Pionex futures are mostly USDT-margined perpetuals. BTC_USDT goes up to 100x, the minimum order is 0.0001 BTC, and fees are 0.02% maker and 0.05% taker. Liquidation is triggered by the mark price, not the last price on the chart, and the BTC liquidation fee rate is 1.15%, more than twenty times the normal taker fee. Manual futures come in cross, isolated and split-position modes; coin-margined contracts only support split positions (Pionex Help Center and official public API, checked 2026-10-17).
This guide follows the Pionex Help Center: what to do before your first trade, the four margin modes, the BTC risk tiers, how liquidation works, funding rules and the stop settings that matter, then a worked liquidation price for a 0.01 BTC position. Most Pionex users run futures grid bots, so it also covers how manual futures and futures bots differ on fees. Sign up for Pionex with our code FEEOTTER and get 50% of futures fees back (15% automatic rebate from the exchange + 35% extra rebate), 2.5 times a typical 20% code, on manual orders and futures grid bots alike.
Pionex BTC_USDT perpetual at a glance
| Item | BTC_USDT perpetual |
|---|---|
| Margin / settlement | USDT |
| Minimum order | 0.0001 BTC (minimum notional 1 USDT) |
| Max per order | 100 BTC market, 500 BTC limit |
| Max leverage | 100x (position notional up to 1,000,000 USDT) |
| Liquidation trigger | Mark price |
| Liquidation fee rate | 1.15% |
| Funding | Every 8 hours for major coins, 00:00, 08:00, 16:00 UTC |
| Standard fees | 0.02% maker, 0.05% taker |
Sources: Pionex public API (api.pionex.com/api/v1/common/symbols?type=PERP, checked 2026-10-17: 598 perpetuals, 544 of them settled in USDT); leverage tiers from Maintenance Margin; fees from Pionex Trading Fees Overview. For beginner rules across exchanges, see futures for beginners: exchange comparison.
Before you start: KYC, demo trading and transfers
- Finish KYC1 first. The manual futures FAQ says futures follow the same access rules as your account. There is no separate country list and no extra verification, and access depends on the nationality on your ID, not your IP address.
- Practise on demo first. Futures demo trading uses virtual PUSD. You can claim up to 500,000 PUSD at a time and top up once the balance drops below 100,000. Only seven pairs are available (BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, DOGE, BNB, ADA), and it works for manual orders only, not bots.
- Move USDT to the futures account. Cross and isolated margin use the futures account balance. Transfers between the main and futures accounts are instant and free (How to transfer funds between accounts). Split positions are the exception: they draw directly on the main account.
Cross, isolated, split positions, multi-assets margin: which to use
| Mode | Where margin comes from | When it liquidates | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolated | Each position's own margin | That position's margin equity falls to maintenance margin | Capping the loss on one trade |
| Cross | The whole futures account balance, shared | Total futures assets (minus isolated margin) fall below maintenance margin | Several positions backed by the whole account |
| Split positions (Simple Futures) | Main account, each order separate | Each order on its own; one liquidation does not touch the others | Several orders on one pair with different leverage and stops |
| Multi-assets margin | Several assets pooled at their collateral ratios | Same as cross; cross only | Using coins other than USDT as margin |
The help article on cross margin and margin release puts it this way: cross uses the whole account to push the liquidation price further away, at the risk of the whole account going to zero; isolated has a closer liquidation price, but the loss stops at that position's margin. Details on split positions and multi-assets margin are on the help center; collateral ratios for non-stablecoins change with market risk.
Two other settings people mix up. Position mode (one-way or hedge) decides whether you can hold long and short on the same contract at once, and you cannot switch while holding positions or open orders. Coin-margined contracts (for example XAU/BTC and QQQX/BTC, listed in October 2026) use the underlying coin as margin and settlement, support only split positions, and pay you back in that same coin.
