Leverage, Margin and Liquidation on Bybit

Bybit lets you trade perpetuals with leverage — controlling a position larger than your margin — up to around 100x on major pairs. This page covers how leverage, margin and liquidation work on Bybit; for the underlying mechanics, start with the Leverage & risk hub.

How much leverage Bybit offers

Leverage on Bybit runs from 1x up to 100x on the major contracts (BTC, ETH, SOL — confirmed via its live API; the "125x" some older reviews cite no longer applies). Two things to know:

• The maximum varies by pair, and
• it steps down as your position grows (risk limits) — large positions can't use the top multiplier.

Smaller altcoin perps are commonly capped at 25x or 12.5x, and spot margin goes up to 10x. BTCUSDT alone has 35 risk-limit tiers: the top 100x applies only up to ~2,000,000 USDT of position value, stepping down to 1x at the largest sizes.

Bybit

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1. 1Cross or Isolated margin — chosen per position (see the next section).
2. 2Leverage from 1x up to 100x (or Customize). 100x is the ceiling on majors — and it steps down for larger positions.
3. 3Higher leverage pulls the liquidation price closer to your entry.

Cross vs. isolated margin on Bybit

Bybit lets you back a position with isolated margin (risk capped to the amount you assign) or cross margin (your whole balance backs it). The trade-off is the same on any exchange — covered in Cross vs. isolated margin — and you choose per position.

How Bybit calculates your liquidation

Here's the detail most traders get wrong: Bybit liquidates against the mark price, not the last traded price. The mark price is an averaged "fair" value, so a brief, manipulated wick on the order book is far less likely to liquidate a position the broader market never actually moved against. Read your liquidation price from the mark price.

When losses eat past your maintenance margin, the position is force-closed at the liquidation price; Bybit also runs a derivatives insurance fund (reported around $400M, publicly viewable) and, in extremes, auto-deleveraging, to absorb liquidations that can't fill cleanly. The general concept — and how to stay clear of it — is in What is liquidation?.

A worked example

At 10x, $100 of margin controls a $1,000 position — so a 10% move against you wipes the margin and triggers liquidation. Drop to 3x and the market needs to move roughly 33% against you first. Same trade, very different survival room: leverage is the dial that sets how close your liquidation sits. Work out your own (also on the standalone PnL calculator):

Lowering your liquidation risk on Bybit

• Use less leverage — it pushes the liquidation price away from your entry.
• Add margin to an isolated position to give it more room (it lowers effective leverage).
• Set a stop-loss tighter than the liquidation price so you exit on your terms.

New to any of this? Start with the Leverage & risk hub, and mind the funding cost while a leveraged position is open.