | 0.40% | 0.27% | 9.64% |
| Bitget | 150x | 0.40% | 0.27% | 9.64% |
| Bybit | 150x | 0.33% | 0.34% | 9.70% |
| OKX | 100x | 0.40% | 0.60% | 9.64% |
| Lighter | 50x | 1.20% | 0.81% | 8.91% |
| Hyperliquid | 40x | 1.25% | 1.27% | 8.86% |
Working: long liquidation price ≈ entry × (1 − 1 ÷ leverage) ÷ (1 − maintenance rate). At maximum leverage, a 200x position liquidates on a fall of about 0.2%; with fees on top, it leaves almost no room for the price to move.
At the same 10x, on-chain venues liquidate closer: 8.86% on Hyperliquid against 9.64% on Binance, because the maintenance rate is higher. When comparing venues, look past the maximum leverage to the maintenance rate at the leverage you will actually use.
How often max leverage and margin tiers change
There is no fixed schedule. Centralised venues adjust individual contracts by announcement; Bitget's Help Center product updates, for example, regularly carry position-tier adjustments, and Gate uses a dynamic risk limit that matches the tier to the position. Hyperliquid's documentation states no schedule; each asset's maximum leverage and margin table ID are published in the meta data of its public API.
In this site's collection from early September 2026 to 2026-11-11, the first-tier maximum leverage and maintenance rate of BTC and ETH did not change on Binance, Bybit, OKX, Gate, Hyperliquid or Lighter. For other assets, rely on each contract page's current figures.
- Check the current ladder on the contract page before opening; this site refreshes every venue's ladder on each collection run.
- How an open position is treated when its tier is cut differs by venue; follow the venue's announcement.
Choosing by position size
- Small positions of hundreds to thousands of USDT: every venue's first tier is enough, and leverage is not the constraint. Fees and funding decide the cost; compare them in the holding-cost calculator first.
- Positions in the hundreds of thousands of USDT: Gate's, Bybit's and Binance's first tiers all cover 300,000 USDT; Bitget moves to tier 2 above 200,000.
- Positions above a million USDT: on BTC, Gate and Bybit have the widest high-leverage tiers and the lowest maintenance margin; on ETH, Gate's and Bitget's 100x tiers are wider.
- Trading from an on-chain wallet: Hyperliquid and Lighter offer low leverage and high maintenance rates, suited to low-leverage holding; Aster's leverage is close to centralised venues, but its 200x applies only to very small positions.
Common questions
Which exchange offers the highest leverage on BTC perpetuals?
On this site's 2026-11-11 data, Gate and Aster at 200x. Gate's 200x covers up to 500,000 USDT of notional and Aster's only 400 USDT. Binance, Bybit and Bitget reach 150x and OKX 100x.
What is Bybit's maximum leverage on BTC?
BTCUSDT reaches 150x up to 300,000 USDT of notional at a 0.33% maintenance rate; from 300,000 to 2,000,000 USDT it is 100x at 0.50% with a 510 USDT deduction.
What are Hyperliquid's maximum leverage and maintenance margin?
BTC reaches 40x with a 1.25% maintenance rate up to 150 million USDC, then 20x at 2.5%; ETH reaches 25x at 2% up to 100 million USDC, then 15x at 3.33%. The maintenance rate is half the initial rate at the tier's maximum leverage.
How often does Hyperliquid change an asset's maximum leverage?
Its documentation states no fixed schedule. Each asset's maximum leverage and margin table are published in its public API's meta data and change when Hyperliquid adjusts them. In this site's collection from September to November 2026, BTC and ETH maximum leverage did not change.
Does choosing higher leverage raise the maintenance rate?
No. The maintenance rate is set by the tier the position's notional falls in, not by the leverage chosen. Leverage only sets the margin posted at entry; the higher it is, the closer liquidation sits to entry.
Why does leverage fall as a position gets larger?
Venues tier positions by notional: the larger the position, the lower its tier's maximum leverage and the higher its maintenance rate. This limits the market impact when a large position is liquidated.
Official sources and scope
These sources support the venue rules explained here. Worked numbers are our calculations under stated assumptions, not venue quotes. Rules can change; the specific contract and account settlement record take precedence.