Bitcoin (BTC) leverage & liquidation, in plain terms
Bitcoin perps are the deepest, most liquid futures market in crypto. On Bybit and Binance the BTC contract typically offers up to 100x leverage with a tier-1 maintenance margin around 0.5%. Because BTC is less volatile than most alts, traders reach for higher leverage here — which is exactly the trap. At 50x, a routine 2% wick against you is a liquidation. At a sane 5–10x, you have room to be wrong and still survive.
How the BTC liquidation price is calculated
Liquidation happens when your losses eat the margin backing the position. For an isolated long, the rough formula is entry × (1 − 1/leverage + maintenance margin); for a short it is entry × (1 + 1/leverage − maintenance margin). Higher leverage puts liquidation closer to your entry — at 10x a long is wiped by roughly a 10% drop, at 25x by about 4%. That is why sizing matters: use the position size calculator to risk a fixed amount, and the PnL calculator to see the upside before you enter.
BTC liquidation — frequently asked questions
How is the Bitcoin (BTC) liquidation price calculated?
For an isolated long, liquidation ≈ entry × (1 − 1/leverage + maintenance margin), using a BTC maintenance margin around 0.5%. For a short it is entry × (1 + 1/leverage − maintenance margin). Higher leverage moves the liquidation price closer to your entry.
What leverage can I use on BTC?
Major exchanges list up to roughly 100x on Bitcoin (BTC) perpetuals, but the maximum on offer is not a recommendation. The higher the leverage, the smaller the move that liquidates you — keep it low enough that a normal swing can't wipe the position.
At what price drop does BTC get liquidated at 20x?
At 20x, a long BTC position is liquidated by roughly a 5.0% move against you (a little less once the 0.5% maintenance margin is included). Enter your own numbers above to see the exact level.
Popular coin liquidation calculators
BTC liquidation: why the price matters less than the leverage
At 10x leverage on BTC your initial margin is 10% of notional. Maintenance margin is typically 0.5%. So price can move 9.5% against you before the exchange force-closes your position. At 20x: 4.75%. At 50x: 1.9%. The math scales linearly — double the leverage, halve the safe distance.
BTC is liquid enough that liquidation prices are usually hit cleanly. The problem comes from gap moves: a 5% flash drop in 60 seconds (happens several times a year on BTC) can skip your stop entirely and trigger liquidation directly if your stop wasn't far enough from the liq price.
Funding also shifts your effective entry over time. A position held for 30 days at 0.01% funding/8h loses 0.9% of notional to funding — which pulls your effective break-even slightly higher (for longs) and your effective liquidation closer. For short-hold scalps this is irrelevant. For multi-week positions it changes the math.
Related: liquidation buffer, stop vs liquidation gap, max safe leverage.