Updated Rules checked 2026-10-21
Borrowing 1,000 USDT on spot margin for one day costs roughly 0.09 to 0.16 USDT in interest, based on the VIP 0 rates read from official public APIs on 2026-10-21: about 0.092 at Bitget, 0.096 at OKX, 0.107 at Bybit, 0.141 at Binance and 0.164 at Gate. Borrowing BTC is much cheaper. Most exchanges’ daily BTC rates fall between 0.0007% and 0.0017%, roughly a tenth of the USDT rate.
Of the 13 exchanges, Binance, OKX, Bybit, Bitget, Gate, KuCoin and HTX offer official spot margin trading (Margin). KuCoin’s and HTX’s borrow rates are only visible after you log in or with an API key; they are not published officially. I found no official spot margin documentation for MEXC, BingX, XT, WEEX, Pionex or Ourbit. Of these, BingX offers crypto loans against collateral, and Pionex has a Margin Grid that runs through its futures market.
Below I’ve compiled the borrow rates, cross and isolated margin leverage, liquidation conditions and interest calculation methods, and worked out whether borrowing 1,000 USDT for seven days or holding a perpetual futures position and paying funding is cheaper. Leverage magnifies both gains and losses. If the price moves against you, your position may be forcibly liquidated and you may lose all the margin you put in.
Key points
VIP 0 rates read from official APIs on 2026-10-21. Daily rates for borrowing USDT: Bitget 0.009216%, OKX 0.0096%, Bybit 0.010747%, Binance 0.014133%, Gate about 0.016426%.
Daily rates for borrowing BTC: Bitget 0.000672%, Binance 0.001174%, Bybit 0.001174%, OKX 0.001392%, Gate about 0.001699%.
Since 2026-04-30, Binance calculates the first interest charge on the actual seconds from the time you borrow to the next full hour. Bitget’s and Gate’s official documentation says that less than 1 hour is charged as 1 hour.
Using Binance’s rates and fees, a 7-day long with 1,000 USDT borrowed costs about 2.99 USDT, while a perpetual futures long at a funding rate of 0.01% per 8 hours costs about 3.10 USDT. Spot margin only becomes cheaper once you hold for more than about 6.3 days.
Shorting works the other way: when the funding rate is positive, a perpetual short receives funding, while borrowing BTC to sell means paying interest.
The information below was verified against official pages on 2026-10-21 (check date) and is shared for your reference.
What is spot margin borrowing, and how does it differ from futures?
Spot margin trading means borrowing USDT or another coin from the exchange and trading it on the spot market. Borrowing USDT to buy BTC is a long; borrowing BTC and selling it for USDT is a short. You trade real spot assets, but you pay hourly interest on the borrowed portion and have to repay it at the end. Perpetual futures involve no borrowing: the cost is trading fees plus funding. For the basic differences, see spot vs futures.
Borrow rates float. Binance’s FAQ on dynamic margin interest rates (updated 2026-05-05) states that the borrow rate “changes once every hour based on current market conditions” and is charged hourly as simple interest. Gate’s explanation of dynamic rates states that the borrow rate is the Simple Earn lending rate plus a service fee. So the rates below reflect the moment of checking only; look again before you borrow.
How much does it cost to borrow USDT or BTC for a day? Borrow rates compared
The table shows VIP 0 rates read from official public APIs around 19:30 (Taiwan time) on 2026-10-21. The exchanges publish different units (Binance, OKX and Bitget give daily rates; Bybit and Gate give hourly rates), so I converted them all to daily rates. The annualized figure is the daily rate × 365 as simple interest, with no compounding.
| Exchange | USDT daily rate | USDT annualized (simple) | Borrow 1,000 USDT for 1 day | Borrow 1,000 USDT for 7 days | BTC daily rate | Official source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitget | 0.009216% | 3.36% | 0.092 USDT | 0.65 USDT | 0.000672% | Bitget loans API |
| OKX | 0.0096% | 3.50% | 0.096 USDT | 0.67 USDT | 0.001392% | OKX interest rate and loan quota API |
| Bybit | 0.010747% (0.00044781% per hour) | 3.92% | 0.107 USDT | 0.75 USDT | 0.001174% (0.00004891% per hour) | Bybit margin data API |
| Binance | 0.014133% | 5.16% | 0.141 USDT | 0.99 USDT | 0.001174% | Binance margin VIP rate data |
| Gate | About 0.016426% | About 6.00% | 0.164 USDT | 1.15 USDT | About 0.001699% | Gate loan rate API |
| KuCoin | Not published officially (the borrow rate API requires an API key) | KuCoin API docs | ||||
| HTX | Not published officially (the borrow rate and quota API requires a signature) | HTX API docs | ||||
Source: each exchange’s official public API listed in the table, read on 2026-10-21; VIP 0, floating rates, calculated on a 1,000 USDT loan, trading fees excluded.
