Polymarket has opened perpetual futures trading to the public, extending the prediction-market platform into leveraged products spanning cryptocurrencies, equities, stock indices and commodities.

Polymarket Perps went live on September 3, offering leverage of up to 20x on supported contracts. Traders can hold long or short positions with no expiry date, while periodic funding payments keep contract prices aligned with their underlying reference markets.

Perpetual futures are among the most heavily traded crypto derivatives, with the bulk of global volume historically concentrated on centralized exchanges such as Binance and Bybit. Polymarket's move brings a comparable product to a platform built on public blockchain infrastructure, positioning it against both centralized venues and other decentralized derivatives protocols.

Bitcoin, Stocks and Commodities Join Polymarket

The initial lineup covers Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and HYPE, alongside traditional-market exposure including the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, gold, silver and WTI crude oil. Single-stock perpetuals are also available, with markets tied to companies such as Tesla and Nvidia.

A live S&P 500 contract supports up to 20x leverage with isolated or cross margin, and the broader product uses mark and oracle prices to calculate positions, funding and liquidations.

The public rollout follows the Perps beta launched for selected users in May. That test introduced continuous long and short trading alongside Polymarket's existing event contracts before access was expanded to the wider international platform.

Unlike prediction markets, which settle around a defined event outcome, perpetual futures track the price of an underlying asset and can stay open for as long as the trader maintains sufficient margin. Higher leverage increases both potential returns and liquidation risk.

pUSD Provides Collateral on Polygon

Perps use pUSD as trading collateral, the same settlement token introduced across Polymarket earlier this year. pUSD is an ERC-20 token on Polygon backed 1:1 by USDC, with that backing enforced through its smart-contract structure.

Polymarket's core contracts are deployed on Polygon, extending the blockchain infrastructure already used for its prediction markets into leveraged trading.

The expansion broadens the platform's financial-market product set without replacing its event-contract business. Users can move between markets pricing future events and perpetual positions expressing directional views on assets such as BTC, ETH, gold or the S&P 500 from a single platform.

International Platform Remains Separate From Polymarket US

Perps sit on Polymarket's international platform rather than Polymarket US, its separate CFTC-regulated designated contract market.

The international site remains unavailable in the United States and several other restricted jurisdictions. Polymarket previously rejected claims of platform-wide mandatory KYC when Perps entered beta, while maintaining geographic and sanctions controls for restricted locations.

The regulatory treatment of leveraged derivatives remains a sensitive area for crypto platforms. Offering Perps only through the international entity keeps the product outside the CFTC-regulated US venue, and whether US regulators broaden access to similar leveraged products on prediction-market platforms is a key question for the sector's development.

Polymarket's public Perps market was live on September 4, with active contracts across crypto, equities, indices and commodities, including leverage of up to 20x on supported markets.

Source: Crypto Adventure