Your bitcoin liquidation price depends far more on the venue’s maintenance rule than on leverage alone. On November 13, 2026, bitcoin fell 6.2% in 24 hours to about $69,000 and more than $1.3 billion of crypto futures were liquidated. That move wipes out a 20x perpetual long (3.80% cushion) but not a 10x one (8.86%), while an IBIT margin loan at 2x gets no call until a 33% drop.
Key takeaways
- A 10x isolated bitcoin perp on Hyperliquid liquidates after an 8.86% drop.
- Buying IBIT on 2x margin triggers a call only after a 33.3% fall.
- Baseline perp funding runs about 10.95% a year on notional versus 5.38% broker margin.
What happened to bitcoin leverage on November 13, 2026?
Leverage got flushed. Bitcoin traded near $69,000 at 07:30 UTC on Friday, November 13, 2026, down 6.2% in 24 hours, with an intraday low of $67,922, according to CoinGecko data cited by CryptoTicker. More than $1.3 billion of crypto futures were liquidated.
Bitcoin alone accounted for about $677 million of that CoinGlass total. A CoinGlass snapshot at 10:52 UTC showed $869.89 million of bitcoin longs liquidated against $31.18 million of shorts, per Altcoinbuzz. That is roughly 96.5% longs.
The single largest hit was a $31.09 million long on Hyperliquid’s BTC-USD pair, closed at $72,250. The backdrop was ugly: BlackRock’s IBIT shed more than $2 billion over nine sessions through November 11, and the Crypto Fear and Greed Index sat at 20.
How is a bitcoin liquidation price calculated?
A long is liquidated when the equity left in the position falls to the maintenance margin. On an isolated position with no extra collateral, the price drop that triggers it is (1/leverage − maintenance rate) ÷ (1 − maintenance rate). The maintenance rate is the variable most traders never check.
Hyperliquid’s liquidation documentation sets maintenance margin at half the initial margin at max leverage. Its margin tiers page lists 40x max leverage on bitcoin positions up to $150 million. So the bitcoin maintenance rate is 1.25%.
The formula in plain numbers
Take $10,000 of margin at 10x, so $100,000 of notional, opened at a hypothetical $75,000. Maintenance is 1.25% of $100,000, or $1,250. The $8,750 above that can absorb losses.
Because maintenance shrinks as price falls, you divide by 0.9875: (0.10 − 0.0125) ÷ 0.9875 = 8.86%. The liquidation price is about $68,354. At that price equity and maintenance both equal about $1,139.
Which leverage levels survived a 6.2% bitcoin drop?
Anything at 20x or higher did not. A 20x long has a 3.80% cushion and a 40x long just 1.27%, so Friday’s 6.2% 24-hour slide cleared both. A 10x long opened at the start of that window survived with about 2.7 points to spare. At 5x and below, the cushion is wider than the day’s whole move.
| Leverage | Notional on $10,000 | Drop to liquidation | Liquidation price (from $75,000) | Survived a 6.2% drop? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2x | $20,000 | 49.37% | $37,975 | Yes |
| 3x | $30,000 | 32.49% | $50,633 | Yes |
| 5x | $50,000 | 18.99% | $60,759 | Yes |
| 10x | $100,000 | 8.86% | $68,354 | Yes, barely |
| 20x | $200,000 | 3.80% | $72,152 | No |
| 40x | $400,000 | 1.27% | $74,051 | No |
Track BTCUSD and IBIT yourself
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The table makes one point brutally clear: past 10x, ordinary daily volatility is enough to liquidate you. Bitcoin also fell 5.9% between November 5 and 12, per 10x Research, before Friday’s drop even started.
Is a margin loan on a bitcoin ETF safer than a perp?
At the same 2x exposure, the margin call comes sooner, but it is not an automatic wipeout. A broker margin call on IBIT bought at 2x arrives after a 33.3% fall under the federal floor, while a 2x perp liquidates only after 49.37%. The difference is what happens next: a call asks for cash, and a liquidation takes the position.
Regulation T lets brokers lend up to 50% of a purchase, FINRA notes. FINRA Rule 4210 then requires equity of at least 25% of current market value on long positions.
The margin-call math
Put in $10,000, borrow $10,000, and buy $20,000 of IBIT. A call hits when equity falls to the maintenance percentage of the position’s value. At 25%, that is a value of $10,000 ÷ 0.75 = $13,333, a 33.3% drop.
House rules tighten it. The SEC’s investor guide says many firms require 30% to 40%. At 30% the trigger is a 28.6% drop; at 40% it is 16.7%.
The catch nobody advertises
The same SEC guide warns that your broker may sell your securities at any time without consulting you first. A margin call is a courtesy, not a right. And IBIT trades only during US market hours, while bitcoin trades all weekend. A Saturday crash shows up as a Monday gap that can blow straight through your maintenance level before you can act.
How much does bitcoin leverage cost per year?
Perps cost more to hold than most traders assume. Hyperliquid’s baseline funding, paid by longs when the premium is near zero, is 0.01% every eight hours, or about 10.95% a year on the full notional. A broker charges interest only on the borrowed half. At 2x, that makes the IBIT margin route roughly a quarter of the cost.
Hyperliquid’s funding documentation sets the interest component at 0.01% per eight hours, pays funding every hour and caps it at 0.5% an hour. Funding can turn negative in a selloff, so this is a baseline, not a fixed bill.
Worked example: $10,000 of your own money
- IBIT, no leverage: $10,000 × 0.25% sponsor fee = $25 a year.
- IBIT at 2x on margin: $10,000 loan × 5.38% (IBKR Pro’s rate for balances under $100,000, as listed November 13, 2026) = $538, plus $20,000 × 0.25% = $50. Total: $588 a year.
