How to Trade Futures on LBank: Leverage, Fees and Liquidation (2026)

Updated Rules checked 2026-10-19

How to open futures on LBank: log in, click “Futures” → “Futures”, and the first time a pop-up appears. Tick the box to accept the “LBank Futures Service Agreement” and click “Confirm”, and your futures account is open. Then go to “Assets” → “Transfer” to move USDT from your spot account to your futures account, choose cross or isolated margin, set your leverage, and you can place an order. The official LBank futures tutorials I found don’t ask for a quiz or questionnaire. On identity verification (KYC), they say that “users in some regions need to complete KYC verification to unlock full functionality”.

On cost, LBank’s standard futures fees are 0.02% maker and 0.06% taker, calculated on notional value and charged once when you open and once when you close. Perpetual contracts also carry a funding fee, which on most trading pairs settles every 4 hours or every 8 hours. Leverage depends on the trading pair. The official trading guide says it “supports up to 125x leverage”, but when I read LBank’s official futures API on 2026-10-19, BTCUSDT and ETHUSDT went up to 200x, and most trading pairs were capped at 50x.

Leverage magnifies both gains and losses. If the price moves against you, your position may be liquidated and you lose all the margin you put in. Below I go through account setup, margin modes, leverage, fees, liquidation and take-profit/stop-loss in that order, with an official source for each.

Key points
LBank states that “the margin mode for each contract is set to ‘Cross’ by default”. In the official futures API on 2026-10-19, BTCUSDT’s default leverage was 20x.
LBank’s standard futures fees are 0.02% maker and 0.06% taker. With 1,000 USDT of margin at 10x, opening and closing as a taker costs 12 USDT in total fees.
The official API on the same day showed that 477 of the 827 USDT-M perpetual contracts settle funding every 4 hours, more than the 348 that settle every 8 hours. BTCUSDT settles every 8 hours, and its current rate was 0.01%.
LBank decides liquidation with “maintenance margin ratio = maintenance margin ÷ margin balance”. When the ratio reaches 100%, orders are canceled and the position is reduced or liquidated. Using the 1% maintenance margin rate from LBank’s own example, an isolated BTC long at 10x is liquidated after a price drop of about 9.1%.
LBank’s trading guide says up to 125x, but in the official futures API BTCUSDT and ETHUSDT allow 200x, and 504 of the 827 USDT-M perpetual contracts are capped at 50x.

The information below was checked against official pages on 2026-10-19 (the fact-check date) and is provided for reference.

How do you open a futures account on LBank?

Check three things before you start. First, how activation works: LBank’s “How to open a futures account?” (2025-11-25) says you must read and accept the “LBank Futures Trading Service Agreement” before activation. Opening the account is free, and the official tutorial has no quiz or questionnaire. Second, identity verification: LBank says that “users in some regions need to complete KYC verification to unlock full functionality” without listing which regions; the steps are in the LBank identity verification guide. Third, where you live: the LBank user service agreement (2026-07-22) lists 34 countries or regions where individuals cannot register or invest, including the United States, Canada, mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Iran and North Korea. For a comparison across exchanges, see exchange restricted countries.

Steps on the website

  1. Log in to the LBank website and click “Futures” → “Futures” in the top menu. This opens the BTC/USDT trading page first; you can use the search box to find other trading pairs.
  2. The first time, a pop-up appears. Tick “I have read and agree to the LBank Futures Service Agreement” and click “Confirm” to open your futures account.
  3. Click “Assets” → “Transfer” in the top menu, transfer from “Spot Account” to “Futures Account”, pick the coin, enter the amount and click “Confirm”. You can also click “+” on the futures trading page and enter the transfer amount there. Transfers between accounts are free.
  4. Click “Cross”, which the trading panel shows by default, to switch margin mode. Click the “Leverage” icon at the top right to set “Long Leverage” and “Short Leverage” separately, or tick “Sync Long/Short” to change both at once.
  5. Choose the order type (Market, Limit, Trigger Order, Post Only) and the “Contract Unit”, enter the price and quantity, click “Open Long” or “Open Short”, and then “Confirm”.
  6. Once filled, check the “Est. Liquidation Price” and “Maintenance Margin Ratio” under “Positions” at the bottom of the page. To close, click “Market Close All”, or click “Close” and choose market or limit.