For a few exchanges, check which kind of rate the number is first:
- OKX: the OKX API docs describe this field as the “Daily borrowing rate”, meaning the basic daily borrow rate.
- Gate: the API returns the hourly Simple Earn lending rate (USDT 0.00058%, BTC 0.00006%). According to Gate’s explanation of dynamic rates (2023-04-03), the VIP 0 borrow rate adds an 18% service fee on top, and the same API returns a VIP 0 markup multiplier of 1.18, so the table shows the converted value of 0.00058% × 1.18 × 24.
- Bitget: this is the Unified Account loans API, which can be read without logging in. It also returns annual rates of 3.36384% (USDT) and 0.24528% (BTC). The rate API for the classic margin account requires an API key, so those rates are not published officially.
- Binance: Cross Margin and Isolated Margin BTC/USDT have the same VIP 0 rates (USDT 0.014133%, BTC 0.001174%). At VIP 1, the USDT rate drops to 0.013992%.
At every exchange, borrowing BTC costs far less than borrowing USDT, about a tenth at the time of checking. Borrow rates are also linked to lending rates. Gate’s formula takes the Simple Earn lending rate directly and adds a service fee, so at Gate, when the USDT Simple Earn lending rate rises, the cost of borrowing USDT rises with it (each exchange’s flexible USDT earn rates are compiled separately).
Spot margin rules at 13 exchanges compared
| Exchange | Spot margin | Max cross | Max isolated (BTC/USDT) | Liquidation condition | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Binance | Yes | 3x or 5x | 10x | Cross Margin Classic margin level ≤ 1.1 | Cross Margin guide, margin level explanation, isolated margin data |
| OKX | Yes | Up to 10x (both cross and isolated) | Margin ratio ≤ 100% | Introduction to margin trading | |
| Bybit | Yes (Unified Trading Account) | Up to 10x | Isolated margin not supported | Maintenance margin rate 100% | Spot margin FAQ |
| Bitget | Yes | 5x | 10x | Risk ratio ≥ 1 | Margin trading pairs API, margin terms |
| Gate | Yes | 3x in the Unified Account example | 10x | Maintenance margin ratio ≤ 100% | Isolated margin pair API, Unified Account risk control |
| KuCoin | Yes | 5x | 10x | Debt ratio 0.95 | Cross margin config API, isolated margin pairs API |
| HTX | Yes | 5x | 10x | No official explanation found | Trading pair settings API |
| MEXC | No current official spot margin documentation found; all 1,871 spot pairs in the official API have “isMarginTradingAllowed” set to false | Exchange info API | |||
| BingX | No spot margin found; offers crypto loans against collateral (BingX Loan) instead | BingX Loan explanation | |||
| Pionex | No standalone spot margin found; Margin Grid goes up to 5x and runs through the futures market | Margin Grid explanation | |||
| XT | No official spot margin documentation found | — | |||
| WEEX | No spot margin documentation found in the official help center | — | |||
| Ourbit | No official spot margin documentation found | — | |||
Source: each exchange’s official documentation and public APIs listed in the table, checked on 2026-10-21. HTX’s leverage comes from the “lr” (margin pair leverage, 10) and “smlr” (cross margin leverage, 5) fields of the trading pair settings API. KuCoin’s cross margin config also lists a warning debt ratio of 0.92.
Exchanges express their liquidation thresholds differently, so the numbers can’t be compared directly. Binance and Gate use “assets ÷ liabilities”, where a lower number is more dangerous; Bitget and KuCoin use “liabilities ÷ assets”, where a higher number is more dangerous. For the difference between cross and isolated margin, see cross vs isolated margin.
How is margin interest calculated? Is less than an hour charged?
Every exchange charges interest by the hour. The difference is how the first hour is counted:
- Binance: since 2026-04-30 16:00 (Taiwan time), the first interest charge = principal × hourly rate × (actual seconds to the next full hour ÷ 3,600). After that, interest is charged once every full hour and added to total liabilities. Before this change, a full hour of interest was charged the moment you borrowed.
