Polymarket Perps explained: how Polymarket's perpetual futures work

On April 21, 2026, Polymarket launched perpetual futures at polymarket.com/perps. The new product gives traders leveraged, indefinite long or short exposure to crypto, equity, and commodity prices — settled in pUSD on Polygon, accessible from the same wallet they already use for Polymarket prediction markets.

Key takeaways

• Polymarket Perps are perpetual futures: they never expire and roll continuously through funding payments instead of resolution dates.
• Collateral is denominated in pUSD, an ERC‑20 stablecoin on Polygon backed 1:1 by USDC.
• Marketing materials reference leverage selectors from 5x up to 10x on the default flow, with up to 250x on selected pairs.
• The product is positioned as a 24/7 alternative to centralised perp venues (Binance, Coinbase International, Hyperliquid) and to Kalshi's "Timeless" perpetual launching the same week.

Why Polymarket built Perps

Polymarket's prediction markets resolve to YES or NO on a defined event by a specific date. That structure is excellent for binary event speculation but poor for continuous price exposure. By April 2026, three forces pushed Polymarket into perps:

1. Centralised crypto exchanges (Binance, OKX, Bybit) were registering record perp volume — over $86 trillion in 2025 — while spot trading stagnated.
2. Polymarket's main rival, Kalshi, signalled it would launch a "Timeless" perpetual product on April 27, 2026.
3. Polymarket already had the wallet infrastructure, the regulated DCM perimeter, and the order-matching backend to add perps without rebuilding from scratch.

The first-mover advantage was worth six days. Polymarket announced on Tuesday April 21; Kalshi went live on the following Monday.

How a perpetual futures contract works

A perpetual futures contract is a derivative whose price tracks an underlying asset (BTC, NVDA, gold) but never expires. To keep the contract price anchored to the underlying spot price, the protocol charges or pays a periodic funding rate between longs and shorts:

• If the perp trades above spot, longs pay shorts funding — discouraging further long pressure.
• If the perp trades below spot, shorts pay longs funding — discouraging further short pressure.

Funding is settled directly in pUSD and is paid every funding interval (typically 1 hour to 8 hours, depending on the venue). The trader's PnL each interval is (mark_price - entry_price) * position_size + cumulative_funding.

Leverage and liquidation

Leverage on Polymarket Perps is selected per position. A 10x position means $100 of collateral controls $1,000 of notional exposure. The price move that liquidates a 100% allocated position is approximately 1 / leverage, so:

• 2x leverage liquidates on a ~50% adverse move.
• 10x leverage liquidates on a ~10% adverse move.
• 100x leverage liquidates on a ~1% adverse move.
• 250x leverage liquidates on a ~0.4% adverse move.

Higher leverage compresses both upside and downside. Most professional Polymarket Perps strategies live in the 2x–10x band. Above that, the product behaves more like a lottery ticket than a hedge.

pUSD collateral

Polymarket Perps settle in pUSD, Polymarket's stablecoin: an ERC‑20 token on Polygon backed 1:1 by USDC. To trade Perps you wrap USDC into pUSD with a single transaction, place perp orders, and unwrap back to USDC when you withdraw. The wrap and unwrap are atomic and gas‑cheap on Polygon.

Why pUSD instead of raw USDC?

• It lets Polymarket index PnL and funding payments in a single token without making external USDC calls every block.
• It mirrors the existing prediction-market collateral so traders can move between Polymarket Perps and Polymarket prediction markets in the same wallet without bridging.
• It isolates the perps surface: any hypothetical issue with the perp engine cannot affect Polymarket's existing prediction-market settlement, which still uses USDC.e directly.

How Perps fit alongside prediction markets

Polymarket now offers two distinct products in one wallet:

• Prediction markets — binary or multi-outcome contracts that resolve to a fixed payout on a defined date, settled by the UMA optimistic oracle.
• Perpetual futures — continuous, leveraged price exposure with no resolution date, settled by funding rates and mark-to-market PnL on pUSD.

Sophisticated traders combine both. For example, hedging a binary "Will the Fed cut rates by July 2026?" prediction market with an offsetting perp position in a correlated asset (USD/JPY, DXY) lets you express a discrete event view while neutralising the price-direction component.

Polymarket Perps vs the rest of the market

Venue	Custody	Asset coverage	Max leverage	Geography
Polymarket Perps	Self-custody on Polygon	Crypto + equities + commodities	Up to 250x	Blocks US + 30 jurisdictions
Kalshi Timeless	Custodial	Crypto, conservative caps at launch	Conservative caps	US only
Hyperliquid	Self-custody on Hyperliquid L1	Crypto only	Up to 50x	Global
Binance Futures	Custodial	Crypto + a few equities tokens	Up to 125x	Blocks US
Coinbase International	Custodial	Crypto only	Up to 20x	Non-US

The differentiators for Polymarket Perps are: self-custody on a chain most prediction-market traders already use, asset breadth that includes equities and commodities (rare for a DEX), and tight composability with Polymarket prediction markets.

What we still don't know

Polymarket disclosed the product at launch but left several specifics undisclosed:

• Final taker and maker fee schedule.
• Exact funding rate cadence per asset class.
• Whether US residents will have access through the existing CFTC DCM filing.
• Insurance fund mechanics and socialised loss policy.

We will update this guide as those details land.

Related reading

• See /perps/how-to-trade-polymarket-perps for the step-by-step onboarding.
• For mechanics deep-dive: /perps/polymarket-perps-fees-funding-liquidation.
• Compared to event contracts: /perps/polymarket-perps-vs-prediction-markets.

Frequently asked questions

When did Polymarket Perps launch?

Polymarket Perps went live on April 21, 2026 at polymarket.com/perps. The launch was timed to precede Kalshi's "Timeless" perpetual product, which followed on April 27, 2026.

What is pUSD?

pUSD is Polymarket's stablecoin: an ERC‑20 token on Polygon backed 1:1 by USDC. You wrap USDC into pUSD to trade Perps and unwrap it back to USDC to withdraw.

How much leverage can I use?

Marketing materials reference selectors from 5x up to 10x for the default flow, with up to 250x available for selected pairs and advanced traders. Higher leverage compresses the distance to liquidation.

Are Polymarket Perps regulated?

Polymarket holds a CFTC Designated Contract Market (DCM) registration. The perps product is being rolled out within that perimeter; specific availability for US residents will depend on the final scope of the DCM filing.

Can I run an arbitrage bot on Polymarket Perps?

Yes — funding-rate arbitrage between Polymarket Perps and venues like Hyperliquid or Binance is the obvious play. PolyArb tracks funding deltas across major perp venues and flags actionable spreads.