Liquidation Price: How Far Can Price Fall at 10x?

Q: How far does the price have to fall to liquidate a 100x long?

By the simplified formula in this article, with a 0.5% maintenance margin rate, the answer is 1% − 0.5% = 0.5%: a long opened at 60,000 USDT has an estimated liquidation price of 59,700 USDT. With a 0.40% maintenance margin rate the drop is 0.6%, which puts it at 59,640 USDT. Neither figure includes fees or funding, so use the liquidation price the exchange shows.

Q: Does adding margin to an isolated position change the liquidation price?

Yes. Margin ratio = maintenance margin / margin balance, so adding margin raises the balance, lowers the ratio and moves the liquidation price further from the current price. Adding margin or reducing the position is also what Binance itself lists as the way to avoid liquidation. After a top-up, check the liquidation price the app now shows.

For an isolated-margin position with nothing else open, the liquidation price of a futures contract can be estimated with a simplified formula. Long: estimated liquidation price ≈ entry price × (1 − 1 / leverage + maintenance margin rate). Short: estimated liquidation price ≈ entry price × (1 + 1 / leverage − maintenance margin rate).

Read as a percentage drop: a long is liquidated once the price has fallen from entry by 1 / leverage − maintenance margin rate. Taking the maintenance margin rate as 0.5%, that is 10% − 0.5% = 9.5% at 10x, 4.5% at 20x, and just 0.5% at 100x. The formula leaves out fees, funding and any margin added later, so the liquidation price on the exchange's page will differ from it. When you place an order, use the figure the exchange shows.

From 2x to 100x: how big a drop triggers liquidation

The table is for longs, with the maintenance margin rate fixed at 0.5%. The third column is 1 / leverage − 0.5%. The fourth turns that into a price: where the estimated liquidation price lands for an entry at 60,000 USDT.

Leverage	1 / leverage	Drop from entry that triggers liquidation	Estimated liquidation price, entry at 60,000 USDT
2x	50%	49.5%	30,300 USDT
3x	about 33.33%	about 32.83%	40,300 USDT
5x	20%	19.5%	48,300 USDT
10x	10%	9.5%	54,300 USDT
20x	5%	4.5%	57,300 USDT
50x	2%	1.5%	59,100 USDT
100x	1%	0.5%	59,700 USDT

These figures come from the same simplified formula as the calculator on this site. They assume isolated margin, a single position and a 0.5% maintenance margin rate. For a short, read the table the other way round: the same percentage rise from entry triggers liquidation.

Hold the 10x row against a stock-market yardstick. An ordinary stock on China's A-share main board hits limit-down at a 10% fall. By this table a 10x long can take a 9.5% drop, which is less than a single limit-down.

Worked example: 10x at 60,000 USDT

The example is a long on the BTCUSDT perpetual contract: entry at 60,000 USDT, 10x leverage, position size 0.1 BTC.

Position value = 60,000 × 0.1 = 6,000 USDT;
Initial margin = position value / leverage = 6,000 / 10 = 600 USDT;
Maintenance margin, estimated at 0.5% = 6,000 × 0.5% = 30 USDT;
Liquidation triggers when the margin is down to 30 USDT, so the most the position can lose is 600 − 30 = 570 USDT, which over 0.1 BTC works out to 5,700 USDT per coin;
Estimated liquidation price = 60,000 − 5,700 = 54,300 USDT.

Plugging straight into the formula gives the same number: 60,000 × (1 − 1 / 10 + 0.005) = 60,000 × 0.905 = 54,300 USDT, which is 9.5% below entry. Turn the same position into a short: 60,000 × (1 + 1 / 10 − 0.005) = 60,000 × 1.095 = 65,700 USDT, triggered by a 9.5% rise.

Position size doesn't appear in the formula. Swap 0.1 BTC for 1 BTC and the margin and the loss scale up together, so the 9.5% stays the same. The percentage only changes once the position is large enough to move into a different maintenance margin tier, which the next section covers.

For a different entry price or leverage there's no need to work it out by hand. Enter the numbers in the liquidation price calculator, pick long or short, and it gives the result; leave the maintenance margin rate field blank and it uses 0.5%.

What Binance uses to decide a liquidation

Everything above is an estimate. The exchange's own rules are more detailed. This section takes Binance USDⓈ-M futures, under its October 2026 rules, as the example.

It goes by the mark price, not the last traded price. Binance's help-centre article on its futures liquidation protocols states that the liquidation price and unrealized PnL are both calculated from the mark price. The mark price is built from funding data and a basket of prices from several spot exchanges. The last price is the price of the most recent trade and is used to calculate realized PnL.

The trigger is collateral falling below the maintenance margin. The article writes it as: collateral = initial collateral + realized PnL + unrealized PnL < maintenance margin. The matching indicator is the margin ratio, which equals maintenance margin / margin balance; when it reaches 100% the position is liquidated. Binance recommends keeping it under 80%, by adding margin or reducing the position.

