What is a liquidation price?
The liquidation price is where a leveraged position or a loan gets closed for you. How it's set on perps and loans, and how to keep it far away.
Updated Nov 8, 2026
In short
A liquidation price is the price at which a leveraged position, or a loan against crypto, is closed by the exchange or protocol because your margin or collateral no longer covers it. The more leverage you use, the closer it sits to the price you entered at. Adding margin, reducing the position or repaying debt moves it further away.
On a perp or futures position
When you trade with leverage, the venue holds your margin against the position. If the market moves against you until your equity falls below the maintenance margin, the position is liquidated. On Hyperliquid, for example, the maintenance margin is half the initial margin at the market's maximum leverage: between 1.25% and 16.7% depending on the market.
As a rough guide, at 10x leverage a fall of a little under 10% from your entry reaches a long's liquidation price; at 25x, a fall of a little under 4%. The exact price depends on the venue, the market and your other positions.
Cross or isolated. On cross margin, every position shares one pool of margin, so a loss on one can liquidate the others. On isolated margin, each position has its own and can only lose that.
On a loan
On a lending protocol, your loan's liquidation price is the price of your collateral at which its health factor reaches 1. Below it, anyone can repay part of your debt and take some of your collateral at a discount.
How to keep it far away
- Use less leverage, or borrow less against your collateral.
- Add margin or collateral when the market moves against you.
- Reduce the position or repay part of the loan.
- Set a stop-loss above a long's liquidation price, so you choose where you exit.
In Burokku
Every open perp across Hyperliquid, Lighter, Aster and your exchanges shows its distance to liquidation, and a perp liquidation alert tells you when any of them gets within a distance you choose; it starts at 15%. For loans, the health factor alert does the same. See how to track your Hyperliquid positions.
Questions
- Can the liquidation price change after I open a position?
- Yes. On cross margin it moves with your other positions and your account's equity, and funding payments and fees chip at your margin over time. On an isolated position, adding margin moves it away.
- Is the liquidation price the same as a stop-loss?
- No. A stop-loss is a price you choose to exit at. The liquidation price is where the venue closes you whether you like it or not, usually with a fee on top. A stop-loss set well before it saves you that fee.