In an account with standard margin enabled, the margin requirements for each position are calculated separately. The margin requirements for all positions are then summed together to give the total margin requirements.
Deribit supports 2 standard margin models:
-
Segregated Standard Margin (S:SM)
-
Cross Standard Margin (X:SM)
The default margin mode for new accounts is segregated standard margin (S:SM).
As each position is looked at separately, the margin calculations for both S:SM and X:SM are relatively simple (though not very capital efficient in some cases). For each instrument, there is a simple formula for calculating the initial margin (IM) and maintenance margin (MM) requirements in a standard margin account. These formulas can be found in the Instrument Specifications section.
Margin calculations for futures and perpetuals in Standard Margin (SM) accounts
Where L(N) is the available IM leverage for the given coin and position size, calculated as:
Where
C1 = Start leverage
C2 = End leverage
C3 = Constant maximum leverage range
C4 = Steepness factor
N = Position size in the account, measured in units of the underlying e.g. BTC
NMax = Max Amount, the maximum allowed position size, measured in units of the underlying e.g. BTC. Max Amount for each instrument is listed on the relevant contract specifications page.
Instrument tiers
The values for C1, C2, C3, and C4, are set according to which tier an instrument is in. The parameter values for each tier are shown in the following table.
|
Tiers |
Start Leverage C1 |
End Leverage C2 |
Extended Leverage C3 |
Steepness C4 |
|
Tier 1 |
50 |
4 |
5% |
0.40 |
|
Tier 2 |
50 |
4 |
4% |
0.40 |
|
Tier 3 |
50 |
2 |
4% |
0.40 |
|
Tier 4 |
25 |
4 |
3% |
0.35 |
|
Tier 5 |
25 |
2 |
2% |
0.30 |
|
Tier 6 |
10 |
2 |
2% |
0.25 |
Every linear crypto perpetual on Linear Perpetual is assigned to a tier below. Inverse BTC and ETH perpetuals use the same tier as the corresponding linear contracts. Dated futures are listed in a separate table.
|
Tiers |
Instruments (Perpetuals) |
|
Tier 1 |
BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP |
|
Tier 2 |
LTC, PAXG, HBAR, DOT |
|
Tier 3 |
AAVE, ADA, ENA, UNI, HYPE, LINK, APT, COIN50, COMP, DASH, ETC, EURC, ICP, POL |
|
Tier 4 |
TRX, NEAR, ALGO, AVAX, DOGE, BNB, 1000PEPE, 1000SHIB, ALT, APE, ARB, ASTER, ATOM, BERA, CRV, DYDX, FARTCOIN, FIL, INJ, LDO, MEGA, MON, ONDO, OP, PUMP, RENDER, SEI, STRK, SUI, TAO, TIA, TOWNS, WIF, WLD, XLM, XPL, ZEC |
|
Tier 5 |
BCH |
|
Tier 6 |
TRUMP, 1000BONK, 1000MOG, AERO, AVNT, BASED1, BILL, BOME, CFX, CHIP, EDGEX, EIGEN, ETHFI, FET, INX, JASMY, JTO, JUP, LIT, MERL, MORPHO, NIGHT, OPG, OPN, PENDLE, PENGU, PNUT, PRL, PYTH, RESOLV, ROBO, RUNE, S, SAGA, VIRTUAL, VVV, W, WLFI |
|
Tiers |
Instruments (Futures) |
|
Tier 4 |
BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, HYPE |
|
Tier 6 |
TRX, AVAX, BTCDVOL |
RWA perpetuals (equities, equity ETFs, commodities and pre-IPO contracts) are not tiered in the tables above. Their maximum leverage is set per contract type, as described in RWA Perpetual.
Maximum position sizes (Max Amount)
Max Amount is the NMax term in the leverage formula above. For the value of each instrument, see the relevant contract specifications page. These values apply from 24 September 2026 at 09:00 UTC.
Calculation example
Let’s say we are trading the linear BTC perpetual. BTC perpetuals are a tier 1 instrument, so from the above tables and the relevant contract specs, we know that:
C1 = 50
C2 = 4
C3 = 5%
C4 = 0.4
Max Amount (NMAX) = 1,769
If we assume a position size of 150 BTC (N = 150), we can calculate the maximum IM leverage with the following formula:
So with a position size of 150 BTC, we can open a position at roughly 25.51x leverage.
IM = 1 / L(N)
IM = 1 / 25.51
IM ≈ 0.0392 = 3.92%
The IM requirements would then be this 3.92% multiplied by the position size of 150 BTC, so around 5.8800 BTC.
MM = 2/3 * IM
MM = 2/3 * 5.8800 BTC
MM = 3.9200 BTC