Short version. Polymarket Perps is Polymarket's own perpetual futures exchange, open to the public since September 3, 2026. It lists 89 markets — crypto, US and Asian stocks, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, gold and oil — tradable 24/7 with pUSD collateral. Base fees are 0.040% taker / 0.0125% maker, and leverage goes to 50x on BTC, ETH, USA500 and US100. Polymarket's docs describe access through invite codes; a code gives you access, not a discount. Liquidity is still small: $108.9M of volume in the 24 hours to September 24, 2026, against $9.62B on Hyperliquid. It is blocked in the US and Canada.
We may earn a commission when you sign up through links on this page; it does not change your fees.
1. What Polymarket Perps is
Polymarket built its name on prediction markets, where a Yes share settles at $1 or $0 when an event resolves. Perps are a different product on the same site: continuous long or short positions whose value moves with an underlying price, with margin, liquidation and hourly funding like any perpetual futures contract. Nothing resolves and nothing expires.
Polymarket first announced perps on April 21, 2026 with a waitlist, ran a beta through the summer (the API changelog starts in June 2026), and, according to its own newsletter, opened Perps to the public on September 3, 2026. Some third-party sites give an earlier August 2026 date, which appears to refer to early access; we use Polymarket's own date. Perps runs on Polymarket's international platform. The site footer says that platform is not regulated by the CFTC; Polymarket's US business, Polymarket US, is a separate CFTC-regulated exchange.
| Item | Polymarket Perps (as of September 24, 2026) |
|---|---|
| What it is | Perpetual futures exchange run by Polymarket, inside polymarket.com (Perps tab) |
| Public launch | September 3, 2026 per Polymarket's newsletter (some sites cite an earlier August 2026 date); first announced April 21, 2026 |
| Architecture | Hybrid: off-chain order book and matching; deposits, withdrawals and periodic state-root commitments on Polygon |
| Collateral | pUSD (Polymarket USD, a USDC-backed ERC-20 on Polygon). Minimum Perps deposit 10 pUSD |
| Markets | 89: 40 crypto, 39 stocks, 6 indices, 4 commodities — all trade 24/7 |
| Max leverage | 50x on BTC, ETH, S&P 500 (USA500) and Nasdaq 100 (US100); 20x on SOL, HYPE, XRP, gold, silver, oil; 10x on most stocks; 3–5x on small caps |
| Fees (base tier) | 0.040% taker / 0.0125% maker, tiered by 30-day volume down to 0.020% / −0.005% at $1B |
| Funding | Hourly, capped at ±4% per hour; the protocol takes no cut |
| Minimum order | $10 notional; liquidation fills pay an extra 0.5% liquidation fee |
| Access | Docs describe invite codes (links like polymarket.com/perps?c=CODE), each with a limited number of invites; if the Perps tab already lets you trade, you do not need one |
| Restricted | US, Canada, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk (order placement) |
How it works under the hood
Polymarket calls Perps a hybrid exchange. Its docs say the order book, matching, margin and funding all run off-chain for speed, and individual trades do not create on-chain transactions. Custody and settlement live on Polygon: deposits and withdrawals are the only on-chain operations, and the exchange regularly posts state-root commitments to Polygon so anyone can check its reported balances against what was committed. That makes it more like a transparent centralized matching engine than a fully on-chain order book such as Hyperliquid's. You trust Polymarket's engine to match fairly, while the on-chain parts limit what it can do with your funds.
Collateral is pUSD, Polymarket's own dollar token: a standard ERC-20 on Polygon backed 1:1 by USDC, with the backing enforced by contract. You fund your Polymarket wallet by sending USDC or other assets from Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Solana, Bitcoin, Tron and other chains; they are converted to pUSD automatically. You then move pUSD into your Perps account (minimum 10 pUSD). Login is the usual Polymarket sign-in: Google, email, Telegram, or a wallet such as MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet or Phantom.
