On an isolated long, the liquidation price sits at roughly entry price × (1 − 1 ÷ leverage), nudged up by the maintenance margin. Take a BTC long at 80,000 USDT with 1,000 USDT of margin: using each exchange's first-tier maintenance margin rate on 2026-10-23, liquidation lands around 64,200 to 64,300 at 5x, 76,250 to 76,350 at 20x and 78,650 to 78,750 at 50x. A move against you of about 19.7%, 4.6% or 1.6% is enough. Binance, Bybit and OKX all publish their formulas; they differ in the maintenance margin rate and in whether fees are included.
Liquidation is triggered by the mark price, when your margin falls to the maintenance margin, before it reaches zero. Below are the three official formulas and the maintenance margin tiers, the same position worked out at 5x, 20x and 50x, and how fees and funding move the liquidation price closer (checked 2026-10-23).
Quick answer
- Trigger: margin balance ≤ maintenance margin. Binance says "collateral < maintenance margin", OKX says "maintenance margin ratio ≤ 100%", and Bybit's isolated mode says the mark price hits the liquidation price.
- Bankruptcy price: the price at which your loss equals all of your margin. The liquidation price always comes first; the gap between them is the maintenance margin.
- Maintenance margin rate: BTC first tier is 0.40% on Binance, 0.33% on Bybit and 0.40% on OKX, rising with position size.
- Fees: OKX adds the fee rate into its formula, Bybit counts the fee to close inside the maintenance margin, and Binance's formula leaves fees out.
- Funding: OKX adds or deducts funding directly from position margin; Binance takes it from available balance first and from position margin only if that runs short. Either way it can bring liquidation closer.
Liquidation price, bankruptcy price and maintenance margin
Maintenance margin is the least a position must keep: notional × maintenance margin rate, minus a fixed deduction (Binance calls it the maintenance amount, Bybit the MM deduction). Binance's own example: 10 BTC at a mark price of 26,000 is 260,000 notional, which fell in the third tier at the time (1%, maintenance amount 1,300), so maintenance margin = 260,000 × 1% − 1,300 = 1,300 USDT.
The bankruptcy price is where the margin is fully lost. Bybit's cross margin page defines it as "the price at which the position's losses equal its entire margin, resulting in a margin balance of zero", and perpetual positions are liquidated at that price. The liquidation price is where the margin balance equals the maintenance margin, so a long's liquidation price is always above its bankruptcy price and a short's always below.
All three exchanges use the mark price, not the last traded price. OKX notes that the candlestick chart shows the last price by default; switch it to "Mark price" to see the line that actually triggers liquidation.
The three official formulas
Binance USDⓈ-M futures
Binance's help page shows the one-way mode formula as an image, with these variables: WB wallet balance, TMM1 maintenance margin of all other contracts, UPNL1 unrealized PnL of all other contracts, cumB maintenance amount, Side direction (1 long, −1 short), Position size, EP entry price and MMR maintenance margin rate. Written out:
Liquidation price = (WB − TMM1 + UPNL1 + cumB − Side × Position × EP) ÷ (Position × MMR − Side × Position)
In isolated mode WB is the position's isolated margin and TMM1 and UPNL1 are 0, which simplifies to: long = (margin + maintenance amount − size × entry) ÷ (size × MMR − size); short = (margin + maintenance amount + size × entry) ÷ (size × MMR + size). Running Binance's own cross margin example through this formula gives 26,316.89 for BTCUSDT and 1,153.26 for ETHUSDT, matching the official answers (Binance liquidation price calculation, updated 2025-12-31).
