# What Is a Liquidation Price, and How Far From Entry Does It Sit? The Leverage Ladder desk · Updated: 24 September 2026 · Venue terms read 18 September 2026 ## In plain words What is a liquidation price? It is the price at which the maintenance margin behind a leveraged position is exhausted and the venue closes that position itself, without asking. It is not a setting a trader picks: it follows from the margin posted, the maintenance fraction published for that size, and the fees and funding already charged. ## The ladder in numbers | Leverage on the position | Move against it that takes the margin | What that means | |---|---|---| | 5x | 19.75% | A fifth of the position stands behind it. | | 10x | 9.75% | A bad week on the BTC perpetual, not a bad hour. | | 20x | 4.75% | Inside an ordinary session on BTC. | | 50x | 1.75% | The cap dYdX, Paradex, Lighter and Extended print. | | 100x | 0.75% | Less than a cent in the dollar, entry fee inside it. | | 150x | 0.42% | The rung Aster drops to once a position passes 400 USDT. | | 200x | 0.25% | Top rung, and it holds only to a small position. | Distance from entry at a maintenance rate of 0.25%, the figure Aster publishes for the first bracket of its BTC contract ([Aster leverage brackets](https://www.asterdex.com/bapi/futures/v1/friendly/future/common/brackets), read 18 September 2026). A venue that holds back more maintenance leaves less room at the same rung. ## Quoted, with dates > "If an account’s value turns negative, deleveraging occurs immediately against randomly chosen offsetting positions, which may reduce the expected profits of offsetting accounts." — dYdX documentation, contract loss mechanism, 18 September 2026. https://docs.dydx.xyz/concepts/trading/contract-loss-mechanism > "During periods of insufficient capitalization Paradex applies Socialized Loss charge to all withdrawals." — Paradex documentation, socialized losses, 18 September 2026. https://docs.paradex.trade/risk/socialized-losses.md > "the users on the opposite side of the position are ranked by unrealized pnl and leverage used." — Hyperliquid documentation, auto-deleveraging, 18 September 2026. https://hyperliquid.gitbook.io/hyperliquid-docs/trading/auto-deleveraging.md ## Where the steps fall 1. The room you have is the fraction of the position you posted minus the maintenance fraction the venue keeps, both measured against the position and never against the money posted. 2. Doubling the multiple roughly halves the room. At a 0.25% maintenance rate, 50x leaves 1.75% and 100x leaves 0.75%. 3. Maintenance decides which rungs can exist. dYdX holds 1.2% on BTC and stops at 50x, and no schedule prints 100x on top of a floor that high. 4. The same venue answers differently for a $40,000 position and a $400,000 one, because the notional tier fixes the largest multiple that size is allowed to use. 5. Being closed at your own liquidation price is the good outcome. Past it the venue reaches into other accounts, and the rule for whose is published. ## What is a liquidation price, rung by rung Two fractions decide where the line sits, and every venue on this site publishes both. **Initial margin** is what opening the position costs. The multiple is its inverse: ten times margin means a tenth of the position value is posted, a hundred times means a hundredth. **Maintenance margin** is the smaller fraction the venue insists stays behind the position afterwards. It is a floor, not a deposit. When the equity behind the position falls through it, the venue closes the position and the trader does not. The room between them is the first fraction minus the second, both read against the position value rather than against the money posted. The multiple divides the first number; the second stays wherever the venue fixed it for that size. Worked on a $10,000 BTC position, at the 0.25% maintenance rate Aster publishes for the first bracket of its BTC contract: | Multiple | Posted behind it | Room before the close | On bitcoin at $77,972.72 | |---|---|---|---| | 10x | $1,000 | 9.75% | about $7,602 | | 50x | $200 | 1.75% | about $1,365 | | 100x | $100 | 0.75% | about $585 | The bitcoin price is the BTC oracle price dYdX published on 18 September 2026 ([dYdX market parameters](https://indexer.dydx.trade/v4/perpetualMarkets)). Change the venue and the answer changes with it: dYdX holds 1.2% of maintenance on BTC against 2% of initial margin, so its own 50x leaves 0.8% rather than 1.75%, and 100x cannot exist on that schedule at all. ## Why $40,000 and $400,000 are not the same question A cap is not one setting applied to every position. It is a schedule keyed to size, and the size picks the rung before anything else. Aster publishes one such schedule on BTC, and its steps are steep: 200x only while the position is worth 400 USDT, then 150x to $300,000, 100x to $800,000, 75x to $3 million and 50x to $12 million ([Aster](https://www.asterdex.com/bapi/futures/v1/public/future/simple/symbols), read 18 September 2026). Read it against the two positions in the heading. A $40,000 position stands on the 150x rung, so the line can sit two thirds of a percent away at the closest, before maintenance comes out of that. A $400,000 position on the same venue is held to 100x, and the