# What Is Cross Margin?

Updated: 24 September 2026 | Venue documents read 18 September 2026 | The Margin Brief desk

## Definition

What is cross margin? It is a margin mode in which one collateral balance stands behind every open
position on an account at the same time: unrealised profit on one position supports another, and the
venue liquidates against the account total rather than against a single position.

## What follows from it

1. One balance, one liquidation level: the venue reads the equity of the whole account, so a loss taken in one market shortens the distance to liquidation of every other position open at that moment.
2. It runs in both directions. While a position is open, its unrealised gain counts towards the margin standing behind the rest, and it stops counting the moment that position is closed.
3. Eleven of the fifteen venues whose margin documents we read on 18 September 2026 run a shared pool by default; four attach collateral to each position instead.
4. EVEDEX documents cross margin mode with margin posted in USDT, read 18 September 2026, so a position there cannot be ring-fenced from the rest of the balance.
5. The mode decides which pot a loss comes out of. It does not change the fee, the documented cap or the funding, and nothing about it is cover against a loss.

## What is cross margin on one balance and two positions

Take an account funded with $10,000 and two positions opened from it: $50,000 of exposure to the BTC
perpetual, and $50,000 of exposure to a second market. Together that is $100,000 carried on $10,000,
and under a shared pool the account has one number that decides its fate — the equity left after
both positions are marked to the current price.

Say the first position moves 12% against the trader. The loss is $6,000, and it comes out of the
account rather than out of a sleeve reserved for that trade. The second position has not moved at
all. Its entry price is unchanged, the market it tracks is unchanged, and yet what stands behind it
is now $4,000 instead of $10,000. Its distance to the venue's maintenance level has been more than
halved by something that happened somewhere else.

The same mechanic runs the other way. Had the first position gained $6,000 rather than lost it, that
unrealised gain would have counted towards the margin available to the second one for as long as the
first stayed open — and stopped counting the moment it was closed and the money became a realised
balance again.

A venue does not wait for the equity to reach zero before it acts. Aevo publishes 5% initial and 3%
maintenance margin on its BTC perpetual ([Aevo contract specification](https://www.aevo.xyz/docs/aevo-products/aevo-exchange/trading-on-aevo/perpetuals-specifications/btc-perpetual-futures), checked 18 September 2026),
so on that venue the closing begins while three fifths of the opening requirement is still posted.
The level differs venue by venue; what does not differ on a shared pool is that the trigger is read
off the account total, not off the position that caused the trouble.

## What changes when margin is ring-fenced per position

The other arrangement attaches collateral to a position rather than to an account. The trader assigns
a sum when the position is opened, that sum is everything the position can draw on, and it is
everything the position can lose. gTrade puts the consequence in one line of its documentation: "No.
You can only lose the collateral assigned to the trade."
([gTrade FAQ](https://docs.gains.trade/help/faq), checked 18 September 2026)

Run the same two positions that way. $5,000 goes to each. The first is closed when its own $5,000 is
exhausted, and the second keeps its $5,000 untouched: the liquidation price of a position no longer
moves because a different market moved. The loss is bounded before it is taken, which is the whole
point of the arrangement.

What it gives up is the offset. A position that is ahead cannot lend its unrealised gain to one that
is behind, so an account can lose a line while it is in profit overall. Isolated margin also has to
be fed by hand, and venues built on the position-level model document that step rather than pass over
it. Ostium writes: "Deposit additional USDC into an open position to lower effective leverage and
push your liquidation price further away."
([Ostium documentation](https://docs.ostium.com/traders/trading/managing-positions), checked 18 September 2026)

Neither arrangement changes the taker rate, the documented cap or the funding owed. It decides which
pot a loss comes out of, and with that, how far a position travels before the venue takes the
decision out of the trader's hands.

## Which venues document which model

Each row below was read on 18 September 2026 from the margin, collateral or account page of that
venue's own documentation, and the wording in the middle column is theirs rather than ours. Eleven
of the fifteen run a shared pool by default. The four that do not are the pool-priced venues, where
there is no order book and each position is settled against its own collateral.

