This is part four of our Margining and Liquidations series. Read Part 1 for isolated markets, Part 2 for cross markets, and Part 3 for scenario-based margining. The theory is behind us. This part is the survey: how a wide range of venues actually implement it, and where each one bends the rules.
At a glance
| Venue | Bucket unit | Cross/isolated toggle | Portfolio margin | Key wrinkle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Binance | Wallet (USDⓈ-M / COIN-M) | Per-symbol | Additive, not genuine | PM unifies wallets but still sums MM per-position |
| OKX | Account mode | Per-instrument, superseded under PM | Genuine | PM nets spot against derivatives within a risk unit |
| Bybit | Account (UTA) | Account-wide only, no per-symbol override | Genuine | Isolated positions can auto-refill from account balance (AMR) |
| Hyperliquid | Position | Per-position | Additive, not genuine | Unified account auto-borrows against posted collateral |
| Deribit | Sub-account × currency | None, only via sub-accounts | Genuine | No per-position isolation exists at all |
| Gate.io | Wallet (Classic) or risk unit (PM tier) | Per-symbol (Classic); superseded under PM | Genuine (PM tier only) | Separate additive "Unified Account" tier sits below full PM |
| Bitget | Currency wallet (UTA) | Three-way: isolated / cross / cross-currency | Additive, not genuine | New sub-accounts capped at 5x leverage for their first 7 days |
| MEXC | Wallet (likely per-symbol) | Per-symbol, isolated→cross only | None found | Leverage tiers reach 500x; also has an additive Multi-Asset Margin Mode |
| HTX | Unified USDT-M account | Per-symbol | None found | Merged cross+isolated into one account |
| KuCoin | Currency wallet | Per-symbol | None found | — |
| Coinbase (INTX) | Portfolio (cross-collateral, 40+ assets) | Per-position | Additive, not genuine | Separate from Coinbase Derivatives, which trades dated futures, not perps |
| Kraken | Wallet (Coin-M) or portfolio (Multi-M) | Per-position within Multi-M | Genuine (SPAN-based), live for spot/futures/options since mid-2026 | No traditional insurance fund: order book, then a Position Assignment System, then a revenue-funded liquidity pool |
| dYdX | Subaccount | Market-level, not subaccount-level | — | Isolation is chain-enforced per-market, not per-subaccount |
| Bitfinex | Position | Isolated only, no cross mode | — | House-run; the spot P2P funding market doesn't extend to derivatives |
| GMX | Position | N/A, no toggle exists | — | The GM pool is the direct counterparty to every trade |
| Synthetix | Account | Cross only | — | An LP debt pool is the counterparty, not other traders |
| CME (reference) | Portfolio, per combined commodity | N/A | Genuine (SPAN / SPAN 2) | Retail sees broker-imposed margin, not the raw SPAN number |
Binance
Cross/isolated is a per-symbol switch, living inside one of two separate wallets (USDⓈ-M and COIN-M) that sit apart from your Spot wallet and each other, requiring explicit transfers. "Multi-Assets Mode" lets a cross position be backed by BTC/ETH/BNB and others at a haircut, but it's still one additive pool wearing a wider hat. Binance's "Portfolio Margin" unifies wallets behind a single ratio, but the underlying maintenance margin is a strict per-position sum: same shape as Hyperliquid's, despite the name.
OKX
The account picks one mode (Spot, Futures, Multi-currency margin, or Portfolio margin), and cross/isolated is a per-instrument choice inside the first two, superseded once you're in Portfolio margin mode. OKX's Portfolio margin is confirmed genuine, gated behind VIP3+ and a net equity of at least $10,000, with held spot balances reducing the margin owed on derivatives in the same risk unit.
Bybit
Bybit's margin mode, regular (cross), isolated, or portfolio margin, is a single account-wide setting under the Unified Trading Account: there's no per-symbol override the way Binance allows. (A per-symbol API endpoint that looks like it supports this is a legacy holdover from pre-UTA accounts, not something available on a modern UTA account.) Its Portfolio Margin is genuine, in the same family covered in Part 3. Isolated positions also support Auto-Margin Replenishment, which tops up a bucket from account balance automatically as it nears liquidation: implicit funding, and not a pattern every trader would want.
Hyperliquid
Cross and isolated are chosen per position at open time. What HL calls "Portfolio Margin" is something else: a unified spot+perp account, gated behind a volume or balance threshold, that lets you auto-borrow against eligible collateral (HYPE at 0.65 LTV, BTC at 0.50) to fund positions. That's a bigger additive pool with a lending desk attached, not hedge-netting: the maintenance math underneath is still a straight sum.
Deribit
Deribit's actual bucket is sub-account × settlement currency: there's no per-symbol isolated toggle at all. If you want a position walled off from the rest of your book, you open it in its own sub-account, funded via an instant, free internal transfer. Segregated Portfolio Margin keeps each currency's bucket independent; Cross Collateral pools them into one shared risk matrix.