closest is a full percent. Same venue, same market, same day, more room on the larger ticket, because the size moved the rung. Not every schedule runs as far. EVEDEX steps BTC from 200x at $50,000 of notional down to 25x at $716,000, and stops there (EVEDEX trading terms, 21 September 2026). Where the steps fall is where venues disagree. Each of the six below was read on 18 September 2026 in its own documentation. - **Aster** runs that schedule on its Pro order book; a separate one-tap mode advertising a four-figure multiple was discontinued on 21 August 2026 ([Aster](https://www.asterdex.com/bapi/futures/v1/public/future/simple/symbols)). - **edgeX** tiers by position value instead of printing one number: 100x to $1 million, 75x to $3 million, 50x to $5 million, 25x to $20 million and lower rungs above that ([edgeX](https://edgex-prod-v2.edgex.exchange/api/v2/public/meta/getMetaData)). - **ApeX Omni** does not step. It asks one percent of initial margin inside $100,000 of position value and another percentage point for each further $100,000, to a $15 million ceiling ([ApeX Omni](https://apex-pro.gitbook.io/apex-pro/apex-omni/perpetual-contracts-open-interest-and-leverage)). - **Extended** gives BTC 50x to $4 million of position value, at 2% of initial margin against 1% of maintenance, then 25x to $8 million and 16.7x to $12 million, down to 3.3x at its $60 million limit ([Extended](https://docs.extended.exchange/extended-resources/trading/crypto-markets/margin-schedule)). - **Hyperliquid** keeps a single step: 40x to $150 million of notional, then 20x, with maintenance at half the initial requirement on the top rung ([Hyperliquid](https://api.hyperliquid.xyz/info)). - **Paradex** and **Lighter** publish no size steps on BTC. Paradex fixes one initial fraction of 2% that does not scale with size ([Paradex](https://docs.paradex.trade/trading/overview.md)); Lighter publishes 2% of initial margin, 1.2% of maintenance and a 0.8% close-out level ([Lighter](https://docs.lighter.xyz/trading/contract-specifications)). The shape of the disagreement matters more than the headline number. A schedule that steps down sharply gives a large position a distant line and a small one a close shave; a schedule with no steps gives a reader nothing to size against. That is why Lighter, Paradex, dYdX and Aevo are named across this site and ranked on none of its plates. ## When the close comes too late A liquidation is meant to happen while something is still left to close with. When the market gaps through the level, or the book is too thin to absorb the position on the way out, the account ends below zero, and the shortfall lands somewhere. Each venue publishes where. **edgeX** hands what its liquidation engine could not fill to the most profitable opposite positions, at the bankruptcy price, where the margin is exactly gone ([edgeX auto-deleveraging](https://edgexhelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-001/articles/15315409816719-edgeX-Perpetuals-Auto-Deleveraging-ADL-Mechanism-Explained), read 18 September 2026). **Hyperliquid** ranks the accounts on the other side by unrealised profit and by the multiple they run, and takes from the top of that ranking ([Hyperliquid auto-deleveraging](https://hyperliquid.gitbook.io/hyperliquid-docs/trading/auto-deleveraging.md), read 18 September 2026). That queue emptied onto cross-margin accounts through the crash of 10 and 11 October 2025 — the first time the venue had reached for it in over two years. **dYdX** does not rank at all. Its documentation says deleveraging happens immediately against randomly chosen offsetting positions, and that it may reduce the expected profits of those accounts ([dYdX contract loss mechanism](https://docs.dydx.xyz/concepts/trading/contract-loss-mechanism), read 18 September 2026). A trader on the right side of the move can be closed because a stranger on the wrong side was not. **Paradex** does no auto-deleveraging. When the capital behind the venue is not enough, it applies a socialised-loss charge to every withdrawal until it is ([Paradex socialised losses](https://docs.paradex.trade/risk/socialized-losses.md), read 18 September 2026), so the bill arrives later and is shared. **EVEDEX** has run a $500,000 ADL Protection Reserve Fund since 18 July 2026, which it describes as a way to reduce the cases where profitable positions are auto-deleveraged, as published on its blog and read on 18 September 2026. None of this is the trader's decision, and none of it appears on the order ticket. ## What these schedules leave out A published schedule is a promise about arithmetic, not about the venue behind it. Each venue above carries documented problems of its own. - **EVEDEX** lists no bug bounty programme on CertiK Skynet, read 18 September 2026, and writes positions to Arbitrum in batches rather than trade by trade, so the chain lags the matching engine between writes (EVEDEX trading terms; 18 September 2026). - **Aster** stops its top rung at 400 USDT, and its chain contracts and validator set are closed, with no forced withdrawal documented and no audit listed for the matching engine. - **edgeX** caps operator liability at the greater of $100 or three months of fees paid, and vault withdrawals take up to