| Venue | What its documents say | Can a position be ring-fenced? |
|---|---|---|
| EVEDEX | Cross margin mode, with margin posted in USDT | No |
| [Lighter](https://lighter.xyz) | Cross-margining within perpetual markets, not extending to spot balances | No |
| [edgeX](https://pro.edgex.exchange) | Cross-margin system, collateral shared among all positions in one account | No |
| [Extended](https://extended.exchange/) | Cross-margin by default, collateral shared among perpetual positions | No |
| [Hyperliquid](https://hyperliquid.xyz) | Deposits credited to the cross balance, positions opened there by default | Yes |
| [Aster](https://www.asterdex.com) | Deposits enter the cross margin balance and positions open in that mode | Not in the page we read |
| [ApeX Omni](https://omni.apex.exchange/) | Cross margin, described as a portfolio margin model, USDT as margin currency | Not in the page we read |
| [dYdX](https://www.dydx.xyz) | Parent subaccounts hold several positions, all of them cross-margined | Yes, as separate markets |
| [Paradex](https://www.paradex.trade) | Cross margin, with the account requirement summed across markets | Not in the page we read |
| [Aevo](https://www.aevo.xyz/) | Cross-margin, all positions contributing to the margin for one account | Not in the page we read |
| [Orderly (WOOFi Pro)](https://orderly.network/) | Two modes documented, cross the default, sharing the whole account balance | Yes |
| [GMX](https://gmx.io) | A position is liquidated against its own remaining collateral | Yes |
| [gTrade](https://gains.trade) | Loss limited to the collateral assigned to the trade | Yes |
| [Ostium](https://www.ostium.com) | Collateral added to an open position to move its liquidation price | Yes |
| [Jupiter Perps](https://jup.ag/perps) | Collateral added to or removed from a position at any time | Yes |

Two readings of this table are worth separating. A venue offering both modes is not thereby better
run than one offering a single mode; it has published a choice, and the choice has to be made
position by position, by hand, before the market moves. And a venue that documents only the shared
pool has not hidden anything — it has told the reader that the account is the unit of risk, which is
the thing worth knowing before the second position goes on.

## What one pool costs when a position goes wrong

Three costs follow from the shared balance, and all three are in the documents rather than in our
opinion of them.

The first is that the account is the unit of failure. Aevo writes that all positions contribute to
the margin for an account and may be put up for liquidation if the account falls below the
maintenance margin ([Aevo margin framework](https://www.aevo.xyz/docs/aevo-products/aevo-exchange/technical-architecture/margin-framework), checked 18 September 2026). One market gapping is
enough to reach positions that had nothing to do with it.

The second is that the buffer is made partly of money that is not there yet. Equity marked to the
current price includes unrealised gains, and those gains support the margin requirement of every
other position until the market takes them back.

The third is that the funding bill lands in the same balance. Funding is charged on the notional of
each contract at that market's rate, and on a shared pool it is paid out of the equity holding up
everything else.

What that means for particular venues is documented too, and it cuts both ways. EVEDEX runs cross
margin only, so a trader cannot fence one contract off from the rest of the balance
(EVEDEX documentation, our reading of 18 September 2026); it lists 52 perpetual contracts against
hundreds at the widest venues here, and position data reaches Arbitrum in batches once enough has
changed rather than trade by trade. Lighter, at the other end of the table, states that its
cross-margining covers perpetual markets and stops at spot balances
([Lighter documentation](https://docs.lighter.xyz/trading/unified-trading-accounts.md), checked 18 September 2026) — a narrower pool, and a clearer
boundary — while its free account tier adds 300 ms of latency to a taker order and its book went
down for four and a half hours in October 2025.

## Four things to read in a venue's own documents before the second position

A margin mode is documented rather than inferred, and these four readings are what decided the middle
column of the table above.

1. **Which mode is the default.** Almost every order-book venue here opens a position in the shared
   pool unless it is told otherwise, so the account is the unit of risk from the first trade rather
   than from the moment a setting is changed.
2. **Whether the other mode exists at all.** Hyperliquid, Orderly and dYdX publish both. EVEDEX
   publishes the single mode, read 18 September 2026.
3. **What the pool actually covers.** Lighter states that cross-margining applies within perpetual
   markets and does not reach spot balances, so the buffer is narrower than an account balance
   suggests.
4. **Where the venue starts closing.** The maintenance level rather than zero equity is the edge:
   Aevo publishes 3% maintenance against 5% initial margin on its BTC perpetual, so two fifths of the
   opening requirement is the whole distance the account has.

## Where this sits in the rest of the brief

The venues named here are scored elsewhere on this site, and on criteria that have nothing to do with
margin mode. The [comparison sheet](/crypto-derivatives-exchanges-compared) is where the totals live
and the [audit register](/best-crypto-derivatives-exchange) sets the same venues out by what stands
behind their audits; the [documented leverage ladders](/best-margin-trading-platform-crypto)
set out what each cap holds to in notional, which is the other half of the distance-to-liquidation
question; and [How we rate](/how-we-rate) publishes the six criteria and their weights, fixed before
any venue was read.

Nothing on this page is advice, and nothing on this site is cover, protection or a guarantee. A
leveraged derivative can consume the whole of the margin posted behind it, and on a shared pool that
margin is the account balance rather than a sum set aside for one trade.