Steps in the app

  1. Log in to the LBank app, tap “Futures” at the bottom → “Open Futures Account”, tick “I have read and agree to the LBank Futures Service Agreement” and tap “Confirm”.
  2. Tap “Assets” → “Transfer” and move funds from “Spot Account” to “Futures Account”. Or tap “+” on the futures page and choose “Transfer” (the other options are “On-chain Deposit” and “Quick Buy”).
  3. Tap “⋯” at the top right of the trading page → “Trading Settings” to choose the position mode, then tap “Cross” to switch margin mode and the “Leverage” icon to set the multiplier.
  4. Choose the order type, enter the quantity and tap “Buy/Long” or “Sell/Short”. Your positions are under “Assets > Futures > Positions”. Tap “Close” and choose market or limit; you can also enter a percentage to close only part of the position, for example 50%.

These steps follow the LBank futures trading guide (Web) (2025-11-28), the LBank futures trading guide (App) (2026-03-30) and “How to transfer funds to your futures account?”. The “Contract Unit” has three options: “Quantity” is the number of coins, “Cost Value” is the margin, and “Notional Value” is the position value. Check which one is selected before you type a number.

Cross vs isolated margin: what’s the difference and which should you use?

ItemIsolatedCross (LBank default)
How margin is allocatedOnly the margin assigned to this positionThe whole available balance of the futures account backs the position
Maximum loss on liquidationThat position’s marginAll funds in the futures account
Effect on other positionsNo effect on other positions or the account balanceOne liquidated position can drag other cross positions into liquidation
Can you switch with open positions or orders?No, close the position or cancel the orders first

Sources: LBank cross margin mode and isolated margin mode (2025-11-18) and LBank liquidation mechanism (2024-12-26), checked 2026-10-19. LBank states that “the margin mode for each contract is set to ‘Cross’ by default”, and the trading guide reminds you to switch before you open a position, because you can’t change it while holding one.

The cross default is the detail people miss most often. In numbers: your futures account holds 2,000 USDT and you use 1,000 USDT to open a 10x BTC long. In isolated mode, the most you can lose, even if liquidated, is that 1,000 USDT. In cross mode, the other 1,000 USDT also counts as margin, so the liquidation price sits further from your entry, but if liquidation does happen you may lose all 2,000 USDT. How the two work, and how other exchanges handle them, is covered in cross vs isolated margin.

What should you watch for with one-way and hedge mode?

The LBank futures position mode guide (2025-10-28) describes two modes. One-way mode holds only one direction, and opening the opposite side automatically nets out into a single net position. Hedge mode lets you hold longs and shorts at the same time, with fully independent margin, leverage and quantity on each side. On the website you switch under “Settings” → “Position Mode” at the top right of the trading page; in the app it is “⋯” → “Trading Settings”. Before switching, keep four points in mind:

  • You can’t switch while you hold positions or have open orders; close the positions or cancel the orders first.
  • The position mode applies to all futures trading pairs at once; you can’t change it for just one pair.
  • Hedge mode “takes up double the margin”, so keep enough available balance.
  • Switching from hedge mode back to one-way forces your positions to merge, and LBank states this is irreversible.

Another article, “About position modes” (2025-12-05), describes one-way mode differently: “the system only allows reduce-only orders”. The two articles disagree, so go by what the order screen actually does.

How do you set leverage, and what is the maximum?

LBank sets leverage per trading pair, and orders and positions on the same pair share one leverage setting. LBank’s own pages disagree on the cap. The trading guide says it “supports up to 125x leverage”; LBank’s “How to adjust leverage” opens with “supports up to 200x leverage”, and its notes then say “usually 1-125x, with some special cases”. I grouped the 827 actively trading USDT-M perpetual contracts that I read from the LBank official futures instrument API on 2026-10-19 by maximum leverage:

Maximum leverageNumber of pairsExamples
500x2GOLDUSDT, XAUTUSDT (gold-related contracts)
200x3BTCUSDT, ETHUSDT, SILVERUSDT
125x1RATSUSDT
100x12SOLUSDT, LINKUSDT, BONKUSDT and several forex contracts
75x74XRPUSDT, DOGEUSDT, BNBUSDT and others
50x504—
25x14—
20x215—
10x2—

Source: LBank official futures instrument API (maxLeverage field), read 2026-10-19, excluding 15 contracts the API marked as suspended or with leverage 0. Crypto contracts top out at 200x, and only BTCUSDT and ETHUSDT reach it; the 50x cap is the most common, with 504 pairs. In the default leverage field of the same data, 739 contracts are at 1x, and 79, including BTCUSDT, ETHUSDT, SOLUSDT and XRPUSDT, are at 20x. Go by what your own account shows.