two days and earn nothing while pending. - **Hyperliquid** saw its community vault absorb about $4 million from one liquidation in March 2025 and about $4.9 million in November 2025, and its permissionless markets go unreviewed. - **dYdX** halted its chain in the crash of 10 October 2025, leaving $462,097.79 of trader losses in a compensation proposal, and its client packages were replaced with malicious versions on the public registries in January 2026. - **Paradex** rolled its chain back on 19 January 2026 after a race condition during database maintenance triggered wrongful liquidations, refunding $650,000 to 200 accounts, and it takes one collateral asset only. - **Lighter** publishes no notional tiers, so the point its cap falls is undocumented. - **Extended** advertises up to 100x on its summary page while the schedule underneath gives BTC 50x, and 278 of its 325 markets are quoted on request with no public book. ## The plates this sits under - [Best crypto leverage trading platforms in 2026](/best-crypto-leverage-trading-platform) — the cap and the notional it holds to. - [Highest leverage crypto exchange](/highest-leverage-crypto-exchange) — the same caps by measured depth. - [Best crypto exchange for 100x leverage](/best-crypto-exchange-for-100x-leverage) — the schedules that reach 100x on BTC. - [The leverage trading platforms list](/leverage-trading-platforms-list) — sixteen venues. - [Crypto leverage trading fees compared](/crypto-leverage-trading-fees-compared) — the $10,000 round trip, deducted before the market moves. - [How we rate](/method) — five criteria and their weights. ## FAQ ### How is liquidation price calculated? Take the fraction of the position you posted, subtract the maintenance fraction the venue publishes for that size, and apply what is left to the entry price. At a 0.25% maintenance rate a position opened at 100x is closed about 0.75% away, and one opened at 10x about 9.75% away. ### What happens if my liquidation price is hit? The venue closes the position for you, at whatever the book gives it, and the margin behind that position is gone. If the close still leaves the account below zero, the shortfall is passed on through auto-deleveraging, or on Paradex through a charge applied to every withdrawal until the hole is filled. ### What is the difference between initial margin and maintenance margin? Initial margin is what opening costs; maintenance margin is the smaller amount that has to stay behind the position afterwards. Extended publishes both for BTC at its first tier, 2% of initial against 1% of maintenance, read 18 September 2026. The gap between them is the room the market is allowed. ### Can you lose more than your margin on a perpetual? On these venues, normally not: the position is closed while something is still behind it. The exception is a gap or a book too thin to fill against, which is why each venue publishes a rule for what happens afterwards. Hyperliquid, edgeX and dYdX deleverage; Paradex charges withdrawals instead. ### What is auto-deleveraging in crypto futures? It is the venue closing somebody else's position to cover an account that has gone below zero. Hyperliquid ranks the other side by unrealised profit and by the multiple used, dYdX picks at random, and edgeX fills at the bankruptcy price. The trader chosen has done nothing wrong and cannot refuse. ### Does adding margin move the liquidation price? Yes, and it is close to the only thing available once a position is open. More collateral behind the same position lowers the multiple it is running, so the line moves further away. Closing part of the position reaches the same place from the other side, by shrinking what the floor applies to. ### Why did I get liquidated before the price hit my liquidation price? Usually because the venue marks the position against an index or oracle price rather than the last print on its own book, and because fees and funding had already come out of the margin. dYdX published a BTC oracle price of $77,972.72 on 18 September 2026, beside its own book. ### Does funding affect the liquidation price? It does, slowly. Funding is charged against the margin while the position is open, so the line drifts closer with every settlement a trader sits through. EVEDEX computes a funding figure every eight hours and settles an eighth of it hourly, by its own documentation read 18 September 2026. ### What is a bankruptcy price? The level at which the margin behind a position is exactly zero, before the venue's closing fee. edgeX uses it as the price at which unfilled liquidations are handed to profitable opposite positions, so an account can be closed out at a level worse than the liquidation price it was shown. ### Do all exchanges use the same liquidation price formula? No. The arithmetic is the same everywhere, but the maintenance fraction is not, and neither is the way it changes with position size. Aster holds 0.25% on the first bracket of BTC, dYdX 1.2%, Extended 1% at its first tier, and Lighter 1.2% with a 0.8% close-out level below it. ## About this plate Every figure here carries the date it was read and where it came from. Corrections: corrections@aurascopeapp.com. The Leverage Ladder desk, 24 September 2026 A plate is paid for.