One question, one answer
Crypto leverage report: what traders actually use, month by month
Published every month from our own book: how many trades each leverage band closed, what share of them were liquidated, and what the middle trade returned. Nothing modelled, nothing surveyed.
September 2026: over 100x, 57.9% of trades ended in liquidation - at 1-2x, 0.2%
Every month we count every trade closed on MarginPad, grouped by the leverage it was opened at, and publish what share of each band ended in a forced close and what the median trade returned. This month is still running: 35,813 closed trades since 2026-09-01. At 11-25x, where most people sit, 12.6% were liquidated; at 26-50x, 29.1%. Median, never mean: the top band’s mean is a meaningless figure driven by a handful of accounts.
These are paper trades, filled server-side at real live prices with taker fees on both legs, funding on held positions, and liquidation checked against one-minute candles. A band with fewer than 200 closes prints no rate. Every month’s JSON is free and keyless.
| Leverage | Liquidated | Sample |
|---|---|---|
| 1-2x | 0.2% | 1,870 closes · median +0.54% ROE · 5.2% of the month |
| 3-5x | 3.7% | 1,398 closes · median +4.98% ROE · 3.9% of the month |
| 6-10x | 9.9% | 1,232 closes · median +2.49% ROE · 3.4% of the month |
| 11-25x | 12.6% | 10,447 closes · median +4.16% ROE · 29.2% of the month |
| 26-50x | 29.1% | 5,098 closes · median +5.65% ROE · 14.2% of the month |
| 51-100x | 37.9% | 1,460 closes · median -8.94% ROE · 4.1% of the month |
| over 100x | 57.9% | 14,308 closes · median -100% ROE · 40% of the month |
What leverage a beginner should use, measured over 30 daysPractice at your chosen leverage, freeLiquidation price calculatorHow many traders were liquidated todayOur own funded-challenge pass rate
What is counted, and what is not
A trade enters this report when it closes - by a stop, a take-profit, a manual close, or a liquidation. The band is the leverage it was opened at, so a 100x trade that ends at 2% profit counts as a 100x trade, not a lucky one. The liquidation rate is the share of those closes that were forced closes; the median ROE is the return on margin of the middle trade in the band, which is why it never reads +25,776% the way the mean of the top band once did. A band with fewer than 200 closes in the month prints too few instead of a rate: a percentage of 40 trades is noise dressed as a figure.
Why the shape of the table barely moves
Month after month the middle bands hold most of the closes - 11-25x is where the bulk of leveraged crypto trading actually happens, on any venue - and the liquidation rate climbs with leverage in the same order every time. That is arithmetic, not sentiment: at 100x a 0.5% move against the position is the whole margin; at 5x it takes about 19.5%. A volatile month raises every band a little; it does not reorder them. When the order does change, that is the month worth reading twice.
How to use this on a real account
Find the band you trade in. If its liquidation rate is a number you would not accept as the odds of losing your whole margin on a single position, move one band down before the market does it for you. The beginner leverage page reads the same count over the last 30 days; this page is the archive, so you can see whether the month you are trading in is unusual. Every figure can be reproduced from the free JSON - one call per month, no key.
Test your own leverage before it costs money
All of this comes from people trading on MarginPad’s paper-trading terminal: real live prices, fees on both legs, funding on held positions, liquidation checked against one-minute candles, and no deposit. Open a position at the leverage you use for real, hold it through a week of the market, and your own row in this count will tell you more than any opinion.
Questions
What percentage of leveraged crypto trades get liquidated?
It depends on the leverage more than on anything else. On MarginPad, counted every month across every closed trade, roughly 0-1% of trades at 1-2x end in liquidation, about 10-12% at 11-25x, close to 30% at 26-50x, and over half of trades opened above 100x. The exact figures for each month are on this page and in the free JSON.
What leverage do most crypto traders use?
In our count the 11-25x band holds the largest share of closed trades every month - typically a third of them - followed by 26-50x. Very low leverage (1-2x) and very high leverage (over 100x) are each a small minority of closes.
Is the leverage report based on real money?
No. It is measured on paper trades filled server-side at real live prices with real venue fees, funding and liquidation rules. The price path and the mechanics are real; the money is not, which is also why it is the only leverage dataset that can be published in full.
Why median ROE instead of average?
Because the average of a leverage band is dominated by a handful of extreme accounts and says nothing about a typical trade - the top band once averaged +25,776%. The median is the return of the middle trade, which is the number that describes what usually happens.
Can I get the report for a specific month?
Yes. GET https://marginpad.io/api/leverage?month=YYYY-MM returns that month's bands, and ?months=1 lists every archived month. No API key, CORS enabled.
Other questions we answer with a live number
- How many traders got liquidated today?
- Are longs or shorts getting liquidated more?
- What was the biggest liquidation today?
- Is funding positive or negative right now?
- Where can I test a trading bot for free?
- Is there an MCP server for crypto trading?
- Where can I practice for a funded account challenge?
- What leverage should a beginner use?
Related: what leverage a beginner should use, measured over 30 days · practice at your chosen leverage, free · liquidation price calculator · how many traders were liquidated today · our own funded-challenge pass rate