Bybit USDT perpetual (Unified Trading Account, isolated)
Long liquidation price = [entry × size − entry × size ÷ leverage − extra margin added ÷ (1 − taker fee rate) − MM deduction] ÷ [size − size × MMR]
Short liquidation price = [entry × size + entry × size ÷ leverage + extra margin added ÷ (1 + taker fee rate) + MM deduction] ÷ [size + size × MMR]
Bybit's example: 1 BTC long at 40,000 with 50x, then 3,000 USDT of margin added by hand, MMR 0.5% and taker 0.055%, gives a liquidation price of 36,380.25. The same page defines maintenance margin as notional × MMR − MM deduction + fee to close, where fee to close = size × entry × (1 − 1 ÷ leverage) × taker rate, 21.56 USDT in the example, and warns that the fee to close causes small differences from the formula (Bybit liquidation process, updated 2026-10-15).
OKX USDT-margined futures (isolated)
Long estimated liquidation price = (margin balance − face value × contracts × average open price) ÷ [face value × contracts × (tier MMR + fee rate − 1)]
Short estimated liquidation price = (margin balance + face value × contracts × average open price) ÷ [face value × contracts × (tier MMR + fee rate + 1)]
One BTC-USDT perpetual contract has a face value of 0.01 BTC. OKX says the estimated liquidation price is worked back from "maintenance margin ratio = 100%", changes in real time with margin, positions and funding, and should not be the only thing you judge risk by; changing leverage alone does not move it (OKX forced liquidation FAQ, updated 2026-10-05).
Maintenance margin tiers for BTC (2026-10-23)
| Exchange | Tier cap | Maintenance margin rate | Deduction | Max leverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Binance BTCUSDT | 300,000 USDT notional | 0.40% | 0 | 150x |
| 800,000 USDT | 0.50% | 300 | 100x | |
| 3,000,000 USDT | 0.65% | 1,500 | 75x | |
| Bybit BTCUSDT | 300,000 USDT notional | 0.33% | 0 | 150x |
| 2,000,000 USDT | 0.50% | 510 | 100x | |
| 2,600,000 USDT | 0.56% | 1,710 | 90x | |
| OKX BTC-USDT perpetual (isolated) | 1,000 contracts (10 BTC) | 0.40% | n/a | 100x |
| 5,000 contracts (50 BTC) | 0.50% | n/a | 66.66x | |
| 20,000 contracts (200 BTC) | 0.75% | n/a | 50x |
Data: public data behind Binance's leverage and margin page, Bybit risk-limit and OKX position-tiers official public APIs, checked 2026-10-23. First three tiers only; tiers change, so check the trading page before you trade.
The bigger the position, the higher the maintenance margin rate, and the closer the liquidation price at the same leverage. That is why a large trader on moderate leverage can still sit nearer to liquidation than a small one.
Worked example: 5x, 20x and 50x
Assume 1,000 USDT of isolated margin on each exchange, a BTC long opened at 80,000 USDT, and a position inside the first tier. Binance and Bybit use their own formulas; OKX's uses a 0.05% taker rate:
| Leverage | Notional | Bankruptcy price | Binance liquidation | Bybit liquidation | OKX liquidation | Move that liquidates you |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5x | 5,000 USDT (0.0625 BTC) | 64,000 | 64,257.03 | 64,211.90 | 64,289.30 | about 19.6% to 19.7% |
| 20x | 20,000 USDT (0.25 BTC) | 76,000 | 76,305.22 | 76,251.63 | 76,343.55 | about 4.6% to 4.7% |
| 50x | 50,000 USDT (0.625 BTC) | 78,400 | 78,714.86 | 78,659.58 | 78,754.39 | about 1.6% to 1.7% |
A 20x short under the same conditions: bankruptcy price 84,000, Binance 83,665.34, Bybit 83,723.71, OKX 83,623.69. These are our own calculations from the official formulas; on Bybit the fee to close also plays in, and the trading page is the final word.
Going from 5x to 50x shrinks the move you can survive from about 20% to about 1.6%, and BTC moving 2% in a day is common. Fees tell the same story: in how crypto trading fees are calculated, the same 50x position pays 5% of its margin in fees for one round trip a day.