Maintenance margin is tiered by position value. The leverage and margin page for Binance Futures gives the calculation as: initial margin = position value / leverage; maintenance margin = position value × maintenance margin rate − maintenance amount. Take the BTCUSDT perpetual, the contract in the worked example. In its tier table on that page in October 2026, the tier up to 300,000 USDT of position value allows up to 150x, with a 0.40% maintenance margin rate and a maintenance amount of 0; the tier from 300,000 to 800,000 USDT allows up to 100x, with a 0.50% rate and a maintenance amount of 300 USDT. The larger the position, the more margin it needs and the lower the leverage available. The tier table is listed contract by contract, so before placing an order, select the contract you're trading on that page and read its own table.

Put the 0.40% tier back into the earlier example: 60,000 × (1 − 1 / 10 + 0.004) = 60,000 × 0.904 = 54,240 USDT, which is 60 USDT below the 54,300 USDT estimated at 0.5%. For a position in this tier, the 0.5% estimate puts the liquidation price slightly closer to entry, so it errs on the tight side.

The full formula needs more inputs. The cross-margin formula in the help-centre article on calculating the liquidation price of USDⓈ-M futures includes, besides the entry price, position size and direction, and maintenance margin rate, the account balance, the margin taken up by other contracts, the unrealized PnL of other contracts, and the maintenance amount. In isolated mode the account balance is replaced by the isolated position's own balance and the two other-contract terms are set to 0. The simplified formula drops all of these, which is why its result differs from the liquidation price shown in the app. In cross mode the account balance and other positions all enter the formula, so the gap is wider.

What leverage actually magnifies

Leverage means one sum of margin supports a position several times its size. In the example, 600 USDT of margin supports a 6,000 USDT position. If the price rises 10%, the position gains 600 USDT, which doubles the margin. If the price falls 9.5%, by the estimate above the position has already been liquidated. Profit and loss are calculated on the position value, but they are measured against the margin, so the higher the leverage, the larger the share of your margin that the same price move takes.

Four differences from A-share margin trading

Margin trading in stocks also borrows money to enlarge a position. Its differences from futures come down to four:

Item	A-share margin trading	Binance USDⓈ-M futures
Leverage	The money borrowed is roughly equal to the collateral you post	Tiered by position value; the top tier for the BTCUSDT perpetual is 150x (October 2026)
Price limits	Yes, a stock's one-day fall is capped	None; the price can keep falling
After the line is crossed	When the maintenance collateral ratio falls below the agreed line, the broker first asks for more collateral, and forces a sale only if it isn't topped up within the agreed period	The position is liquidated once the margin ratio reaches 100%; any top-up has to come before that
Trading hours	Fixed sessions on trading days	Open around the clock, nights and weekends included

The two middle rows matter most. When a margin position in stocks goes the wrong way, the limit-down caps the stock's fall for that day, and after the line is crossed there is still some time to add collateral. Futures have no limit-down in the way (see crypto has no daily price limits), and liquidation triggers once the margin ratio reaches 100%, in the small hours as at any other time. For which stock-market practice spot and futures each correspond to, see spot vs futures: think of it like margin.

Right about direction, so why liquidated anyway?

Crypto traders call a move where the price shoots out and snaps straight back a wick, after the long shadow it leaves on the candlestick chart. You can turn out to be right about the direction and still have had the position liquidated on that wick.

One rule here works in the position holder's favour. Binance liquidates on the mark price, not the last traded price, and says it does so to avoid unnecessary liquidations and to deter market manipulation. So a wick in the last price on the chart doesn't mean liquidation has triggered.

But once the mark price itself reaches the liquidation price, liquidation triggers, and the position doesn't come back when the price does. The price at which the position is actually liquidated can also be worse than the one calculated beforehand. The liquidation protocols article gives an example: a BTCUSDT short is opened at a mark price of 17,000 USDT, and the system calculates a liquidation price of 17,006 USDT. In extreme volatility the mark price jumps from 17,000 to 17,100 USDT within a second, and the position is liquidated at a mark price of 17,100, not the 17,006 first calculated.

The higher the leverage, the closer the liquidation price sits to entry, and one short-lived move is enough to reach it: by the table above, 4.5% at 20x and 1.5% at 50x. The chart-reading methods used to judge direction don't cover moves this brief; does technical analysis still work in crypto has a section on wicks.

Beginners: leave high leverage alone for now

The sensible order is spot first. A spot holding has no liquidation price: if the coin falls you still hold it, whereas a futures position is closed out when it touches its liquidation price. The steps for buying spot are in how to buy your first Bitcoin / USDT, and if you'd rather buy in instalments on a fixed schedule, see DCA. If you do want to try futures, use low leverage and a small amount you can afford to lose, with the aim of seeing how the margin ratio and the liquidation price move with the price. Before placing the order, use the position calculator to work out the most this trade can cost you as a share of your capital. If you catch yourself wanting to raise the leverage after a win, or to turn it up to win back a loss, that is the time to stop.

How high leverage and added margin affect the liquidation price

How far does the price have to fall to liquidate a 100x long?