Polymarket has launched a perpetual futures platform offering up to 20x leverage on cryptocurrencies, stocks, indices, and commodities for international users. The platform aims to provide deep liquidity and low fees, with plans to significantly increase its order processing capacity.
This launch signifies Polymarket's strategic expansion beyond prediction markets into the more complex and potentially higher-volume derivatives space, aiming to capture a broader segment of the trading market with leveraged products.
Polymarket, known for its prediction markets, has expanded into leveraged derivatives trading with the launch of its perpetual futures platform. The new service, named Polymarket Perps, allows international users to trade a variety of assets, including cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, as well as commodities such as gold and oil, and major stock indices like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100. Traders can choose leverage up to 20x and maintain long or short positions as long as margin requirements are met. The platform aims to offer competitive liquidity and fees, and Polymarket is actively working to enhance its trading infrastructure to support significantly higher order volumes, targeting 200,000 orders per second and eventually over 400,000, with early testing showing substantial improvements in latency.
While the international rollout proceeds, Polymarket's operations within the United States remain subject to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulations. The company is pursuing separate efforts to expand its regulated US offerings, noting that self-certification of contracts does not equate to formal CFTC approval, and the regulator retains the ability to review or halt trading. The new perpetual futures offering is distinct from Polymarket's existing crypto price event contracts, which focus on predicting price levels at specific times rather than leveraged trading.