Polymarket Launches 20x Leveraged Perpetual Futures Across 67 Markets — International Users Only
Polymarket launched Polymarket Perps on September 3 — perpetual futures with up to 20x leverage across 67 markets covering stocks, crypto, indices, and commodities. Available internationally only; US users are blocked under the same jurisdiction restrictions that separate Polymarket International from the CFTC-regulated US platform. The launch puts Polymarket in direct competition with Binance Futures and dYdX and marks a significant expansion beyond binary prediction markets.
Polymarket launched Polymarket Perps on September 3, 2026 — perpetual futures contracts, meaning they do not expire, with up to 20x leverage across 67 markets. The markets span 36 individual equities (Tesla, Nvidia, Apple, Coinbase), 24 crypto pairs, 3 equity indices, and 4 commodities (Brent crude, WTI, gold, silver). Leverage caps by asset: crypto, S&P 500, oil, gold, silver top out at 20x; individual stocks at 10x. The product runs on USDC collateral. Fees run 0.04% taker at entry level, competitive with Binance Futures. The product is available internationally only — the same US exclusion that governs Polymarket's existing binary prediction markets applies.
For UK readers, perpetual futures are a product more familiar from cryptocurrency exchanges than traditional derivatives venues. Unlike a standard futures contract, a perpetual has no settlement date — it tracks the underlying price via a funding rate mechanism that periodically transfers payments between long and short holders, keeping the contract price close to spot. Binance, Bybit, OKX, and dYdX pioneered the format; it now represents the majority of crypto derivatives volume globally. Polymarket's entry into this space is notable because the platform's primary identity has been as a binary prediction market — contracts that pay 0 or 1 based on a yes/no outcome. Perpetual futures on oil, gold, and individual stocks are a different product class: leveraged, continuous, and priced by supply and demand against a reference index rather than by a binary outcome event. The Polymarket brand now covers both categories, separated by geography.
The international-only restriction reflects the structural consequence of Polymarket's 2022 CFTC settlement. The agency fined Polymarket $1.4 million for operating an unregistered swaps facility — the legal category that perpetual futures on commodities and equities would fall into if offered to US persons. The settlement resulted in the two-entity structure currently in place: Polymarket International (non-US, binary prediction markets plus now perps) and Polymarket US (CFTC-registered, limited contract types). Offering 20x leveraged perps on oil and gold to US users without CFTC registration would violate the Commodity Exchange Act in exactly the way the 2022 settlement addressed. The international restriction is not a commercial choice — it is a legal requirement. UK users, as non-US persons, are not subject to this restriction, which is why the product is accessible to them.
The strategic implication for the prediction market sector is that the largest platforms are building toward full-service financial trading venues, with prediction markets as one product category rather than a standalone business. Polymarket International now offers leveraged derivatives on commodities alongside binary markets on election outcomes and sports results. Kalshi is pursuing institutional block trading with Cantor Fitzgerald and Susquehanna. The commercial ambition behind both platforms extends well beyond the sports wagering regulatory dispute — that dispute is fought over a product category that, at 20x leverage on oil futures, is now a smaller part of what these platforms aspire to be than the litigation landscape suggests.
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Recent updates
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