2. Markets and leverage
The live instruments API returned 89 perpetual markets on September 24, 2026, matching the counts on polymarket.com/perps. The mix is unusual for a crypto venue: nearly half are stocks, including Korean and Japanese memory makers you rarely find on DEXs.
| Category | Examples | Max leverage |
|---|---|---|
| Crypto (40) | BTC, ETH, SOL, HYPE, XRP, ZEC, DOGE, BNB, AAVE, LINK, SUI, ENA and memecoins such as FARTCOIN and kPEPE | BTC/ETH 50x; SOL/HYPE/XRP 20x; most alts 10x; long tail 3–5x |
| Stocks (39) | NVDA, TSLA, AAPL, MSFT, AMZN, META, GOOGL, AMD, AVGO, TSM, ASML, MSTR, COIN, HOOD, CRCL, PLTR, plus Asian memory names SK Hynix, Samsung, Kioxia and CXMT | Mostly 10x |
| Indices (6) | S&P 500 (USA500), Nasdaq 100 (US100), EWY (Korea), SOXL, DRAM, NCLD | USA500/US100 50x; EWY 20x; others 10x |
| Commodities (4) | Gold, silver, WTI crude, Brent crude | 20x |
Most guides still say "up to 20x", and that is out of date. The Perps FAQ still reads 20x for crypto, S&P 500, oil, gold and silver. But the app now shows a "50x leverage is here" banner, and the instruments API lists 50x on BTC, ETH, SP500 and NAS100. The cap falls as a position grows, and the lower cap applies to the whole position: BTC and ETH allow 50x up to $250k notional, then 25x, then 20x above $1M. Maintenance margin is flat per market at half the initial margin at max leverage (1% on a 50x market, 2.5% on a 20x market). A position opened at maximum leverage is liquidated after losing roughly half its margin.
All markets trade 24/7, stocks included. When the underlying exchange is closed, Polymarket switches the external price feeds it uses for the index and mark price. Matching, funding and liquidations keep running. That lets you react to weekend news on NVDA or the S&P 500, but prices can gap when the cash market reopens. The web app opens positions in isolated margin by default; cross margin is available through the API on markets that allow it.
3. Fees: 0.040% taker, 0.0125% maker, 30-day tiers
Fees are charged on notional (price × quantity) in pUSD, on every fill. Your tier depends on trailing 30-day volume and is re-evaluated every UTC day. The right-hand column shows the taker cost of opening and closing a $10,000 position.
| 30-day volume ≥ | Taker | Maker | $10k round trip (taker) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $0 | 0.0400% | 0.0125% | $8.00 |
| $1M | 0.0370% | 0.0100% | $7.40 |
| $5M | 0.0350% | 0.0080% | $7.00 |
| $25M | 0.0300% | 0.0050% | $6.00 |
| $100M | 0.0270% | 0.0020% | $5.40 |
| $500M | 0.0250% | 0.0000% | $5.00 |
| $1B | 0.0200% | −0.0050% (rebate) | $4.00 |
- Cheaper than Hyperliquid at entry level. A $10,000 round trip costs $8.00, against $9.00 on Hyperliquid's base tier or $8.64 with our code HOLYGRAIL (see Hyperliquid fees). But thinner order books can cost you more in slippage than you save in fees.
- Beta accounts are temporarily on the top tier. Some accounts from the beta pay 0.020% / −0.005% whatever their volume, until a transition period ends.
- No gas on trades. Fills are off-chain ledger updates. Only deposits and withdrawals touch Polygon.
- Liquidation costs extra. While a position is being liquidated, every fill pays an extra 0.5% liquidation fee on top of the normal fee.
- Funding is hourly, capped at ±4% per hour, and paid between longs and shorts; Polymarket takes no cut.
Withdrawal rule to know: while positions are open, you must leave at least 10% of your total open notional in the account. A $100 position at 20x needs $5 of margin but holds back $10 from withdrawal.
4. Invite codes and the referral program
Polymarket's docs describe Perps access through invite codes, each with a limited number of invites. If the Perps tab on your account already lets you place an order, you do not need one. The docs put it this way: every Perps account has one code, and "your referral code and your Perps invite code are the same string". A trader who opens Perps through a link like polymarket.com/perps?c=CODE has that code applied automatically. The rules:
- One code per account, permanent. An account keeps the first code it is given and cannot switch later. You cannot apply your own.
- No bonus for the new trader. The docs say no separate bonus is paid to the trader you invite. Any site promising a discount on Polymarket Perps fees through a code is wrong.
- The inviter earns 20% of your trading fees, with no cap per referred trader, paid weekly and shown in the Perpetuals portfolio history. Only direct referrals count; there is no second level.
