Polymarket Just Entered a $90 Trillion Market — Where a 5% Move Can Wipe You Out

Polymarket just handed its army of small-bet traders access to leveraged instruments that can turn a routine market fluctuation into a total wipeout, and the platform's own user data reveals exactly why that combination is so dangerous.

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Financial markets are increasingly turning price movements themselves into tradable products. Perpetual futures, or “perps,” have become one of the biggest examples, with global trading volume exceeding $90 trillion in 2025, according to estimates cited by Kalshi and reported by Reuters. 

Unlike traditional futures, perps never expire, allowing traders to maintain long or short positions indefinitely. Now Polymarket is stepping into that market, giving its retail-heavy user base access to leveraged exposure across crypto, stocks, indexes, and commodities. The opportunity is enormous. So is the risk.

Polymarket Goes From Predictions To Leverage

Polymarket launched its perpetual futures product on Sept. 3, initially offering 10 markets before expanding to 67 within hours, according to Decrypt. The contracts cover assets ranging from Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) and Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) to the S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, gold, silver, oil, and individual stocks.