Polymarket Launches Perpetual Futures With 20x Leverage

Polymarket Opens Perpetual Futures to the Public

Polymarket launched perpetual futures trading to the public on Thursday, adding leveraged contracts with no expiry on assets like Tesla, Bitcoin, and gold. The product puts Polymarket in competition with Hyperliquid and other offshore derivatives venues.

67 Contracts Listed

The perps page carried 67 contracts, split into 36 stocks, 24 crypto assets, four commodities, and three indices. The list includes SpaceX and Samsung shares, Micron and SK Hynix, a DRAM contract, Brent and WTI crude, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, and Fartcoin.

What Polymarket Says

"Polymarket Perps is live," the company posted on X. "Up to 20x leverage on crypto, stocks, commodities, & more. Deepest liquidity, lowest fees."

Key Numbers

• Ether led on volume at $9 million, followed by Bitcoin at $7 million and gold at $5 million.
• Ondo was fourth at $4 million, ahead of Solana, which showed $607,000.
• Added together, the 67 markets come to roughly $73 million.

Fee Schedule

Polymarket's fee schedule starts at 0.04% for takers and 0.0125% for makers, and steps down by trailing 30-day volume to 0.02% and a 0.005% maker rebate above $1 billion. Hyperliquid's published schedule starts at 0.045% and 0.015% and bottoms at 0.024% for takers above $7 billion in 14-day volume.

No US or Canadian Users

"Order placement is not permitted from the United States, Canada, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Crimea, Donetsk, or Luhansk," the documentation says. The restriction traces to a CFTC order against Blockratize, Polymarket's operating entity, which fined the company $1.4 million in January 2022 for running an unregistered trading facility.

Kalshi Launched in May

Both companies announced perps within a day of each other in April. Kalshi shipped first, launching on May 29 with contracts it called the first perpetuals offered in the United States, regulated by the CFTC and funded on an eight-hour cycle. Polymarket's hourly funding is the tighter of the two.

Volume Falling

Polymarket has $344.73 million in total value locked and did $3.79 billion in volume over the past 30 days, according to DefiLlama. That is down from the $4.29 billion the platform cleared in June. Kalshi's tracked 30-day volume is $11.10 billion, roughly three times Polymarket's.

What Is Confirmed

Polymarket opened perps trading to the public on Thursday with 67 contracts. US and Canadian users are blocked from placing orders. The fee schedule and volume figures are confirmed from documentation and DefiLlama.

What Is Still Unclear

Polymarket's documentation still describes perps as being "in early access" requiring "a valid Perps referral link or code," language the company has not updated since Thursday's announcement.

Why It Matters

The launch puts Polymarket in direct competition with Hyperliquid and other offshore derivatives venues. Hyperliquid did $7.04 billion in perp volume in the past 24 hours and $209.81 billion over 30 days, per DefiLlama. Polymarket's entire perps book on day one is about 1% of one day of Hyperliquid's.

Sources

• The Defiant