BTC_USDT risk tiers: bigger position, lower leverage
The BTC_USDT tiers in the Maintenance Margin article are below. Pionex notes they may not be current; check Contract Info → Leverage & Margin in the app.
| Tier | Position notional (USDT) | Max leverage | Maintenance margin rate | Deduction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 to 1,000,000 | 100x | 0.50% | 0 |
| 2 | 1,000,000 to 12,000,000 | 50x | 1.00% | 5,000 |
| 3 | 12,000,000 to 100,000,000 | 20x | 2.50% | 185,000 |
| 4 | 100,000,000 to 200,000,000 | 10x | 5.00% | 2,685,000 |
| 5 | 200,000,000 to 500,000,000 | 5x | 10.00% | 12,685,000 |
| 6 | 500,000,000 to 600,000,000 | 2x | 25.00% | 87,685,000 |
| 7 | 600,000,000 to 800,000,000 | 1x | 50.00% | 237,685,000 |
Maintenance margin depends only on notional, not on the leverage you pick. The Liquidation article's example: a 1,000 USDT position always needs 5 USDT maintenance margin, so 10 USDT at 100x can lose about 5 USDT, while 100 USDT at 10x can lose about 95 USDT. Small coins get far lower limits. After the 2025-06-24 change, pairs such as FIO and MOVE top out at 25x in tier 1 (leverage and margin tier adjustment), and Pionex states such changes apply to existing positions and can stop running bots.
Liquidation: mark price, and a 1.15% fee
The rule: margin ratio = maintenance margin ÷ (margin + unrealized PnL), and a position is liquidated when the ratio reaches 100%. At 80% Pionex sends a margin call by push, inbox, email and SMS, but it also says notices can be late and it is under no obligation to send them.
- Mark price = index price + 1-minute moving average of the basis; the index weights spot quotes from Pionex, Binance, OKX, Coinbase and others (Mark Price). Pionex says that in sharp moves the mark price and the last price on the chart can differ by 1–3%, so a position can be liquidated while the chart still looks safe.
- Partial liquidation: in tier 2 or above, the system first closes part of the position to bring the ratio back under 100%. In tier 1, or if partial closing is not enough, the liquidation engine takes over the whole position at the mark price, and that fill does not show on the chart.
- Liquidation fee = notional of the liquidated part × the pair's liquidation fee rate. The public API shows 1.15% for BTC and ETH, 1.5% for SOL and 2.5% for most small coins.
- Insurance fund: if the account is negative after takeover, the insurance fund covers the gap and your remaining balance goes to zero. It is funded by Pionex's initial capital and all liquidation fee income.
The liquidation fee is charged on notional, not on margin. Closing a 20,000 USDT BTC position yourself at market costs about 10 USDT; being liquidated costs about 230 USDT. Reduce the position or add margin around an 80% margin ratio rather than waiting for the engine.
Funding: paid between traders, Pionex takes no cut
From Funding Fee:
- Formula: funding = position size × mark price × funding rate. Positive rate: longs pay shorts. Negative: shorts pay longs. Pionex keeps none of it.
- Frequency: every 8 hours for BTC, ETH and other majors (00:00, 08:00, 16:00 UTC); every 4 hours for volatile coins; possibly hourly in extreme markets. Changes are announced. BULLA, for example, went from hourly back to every 4 hours on 2026-04-14.
- Only at the settlement moment: close before it or open after it and you neither pay nor receive. Settlement can be off by ±1 minute, so be careful trading right on the hour.
- Stock-token perpetuals: since 2025-12-17, funding settles every 2 hours on US trading days and stops when the US market is closed (stock-token funding announcement).
Funding is charged on the full notional. Pionex's example: 100 USDT at 100x is a 10,000 USDT position, so a 0.01% rate costs 1 USDT, or 1% of your margin every settlement. If margin runs short, funding comes out of margin and can trigger liquidation. Live rates are on the Pionex funding rate page.
Orders: four settings that protect you
- Trigger stop-losses on mark price. Last price vs mark price for TP/SL suggests last price for take-profit and mark price for stop-loss, because liquidation uses the mark price. A last-price stop can be skipped while the mark price liquidates you.
- A stop cannot sit beyond the liquidation price. The system blocks it, since the position would be liquidated before the stop fires.
- Reset the stop after a partial take-profit. The manual futures FAQ says each level's quantity is fixed when you set it. After a partial take-profit fills, a stop whose quantity now exceeds the remaining position is marked invalid and cancelled, which leaves the rest unprotected.
- Tick "reduce only" on conditional orders so a triggered stop does not open a new position the other way.
