what liquidation really costs on Binance and Bybit

Binance starts with a 0.05% taker fee, while Bybit starts with 0.055%. assuming entry and exit are both taker fills, the round trip is 0.1% of notional on Binance and 0.11% on Bybit. those percentages look small against notional, but leverage converts them into a larger percentage of posted margin. at 100x, the round trip consumes 10% of margin on Binance and 11% on Bybit before funding or adverse price movement.

liquidation adds another cost layer. the engine closes the position as a taker fill, so the closing taker fee still applies. the venue also applies a liquidation or clearing charge associated with the insurance-fund mechanism. its exact rate is venue-, product- and tier-dependent and is not numerically specified in this facts pack. it therefore should not be folded into a universal Binance-versus-Bybit percentage.

fee drag scales linearly against margin because the fee is charged on notional, while posted margin shrinks as leverage rises. for a taker round trip, margin drag is round-trip fee × leverage. Binance at 20x is 0.1% × 20 = 2% of margin. Bybit at 20x is 0.11% × 20 = 2.2%. the notional fee rate is unchanged; only its size relative to your margin changes.

the same arithmetic reaches 5% of margin on Binance and 5.5% on Bybit at 50x. at 100x, it reaches 10% and 11%. these figures assume a taker entry and taker exit rather than a maker fill. they exclude funding, slippage and the venue-dependent liquidation or clearing charge, so they describe the round trip before a liquidation engine takes control.

on a $10,000 notional, the percentage-of-margin comparison remains the same at each leverage because both fees and margin scale from notional. the table is therefore useful without assuming a specific account balance. actual fills can still differ through slippage, partial execution, fee tier and whether either leg receives maker treatment.

a liquidation close is not a planned passive exit resting in the book. the venue's engine takes over and executes the reduction as a taker fill, so the closing taker fee applies against the notional being closed. Binance's verified taker input is 0.05%, while Bybit's is 0.055%. slippage can add another cost when the book cannot absorb the forced order near the expected level.

the venue can also deduct a liquidation or clearing charge beyond the ordinary taker fee. that charge supports the insurance-fund mechanism, which handles the gap between the liquidation threshold and the price at which the position's remaining equity is exhausted. the exact charge is not supplied in the facts pack and should not be inferred from the 0.05% or 0.055% taker rates. it varies by venue, product and account tier.

this is why “margin lost” and “total liquidation cost” are not interchangeable. total cost can include the entry fee, funding accrued while open, the forced-close taker fee, the additional clearing charge and execution slippage. the final account debit comes from the venue's live margin engine rather than a static leverage formula. insurance-fund handling and any later deleveraging process are separate mechanisms whose exact operation depends on the venue.

the isolated approximation used by liqsiren is long liq = entry × (1 − 1/leverage + MMR) and short liq = entry × (1 + 1/leverage − MMR). it captures leverage and the applicable maintenance-margin bracket, but it ignores the exchange's fee and funding accruals since entry. it also does not model unrealised PnL from other positions under cross margin.

for a Binance BTC example entered at $97,400 with $10,000 notional, 20x leverage and 0.4% MMR, the estimated long liq is $92,919.60. that is $4,480.40, or 4.6%, below entry. the estimated short liq is $101,880.40, also 4.6% from entry. on Bybit, 0.33% MMR produces estimates of $92,851.42 long and $101,948.58 short, each 4.67% from entry.

live fees and funding reduce the equity available to satisfy maintenance margin and fund the forced close. that can move the effective threshold slightly toward entry relative to a fee-free estimate: higher for a long and lower for a short. the bankruptcy price sits farther in the adverse direction, marking where remaining position equity is exhausted. every figure here is an estimate — exchanges compute exact liq from live margin; always double-check on your venue.

MMR is not one constant across every position size. Binance and Bybit assign maintenance-margin brackets by symbol and notional, and the selected bracket feeds directly into the liq estimate. for first-bracket BTC and ETH notionals up to $300,000, Binance uses 0.4% MMR while Bybit uses 0.33%. both list 150x as the bracket's maximum leverage. SOL begins differently, with 0.5% MMR and 100x maximum leverage up to $50,000 on both venues.

higher notional can move a position into a higher MMR bracket even when leverage is unchanged. Binance BTC reaches 0.5% MMR up to $800,000 in its second listed bracket, while Bybit BTC reaches 0.5% up to $2,000,000 in its second. higher MMR pulls the estimated liq toward entry. the available margin then has to absorb fees, funding and any forced-close charge on top of that tighter threshold.

the verified table covers the first 5 brackets per symbol for USDT-M isolated margin. for notionals beyond the last listed bracket, the calculator falls back to that last MMR, which slightly underestimates MMR. large positions therefore require a direct venue check rather than extrapolation from the displayed rows. bracket values were verified against the venue data on 2026-09-19.

funding is separate from the taker and liquidation charges, but it changes live position equity. Binance and Bybit use an 8-hour funding interval for the products represented in the facts pack. depending on the rate and your side, funding can be paid or received. funding paid reduces the margin buffer, so the exchange's live liq can sit closer than an entry-and-leverage estimate that ignores accrued funding.

liquidation is tied to the venue's mark rather than a single trade on the last-price tape. the pack does not specify index constituents, formula weights or update frequency, so none should be inferred. stops, take-profits and other conditional orders can use selectable trigger types that vary by product and interface. the configured trigger must be checked on the account; no venue-wide default should be assumed.

a stop can therefore remain untouched while the liquidation engine sees its own mark threshold reached, depending on the trigger you selected and the movement of mark versus last. that mismatch does not remove the costs already accumulated: entry fee, funding and any partial taker execution still affect equity. if liquidation follows, the forced-close taker fee and venue-dependent clearing charge enter the final debit.

a complete cost stack starts before the liq price. position notional determines taker charges, leverage converts those charges into percentage of margin, and the notional bracket selects MMR. holding time then determines how many 8-hour funding intervals can affect the position. the eventual exit path decides whether the closing leg is maker, voluntary taker or a forced liquidation fill.

for the $10,000 worked examples, BTC at 20x has 4.6% estimated long-liq distance on Binance and 4.67% on Bybit. ETH at the same notional and leverage has the same respective percentage distances because both use the first BTC-like MMR brackets. SOL uses 0.5% MMR, leaving 4.5% estimated distance at 20x on both venues. fee drag remains 2% of margin on Binance and 2.2% on Bybit under a taker round trip.

liqsiren separates the arithmetic into liquidation-price, position-size and funding-cost calculators. the liquidation calculator maps entry, leverage and side to estimated liq and distance using the verified brackets. the position-size calculator maps risk, entry and stop to contracts and resulting liq. the funding-cost calculator maps size, rate and holding time to funding paid or received per interval, day, week and month.

1. calculate notional and identify the applicable MMR bracket.
2. apply the 0.1% Binance or 0.11% Bybit taker round trip when both legs cross the book.
3. convert the notional fee into margin drag by multiplying it by leverage.
4. add funding for each 8-hour interval, then keep liquidation clearing charges and slippage as separate venue-dependent items.