Polymarket Launches Perps With Up to 20x Leverage for Global Traders

Polymarket, a prediction market, has launched its perpetual futures platform, Polymarket Perps, that is expected to let international users trade crypto, stocks, indices and commodities with up to 20x leverage. 

According to the Thursday announcement on X, the product is available in places where it is legally allowed and lets traders take long or short positions through one platform. 

Polymarket Perps is live.

Up to 20x leverage on crypto, stocks, commodities, & more. Deepest liquidity, lowest fees.

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— Polymarket (@Polymarket) September 3, 2026

The launch takes Polymarket beyond its well-known prediction markets. Instead of only betting on the outcome of future events, users can now trade the price movements of different assets. The first 10 markets include Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), HYPE, gold, silver, the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, WTI oil and SPCX. 

Traders can bet on prices going up or down

With Perps, a trader can bet that an asset will rise by taking a long position or bet that it will fall by taking a short position. They can also choose leverage of up to 20x. 

For example, 20x leverage allows a trader to control a much larger position than the money they put into the trade. Perpetual futures also have no set expiry date, meaning positions can stay open as long as the trader meets the required margin. 

Polymarket said its Perps platform offers “deepest liquidity, lowest fees” for traders. The service also brings different markets together, allowing users to move between crypto, stocks, indices and commodities from one interface. 

Traders can use the platform around major market events, including Federal Reserve decisions and large moves in stock indices. 

Polymarket prepares for more trading activity

Behind the launch, Polymarket is also working to make its trading system handle more activity. The company is targeting 200,000 orders per second, which is about 15 times its current capacity. Its system is being built with the longer-term goal of handling more than 400,000 orders per second.

Honest post: the Polymarket DeFi CLOB is full of tech debt. It grew fast, got hacked together, and most of the team inherited it that way. Since joining and building out the team, we have scaled it 10x and made it 3x faster, but it’s not enough; the core foundations of how it’s…

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Early testing has reportedly also shown a 10 to 20 times improvement in p99 latency. Put simply, this measures how long some of the slower orders take to go through, especially when many people are trading at once. A better result can help the platform handle busy periods more smoothly.

U.S. rules still apply to derivatives

The international rollout does not mean the same product is automatically available to U.S. traders. Derivatives offered to U.S. customers remain subject to Commodity Futures Trading Commission requirements. Polymarket’s self-certification of contracts also does not mean the CFTC has formally approved them. The regulator can still review or stop contracts before they begin trading in the United States.

Polymarket is also keeping Perps separate from its crypto price event contracts. Those contracts focus on whether assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum or Solana will be above, below or within certain price levels at a set time. Perps, on the other hand, are designed for ongoing leveraged trading.

The move comes as other trading platforms continue adding futures products. Coinbase has also expanded its futures offering in Canada, with eligible investors able to trade crypto futures alongside products linked to gold, silver, oil and the COIN50 crypto index.

Polymarket’s latest launch therefore adds a new side to its business, putting leveraged trading of crypto and traditional markets alongside its existing prediction-market products.

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