- Bybit: Bybit’s page on borrowing, interest and repayment (updated 2026-10-13) states that when you borrow, you are first charged interest up to the next “05 minutes past the hour”, calculated as loan amount × hourly rate × (actual minutes ÷ 60), with less than 1 minute counted as 1 minute. After that, interest is charged at 05 minutes past every hour (UTC).
- OKX: the introduction to margin trading (updated 2026-09-04) states that interest is accrued and recorded on the hour and deducted hourly. OKX’s own example: borrowing at 22:55 and repaying at 22:57 incurs no interest.
- Bitget: interest = loan amount × daily rate ÷ 24 × hours borrowed, with less than 1 hour counted as 1 hour (margin terms explanation, 2025-11-20).
- Gate: Gate’s margin trading FAQ (2023-12-22) states that interest is deducted on the loan amount at the start of each hour, and less than 1 hour is counted as 1 hour.
Example: borrow 1,000 USDT at 10:20, repay at 11:50
The same 1 hour 30 minutes of borrowing, calculated with the 2026-10-21 rates above and each exchange’s interest rules:
| Exchange | How it’s calculated | Interest |
|---|---|---|
| Bitget | 1.5 hours rounded up to 2 hours: 1,000 × 0.009216% ÷ 24 × 2 | About 0.0077 USDT |
| Bybit | 45 minutes charged for 10:20–11:05, then 1 more hour at 11:05: 1,000 × 0.00044781% × (0.75 + 1) | About 0.0078 USDT |
| Binance | 40 minutes charged for 10:20–11:00, then 1 more hour at 11:00: 1,000 × 0.00058888% × (0.667 + 1) | About 0.0098 USDT |
| Gate | Charged as 2 hours: 1,000 × 0.0006844% × 2 | About 0.0137 USDT |
Source: calculated from each exchange’s official interest rules and the 2026-10-21 API rates, trading fees excluded. OKX records interest on the hour according to its documentation, and I couldn’t find a step-by-step formula to compare, so it isn’t included.
For a few hours of borrowing, the interest difference between exchanges is less than 0.01 USDT. Only over a week or a month does a 0.005% gap in the daily rate start to add up, and the rates change every hour anyway. Trading fees are a separate cost. At Binance, for example, the Cross Margin guide lists a 0.1% fee per trade at VIP 0, charged on both the buy and the sell, so 1,000 USDT in and out costs 2 USDT, more than a week of interest.
Borrowing 1,000 USDT for seven days vs paying perpetual funding: which is cheaper?
Say you want to buy an extra 1,000 USDT of BTC and hold it for 7 days. With spot margin, you borrow 1,000 USDT and buy. With perpetual futures, you open a 1,000 USDT long, with the funding rate assumed to stay at 0.01% per 8 hours (3 times a day). The figures use Binance’s VIP 0 fees: 0.1% for spot (including margin) and 0.05% for futures Taker (Binance fees), with a daily borrow rate of 0.014133%.
| 1,000 USDT long, 7 days | Spot margin (borrow USDT) | Perpetual futures long |
|---|---|---|
| Holding cost | Interest 1,000 × 0.014133% × 7 ≈ 0.99 USDT | Funding 1,000 × 0.01% × 21 times = 2.10 USDT |
| Trading fees (open + close) | 0.1% × 2 = 2.00 USDT | Taker 0.05% × 2 = 1.00 USDT |
| Total | About 2.99 USDT | About 3.10 USDT |
| Each extra day held | +about 0.14 USDT | +0.30 USDT |
Source: Binance margin VIP rate data (read on 2026-10-21) and Binance’s Cross Margin guide. The 0.01% per 8 hours funding rate is an assumption, not a live quote. Price changes and slippage are not included.
The two total costs break even at about 6.3 days: spot margin costs 1 USDT more in fees but about 0.16 USDT less per day to hold, and 1 ÷ (0.30 − 0.14133) ≈ 6.3. For short holding periods, futures are cheaper; the longer you hold, the better spot margin, with its lower borrow rate, works out. When the funding rate is higher than 0.01%, the break-even point comes even sooner.
Another way to look at it: the daily USDT borrow rate divided by 3 is the “break-even funding rate per 8 hours”. When the funding rate is above that number, borrowing USDT has the lower holding cost; when it’s below, futures are cheaper. At the 2026-10-21 rates, that’s about 0.0031% for Bitget, 0.0032% for OKX, 0.0036% for Bybit, 0.0047% for Binance and 0.0055% for Gate, all below the common 0.01%. For how funding rates are calculated, see what is the funding rate, or plug your own numbers into the perpetual futures cost calculator.
