What Is Leverage Trading in Crypto: A Beginner Guide

Leverage trading is a mechanism that enables you to control larger positions in the crypto market with borrowed funds. It multiplies the value of your available capital by a predetermined factor. Hence, you can trade higher value contracts by investing smaller amounts of capital upfront. While crypto leverage trading magnifies potential profits, it also amplifies losses.

In this article, we’ll provide deeper insights into leverage in crypto, its types, mechanics, benefits, and associated risks. We’ll also cover the differences between leverage and margin trading, as well as the step-by-step process for leverage trading crypto.

What Is Leverage in Crypto Trading?

Leverage trading helps cryptocurrency traders boost their purchasing power using borrowed funds. It also amplifies their potential profits and losses. 

In simple parlance, leverage means multiplying your available capital from an exchange or trading platform to enhance your position size. The notional amount you buy or sell in a long or short position determines your position size.

Traders predominantly use leverage to trade highly liquid digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum. They also utilize leverage for crypto derivatives trading, including options, perpetuals (no-expiry), and futures contracts. 

Trading crypto derivatives using leverage

Among crypto derivatives, perpetual contracts are considered the most speculative asset class. Therefore, you often come across high leverage of 100x, 200x, or 500x for trading perpetuals. While the large multiplier generates sky-high profits in rising markets, it can quickly trigger margin calls in falling markets. Thus, perpetuals are the riskiest crypto derivatives to trade using leverage, especially during periods of intense market volatility.

If you’re a newcomer, you should gain spot trading experience before leverage trading crypto derivatives. Many exchanges offer demo trading to help traders practice both leverage and crypto derivative trading in a simulated environment. It also helps you try various trading strategies before executing real trades with actual funds. 

Lastly, crypto derivative trading can yield profits only if market conditions are favorable, as derivative contracts are price and time-sensitive.

Leverage Trading vs. Margin Trading: What’s the Difference?

Types of Leverage Trading

Margin is defined as the portion of the collateral that is used to open and maintain leveraged positions. There are mainly two types of margins:

Isolated Margin

An isolated margin is a trading mechanism where you set aside a portion of collateral for a specific trade. The liquidation price is set closer to the entry price, minimizing your buffer for losses. If the market moves against you, isolated margins cap your losses to the collateral backing your position. 

Therefore, one unfavorable trade cannot wipe out your entire account balance. Your risks are limited to the fraction of the collateral assigned to the leveraged position. 

Overall, isolated margins serve as an effective risk management strategy. They are particularly helpful for traders who don’t wish to expose their investment portfolios to liquidation risks.

Cross Margin

Cross margin is a trading strategy where your entire account balance will be used as collateral for a given position. It can completely drain your trading account balance if the market moves unfavorably. 

However, cross margins allow you to pledge your asset balances across multiple trading accounts as collateral. Hence, you can assume much larger positions that boost your chances of earning high potential profits. The gap between the liquidation and entry prices is also high. Thus, traders have enough room to wiggle before their accounts are liquidated.

How Does Leverage Trading Work in Crypto?

Leverage ratios

Leverage ratios indicate how much your purchasing power increases relative to your initial investment. They reflect the proportion of margin to leverage. In cryptocurrency trading, leverage ratios range from 2x to 100x. Some exchanges like BTCC even offer up to 500x leverage on specific futures trading pairs. The higher the leverage ratio, the greater the amplification of potential profits and losses. 

For instance, with a 4x leverage ratio, a $5,000 margin deposit helps you control a $20,000 position. If market movements are favorable, your profits are magnified by 4x. Conversely, if the market moves unfavorably, your losses are amplified by 4x. 

Collateral and Initial Margin

The assets that traders pledge to secure a leveraged position are known as collateral. These pledged assets include cash and cryptocurrencies. They also serve as a security for the magnified funds. Conversely, initial margin is the amount of capital traders require to open a position. 

Maintenance Margin and Margin Calls

Maintenance margin is the minimum amount of crypto you must maintain in your margin account relative to your borrowed funds. Whenever the values of your cryptocurrencies and positions fall below the stipulated minimum, a margin call is triggered. It implies that you must deposit additional funds into your account to replenish it to the required maintenance margin level. 

If traders fail to fulfill the margin requirements, the exchange sells their assets to recover the borrowed funds. Moreover, traders may incur considerable losses due to account liquidation. It may also fully drain their initial investment, leaving them indebted to the exchange. 

Hedging and Risk Control

Leverage trading is an effective risk management tool for minimizing counterparty risk and limiting the risks per trade. It also helps you diversify your risks across multiple platforms. If anything goes wrong with one of the platforms due to legal issues, downtime, etc., you aren’t fully exposed. 

Additionally, when you place single large trades, you may draw the attention of whales, fellow traders, or bots. Hence, you become vulnerable to manipulations. Leverage trading helps avoid this risk by allowing you to place small orders on different platforms. 

Trading with leverage also serves as a hedging mechanism to preserve capital. By taking a short position equal to your crypto holdings, you can reduce the impact of adverse price movements.  