Isolated vs cross margin
Isolated margin uses only the margin assigned to that position, and liquidation affects only that position. Cross margin draws on everything available in the account: in Binance's formula WB becomes the cross wallet balance, minus the other contracts' maintenance margin and plus their PnL.
With the 20x long above: isolated with 1,000 USDT of margin, Binance's liquidation price is 76,305.22. In cross mode with 3,000 USDT in the account and no other positions, it moves to 68,273.09. Cross keeps liquidation further away, but if it does hit, you lose the whole 3,000 USDT.
Bybit states that in cross mode the liquidation price is not fixed; it moves with account equity, unrealized PnL and other positions, and the figure on the trading page is for reference only. OKX adds that with several underlyings in cross margin, price moves in the others affect this position's estimate, and for some combinations it shows no estimate at all and you go by the maintenance margin ratio.
How fees and funding move the liquidation price
- Closing fee: OKX's denominator includes the fee rate, so an OKX long liquidates slightly higher than an MMR-only calculation. Bybit puts the estimated fee to close inside the maintenance margin, so that money has to stay in the position.
- Funding: OKX says funding is added to or deducted from position margin at settlement. A 20x long of 20,000 USDT notional at a 0.01% funding rate pays 2 USDT per settlement; nine settlements over three days take 18 USDT, margin drops to 982, and the OKX liquidation price rises from 76,343.55 to 76,415.87. Binance says funding comes out of the futures account's available balance, then from position margin if the balance is short, which "may affect your liquidation price" (Binance funding rate FAQ, updated 2026-03-06).
- Adding or removing margin: adding isolated margin pushes liquidation away; in Bybit's example, 3,000 USDT added to a 50x long brings the liquidation price down to 36,380.25.
- Adding to the position: OKX says a same-direction fill merges into one position, so the average entry and the tier both change.
What liquidation costs compared with a stop-loss
Take the same 20x long with 1,000 USDT of margin as the price falls:
- You close with a market stop at 77,000: the loss is 0.25 × 3,000 = 750 USDT and the fee is 0.25 × 77,000 × 0.05% = 9.63 USDT. On Binance with code FEEOTTER at 40% (20% automatic + 20% extra), about 3.85 USDT comes back, so you pay about 5.78 USDT and keep roughly 240 USDT of margin (before the opening fee).
- You are liquidated on OKX: liquidation hits around 76,343.55 on about 19,085.89 USDT of notional. OKX charges two fees: a liquidation fee at your taker rate, about 9.54 USDT, and a liquidation clearance fee equal to the maintenance margin at the trigger, about 19,085.89 × 0.4% = 76.34 USDT. The net of both goes to OKX's security fund, and that margin is effectively gone.
Liquidation fees, clearance fees and leftover margin sent to the insurance fund are not trading fees, so no rebate applies to them; only fees on orders you place yourself are returned. OKX is 20% automatic rebate + exclusive rewards, and Bybit is 40% (all paid by Fee Otter). Insurance funds and ADL rules by exchange are in liquidation, insurance funds and ADL compared.
Exchanges try to save the position first. Binance places a large IOC order to reduce it; Bybit, when a position is above the lowest risk tier, sends an IOC order that cuts it down to the lower tier; OKX lowers futures two tiers per step and only closes the rest at the mark price once it reaches tier 2 and is still unsafe. These steps reduce what you lose, and you still pay for the liquidation.
How to avoid liquidation
Work it out before you open
use the formulas above or the trading page calculator, see how far liquidation is from the current price, then pick leverage.Put the stop before liquidation
a stop fill pays a normal fee that earns a rebate; a liquidation does not.Lower leverage or add margin
adding isolated margin moves the liquidation price away right away.Keep a balance before funding
when funding rates are high, make sure there is enough available balance before settlement.Watch the mark price
switch the chart to mark price and judge risk by the maintenance margin ratio, not only the last price.
Telegram · @feeotter