- Perp at 2x: $20,000 notional × 10.95% baseline funding = $2,190 a year.
- Perp at 10x: $100,000 notional × 10.95% = $10,950 a year, more than the $10,000 you posted.
The sponsor fee is 0.25%, per BlackRock’s IBIT page. The 5.38% rate comes from Interactive Brokers’ margin-rate table; other brokers often charge more. Trading fees are excluded on both sides.
Which route fits which investor?
For anyone holding bitcoin exposure longer than a few days, unlevered spot or an ETF is the only route with no forced-sale price. Margin on IBIT is the cheaper way to hold modest leverage. Perps make sense only for short holding periods where funding is paid for days, not years, and where liquidation is a planned stop.
| Route | Forced-sale trigger | Yearly carry on $10,000 equity | Trades | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IBIT, no leverage | None | $25 | US market hours | Long-term holders in a brokerage or IRA |
| IBIT, 2x margin | Call after a 16.7%–33.3% drop, by house rule | $588 | US market hours | Holders who want modest leverage and have spare cash |
| Perp, 2x isolated | Liquidation after 49.37% | About $2,190 baseline | 24/7 | Short-term hedges and weekend exposure |
| Perp, 10x isolated | Liquidation after 8.86% | About $10,950 baseline | 24/7 | Day traders with hard risk limits |
| Perp, 20x–40x | Liquidation after 1.27%–3.80% | Over $21,900 baseline | 24/7 | Nobody holding overnight |
For more on leverage costs inside a fund wrapper, see our breakdown of 3x bitcoin ETFs versus spot. For downside protection that has no liquidation price at all, compare the bitcoin buffer ETF against IBIT.
Why did Friday’s bitcoin liquidations hit so hard?
Thin books and crowded longs. Talos measured bitcoin order-book depth at $72 million on November 9, about 33% below normal, according to Cointelegraph’s report cited by CryptoTicker. When liquidations sell into a thin book, each forced sale pushes price toward the next cluster of liquidation levels.
Macro added fuel. A hotter-than-expected October CPI raised the odds of a December rate hike, the 10-year Treasury yield climbed above 5%, and the dollar index rose above 103. Leverage built for a calm market met the opposite.
Here is the skeptical point about the venues themselves. On Hyperliquid, a backstop liquidation keeps your maintenance margin, and the docs say backstop liquidations are profitable for the liquidator on average. Your liquidation price is not where you lose; it is where you lose everything left in that position.
What to watch next
Two dated events in December can move rates, the dollar and bitcoin together. Both arrive within 24 hours of each other, so leveraged positions will face back-to-back volatility.
- December 8–9, 2026: the last FOMC meeting of the year, with a new Summary of Economic Projections, per the Federal Reserve calendar. A hike would raise broker margin rates, which are priced off benchmark rates.
- December 10, 2026, 8:30 a.m. ET: November CPI from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. October’s hot print helped set off this week’s selloff.
- Daily: spot bitcoin ETF flows from Farside. IBIT’s nine-session outflow streak through November 11 topped $2 billion.
FAQ
What is a liquidation price in crypto?
It is the price at which an exchange force-closes a leveraged position because the remaining margin has fallen to the maintenance requirement. On an isolated position, you lose the margin posted for it.
How far can bitcoin fall before a 10x long is liquidated?
On Hyperliquid’s bitcoin perp, with a 1.25% maintenance rate and no extra collateral, about 8.86% before fees and funding.
Can IBIT shares be liquidated?
Only if you buy them on margin. Fully paid IBIT shares have no forced-sale price. On margin, FINRA requires at least 25% equity, and brokers may sell without consulting you.
Does cross margin change the liquidation price?
Yes. Cross margin uses your whole account value as the cushion, which pushes the liquidation price further away. But if it is hit, Hyperliquid transfers all cross positions and cross margin to the liquidator.
Is perp funding always 10.95% a year?
No. That is the baseline interest component when the perp trades near spot. Funding rises when longs are crowded, can turn negative in selloffs, and is capped at 0.5% an hour on Hyperliquid.
How much were bitcoin liquidations on November 13, 2026?
About $677 million of bitcoin futures in the 24 hours to early November 13, inside a market-wide total above $1.3 billion, per CoinGlass data reported by CoinDesk.
The bottom line
Leverage itself is not what decides who survives a drop like Friday’s; the maintenance rule and the carry cost do. On measurable terms, a 2x margin loan on IBIT is the cheaper way to hold leveraged bitcoin exposure: $588 a year versus about $2,190 for a 2x perp, on $10,000 of equity.
Perps win on one attribute only: they trade 24/7, so there is no Monday gap. Above 10x, the liquidation distance is smaller than an ordinary bitcoin day. November 13 proved it, with more than $1.3 billion of futures wiped out in 24 hours.
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This article is journalism, not investment advice. Do your own research before investing.
Sources
- Hyperliquid Docs: Liquidations
- Hyperliquid Docs: Margin tiers
- Hyperliquid Docs: Funding
- FINRA Rule 4210: Margin Requirements
- FINRA: Margin Accounts
- SEC: Margin, Borrowing Money to Pay for Stocks
- iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT)
- Interactive Brokers: Margin Rates
- CryptoTicker: Bitcoin down 6%, over $1.3 billion liquidated (Nov. 13, 2026)
- Altcoinbuzz: $1.3 billion in longs liquidated as bitcoin drops below $70,000
- Federal Reserve: FOMC meeting calendar
- BLS: CPI release schedule
Wealth Engine researches and drafts with AI tools and checks every figure against the sources above. How we report.
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