You can change leverage after opening a position: in “Current Positions”, click the “Leverage” icon on that position, check the “Required Margin” and “Est. Liquidation Price” the system shows, and then submit. LBank warns that changing leverage while holding a position “directly affects the margin ratio and the liquidation price”.

The LBank liquidation mechanism page says LBank uses a “tiered margin system”: the larger the position, the higher the maintenance margin rate. LBank’s “Liquidation and maintenance margin rate” (2026-07-10) gives a sample tier table:

Position size (USDT)Maintenance margin rateMaintenance amount (USDT)
Up to 50,0001%0
50,001–100,0002.0%200
100,001–500,0003.0%800

Source: the “sample tiers” on LBank’s official help page, checked 2026-10-19. These are illustrative numbers, not BTCUSDT’s actual tiers. With a 1% maintenance margin rate, a 100x position’s margin would equal the maintenance margin the moment it opens; since BTCUSDT allows 200x, its first-tier maintenance margin rate must be below 0.5%. The public API doesn’t provide BTCUSDT’s actual maintenance margin rate per tier, and LBank’s help pages don’t state it either.

How are futures fees calculated?

The LBank perpetual futures fee guide (page dated 2023-08-04, checked 2026-10-19) lists 0.02% maker and 0.06% taker, with the formulas “fee = notional value × fee rate” and “notional value = contract quantity × fill price”. LBank’s example: with BTC at 80,000 USDT, a market buy of 0.2 BTC has a notional value of 16,000 USDT and a fee of 9.6 USDT; a later limit sell at 90,000 USDT has a notional value of 18,000 USDT and is charged 3.6 USDT at the maker rate. Fee details, along with spot and withdrawal fees, are in LBank fees.

Assumptions: 1,000 USDT of margin at 10x, a position value of 10,000 USDT, a funding rate of +0.01% per settlement (when I read the LBank official futures market data API on 2026-10-19, BTCUSDT’s current rate was exactly 0.01%, settled every 8 hours), held for 3 days, with no rebate included.

ItemCalculationAmount (USDT)
Opening fee (taker)10,000 × 0.06%6
Closing fee (taker)10,000 × 0.06%6
Maker on both open and close10,000 × 0.02% × 24
Funding, settled every 8 hours, 3 days10,000 × 0.01% × 9 times9
Funding, settled every 4 hours, 3 days10,000 × 0.01% × 18 times18
Taker in and out + 8-hour contract12 + 921 (2.1% of margin)
Taker in and out + 4-hour contract12 + 1830 (3.0% of margin)

Source: LBank perpetual futures fee guide and official futures market data API, 2026-10-19. The funding formula is “funding fee = position notional value × funding rate”. When the rate is positive, longs pay shorts; when it is negative, the reverse. Traders pay each other, and LBank takes no cut (LBank funding rate guide). The official formula is “funding rate = premium index + clamp(0.01% − premium index, −0.05%, 0.05%)”. The default interest rate is 0.03% per day (0.01% per interval), so when the interest rate and the premium index are within ±0.05% of each other, the funding rate equals 0.01%.

Contracts that settle every 4 hours are actually the majority. On 2026-10-19 I read the official market data for 827 contracts: 477 settle every 4 hours, 348 every 8 hours and 2 every hour. BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, DOGE and BNB are all on 8 hours, and the API showed the next settlement at 16:00 (UTC), which is 24:00 Taiwan time. Among the 4-hour contracts, 263 had a current rate of 0.005%; six settlements a day add up to 0.03%, the same as the official default interest rate, but LBank doesn’t state how the interest rate is split for 4-hour contracts. An extreme case is CTUSDT, with a current rate of −1.587842%: a 10,000 USDT short pays about 158.78 USDT every 4 hours.