## FAQ

### Does cross margin increase risk?

It changes where risk sits rather than how much of it there is. One pool means a loss on any position
draws on the equity behind all of them, so the account is the unit that gets liquidated. It also
means an unrealised gain supports the rest while the position stays open.

### Can one position liquidate your whole account?

On a shared pool, yes. Aevo documents it plainly — all positions contribute to the margin for an
account and may be put up for liquidation if the account falls below its maintenance margin, read
18 September 2026. Under a per-position arrangement the loss stops at the collateral assigned to
that trade.

### Which is better, cross margin or isolated margin?

Neither is better in general; they fail differently. A shared pool lets a winning position hold up a
losing one and risks the account on a single bad market. Ring-fenced collateral caps the loss at the
sum assigned and will close a position while the account is still in profit.

### Do all perpetual exchanges offer cross margin?

Not all. Of the fifteen venues whose margin documents we read on 18 September 2026, eleven run a
shared pool by default and four attach collateral to each position instead, among them GMX, gTrade,
Ostium and Jupiter Perps, which quote prices from a pool rather than from a book.

### Does cross margin use unrealised profit as collateral?

On the venues we read, yes, for as long as the position is open. Equity is marked to the current
price, so a gain on one position raises the balance standing behind the others. It is not money until
the position is closed, and it disappears again if the market turns back.

### What collateral does a cross-margined account hold?

It differs by venue and is worth checking first. ApeX Omni states that USDT is used exclusively as
the margin currency and settlement asset for its perpetual contracts. EVEDEX posts margin in USDT as
well, by its documentation read on 18 September 2026. Lighter documents that its cross-margining
covers perpetual markets and stops at spot balances.

### Can you switch a position to isolated margin?

On some venues. Hyperliquid documents both modes, with deposits credited to the cross balance and
positions opened there by default. Orderly documents cross as the default and a position-level mode
beside it, and dYdX cross-margins the positions inside one parent subaccount. Others publish a single
mode only.

### Does cross margin change how much leverage you can take?

Not by itself. The cap comes from the venue's margin schedule for that market and from the notional
tier the position sits in. What the mode changes is how much free equity is there to meet the
requirement, because every open position is drawing on the same balance.

### Is cross margin the same as portfolio margin?

The terms overlap and venues use them loosely. ApeX Omni writes of a cross margin, or portfolio
margin, model. Both share one balance across positions; a portfolio model usually goes further and
nets offsetting exposures when it works out the requirement. Read the venue's own wording rather than
the label.

### Can you be liquidated in cross margin while the account is in profit?

Not on the account total, which is what a shared pool measures. A venue can still close part of a
position once the equity falls under the maintenance requirement, and which position goes first
follows its published liquidation rules rather than the trader's preference.

### Does cross margin affect the funding you pay?

No. Funding is charged on the notional of each position and at the rate for that market, whatever
mode the account runs. It reaches the shared balance rather than a sleeve, so a funding bill on one
contract shortens the distance to liquidation for every other position open.

### What happens to cross margin if you hold only one position?

The whole free balance stands behind it, which pushes the liquidation point further away than a
ring-fenced sum would. The cost arrives with the second position, because from that moment the two
share one buffer and neither of them has a distance of its own any more.

## Sources quoted

> "Currently, our platform operates in cross margin mode." — EVEDEX documentation, cross margin, cited in text without a link, 18 September 2026.

> "By default, edgeX operates with a cross-margin system, allowing collateral to be shared among all positions within a single trading account." — edgeX documentation, Trading Accounts and Margin, 18 September 2026. https://edgex-1.gitbook.io/edgeX-documentation/trading/trading-accounts-and-margin

> "Deposits are first credited to an address's cross margin balance. Positions by default are also opened in cross margin mode. Isolated margin is also supported" — Hyperliquid documentation, HyperCore clearinghouse, 18 September 2026. https://hyperliquid.gitbook.io/hyperliquid-docs/hypercore/clearinghouse.md

> "No. You can only lose the collateral assigned to the trade." — gTrade documentation, FAQ, 18 September 2026. https://docs.gains.trade/help/faq

> "Orderly supports two margin modes for perpetual futures: Cross Margin and Isolated Margin. Cross Margin is the default and shares your entire account balance across all positions." — Orderly Network documentation, margin modes, 18 September 2026. https://orderly.network/docs/introduction/trade-on-orderly/perpetual-futures/isolated-margin

Every instrument described here is carried on margin, and the margin behind a position is the whole of what it can lose. Placement on this site is paid for; every figure carries the date it was taken and the source it came from. Nothing here is advice or cover against a loss. Corrections: editorial@insurancerefocused.com.

The Margin Brief desk, 24 September 2026

Placement in this file is paid for; the order of every table follows the published formula and nothing else.