Liquidation Price Calculator
Calculate the exact liquidation price for leveraged crypto trades on Binance, Bybit, and other exchanges.
Know your risk before you enter.
In leveraged trading, liquidation is the automatic forced closure of your position by the exchange when your losses consume your entire initial margin deposit. Understanding your liquidation price before entering a trade is one of the most important risk management steps you can take.
How leverage works
When you trade with 10× leverage, you deposit 10% of the trade value as collateral (called the initial margin). The exchange lends you the rest. A 10% move against you wipes out your entire deposit — this is your liquidation point.
Initial Margin % = 1 ÷ Leverage
Liquidation price formulas
For a Long position (you profit if price goes up):
Liquidation Price = Entry Price × (1 − Initial Margin % + Maintenance Margin %)
For a Short position (you profit if price goes down):
Liquidation Price = Entry Price × (1 + Initial Margin % − Maintenance Margin %)
Where:
- Initial Margin % = 1 ÷ Leverage (e.g., 0.10 for 10×)
- Maintenance Margin % = minimum margin before liquidation triggers (typically 0.5% on Binance/Bybit for major pairs)
Worked example
BTC entry: $40,000, leverage: 10×, direction: Long, maintenance margin: 0.5%
Initial Margin % = 1 ÷ 10 = 10% Liquidation = $40,000 × (1 − 0.10 + 0.005) = $40,000 × 0.905 = $36,200
A drop of just $3,800 (9.5%) from entry triggers full liquidation.
Liquidation danger by leverage level
| Leverage | Price drop to liquidation (Long) | Price rise to liquidation (Short) |
|---|---|---|
| 2× | ~49.5% | ~50.5% |
| 5× | ~19.5% | ~20.5% |
| 10× | ~9.5% | ~10.5% |
| 20× | ~4.5% | ~5.5% |
| 50× | ~1.5% | ~2.5% |
| 100× | ~0.5% | ~1.5% |
Maintenance margin vs initial margin
- Initial margin is what you deposit to open the position.
- Maintenance margin is the minimum balance required to keep it open — usually 0.4%–0.5% of position value on major exchanges.
- When your account balance falls to the maintenance margin level, liquidation is triggered.
Partial vs full liquidation
Most large exchanges (Binance, Bybit) use partial liquidation first — they close only part of your position to bring your margin back above maintenance level. If the price keeps moving against you, further partial liquidations occur until the position is fully closed.
The danger of cascade liquidations
On May 19, 2021, Bitcoin fell ~30% in a single day. The price drop triggered billions in liquidations, which forced sales that drove the price down further, which triggered more liquidations. Over $8 billion in positions were liquidated in roughly one hour in what is known as a liquidation cascade.
How to protect yourself
- Always use a stop loss set well before your liquidation price
- Lower leverage significantly (2–5× is manageable; 20×+ is speculation, not trading)
- Never risk more than 1–2% of your account on a single trade
- Add margin if the trade moves against you (if you still believe in the setup)