LBank’s help pages don’t state a single site-wide funding rate cap. The 2023-08-14 BLZ settlement frequency announcement says “funding rate cap = clamp(funding rate, -1*maintenance margin rate, 1*maintenance margin rate)”, and adds that in extreme market conditions LBank may adjust parameters such as the rate cap without separate notice. How funding works and how exchanges compare is covered in what is a funding rate.

Compared with the VIP 0 futures fees of several large exchanges, LBank’s taker rate is 0.06%, the same as XT and Bitget:

ExchangeFutures makerFutures taker10,000 USDT taker in and outFutures guide
LBank0.02%0.06%12 USDTThis article
XT.COM0.02%0.06%12 USDTXT futures guide
Bitget0.02%0.06%12 USDTBitget futures guide
Bybit0.02%0.055%11 USDTBybit futures guide
Binance0.02%0.05%10 USDTBinance futures guide
OKX0.02%0.05%10 USDTOKX futures guide

Sources: LBank perpetual futures fee guide, XT futures fee rates, Bitget trading fee FAQ, Bybit fee structure, Binance fee page, OKX fee page; fact-check date 2026-10-19. When you are not logged in, the fee table on the LBank VIP page shows “No data” and notes that “actual fees are subject to the rates shown on the trading page”. The only publicly stated tier is Supreme VIP (VIP7), with derivatives at “0.00% maker and 0.02% taker” (LBank VIP program announcement, 2025-12-02); LBank doesn’t state futures fees for VIP1 to VIP6. You can check what was actually charged under “Trade History” on the futures page of the website.

How is the liquidation price calculated?

LBank uses the maintenance margin ratio to decide whether to liquidate; the estimated liquidation price is only a reference. The note on the LBank BTCUSDT futures trading page says: “maintenance margin ratio = maintenance margin of the current position / margin balance; when the maintenance margin ratio is ≥ 100%, order cancellation, forced position reduction or liquidation is triggered”, and “actual liquidation and reduction are triggered based on the mark price”. The related formulas:

  • Maintenance margin = mark price × position quantity × maintenance margin rate − maintenance amount.
  • Isolated margin balance = isolated margin used + isolated unrealized PnL; cross margin balance = account balance − all isolated margin used + all cross unrealized PnL.
  • Isolated estimated liquidation price = (isolated margin balance + maintenance amount − direction × position quantity × entry price) ÷ (position quantity × maintenance margin rate − direction × position quantity), where long = +1 and short = −1.

The formulas come from LBank’s “Liquidation and maintenance margin rate” (2026-07-10). The table below applies them with a BTC entry price of 60,000 USDT, 1,000 USDT of isolated margin, and the 1% maintenance margin rate and 0 maintenance amount from the first tier of LBank’s sample table (every position value is under 50,000 USDT). The price is just an assumption to keep the math simple:

LeveragePosition valueLong liquidation priceDrop to liquidationShort liquidation priceRise to liquidation
2x2,00030,303.0349.49%89,108.9148.51%
5x5,00048,484.8519.19%71,287.1318.81%
10x10,00054,545.459.09%65,346.538.91%
20x20,00057,575.764.04%62,376.243.96%
50x50,00059,393.941.01%60,594.060.99%

Source: my own calculation with LBank’s official formula, 2026-10-19. For a quick mental estimate, use “1 ÷ leverage − maintenance margin rate”: at 10x that is about 10% − 1% = 9%, and at 50x only about 1% is left. LBank doesn’t publish BTCUSDT’s actual maintenance margin rate, so the “Est. Liquidation Price” in your positions panel is the number to trust. To plug in your own numbers, use the liquidation price calculator.

Note that two LBank help articles contradict each other. The 2024-12-26 “Liquidation mechanism” page defines the maintenance margin ratio as “account equity / margin used”, where a lower number is more dangerous, and its isolated formula also deducts a 0.06% liquidation fee rate; by that version, the 10x long liquidation price is 54,578.53. This article uses the 2026-07-10 version, because the note on the trading page matches it.