Shorting gives the opposite result
Shorting 1,000 USDT of BTC and holding for 7 days: if you borrow BTC at Binance and sell it, the interest is about 1,000 × 0.001174% × 7 ≈ 0.08 USDT. Add 2 USDT in fees and the total is about 2.08 USDT. A perpetual short at a funding rate of +0.01% receives funding instead: 2.10 USDT over 7 days, which after 1 USDT in fees leaves a net gain of about 1.10 USDT. When the funding rate turns negative, the short has to pay, and that is when the low BTC borrow rate becomes the better deal.
When does spot margin get liquidated?
Take Binance Cross Margin Classic at 3x as an example. In Binance’s explanation of margin level (updated 2026-10-02), the formula is margin level = collateral value ÷ (total liabilities + unpaid interest). At a margin level ≤ 2 you can’t transfer assets out; at ≤ 1.5 you can’t borrow more; between 1.1 and 1.3 you receive a margin call; and at ≤ 1.1 your position is forcibly liquidated. At 5x, the margin call range is 1.1 to 1.16, and the liquidation threshold is also 1.1.
Example (interest and collateral ratio haircuts ignored; since 2026-06-15 Binance includes collateral ratio haircuts in the margin level, so in practice liquidation triggers earlier): you have 1,000 USDT of your own, borrow another 1,000 USDT, and buy 2,000 USDT of BTC.
- At opening: margin level = 2,000 ÷ 1,000 = 2.
- BTC falls 25%: collateral drops to 1,500, margin level 1.5, no more borrowing.
- BTC falls 35%: collateral drops to 1,300, margin level 1.3, margin calls begin.
- BTC falls 45%: collateral drops to 1,100, margin level 1.1, forced liquidation. Only about 100 USDT is left in the account, and losses during the liquidation process leave even less.
- Borrowing up to the 2,000 USDT limit (3x exposure): with 3,000 in collateral and 2,000 in liabilities, a drop of about 26.7% reaches 1.1.
Thresholds at other exchanges: Bybit liquidates when the Unified Trading Account’s maintenance margin rate reaches 100%. OKX sends a warning when the margin ratio falls to 300% and liquidates partially or fully at ≤ 100%. Gate’s Unified Account repays automatically when the maintenance margin ratio is ≤ 110% and liquidates at ≤ 100%. Bitget warns at a risk ratio ≥ 0.8 and liquidates at ≥ 1. The longer you borrow, the more interest accrues and the higher your liabilities get, so your margin level slowly worsens even if the price doesn’t move. To see how the liquidation price is worked out, try the liquidation price calculator.
How can you borrow at exchanges without spot margin?
I found no official spot margin documentation for MEXC, BingX, XT, WEEX, Pionex or Ourbit. Two of them offer other ways to borrow, with rules that differ from spot margin:
- BingX Loan (crypto loans against collateral): you pledge coins to borrow USDT, BTC and others. The official explanation (2024-05-28) states that interest is charged hourly, with less than 1 hour counted as 1 hour. From VIP 1 there is a 5% to 20% interest discount, and the collateral is liquidated when the liquidation LTV is reached. The official page does not list base rates.
- Pionex Margin Grid: supports 1x to 5x. The official explanation states it is “built through the futures market”, so what you pay is funding, not borrow interest. The “daily rate” shown on the bot page equals the funding rate × 3, settled every 8 hours. No trading fees are charged while it runs; when you close the position or withdraw profits, 20% of total profit is charged as an order management fee. The official page also states that when the liquidation price is triggered, you “will lose your principal and margin”.
MEXC used to offer margin trading, and in 2022 and 2023 it announced the delisting of some margin trading pairs in stages. In the exchange info API read on 2026-10-21, no spot pair is open for API margin trading. To scale up a position at these exchanges, what they officially offer is futures; for how the costs work, see how futures fees are calculated.
What are the risks of spot margin borrowing?
- Losing all your margin: Binance’s Cross Margin guide states that in extreme market conditions “you may lose all the margin in your Cross Margin account”; with Isolated Margin, you “may lose all the margin allocated to a given trading pair”.
- Rates change: rates float every hour. When borrowing demand in the market rises, the cost of borrowing USDT goes up. The examples above only reflect the moment of 2026-10-21.
- Interest grows your liabilities: Binance and Bybit both state that interest is added to your liabilities, so even if the price doesn’t move, your margin level worsens over time.