- Invites are capped. A code starts with 10 invites and grows to 25 in total once those 10 are used by active traders. It then unlocks 100 in total at $100,000 of combined eligible volume (your own plus your direct referrals'), 250 at $500,000 and 500 at $1,000,000. A code with no invites left cannot accept new sign-ups, which is why some published codes stop working.
- Separate from the prediction-market program. Polymarket's prediction-market referrals use different codes and track earnings separately.
Our Polymarket Perps invite code: we do not hold one. The button below opens the official Perps page with ?r=bltz13, which is our Polymarket prediction-market referral code, not a Perps code: it gives you no Perps invite, access or discount. If you create a new Polymarket account through it, Polymarket may record you as our prediction-market referral, and that program pays us only on prediction-market fees, tracked separately from Perps. If you already have a Polymarket account, check the Perps tab to see whether you can trade. Polymarket says the Perps program's mechanics, attribution and invite limits may change as it expands.
5. How to start trading Polymarket Perps (step by step)
Everything below follows Polymarket's docs and the Perps web app as they stood on September 24, 2026. Do step 1 first: if you are in a restricted country, stop there.
- Check where you are. Order placement is blocked from the US, Canada, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk, and the prediction-market geoblock may also apply (see section 10).
- Sign in to polymarket.com with Google, email, Telegram or a wallet such as MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet or Phantom.
- Open Perps. Click the Perps tab, or open an invite link of the form
polymarket.com/perps?c=CODE, which applies that code automatically. Your account keeps the first code it receives, so decide whose link you use before you click. If the Perps tab already lets you trade, you do not need a code. - Fund your Polymarket wallet. Send USDC or another supported asset from Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Solana, Bitcoin, Tron or another supported chain. It is converted to pUSD automatically.
- Move pUSD into your Perps account. Perps uses a separate account balance, and the minimum deposit is 10 pUSD. Deposits settle on Polygon and count toward your equity as soon as the engine sees them.
- Place your first order. Pick a market, choose Market or Limit, then Long or Short, enter the amount and set leverage. The web app uses isolated margin by default, and the order panel has optional take-profit and stop-loss fields. The minimum order is $10 notional. Start well below the maximum leverage: at 50x, a 1% move against you wipes out about half your margin.
Order types: the Perps FAQ lists limit and market-style orders with GTC, IOC and FOK time-in-force. GTC orders can be marked post-only, so they are rejected if they would take liquidity. Closing orders can be marked reduce-only, so they cannot increase your position.
6. Liquidity rewards for market makers
Polymarket pays $75,000 a day in pUSD to makers, split evenly across active markets. There is no application: every Perps account is scored automatically, but to qualify you need at least 1% of trailing 7-day maker volume. Scores reward two-sided quotes close to the mid-price: within 5 bps counts in full, 5–10 bps at 25% and 10–20 bps at 10%, and quoted size counts up to $100,000 per side per band. Uptime is multiplied in. Reward days run 12:00 to 12:00 UTC. Polymarket's changelog also describes an open-interest reward of 6% APR for accounts holding at least $5M of daily-average open interest. Both programs are for professional market makers and large traders, not for someone depositing a few hundred dollars. There are no points and no token for ordinary Perps traders.
7. Volume and open interest (official API)
Polymarket publishes exchange-wide statistics at api.perpetuals.polymarket.com/v1/info/exchange-stats. Readings for windows ending 06:33 UTC on September 24, 2026:
| Window | Matched volume | Gross trading fees |
|---|---|---|
| Last 24 hours | $108.9M | $27,681 |
| Last 7 days | $679.6M | $174,693 |
| Last 30 days | $3.10B | $699,942 |
| Open interest (one-sided) | $62.7M | |
Volume is spread thinly. BTC was the largest market at $10.4M in 24 hours, followed by ETH ($6.3M), ZEC ($4.6M) and ARB ($4.3M). The S&P 500 perp did about $2.1M. That is real activity for a three-week-old venue, but Polymarket Perps' whole month of volume is roughly a third of one day on Hyperliquid. For orders of a few thousand dollars on BTC or ETH, the books are fine. For larger size or smaller markets, check the order book depth before sending a market order.