A few more, briefly
Gate.io's Portfolio Margin account tier is genuinely scenario-based, in the same family as Deribit, OKX, and Bybit from Part 3, not just another additive pool with a marketing label; a separate, smaller "Unified Account" tier below it is additive-only. MEXC, HTX, and KuCoin are all Binance-shaped (per-symbol cross/isolated within a currency-scoped wallet, no scenario-based product) and don't need a section of their own on top of what Binance's already covered. See the table for specifics; MEXC's leverage tiers reaching 500x is the one number worth remembering, and its Multi-Asset Margin Mode (letting BTC, ETH, and a few other assets jointly collateralize cross positions) is the same additive trick as Binance's Multi-Assets Mode, not a scenario-based product.
Bitget
Bitget's Unified Trading Account offers a three-way split rather than the usual two: Isolated (per-position), Cross (account-wide within a currency bucket: USDT-M, USDC-M, coin-M each their own pool), and Cross-currency (multiple assets serving as collateral simultaneously, Binance's Multi-Assets-Mode analog). No scenario-based product exists despite the "unified" branding. P&L offsetting happens only within a single currency bucket: additive netting inside one pool, not a stress-scenario grid across underlyings.
Coinbase
Two different products share the Coinbase name, and it's easy to mix them up. Coinbase Derivatives is a CFTC-regulated FCM offering dated futures and options: the standard TradFi lifecycle, with no ongoing perpetual-style margin or liquidation model. Coinbase International Exchange is where the actual perpetual futures live: cross or isolated per position, with cross pooling a position against other eligible positions and spot balances across 40+ assets in one portfolio (isolated positions, by contrast, only accept USDC as collateral). That's structurally the same shape as Binance's Multi-Assets Mode: wide collateral eligibility, no scenario netting.
Kraken
Kraken Futures runs two wallet types: Coin-M (single-collateral, effectively one cross bucket per settlement currency, the same shape as Deribit) and Multi-M (all balances valued in USD in one wallet, cross or isolated selectable per position underneath). One interesting piece is Kraken's portfolio margining: it follows SPAN methodology with real cross-asset netting, and as of mid-2026 it's live in production, unifying spot, futures, and options in one wallet by default for eligible clients, with collateral accepted in 30+ currencies. Kraken's liquidation design is also a real departure from every other venue here: no traditional insurance fund. Liquidation goes to the order book first; if that can't fill, a Position Assignment System hands the position to opted-in liquidity providers, backed by a revenue-funded liquidity pool covering any slippage shortfall (Kraken itself calls this pool's aggregate capacity a de facto insurance fund).
dYdX
Each address gets 128,001 subaccounts, numbered 0–127 ("parent," cross-margined) and 128 upward ("child"). The instinct is to read this as "cross lives in low numbers, isolated in high ones," but that's a UI convention, not the rule the chain enforces. Isolation is actually a market-level flag: any subaccount holding a position in an isolated market is capped at that one position by the protocol itself, regardless of which subaccount number it sits in. Opening an isolated position means transferring collateral from the cross subaccount into an empty child and trading there; margin left unused in an abandoned child auto-returns. Isolated markets also get their own dedicated insurance fund, separate from the cross one. No portfolio-margin variant exists. dYdX is additive, full stop.
Bitfinex
Bitfinex's spot margin trading really is backed by a peer-to-peer funding market, other users lending USD, BTC, and so on at a rate, rather than a house-run pool. That model doesn't carry over to derivatives, though: Bitfinex's perpetual swaps run on a completely separate, house-run bucket system, and isolated margin appears to be the only mode. Nothing in the derivatives docs mentions a cross option. Funding payments are the ordinary perpetual funding rate, not a loan-market rate, and an insurance fund backstops whatever a liquidated position's own collateral can't cover. It lands closer to GMX's per-position collateral than to any of the toggleable-bucket venues here.
GMX and Synthetix: when the pool is the counterparty
These two don't quite fit the bucket model at all. On GMX, there's no cross/isolated choice because there's nothing to choose: every position specifies its own collateral at open time, so every position is already its own bucket. On Synthetix, positions across markets do share one account-level bucket, genuinely cross. But on both, your counterparty isn't other traders or an insurance fund: it's a liquidity pool (GM on GMX, a staker debt pool on Synthetix). Your account can be perfectly solvent by every / measure in this series while the venue is under separate stress, because aggregate trader P&L is a direct transfer against the pool.
CME: the TradFi anchor
CME isn't a venue you'd open a crypto perp on, but it's a useful real-world anchor for Part 3's theory: its Bitcoin and Ether futures (and their options) use the SPAN/SPAN 2 machinery directly, margined at the portfolio level across a trader's full complex of CME products, with real spread credits for correlated positions. Two things make it feel different from every other venue here. First, the exchange-computed SPAN number is a floor, not what you post: a retail account routes through an FCM broker who layers their own house margin on top, so the netting benefit you get in practice depends on your broker. Second, there's no such thing as 20x here: CME futures are designed for regulated, position-limited exposure, and margin levels sit an order of magnitude below the leverage offshore crypto perps offer. Same math as Deribit's or OKX's PM, aimed at a completely different kind of trader.
Closing
The series is over. We’ve covered the various common margining methods (isolated, cross and scenario-based) and investigated how top venues implement these.
All methods share the two main parameters (Initial Margin and Maintenance Margin), and how these relate to position opening and liquidating. Now we know how these are computed across venues.