- No time to react before liquidation: Binance lists “rapid price movements may trigger liquidation before you can take action” as one of the risks. A margin call doesn’t guarantee you’ll have time to add funds.
- Limited borrowing capacity: Binance’s Cross Margin guide states that the maximum borrowable amount depends on your margin level and VIP level. Once your margin level drops below the threshold, you can’t borrow more, so adding to a position during a drop may not be possible.
Binance also offers a “borrowing cool-off period”, which it describes as a way to avoid impulsively adding to positions when the market is volatile. Once turned on, you can’t borrow in either Cross Margin or Isolated Margin, and contacting customer support during the cool-off period won’t lift it early.
FAQ
How is margin trading interest calculated?
Spot margin interest is the loan amount × hourly rate × hours borrowed, and every exchange charges by the hour. Binance and Bybit calculate the first period in proportion to the actual time; Bitget and Gate count less than 1 hour as 1 hour. Rates float every hour, so go by the page at the time you borrow.
What is Binance’s margin interest rate for borrowing USDT?
According to Binance’s official data read on 2026-10-21, the VIP 0 daily rate for borrowing USDT is 0.014133%. Borrowing 1,000 USDT for a day costs about 0.14 USDT, which is about 5.16% a year as simple interest. The daily rate for borrowing BTC is 0.001174%, the same for Cross Margin and Isolated Margin BTC/USDT.
Which exchange has the lowest rate for borrowing USDT?
Among the official public rates read on 2026-10-21, Bitget (0.009216% per day) and OKX (0.0096% per day) are the lowest, followed by Bybit (0.010747%), Binance (0.014133%) and Gate (about 0.016426%). KuCoin’s and HTX’s rates are only visible after logging in and are not published officially. Rates float every hour, so the ranking can change at any time.
If I repay within an hour, do I still pay a full hour of interest?
It depends on the exchange. Bitget’s, Gate’s and BingX Loan’s official documentation counts less than 1 hour as 1 hour. Binance (since 2026-04-30) and Bybit (per its current documentation) both charge the first period in proportion to the actual time. OKX records interest on the hour, and its official example says borrowing at 22:55 and repaying at 22:57 incurs no interest.
Is spot margin or perpetual futures cheaper?
For longs, it depends on how many days you hold and on the funding rate. In a calculation with Binance VIP 0 and a funding rate of 0.01% per 8 hours, spot margin is cheaper if you hold for more than about 6.3 days, and futures are cheaper for anything shorter, because the 0.1% spot margin fee is higher than the 0.05% futures Taker fee. For shorts, when the funding rate is positive, a perpetual short receives funding, so futures are usually cheaper.
What is the maximum leverage for spot margin?
According to official data as of 2026-10-21, OKX and Bybit go up to 10x; Binance offers 3x or 5x on Cross Margin and 10x on Isolated Margin BTC/USDT; Bitget, KuCoin and HTX offer 5x cross and 10x isolated on BTC/USDT; and Gate offers 10x isolated on BTC/USDT. The leverage actually available varies with the trading pair and the borrowing limit.
Can spot margin positions be liquidated?
Yes. A Binance Cross Margin Classic account is forcibly liquidated at a margin level ≤ 1.1. With 1,000 USDT of your own plus 1,000 USDT borrowed to buy BTC, ignoring interest and collateral ratio haircuts, a drop of about 45% triggers liquidation; borrowing the full 3x means a drop of about 26.7% does. See the comparison table above for other exchanges’ thresholds.
Does MEXC have spot margin trading?
When I checked on 2026-10-21, I found no current official spot margin documentation for MEXC, and in the official exchange info API none of the 1,871 spot pairs is open for API margin trading. The leveraged product MEXC officially offers is futures.
For an overall comparison of spot margin and futures, see spot vs futures; for margin modes, see cross vs isolated margin; for futures costs, see what is the funding rate, how futures fees are calculated and the perpetual futures cost calculator; and to estimate a liquidation price, use the liquidation price calculator. Each exchange’s setup steps are in the Binance futures guide, OKX futures guide, Bybit futures guide, Bitget futures guide, Gate futures guide and KuCoin futures guide. Binance’s and KuCoin’s rebates include spot (including margin) trading fees; the current rates are Binance 20% and KuCoin 60%. Every exchange’s referral code is collected in the crypto exchange referral codes roundup, and for how fees compare, see lowest-fee crypto exchanges.