8. Polymarket Perps vs Hyperliquid
| Polymarket Perps | Hyperliquid | |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Hybrid: off-chain matching, Polygon settlement + state roots | Fully on-chain order book on its own L1 (HyperCore) |
| Collateral | pUSD (USDC-backed, Polygon) | USDC (deposit from Arbitrum, Ethereum, Base, Polygon…) |
| Perp markets | 89 (40 crypto, 39 stocks, 6 indices, 4 commodities) | 178 core perps + builder-deployed HIP-3 markets (stocks via trade.xyz) |
| Max leverage | BTC / ETH / S&P 500 / Nasdaq 100: 50x | BTC 40x, ETH 25x (S&P 500 50x on trade.xyz) |
| Base taker / maker | 0.040% / 0.0125% | 0.045% / 0.015% (0.0432% taker with HOLYGRAIL) |
| Fee tier window | 30-day volume | 14-day volume; HYPE staking discounts up to 40% |
| $10k round trip (taker) | $8.00 | $9.00, or $8.64 with HOLYGRAIL |
| 24h volume (Sep 24, 2026) | $108.9M | $9.62B |
| Open interest | $62.7M | ≈ $12.4B |
| Funding | Hourly | Hourly |
| Access | Invite codes per the docs (check the Perps tab) | Open — connect a wallet or email |
| Referral | Referrer 20% of fees; no bonus for the new trader | Referrer 10%; new trader gets 4% off the first $25M |
Polymarket Perps wins on base taker fee, 50x on the two big US indices, and convenience if your balance is already on Polymarket. Hyperliquid wins on liquidity (about 88 times the daily volume), market count, a fully on-chain order book, open access with no invite system, and a code that gives the new trader a discount. For stock perps specifically, compare it with trade.xyz on Hyperliquid and Ondo Perps.
9. Risks
- New product. Perps opened to the public three weeks ago. The API changelog shows weekly engine changes; the September 21 update tightened margin on position reversals, so some orders that used to pass are now rejected.
- Off-chain matching. State roots make balances verifiable, but matching, risk checks and liquidations run on Polymarket's engine, not on a public chain you can audit trade by trade.
- Thin books outside the majors. With $62.7M of open interest across 89 markets, many stock and altcoin books are shallow. At 50x, a thin book plus a liquidation fee can cost a lot.
- 24/7 stocks on off-hours feeds. Weekend and overnight prices are built from alternative feeds. When the cash market opens, the price can jump straight through a stop.
- Insurance fund and ADL. Very underwater positions are taken over by an insurance fund. If the fund cannot absorb it, the position is closed directly against traders on the other side (auto-deleveraging), led by the most profitable, most leveraged ones.
- Jurisdiction. Check that you are allowed to trade before depositing (next section). We do not recommend using a VPN to get around a block.
10. Who can use it: restricted countries
Polymarket's Perps docs list the places where order placement is not permitted: the United States, Canada, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk. Polymarket adds that the list can change. The UK, EU and Asian countries are not on the Perps list.
One caveat that other guides miss: Polymarket's prediction-market geoblock is broader. It makes the web frontend close-only in Japan, South Korea, Ireland and the Netherlands, and on both frontend and API in places such as the UK, France, Germany, Australia, Singapore and Taiwan. Polymarket does not say whether that list also governs Perps. If you are in one of those countries, open the Perps tab and confirm you can place an order before you deposit.
11. Should you use it?
| You are… | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Already holding pUSD on Polymarket | Polymarket Perps | Same wallet and login; 0.040% taker; no bridge to another exchange |
| Want 50x on the S&P 500 or Nasdaq 100 | Polymarket Perps or trade.xyz | Both offer 50x on the S&P 500; compare book depth before sizing up |
| Trading $50k+ per order or altcoins | Hyperliquid | About 88× the volume and far deeper books |
| Want a discount from a code | Hyperliquid (HOLYGRAIL) | 4% off your first $25M; Polymarket Perps codes give no discount |
| Asked for an invite code you do not have | Hyperliquid, Lighter | Open sign-up, no invite system |
| In the US or Canada | Neither | Both restrict US persons; Polymarket Perps also blocks Canada |
Try Polymarket Perps
89 markets, 24/7 stocks and indices, 0.040% taker at the base tier. The button opens Polymarket's official Perps page. Its link also carries our Polymarket prediction-market referral code (bltz13), which is separate from Perps referrals and does not change your Perps access or fees.