Leveraged tokens

If you’re seeking an alternative to leverage trading, explore leveraged tokens. They eliminate the need for collateral and the possibility of liquidation. Instead of meeting margin requirements, you can simply buy a token with built-in leverage. It is analogous to purchasing spot assets with enhanced volatilities. 

You can also view them as a risk management tool. They automatically reinvest your gains. If a margin call is underway, they sell a part of the underlying assets or positions to prevent liquidation. Some exchanges like BYDFi offer leveraged tokens that move 3x as much as their spot equivalents. 

However, the value of leveraged tokens decays over a period, though they are rebalanced daily. Hence, holding them for long periods may cause losses despite markets moving in your favor.

Examples of Crypto Leverage Trading

Long Position Example

Suppose you want to open a long position of $15,000 worth of Solana (SOL) with 5x leverage. To do so, you need collateral of $3,000. If the price of SOL rises by 30%, you’ll make a net profit of $4,500 (minus trading fees). If you trade SOL without leverage, you’ll make a gain of $900 only. 

Conversely, if Solana’s market price drops by 30%, your position will decrease by $4,500. As your initial margin was only $3,000, the 30% price decrease will lead to liquidation. Moreover, the exchange you use for crypto trading determines the exact liquidation value. 

Short Position Example

Assume you want to open a short position of $15,000 worth of SOL with 5x leverage. You can execute a margin trade by borrowing assets (SOL) to sell. Or, you can sell a futures contract worth $15,000. For both options, you require a $3,000 collateral. 

Suppose the current SOL price is $150, and you want to do margin trading. In that case, you need to borrow 100 SOL and sell them for $15,000. If SOL’s market price reaches $105 due to a 30% fall, you can buy back 100 SOL for $10,500. This way, you can make a net profit of $4,500 (minus trading fees) and use it for settling debts. 

However, if SOL’s price surges by 30% to $195, you need an additional $4,500 to repurchase 100 SOL. As you only have $3,000 in your trading account, your position will be liquidated.

In general, increase your collateral value by depositing additional funds into your crypto wallet to prevent liquidation. Ensure your maintenance balance never falls below your maintenance margin. Though most exchanges send margin calls before liquidation, monitor your open positions continuously. 

Benefits of Leverage Trading

Greater Purchasing Power

Using leverage to trade crypto enhances your purchasing power and amplifies potential profits or losses. Once a position starts generating unrealized gains, you can add the increased margin balance to your position. If the favourable market movements continue, you can make substantial profits from the larger position. As long as the position is open, you can repeat this process to compound returns. 

Flexibility in Market Movements

Regardless of bullish, bearish, or sideways market trends, traders can generate profits through leverage trading by employing the right strategies. It also helps traders, especially those who trade short-term, to make quick gains in volatile market conditions. Additionally, leveraging enables you to adopt various trading strategies to profit from crypto market fluctuations. 

Profitability in Short Positions

With leverage trading, traders can clock profits even in bearish markets by taking a short position. Executing a short precisely can yield significant profits in such markets and also offset losses incurred in other positions. Trading with leverage also helps you make gains from the downside of cryptocurrencies you don’t own.

Risks of Leverage Trading

Threat of Liquidation

The biggest risk posed by leverage trading is the threat of liquidation. If the market moves unfavorably against your position, you’ll lose your collateral. If the collateral is inadequate to cover the losses incurred, the exchange will liquidate your account. Liquidation can completely wipe out your leveraged position and initial investment, adversely impacting your crypto holdings. 

Additionally, derivative traders are more susceptible to liquidation due to the inherent nature of perpetual futures contracts. To keep the futures contract and spot market prices of a cryptocurrency aligned, many exchanges use a funding rate mechanism. If the funding rate is positive, longs must pay fees to the shorts usually every 8 hours, and vice versa. 

In the long run, funding fees can erode your profits, even if the underlying asset’s price doesn’t decline. Hence, traders may be forced to close their positions if the market fails to move in their favor. 

Moreover, sudden market movements or short squeezes catch traders off guard. The availability of 24/7 crypto trading makes traders more vulnerable to such market volatility.

Limited Trading Pairs

Many exchanges support leverage trading for only popular pairs such as BTC/USDC and ETH/USDT. Hence, investors find it harder to trade lesser-known pairs using leverage. 

Additional Fees

Apart from trading fees, traders must incur costs of borrowing funds, such as interest. The higher these charges, the lower your profitability, especially in high-leverage trading.  Moreover, you must incur daily fees to maintain your position. 

Key Strategies to Manage Risk in Leverage Trading

• Use lower leverage to obtain a higher margin of error, especially if you’re a newcomer.
• Ensure that leverage doesn’t exceed 5% of your total investment portfolio value. Ideally, it should be around 1-2%.
• Set stop-loss or take-profit orders to manage risks effectively. 
• Trade responsibly, exercise caution, and take complete accountability for your actions. 
• Never invest funds you can’t afford to lose while trading crypto using leverage.   
• Don’t open numerous positions recklessly.
• Choose exchanges like Binance or Kraken that enable you to open separate accounts for leverage and spot trading. 
• Use exchange features like cooling-off periods that limit the amount of time you spend trading.