During liquidation the system cancels all unfilled orders, assets in the futures account can’t be transferred out, and you can’t close the position manually. LBank liquidates in steps: it closes part of the position first, and if partial liquidation fails, it closes the whole position. When the loss exceeds the margin (bankruptcy), the LBank risk protection fund takes over the remaining position. The fund’s money mainly comes from “the extra fees paid by non-bankrupt users during liquidation”. BTC/USDT and ETH/USDT each have their own fund, and all other contracts share one. Any net notional position taken over beyond 100% of the fund’s total is passed to auto-deleveraging (ADL) of counterparties. The fund balance isn’t published on the help page; LBank asks users to email [email protected] to ask. Why the mark price differs from the last price is explained in mark price vs last price.

LBank has also announced a “100 million USD futures risk protection fund” for price wicks. The official announcement (2025-08-27) says it kicks in when the candlestick price deviates more than 2% from the fair market price within 1 minute and quickly snaps back. It covers futures trading pairs of the top 100 coins by CoinMarketCap market cap, and traders liquidated or stopped out because of such a wick can receive 120% of their loss in compensation. LBank determines the fair price by referring to CoinMarketCap’s top five derivatives exchanges, and ordinary losses don’t qualify.

How do you set take-profit and stop-loss?

When opening a position, tick “TP/SL” in the order panel to set them together. If the position is already open, click “TP/SL” on that position under “Positions” (LBank’s “How to set take-profit and stop-loss for futures”, 2025-11-07). The rules:

  • Trigger price type: you can choose “Last Price” or “Mark Price”, and the screen shows “Last Price” by default. Liquidation follows the mark price, and the two can diverge a lot in sharp moves. If your stop-loss triggers on the last price, watch out: the mark price may hit your liquidation price first.
  • Three ways to set them: when opening, you can set them by “Trigger Price”, “ROI” or “PnL”; the advanced settings use “By Price Change”, “By PnL” or “By ROI”. For example, −5% means a stop-loss when the price falls 5%.
  • Trigger orders can’t carry TP/SL: LBank states that a “Trigger Order” can’t have take-profit or stop-loss attached; use a limit or market order instead.
  • Two options after opening: with “Fixed Quantity”, the order quantity doesn’t change with the position, and you can set several. With “Entire Position”, it adjusts with the position and closes everything at market when triggered; you can set only one, and only by price change.
  • Canceling: under “Orders” at the bottom of the trading page, choose “Cancel”; to cancel several at once, use “Cancel All”.

Your stop-loss has to sit before your liquidation price. In the table above, the 10x long liquidates at about 54,545, so set the stop above that with some room to spare. The LBank futures order types guide states that a “Post Only” order is automatically canceled if it would fill immediately, so using it guarantees the 0.02% maker rate. The logic behind setting TP/SL is covered in how to set stop-loss and take-profit.

The most common beginner mistakes

  1. Thinking fees are charged on margin: fees are charged on notional value. With 1,000 USDT at 20x, a taker round trip costs 20,000 × 0.06% × 2 = 24 USDT, which is 2.4% of your margin gone before the price even moves.
  2. Trading without changing the defaults: LBank defaults to cross margin, and BTCUSDT defaults to 20x. If you move all your money into the futures account and trade straight away, liquidation can wipe out all of it. If you decide to switch to isolated after opening, you first have to close the position or cancel the orders.
  3. Turning on hedge mode without spare balance: hedge mode takes up double the margin, and switching back to one-way forces your positions to merge, irreversibly.
  4. Ignoring the funding settlement frequency: more than half (477) of the USDT-M perpetual contracts settle every 4 hours, so the same rate is paid 6 times a day.
  5. Treating the estimated liquidation price as exact: LBank states that the estimated liquidation price is “for reference only and not the basis for liquidation”. What actually counts is the maintenance margin ratio, calculated with the mark price.

What are the risks of LBank futures?

Futures are not a principal-protected product. Every risk below is stated on LBank’s official pages:

