Who Should Use Binance Portfolio Margin? Offsets and Liquidation Boundaries

Binance

06 October 2026

Portfolio Margin is not a feature everyone can enable. It solves the problem of "fragmented funds across multiple products and assets." The trade-off is that risk is calculated on a consolidated basis, and the liquidation logic differs from a standard account. If you mainly trade futures or leveraged products with a single position type and a single collateral asset, the efficiency gains from Portfolio Margin are limited. If you simultaneously hold USDⓈ-M futures, COIN-M futures, and cross-margin leveraged positions, and you want profits, losses, and collateral to offset each other, this mode becomes meaningful.

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Eligibility and Entry

Binance offers two Portfolio Margin modes: Portfolio Margin Pro and Portfolio Margin. They are designed for different users, with different activation requirements and risk rules.

Portfolio Margin Pro is aimed at institutions and high-volume traders. According to official guidance, the eligibility requirement is reaching VIP levels 7-9 for USDⓈ-M/COIN-M futures trading volume, or having a combined balance of over 10 million USDT across cross-margin, USDⓈ-M futures, and COIN-M futures wallets. Activation requires submitting an application to Binance and signing a legal agreement.

Portfolio Margin has a much lower barrier, targeting VIP 1-9 users or regular users with total account assets greater than 50,000 USDT. After April 2024, Binance further opened Portfolio Margin access to non-VIP users with a combined cross-margin and futures wallet balance of at least 100,000 USDT. Portfolio Margin can be activated directly from the futures wallet or futures trading interface without signing legal documents.

Both modes share one key rule: assets in isolated margin wallets are not counted toward Portfolio Margin collateral or UniMMR calculations. Only assets in the cross-margin, USDⓈ-M futures, and COIN-M futures wallets are consolidated.

Which Assets Can Offset, and How

The core mechanism of a unified account is "cross-asset collateral": supported crypto assets and positions across USDⓈ-M futures, COIN-M futures, and cross-margin wallets are combined into a single collateral pool used to determine account equity, margin balance, and maintenance margin requirements.

According to the official page, Portfolio Margin supports over 350 crypto assets as collateral. The specific composition of the collateral pool and the collateral ratio for each asset can be found on Binance's trading rules page. Maximum deposit limits for each margin asset also vary by VIP level.

One detail to note: in futures joint margin mode, assets like BTC, ETH, and BNB used as margin have their valuation reduced by 5% (for example, $1,000 worth of BNB is valued at $950). Collateral discount rules for Portfolio Margin are subject to the real-time data on the official trading rules page.

A commonly overlooked point: assets with a zero collateral ratio can be withdrawn in full. This means not all assets "lock up" your withdrawal capacity as collateral. It depends on the collateral ratio set for that asset within the Portfolio Margin framework.

Liquidation Boundary: UniMMR and Three Thresholds

Liquidation in a unified account is determined by one core metric: UniMMR (Unified Maintenance Margin Ratio). The formula is roughly: UniMMR = Unified Account Equity ÷ Unified Maintenance Margin Amount.

As this metric declines, the system sends three types of signals in sequence:

UniMMR ≤ 150%: A margin call notification is sent (via email and in-app message). Users can customize this warning threshold between 1.2 and 2.
UniMMR ≤ 120%: The account automatically switches to reduce-only mode. New positions or leveraged borrowing are not allowed. Only reduce-only orders can be placed or reduceOnly=true can be set.
UniMMR ≤ 105%: Forced liquidation is triggered. The liquidation system takes over the account, and the user cannot trade during the process.

Once forced liquidation is triggered, it will not stop until execution is complete. Transferring assets into the margin, USDⓈ-M, or COIN-M wallets cannot stop or reverse the liquidation process. This is one of the most critical differences in risk handling between Portfolio Margin and standard accounts.

There is another easily overlooked liquidation trigger: adjusted equity falling below 0. Even with no open positions, loans, or orders, if one asset balance is negative and another is positive, exchange rate fluctuations can push adjusted equity negative and trigger liquidation. The system sets a 3% extra buffer for this, but the buffer is limited.

Liquidation Order and Fees

When liquidation is triggered, the system does not sell assets randomly. Binance uses a risk-based liquidation adjustment mechanism: assets with higher liquidity are liquidated first to reduce market impact and user losses.

The specific logic is: each asset is assigned a risk-based liquidation adjustment rate. The lower the adjustment rate and the higher the collateral ratio, the higher the liquidity, and the earlier it is liquidated. For example, USDC is more liquid than ETH, and ETH is more liquid than low-liquidity altcoins. During liquidation, the system sells USDC first, then ETH, and only touches low-liquidity assets last.

Liquidation incurs liquidation fees. When positions in Portfolio Margin Pro are liquidated (including futures positions and leveraged loans), a percentage-based insurance liquidation fee is charged and added to the insurance fund reserve, marked as "Insurance Clearance" in the trade history. Specific rates for futures and leveraged positions can be found on Binance's corresponding fee schedule pages.

Liquidation Differences Between Pro and Standard

The two modes have substantive differences in UniMMR calculation and post-liquidation debt handling.

Portfolio Margin Pro calculates UniMMR without including "open order losses", and there is no initial margin check at the order level. This means a large order may look fine when placed, but after execution UniMMR can plummet and directly trigger liquidation. Official guidance explicitly recommends users check margin themselves before placing orders. If debt remains after liquidation, it is converted into a pmLoan (denominated in USDT). Users must repay it to restore trading functionality. pmLoan is currently interest-free.

Standard Portfolio Margin calculates UniMMR including "open order losses" and has an initial margin check. Negative balances after liquidation are repaid during the liquidation process, and there is no pmLoan mechanism.

The impact for regular users: standard Portfolio Margin handles post-liquidation debt more "automatically," but the risk you face is still full liquidation when UniMMR falls below 105%.

Who It Suits

Portfolio Margin is better suited for users running multiple product strategies simultaneously. If you hold COIN-M positions for hedging while trading USDⓈ-M futures, or hold spot longs in cross-margin and shorts in futures, a unified account lets the profits, losses, and collateral of these positions offset each other. The capital efficiency improvement is direct. Official guidance also states that a unified account supports "opening new positions with unrealized profits" and that "profits and losses between different positions can offset each other."

If you only trade futures on a single product with a single position type, the advantages of Portfolio Margin are limited. Standard futures joint margin mode already supports using multiple assets as margin in USDⓈ-M futures, and profits and losses between USDT-margined and USDC-margined futures can offset. What Portfolio Margin adds is mainly the ability to consolidate across the three product lines of "USDⓈ-M / COIN-M / cross-margin."

Liquidation risk management is harder in a unified account, not easier. The risk of the entire portfolio is compressed into a single UniMMR number. A large loss in one product line directly drags down the liquidation threshold for the whole account. Official guidance explicitly notes that Portfolio Margin Pro has "no initial margin check," meaning a large order may look fine when placed but trigger liquidation immediately after execution. For users not accustomed to actively monitoring margin ratios, standard mode or isolated margin may be a more prudent starting point.