Leverage and margin

Leverage tiers#

Leverage goes from 1x to 100x. The maximum depends on the market group and on the size of the resulting position: the larger the position, the lower the maximum leverage. Maintenance also limits it: 2 × maintenance (in basis points) × leverage ≤ 10,000; for example, 5% maintenance permits at most 10x. Markets, tiers, open-interest caps and stress scenarios are readable market configuration: the table describes the catalogue deployed with v2.2 and the administrator can change it.

Example. On BTC, a 30,000 USDC position can use up to 50x; above 50,000 USDC the maximum is 25x.

If an order would exceed a tier, an open-interest cap or the available liquidity capacity, the terminal tells you before you sign (LEVERAGE_TIER_EXCEEDED, OPEN_INTEREST_CAP or LIQUIDITY_CAPACITY). The leverage of an existing isolated position can be raised up to the maximum of the tier for its current size. These tiers apply to every way of trading: the terminal, trading sessions, signed orders and the API.

Initial and maintenance margin#

The maintenance margin of a position is fixed when it is opened: if the value of a market changes later, it applies only to new positions and to what you add to existing ones.

Equity and health factor#

Your cross-margin equity is:

equity = eligible USDC (USDC balance − USDC locked in isolated positions)
         + unrealized PnL (losses in full; each position's profit counted up to
           the smaller of its cap and its size × its credit percentage)
         − pending fees − funding owed − debt + BAQ credit

A position can earn more than 100% of its size when it is closed (see Profit cap), but while it is open its profit only counts as cross margin up to its credit percentage (at launch, 100% of size), so your margin does not rely on profits the vault might not be able to pay. The percentage is taken at opening, blended by size on increases and never below the live value: lowering it does not cut old exposure you do not increase; raising it also helps existing positions. Example: opening 1,000 USDC with credit at 100% and adding another 1,000 with the parameter at 50% gives a blended 75%. Margin available to open also deducts committed margins and order reserves.

The health factor is equity divided by the total maintenance margin of your cross positions:

• Above 1.25: healthy.
• Between 1 and 1.25: warning; the account is close to liquidation.
• 1 or below: positions can be liquidated.

An isolated position is evaluated on its own: it can be liquidated when its margin plus its PnL, minus funding, falls to its stored maintenance (reference value: 0.5% of its size) or less.

See Liquidation for the liquidation price and process.

Profit cap#

Every position has a gross maximum profit: at the v2.2 launch, 20 times its size for new exposure. A long reaches it only if the price rises to 21 times its entry while the position is open; a short can never earn more than its size anyway (its price cannot fall below zero).

The cap is fixed when the position is opened and applies to both unrealized and realized profit. The administrator can change it for new exposure within the limits of the code in force (between 1 and 20 times the size); a cap above 1 time the size is only allowed while auto-deleveraging and backed take profit are active, and the code enforces this. An increase adds the new tranche's cap under the live parameters; a reduction shrinks the cap proportionally; a parameter change alone does not reprice open exposure. These rules depend on the code in force and any rollback conditions. The cap of each position is shown in the API as protocol_profit_cap_usdc. Positions opened before 11 October 2026 keep the cap they were opened with until they are closed; what you add to them afterwards uses the new cap.

Backed take profit and auto-deleveraging#

The vault is the counterparty of every position, and it is small compared with the maximum profits it could owe. Two mechanisms keep large profits payable.

Backed take profit. When you set a take profit, the vault reserves capacity for its profit within the cap, if that room is available:

• Reserving is free while the take profit is within the market's stress scenario (market configuration; a 15% move on most markets of the v2.2 catalogue); farther targets reserve extra capacity.
• With the v2.2 reference values, extra capacity for one position does not exceed 20%, and total extra capacity 40%, of vault liquidity excluding the deferred-payment reserve. These are not percentages of the entire reserve or a payment guarantee, and capacity may change between preview and execution.
• If the room is not available, the position still opens (or the take profit is still set) and the confirmation window tells you, before you sign, the farthest take profit that could be backed.
• While backing remains valid, its position is excluded from auto-deleveraging; TP, size or state changes may re-evaluate it. Closing settles funding and costs and, after extreme gaps, may leave part as a deferred payment.
• An order that joins a position with a backed take profit re-evaluates that backing. If it cannot be backed again (for example, the price gapped past the take profit) and the market would end above its share of the vault or the vault above its admission ceiling, the whole order is refused for vault capacity (LIQUIDITY_CAPACITY) and nothing changes. The preview does not always anticipate it.
• Removing or changing a take profit without opening more is not blocked by this capacity check, even if it leaves the market above its share. The vault is then protected by the new-risk block on over-utilisation and, if needed, by auto-deleveraging.

Auto-deleveraging (ADL). With the v2.2 reference values, ADL arms when reserved capacity (including each market's stress scenario) reaches 100% of vault liquidity excluding the deferred-payment reserve, and stops when it falls to 90% of that liquidity. Trigger and target are adjustable parameters; the effective trigger cannot be below the admission ceiling plus 5 percentage points. While armed, the keeper reduces or closes positions:

• It selects winning positions without a valid backed take profit, at the valid oracle price; within each batch, among positions on the same side and market, those with the largest profit as a percentage of their size come first. Batch validation does not guarantee a global ranking of all winners.
• No closing fee and no penalty. The profit cap applies and funding is settled; a cross gain first offsets outstanding cross debt; the net is paid from available liquidity and any uncovered part is deferred. Immediate payment of the entire gross gain is not guaranteed.
• It only closes positions that are in profit and earn at least the average of their side in that market. Positions with a backed take profit are not closed.
• The contract checks every ADL close on chain: ADL is armed, eligibility, ordering within the batch and that the close reduces reserved capacity.

Purely hypothetical example. A 34 USDC long at 100x commits 0.34 USDC margin; a linear 14% rise produces 4.76 USDC gross profit before funding and caps. This does not calculate an ADL threshold or certify the vault balance: ADL depends on aggregate exposure, stress, backing and effective liquidity. With a larger vault, the same position runs further before ADL acts.

ADL can close your position when you did not ask for it, so you lose any further gain. If you want a profit target to be honoured, set a take profit and check in the confirmation window that it is backed.