  • You may lose your entire principal: the LBank futures trading guide says futures trading “involves high risk and may result in the total loss of principal”. In cross mode, the maximum loss is all the funds in your futures account.
  • No way to save yourself during liquidation: once liquidation is triggered, you can’t close the position manually or transfer assets out.
  • Auto-deleveraging: when the risk protection fund can’t absorb a liquidated position, the system reduces counterparties’ positions according to a preset algorithm, and profitable positions may be reduced too.
  • Fills may be worse than expected: the LBank futures order types guide states that market orders don’t guarantee a fill price; in sharp moves they may deviate a lot from the last price, fill only partly, or “fail to execute”.
  • The service may be suspended: the “LBank Futures Trading Service Agreement” states that LBank “has the right to suspend or terminate the futures service at any time”, and network latency or system failures may also delay, suspend or distort the futures service.
  • Rules change, and the help pages disagree: the leverage cap is given as both 125x and 200x, and the maintenance margin ratio has two opposite definitions. LBank’s Chinese help pages all note that “in case of any inconsistency with the English version, the English version prevails”.
  • Regional restrictions: the user service agreement lists 34 countries or regions where individuals cannot register or invest, and the list may be revised by announcement.

Weigh the risk of the exchange itself too. LBank’s background, reserves and security record are covered in the LBank review; for comparisons across exchanges, see exchange proof-of-reserves comparison and exchange security record.

FAQ

Do I need to pass a quiz or KYC to open LBank futures?

No quiz. LBank’s official account-opening tutorial only asks you to accept the “LBank Futures Service Agreement”. On KYC, LBank says that “users in some regions need to complete KYC verification to unlock full functionality” without stating which regions; if your account screen asks for more, go by the screen.

What is the minimum amount for LBank futures?

LBank requires every futures order to have a notional value of at least 5 USDT (LBank futures trading notice and risk warning). In the official API on 2026-10-19, 823 of the 827 contracts had a minimum order value of 5 USDT. BTCUSDT’s minimum quantity is 0.0001 BTC, about 8.3 USDT at the index price of roughly 82,967 USDT at the time. This is a floor on position value; at 10x, the margin is about 1 USDT.

What are LBank’s futures fees?

LBank’s standard futures fees are 0.02% maker and 0.06% taker, charged on notional value, once when you open and once when you close. VIP rates are visible only after you log in; the only tier LBank states publicly is Supreme VIP (VIP7) at 0.00%/0.02%. The full fee breakdown is in LBank fees.

What is LBank’s maximum leverage?

Crypto contracts go up to 200x, and in the official API on 2026-10-19 only BTCUSDT and ETHUSDT reached it; the gold-related GOLDUSDT and XAUTUSDT go up to 500x. The official trading guide says “up to 125x”; 504 of the 827 contracts are capped at 50x.

Is cross or isolated margin better on LBank?

Neither is better in every case. Isolated margin limits your loss to that position’s margin, but the liquidation price is closer. Cross margin puts the liquidation price further away, but liquidation can cost all the funds in your futures account and drag other cross positions down with it. LBank defaults to cross, so if you want isolated, switch before opening the position.

How often does LBank charge funding?

It depends on the contract; most settle every 4 hours or every 8 hours. In LBank’s official data on 2026-10-19, 477 of the 827 USDT-M perpetual contracts settled every 4 hours, 348 every 8 hours and 2 every hour, with major coins such as BTC and ETH on 8 hours. You can check each contract’s interval by clicking “Funding Rate/Funding Time” on the trading page. If you hold no position at the moment of settlement, you don’t pay.

Can I get my money back after an LBank liquidation?

Usually not. LBank says that “liquidation may result in the loss of part or all of your margin”, and in isolated mode the loss is limited to that position’s margin. Only when the wick conditions of the “100 million USD futures risk protection fund” are met (a deviation of more than 2% from the fair price within 1 minute followed by a quick snap-back) does the official announcement say LBank compensates 120% of the loss.

What should I watch for when trading with futures bonuses or position vouchers?

These are trial funds: you can’t withdraw them directly, only the profit. The LBank futures liquidation-protection bonus guide states that fees and losses are deducted from your own funds first, that the system reclaims the bonus when you transfer funds out of the futures account, and that fees on trades made with the bonus get no rebate. LBank’s “How to trade futures efficiently and precisely?” states that futures position vouchers can only open isolated positions at a fixed leverage, usually expire in 24 hours, and “don’t count toward trading volume or rebates”.

The full calculation of trading and funding fees is in how futures fees are calculated, you can estimate your own position with the perpetual futures cost calculator, and the difference between placing and taking orders is in maker vs taker fees. LBank’s fees, identity verification and overall review are in LBank fees, the LBank identity verification guide and the LBank review, and referral codes for other exchanges are collected in crypto exchange referral codes.