Worked example: 0.01 BTC, isolated, 10x
Say you go long 0.01 BTC on BTC_USDT at 80,000 USDT, isolated at 10x, in tier 1 (0.5% maintenance margin rate, no deduction). Using Pionex's condition "margin + unrealized PnL = maintenance margin", and ignoring fees and funding:
| Item | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Notional | 80,000 × 0.01 | 800 USDT |
| Margin | 800 ÷ 10 | 80 USDT |
| Estimated liquidation price | (800 − 80) ÷ [0.01 × (1 − 0.5%)] | about 72,362 USDT (a drop of about 9.5%) |
| Liquidation fee if liquidated | about 724 × 1.15% | about 8.3 USDT |
| Closing yourself at market | about 724 × 0.05% | about 0.36 USDT |
At 5x the liquidation price is about 64,322 USDT (down about 19.6%); at 20x about 76,382 USDT (down about 4.5%); at 100x about 79,598 USDT, a 0.5% drop. Funding at an assumed 0.01% costs about 800 × 0.01% = 0.08 USDT per settlement and slowly moves the liquidation price against you.
On fees, opening and closing this position at market costs about 800 × 0.05% × 2 = 0.8 USDT; with limit orders on both sides, about 0.32 USDT (How Pionex fees are calculated). With Fee Otter:
| Item | Rebate | Net taker | Net maker | Example, taker open + close |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fee Otter rebate | 50% (15% automatic rebate from the exchange + 35% extra rebate) | 0.025% | 0.01% | about 0.4 USDT |
Scale it to 1,000,000 USDT of futures volume a month, all taker: 500 USDT in fees, of which FEEOTTER returns 250 USDT and a typical 20% code returns 100 USDT. See perpetual fees after rebate for the effective-rate maths and maker and taker fees explained for which orders count as which.
Manual futures vs futures grid: different fees
Most Pionex users do not place futures orders by hand; they run futures grids. Maker vs taker says futures grids place limit orders and pay the 0.02% maker rate, while manual market orders, one-click close and reverse are all taker at 0.05% (a reverse is charged twice). Futures grids pay a fee on every grid fill, but at the maker rate; the Futures Moon Grid, leveraged grid and borrowing grid work the other way, charging no trading fee while running and taking 20% of total profit as a management fee when you close. That 20% is not a trading fee, so no rebate applies to it.
The help article trading bots vs manual futures describes the difference: manual futures bet on direction with 100% of the money in at once; a futures grid earns from back-and-forth moves inside a range, deploys capital in steps, earns less in a strong one-way move, and still carries leverage and liquidation risk. Grid parameters, liquidation price and dynamic margin are in our Pionex trading bot guide. Promotional "futures trading bonus" works only for manual futures, not futures bots, and moving any funds out of the futures account cancels the remaining bonus at once (futures trading bonus guide).
Restricted regions
Pionex's list of unsupported phone codes and KYC countries (checked 2026-10-17) names places where you cannot complete KYC or use the service, including the United States, Canada, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Japan, Singapore, mainland China, Hong Kong, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela. Syria and Austria cannot bind phone numbers but can still pass KYC. Indonesia is not on the list. For licensing by country, see exchange licences by country.
Risk: be sure you can afford to lose it
The example shows that 10x isolated is liquidated by a move of about 9.5% against you, and 100x by 0.5%. Liquidation also costs 1.15% to 2.5% of notional, leaving little of the margin. Futures can wipe out your margin in minutes, so only use money you can lose in full and practise stops and liquidation prices on demo first. Under the Pionex Terms of Service the operator is Marketa Trading Inc.; keep only trading funds on the exchange. Ignore anyone selling copy trading or account management that "never loses".
Pionex futures and your rebate
Rebates cover trading fees only. Funding is paid between traders, liquidation fees go to the insurance fund, and the profit share on Moon Grid-type bots is a management fee, so none of these count. The rebate does not change your margin or liquidation price either. Under Pionex Referral Rules v3, futures count on every pair, maker or taker, stock-token futures included; coin-margined fees are converted to USDT hourly.
Register with our code FEEOTTER and submit your UID to Fee Otter for a 50% futures rebate: Pionex pays 15% back afterwards as USDT to your main account, and Fee Otter settles the other 35% daily, withdrawable on-chain as USDT (BEP20) from 1 USDT, with the 0.015 USDT network fee paid by you. Pionex's rules also say an invitee must make a first deposit and trade within 30 days of signing up, with at least 100 USDT deposited in total, before referral commission starts, so don't leave a new account idle. Forgot the code? You can add it within 14 days if you haven't traded, or within 3 days once you've placed an order or started a bot; see the Pionex rebind guide. Registration is in how to register on Pionex and volume scenarios in the Pionex fee rebate guide. For how VIP rates stack, see Pionex VIP levels. High-volume traders can contact Fee Otter support; we work with the exchange's official team to request trading perks for you (subject to the exchange's approval).
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