Key highlights:

  • Polymarket opened its new Perps product to traders, offering leveraged contracts
  • Contracts would allow up to 20x leverage on crypto and major commodities
  • The product would not be available to US-based traders

Polymarket has opened its perpetual futures product, called Perps, to the public. The product would offer leveraged contracts that track the price of everything from Bitcoin to gold with no expiration date attached.

Polymarket’s launch details and market lineup

Perps was launched on September 3 with 10 markets featuring Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, gold, silver, WTI oil, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq 100. There was also a contract linked to SpaceX shares. 

It later expanded to about 67 contracts, and in the latter hours of the day, the lineup was split into 36 stock contracts, 24 crypto assets, four commodities, and three indices. Top assets like Samsung and Micron were among those featured.

Ethereum led early trading volume at about $9 million. Bitcoin came in second at around $7 million and gold at $5 million, with the 67 markets adding up to about $73 million in combined volume.  Among the commodity offerings, contracts linked to Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude were the standout names.

Fees, leverage and funding mechanics

The new Polymarket products track the underlying asset's price continuously, unlike Polymarket's traditional contracts, which settle at either $1 or zero once an event is resolved.  

It also features a funding rate that is capped at 4% per hour in either direction and sampled from the order book every five seconds. The rate shifts payments between long and short traders to keep contract prices anchored close to spot.

Notably, the leverage caps vary by asset type. Crypto, the S&P 500, oil, gold, and silver can be traded at up to 20x leverage, while stocks and other real-world assets max out at 10x. 

Furthermore, its maintenance margin is set at half the maximum leverage rate. This suggests that a leveraged 20x position can face liquidation if it loses about 2.5% of its posted margin.

On fees, the platform's published schedule starts at 0.04% for takers and 0.0125% for makers, stepping down with trailing 30-day volume to as low as 0.02% for takers and a 0.005% maker rebate above $1 billion in volume. This pricing undercuts Hyperliquid's published rates on both sides.

Competition heats up with Kalshi and Hyperliquid

The launch puts the company in competition with two rivals in the space. For context, Kalshi launched the first onshore perpetual futures product in the US on May 29. The exchange has since expanded into perpetuals on a dozen altcoins and is reportedly pursuing its oil-linked contract as well.

Hyperliquid, on the other hand, already dominates on-chain perpetuals trading. The platform records over $7 billion in volume in a 24-hour period and more than $209 billion in 30 days. 

So in comparison, the day-one perps book represents only about 1% of a day's volume on that larger platform. This means even with a fast start, Polymarket is still a relatively small player in the leveraged-derivatives market.