Polymarket has introduced perpetual futures trading, enabling eligible users outside the United States to take long or short positions with leverage of up to 20 times across cryptocurrencies, equity indices, and commodities.

The new service, called Polymarket Perps, opened with an initial set of 10 markets. Supported crypto assets include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and the HYPE token. Traditional markets cover gold, silver, West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100. A contract linked to SpaceX share prices, labeled SPCX, rounds out the launch lineup. Holding an SPCX position does not confer ownership, voting rights or any claim on the company’s assets.

How the Contracts Work

Perpetual futures differ from traditional futures by having no fixed expiration date. Traders can keep positions open indefinitely provided they maintain the required margin. Funding payments transfer periodically between long and short sides to help keep the contract price aligned with its reference index. When the perpetual trades above the underlying price, longs typically pay shorts; the direction reverses when the contract trades below the index.

Leverage allows a trader to control a larger position than the collateral posted. At the maximum 20 times, each unit of margin can support exposure twenty times larger, amplifying both potential gains and losses. Positions remain active only while margin requirements are satisfied. Adverse price moves that erode collateral can trigger liquidation by the platform. Exact leverage limits may vary by market, position size and internal margin rules.

The company described the venue as offering the deepest liquidity and lowest fees but did not release comparative data or launch figures for trading volume, open interest or deposited collateral.

Expansion Beyond Event Contracts

Until now Polymarket has focused primarily on event-based prediction markets that settle according to the outcome of a defined question. A Bitcoin event contract might pay out based on whether the asset finishes above a stated price at a specific time. A Bitcoin perpetual instead tracks the continuous reference price and can generate ongoing profits or losses until the trader closes the position or the platform liquidates it.

The dual offering gives users different tools for expressing market views. Event contracts settle to fixed values once an outcome is confirmed. Leveraged perps produce continuous mark-to-market results and carry distinct risk profiles tied to margin maintenance and funding rates. Traders can use the new contracts to position around macroeconomic events such as Federal Reserve decisions or swings in major equity and commodity markets.

Infrastructure Upgrades

Alongside the product launch, Polymarket is upgrading its trading systems to handle higher activity. The company is targeting capacity of 200,000 orders per second, roughly 15 times its previous throughput. The underlying architecture is being prepared to support more than 400,000 orders per second in the future. Early tests recorded a 10- to 20-fold improvement in p99 latency, a measure of the slowest transactions during busy periods.

Lower latency and higher throughput become more important when leveraged contracts are involved, because even brief delays can affect margin calculations, liquidations and order execution.

Geographic and Regulatory Limits

Access to Polymarket Perps is restricted to international users in jurisdictions where the service is legally permitted. United States customers cannot use the international platform under terms of a 2022 settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. That agreement required Polymarket to pay a $1.4 million civil penalty, wind down non-compliant markets and block U.S. persons from its offshore operations after the regulator determined the company had offered event-based binary options without proper registration.

A separate U.S. venue operates under CFTC oversight. Contracts there can be introduced through the self-certification process, under which a registered exchange states that a product complies with applicable rules. Self-certification does not constitute formal agency approval, and the commission retains authority to review filings, request additional information or prevent trading if concerns arise.

Crypto price event contracts available on Polymarket remain distinct from the new leveraged perpetual futures. Event contracts allow speculation on whether an asset will trade above, below or within specified levels at a set time, while the perps provide continuous, leveraged exposure to price movements.