Open Polymarket Perps →Want deeper liquidity and a fee discount instead? Trade on Hyperliquid with code HOLYGRAIL (4% off your first $25M): app.hyperliquid.xyz
FAQ
What is Polymarket Perps?
Polymarket Perps is a perpetual futures exchange run by Polymarket and reached from the Perps tab on polymarket.com. You go long or short with leverage on crypto, US and Asian stocks, stock indices and commodities, and positions never expire. It opened to the public on September 3, 2026 after a beta, according to Polymarket's newsletter. Matching runs off-chain; deposits, withdrawals and periodic state-root commitments settle on Polygon, and all collateral is pUSD, Polymarket's USDC-backed dollar token.
How do I get a Polymarket Perps invite code?
Every Perps account has exactly one code, and that same string is both its invite code and its referral code. Polymarket's docs describe access through invite codes; if the Perps tab already lets you trade, you do not need one. You get a code from an existing Perps trader, usually as a link of the form polymarket.com/perps?c=CODE that applies it automatically. An account keeps the first code it receives and cannot switch later, and you cannot use your own. Codes have limited capacity: 10 invites at first, 25 in total once those are used by active traders, then 100, 250 and 500 as the inviter reaches $100k, $500k and $1M of combined Perps volume.
What are the fees on Polymarket Perps?
New accounts pay 0.040% taker and 0.0125% maker on notional, in pUSD. Fees fall with trailing 30-day volume: 0.037%/0.010% from $1M, 0.035%/0.008% from $5M, 0.030%/0.005% from $25M, 0.027%/0.002% from $100M, 0.025%/0% from $500M and 0.020% taker with a 0.005% maker rebate from $1B. Tiers are re-evaluated every UTC day. There is no gas on trades; liquidation fills pay an extra 0.5%.
Does the Polymarket Perps referral code give me a discount?
No. Polymarket's docs say plainly that no separate bonus is paid to the trader who is invited; what the code gives you is access to Perps. The inviter earns 20% of the trading fees you pay, uncapped and paid weekly. This program is separate from the Polymarket prediction-market referral program, which uses different codes.
What is the maximum leverage on Polymarket Perps?
As of September 24, 2026, 50x on BTC, ETH, the S&P 500 (shown as USA500) and the Nasdaq 100 (US100) — Polymarket raised these from 20x. SOL, HYPE, XRP, gold, silver, WTI and Brent go to 20x, most stocks to 10x and some small crypto markets to 3–5x. Leverage caps fall as a position grows: BTC and ETH drop to 25x above $250k notional and 20x above $1M.
Is Polymarket Perps available in the US or Japan?
Not in the US: order placement is blocked from the United States, Canada, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk. Japan is not on the Perps list. But Polymarket's main-platform geoblock marks Japan as close-only on the web frontend, and polymarket.com/api/geoblock returned "blocked" for a Japanese connection on September 24, 2026. Polymarket does not say which rule applies to Perps, so check that the app lets you place an order before you deposit.
Polymarket Perps or Hyperliquid: which is better?
Polymarket Perps is slightly cheaper for takers at the base tier (0.040% vs 0.045%) and offers 50x on BTC, ETH and two US indices plus 24/7 stock perps. Hyperliquid has about 88 times the daily volume ($9.62B vs $108.9M on September 24, 2026), deeper order books, a fully on-chain order book and no invite system. For size and liquidity Hyperliquid wins; for a Polymarket user who wants to try perps with the same balance, Polymarket Perps is the easier route.
Disclosure: we may earn a commission when you sign up through links on this page; it does not change your fees. HOLYGRAIL is our Hyperliquid referral code. The Open Polymarket Perps button carries r=bltz13, our referral code in Polymarket's prediction-market program, which Polymarket runs separately from Perps referrals (docs.polymarket.com/perps/referral-program). Polymarket Perps figures were read from docs.polymarket.com, polymarket.com/perps and the official API api.perpetuals.polymarket.com on September 24, 2026; Hyperliquid figures from api.hyperliquid.xyz on the same day. Polymarket says fees, leverage, invite limits and restricted jurisdictions can change. Perpetual futures are high-risk; this is not investment advice.