Best Cryptocurrencies for Leverage Trading

Bitcoin (BTC)

Bitcoin is the first and the most popular cryptocurrency. It is also the largest crypto by market capitalization (over $2 trillion). Since Bitcoin is highly liquid and constitutes a major portion of the market share, it is best for leverage trading. 

Its constant price movements provide traders with ample opportunities to make profits from both long and short positions. Furthermore, fluctuations in Bitcoin’s market cap are relatively lower. Therefore, BTC is conducive for trading with high leverage. It is also suitable for trading strategies based on medium-term price movements or managing risks using stop-loss orders.

Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum is the second-largest crypto by market capitalization (over $430 billion). It is also the first blockchain to support smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps). Thus, it powers a vast number of Web3, decentralized finance (DeFi), and non-fungible token (NFT) projects. Additionally, ETH’s frequent price fluctuations, coupled with its substantial liquidity, make it suitable for leverage trading. 

For balanced positions, traders often pair Ethereum with stablecoins like USDC and USDT. It is also a hot choice for DeFi, NFT, and blockchain gaming enthusiasts. It helps you gain exposure to innovative projects that render high potential profits. Moreover, Ethereum dominates the crypto derivatives space along with Bitcoin. 

Tether (USDT)

Tether is the most popular blockchain-based stablecoin that ispegged 1:1 to the USD. It is the pioneering cryptocurrency project that democratized the digital usage of traditional currencies across immutable blockchains. Backed 100% by USD reserves, Tether serves as a safe haven even during volatile market conditions. 

Due to its innate stability, USDT forms an integral part of various leverage trading and risk management strategies. It acts as a protective net against untoward market movements, especially during bear runs. Most importantly, USDT helps manage collateral and minimize losses arising from market fluctuations in leveraged positions.

USD Coin (USDC)

Like Tether, USDC is also paired with volatile cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum to build risk-buffered crypto trading strategies. It is the world’s largest regulated virtual dollar, issued by Circle, a legally compliant financial services business. 

Known for its cutting-edge security and transparency, USDC is globally accessible across 100+ crypto exchanges. It is also natively issued on 15+ blockchains. With fully-backed reserves comprising cash and cash equivalents, USDC is perfect for imparting stability to leverage trading strategies. It also helps you build a steady collateral base and earn higher profits while optimizing associated risks.

How to Leverage Trade Crypto: Step-by-Step Guide

1. Choose a reputable exchange that supports leverage trading. 
2. Create an account on the chosen exchange and complete the know-your-customer (KYC) formalities. If you’re already registered, log in to your account. 
3. Deposit funds into the exchange wallet to start trading crypto.
4. Select the spot trading pair or crypto derivatives contract you want to trade using leverage.
5. Specify the desired leverage, like 2x, 3x, 10x, etc.
6. Execute a buy or sell trade.
7. If the market moves against you, adjust margins or close the position before it is automatically liquidated. 
8. Close the trade manually or set a stop-loss or take-profit order. The realized gains and losses will be added or deducted from your margin balance.

Conclusion

Though trading with leverage can maximize profits, it carries significant risks. A lack of knowledge about how leveraged trading works or simple errors can cause substantial losses. Furthermore, it is a complex trading strategy, making it harder for beginners to comprehend. Consequently, novice traders are likely to make costly mistakes. Therefore, it is more suitable for experienced traders. 

Overall, leverage trading is like a double-edged sword. It is highly rewarding, but also immensely risky. Hence, you must follow effective risk management strategies aligned with your risk tolerance when trading crypto with leverage.

FAQs

What is 20x leverage on $100?

20x leverage on $100 means you have opened a position worth $2,000 (100 X 20). Your margin or collateral amount is $100. Your actual capital ($100), as well as your profits and losses, are magnified 20 times.

What is a good leverage for crypto?

A good leverage for crypto trading is between 2x and 5x, especially for beginners. If you’re an experienced trader, a leverage of up to 20x is fine, provided you can manage risks effectively. In general, select a leverage ratio based on your risk tolerance and trading experience. The chosen leverage must strike a balance between potential returns and risks, particularly in volatile crypto markets. 

What does 10x leverage mean?

10x leverage means you can open a position that is worth ten times your own capital. For example, if you pledge your own funds worth $500 as collateral, you can open a position worth $5,000 (500 X 10). Additionally, both potential profits and losses from this position will be amplified 10 times. 

What is 100x leverage in crypto?

A 100x leverage in crypto trading indicates that your position size is hundred times your own capital. With just $20, you can open a position worth $2,000 (20 X 100). However, 100x is high leverage and therefore highly risky. Even if the market advances by 1% against you, your entire account balance or initial investment can get wiped out. 

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