Crypto liquidation price calculator

How is a crypto liquidation price calculated?

On an isolated-margin position, only the margin you put into that position is at stake. The platform closes it when your margin balance, after the loss so far, falls to the maintenance margin: a small percentage of the position's value that must stay in place. With coins q = margin x leverage / entry price, solving for that point gives:

• Long: liquidation price = (q x entry - margin) / (q x (1 - maintenance rate))
• Short: liquidation price = (q x entry + margin) / (q x (1 + maintenance rate))

With the default inputs, $1,000 of margin at 10x opens a $10,000 position, which is 0.16666667 coins at 60,000. For a long, (10,000 - 1,000) / (0.16666667 x 0.995) = 54,271.36, a 9.55% fall. Switch to a short and the same inputs give 65,671.64, a 9.45% rise. Stripped of the coins, the move is (1 / leverage - maintenance rate) / (1 - maintenance rate) for a long, and (1 / leverage - maintenance rate) / (1 + maintenance rate) for a short.

The position size, coins and margin follow the leveraged tab of the crypto profit calculator, so the two pages agree. Its 20x example loses more than the margin on a 5% fall; here a 20x long from 60,000 is estimated to be liquidated at 57,286.43, a 4.52% fall, before the price gets there.

Liquidation price at 2x, 5x, 10x, 20x, 50x and 100x

Leverage sets how much of the price your margin can absorb. Doubling it roughly halves the room. Here is a position opened at 60,000 at a 0.5% maintenance rate, with no fees or funding:

At 100x a half-percent move ends the trade. The bar chart under the calculator redraws this comparison for your own entry, maintenance rate, fee and funding. The figures are arithmetic, not a view on what leverage to use.

Maintenance margin rate and the bankruptcy price

Two prices sit close together. The bankruptcy price is where the loss equals the whole margin: entry - margin / coins for a long, entry + margin / coins for a short. On the default long it is 60,000 - 1,000 / 0.16666667 = 54,000. The liquidation price comes a little earlier, because the platform closes the position while the maintenance margin is still there. At 54,271.36 the balance left is 0.5% of the position's value, $45.23.

The higher the maintenance rate, the wider that gap and the sooner the position is closed:

A platform can publish maintenance rates in tiers by position size, so a bigger position can sit in a higher tier. Use the rate for your own size. When the maintenance rate plus any closing fee is larger than 1 / leverage, there is no room at all and the page says the position would be closed as soon as it opened.

How fees and funding move the liquidation price

Turn on Include the fee to close the position and the calculator adds the closing fee to the maintenance rate, because the margin must also cover the cost of closing. A 0.05% fee moves the default long from 54,271.36 to 54,298.64. The fee to open is charged on top of the margin, as on the crypto profit calculator, so it does not move the price here.

Funding paid on a perpetual contract comes out of an isolated position's margin, so each payment brings the liquidation price closer. On the default long, $20 of funding paid moves it to 54,391.96 and $100 to 54,874.37, an 8.54% fall instead of 9.55%. Funding can also be received, which adds to the margin; this calculator takes only funding paid, under Funding paid. A platform can also let you add margin to an isolated position, which moves the price further away; enter the new total margin to see where it lands.

Why your platform's liquidation price differs

This is a simplified estimate, and each platform's own figure will differ for reasons it sets for itself:

• Tiers. Maintenance rates can step up with position size, and a formula can subtract a fixed amount per tier.
• Mark price. A platform can trigger liquidation on a mark price built from several sources instead of the last traded price.
• Fees and charges. A platform can reserve the closing fee in advance or charge a liquidation fee on top.
• Contract type. On an inverse contract, settled in the coin rather than in a currency, profit and loss do not move in a straight line with the price, and this formula does not apply.
• Cross margin. When the whole account balance backs every position, the liquidation price depends on everything else you hold.

Read your platform's own liquidation rules and the figure it shows on the position. Use this page to understand how each input moves that figure, not to replace it.

Liquidation price examples in pounds and euros

• Pound account, 5x short. £500 of margin opens a £2,500 short at £3,000 a coin, 0.83333333 coins. With a 1% maintenance rate, a 0.05% closing fee and £2.50 of funding already paid, the estimated liquidation price is (2,500 + 497.50) / (0.83333333 x 1.0105) = £3,559.62, an 18.65% rise. The bankruptcy price is £3,597.00.
• Euro account, 25x long. €400 of margin at 25x is a €10,000 long of 4 coins at €2,500. With a 0.5% maintenance rate and a 0.04% closing fee, the estimate is (10,000 - 400) / (4 x 0.9946) = €2,413.03, a 3.48% fall, and the margin would be gone at €2,400.

The currency changes the symbols, never the percentages. A 10x long at a 0.5% maintenance rate is liquidated on a 9.55% fall whether it was opened in dollars, pounds or dirhams; type the entry price in the same currency as the margin.

Crypto derivatives rules in the UK

Where a leveraged crypto position can be opened at all depends on where you live. In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority's policy statement PS20/10 prohibits firms from selling, marketing or distributing derivatives that reference certain cryptoassets, such as contracts for difference, futures and options, to retail clients in or from the UK, with the rules in force from 6 January 2021. The FCA opened retail access to some crypto exchange traded notes from 8 October 2025, and its press release of 1 August 2025 announcing that change states that the ban on retail access to cryptoasset derivatives will remain in place (both read on 14 November 2026).

Rules elsewhere differ by country and by product, and they change. Check your own regulator before relying on any leveraged crypto product, and check whether the platform you use is permitted to offer it to you.

How to calculate liquidation price in Excel or Google Sheets

Put the entry price in B2, the leverage in C2 and the maintenance rate as a decimal in D2 (0.005 for 0.5%). With no fees or funding the margin cancels out, so:

• Long: =B2*(1-1/C2)/(1-D2), which returns 54,271.36 for 60,000, 10 and 0.005.
• Short: =B2*(1+1/C2)/(1+D2), which returns 65,671.64.
• Bankruptcy price, long: =B2*(1-1/C2), which returns 54,000.

To add a closing fee rate in E2, use (1-D2-E2) and (1+D2+E2) in the bottom of the fractions. For funding paid, F2, out of a margin in G2, replace 1/C2 with (G2-F2)/(G2*C2).

What this calculator leaves out, and common mistakes

It models one isolated position on a linear contract with one maintenance rate. It leaves out tier deductions, the mark price, liquidation fees, partial liquidation of large positions, inverse contracts, cross margin, and slippage when the position is closed in a fast market. A loss beyond the margin on an isolated position is a matter for each platform's own rules.

• Reading leverage as the distance. 10x does not give a 10% cushion once the maintenance margin is taken out.
• Using the lowest tier for a large position. The rate depends on size.
• Forgetting funding. Payments taken from the margin creep the price closer.
• Treating the estimate as the platform's figure. Use the one on the position screen.
• Setting a stop beyond the liquidation price. The position would be closed before the stop is reached.

Glossary

Liquidation: the platform closing a leveraged position when its margin balance reaches the maintenance margin. Isolated margin: margin set aside for one position only. Cross margin: the whole account balance backing every position. Maintenance margin rate: the share of position value that must stay in place. Bankruptcy price: the price at which the loss equals the whole margin. Mark price: a reference price a platform uses to value positions and trigger liquidation. Funding: periodic payments between long and short holders of perpetual contracts. Linear contract: one whose profit and loss are settled in a currency and move in a straight line with the price.

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