How much leverage do top traders actually use? Half are at 5x or less, and it ranges from 0.6x to 10x by exchange

You would expect traders with high returns to use high leverage.

But when we went through the 5,361 positions held by the top 30-day traders on the Satoshi Index, half of them were at 5x or less.

The catch is that the bigger the position, the higher the leverage. Weight each position by its size and the average leverage climbs to 12x.

The exchanges differed a lot, too. The median leverage of Lighter's top traders was 10x, while dYdX's was 0.6x. Both groups are "top traders", and they differ by more than 16 times.

We went through Satoshi Note's Satoshi Index data to see what leverage top traders actually use.

1. Half of positions are at 5x or less, but by dollars the average is 12x

Leverage means how many times your own money you are trading with. At 10x, you put in $1,000 and hold a $10,000 position. The figure shown as "5x" on each account row of a Satoshi Index coin page is this leverage.

As of 07:38 KST on October 28, the top 30-day traders held 5,361 positions.

Line those positions up by leverage and the middle value, the median, is 5x. By count, 62% of positions are at 5x or less.

Bring the size of each position into the picture and the result changes.

Because larger positions ran higher leverage, the dollar-weighted average leverage was 12x. The top 1-day traders had the same 5x median, but their dollar-weighted average was higher still at 15.8x.

In short, most positions run low leverage, but a handful of positions moving large sums run high leverage.

2. Lighter at 10x, dYdX at 0.6x

Split by exchange, the gap is even clearer.

Half of Lighter's top traders' positions were at 10x or more, with leverage running as high as 50x.

Hyperliquid's median was 5x, but its dollar-weighted average was 11.8x. Its positions total $3,423M, by far the largest of the four exchanges, and those large positions are the ones using high leverage.

dYdX's median was 0.6x. That means more than half of its accounts hold positions smaller than the money in the account. Many of its top traders use almost no leverage, closer to spot trading than to leveraged trading.

One caveat is that dYdX's leverage is read differently from the others. Hyperliquid and Lighter show the leverage set for each coin, while dYdX shows the account's total position size divided by its equity. The 0.6x figure is an account-level ratio, not a per-coin setting.

The order was the same on the 1-day tab: Lighter 10x, Hyperliquid 5x, dYdX and Pacifica 2.5x each.

3. The money is at 2–5x, the losses are at 6–10x

Breaking position size and unrealized P&L down by leverage band shows where the money sits and where it is being lost.

Unrealized P&L here is the gain or loss on an open position valued at today's price. It is not locked in yet.

Of $3,766M in total positions, the 2–5x band holds $1,781M, or 47%.

The 21–40x band stands out. It has only 102 positions, but they are worth $607M, a third of the 2–5x band. A small number of high-leverage positions is moving a lot of money.

Only one band is losing: 6–10x. A large part of its $56.0M loss is the HYPE shorts covered in the previous piece. Every other band shows a small gain.

The share of positions in profit was higher at lower leverage. It is 64% at 1x or less, 57% at 2–5x, 52% at 6–10x and 51% at 11–20x. Above 40x it rises again to 61%, but with only 31 positions that is hard to read much into.

The 1-day tab looked different. There the 6–10x band was the biggest winner at +$29.3M, and the 21–40x band was the weakest at −$6.6M with only 41% of positions in profit. The top 1-day traders' large BTC longs at 30x and 40x sit in that band.

4. BTC and ETH shorts run twice the leverage of longs

Splitting by coin reveals a gap between longs and shorts. A long makes money when the price rises, a short when it falls.

On the 30-day tab the median BTC short is at 20x while the median BTC long is at 4.1x. ETH is the same: shorts at 20x, longs at 10x. SOL and ZEC shorts are at 12x and 10x, while their longs are at just 3x.

In the major coins, shorts are running more than twice the leverage of longs. HYPE and NEAR are the exceptions, at around 10x on both sides.

The 1-day tab showed the mirror image. BTC was at 10x both ways, HYPE longs were at 10x against shorts at 3x, and SOL longs at 9.1x against shorts at 3.2x. There it was the longs that ran higher leverage.

Whether longs or shorts use more leverage is not fixed. It depends on which window's top traders you are looking at.

5. The opposite of the idea that small accounts use the most leverage

We also split the positions by account size.

It is easy to assume that smaller accounts trade at higher leverage. This data showed close to the opposite.

The 1,439 positions held by accounts under $100k had a median leverage of 0.6x. Accounts between $100k and $1M were at 7x, $1M to $10M at 5x, and the 490 positions held by accounts above $10M were also at 5x.

The smallest accounts had the lowest leverage.

That bracket does include many dYdX accounts, which barely use leverage. Account size and exchange are mixed together here, which is worth keeping in mind.

6. 21 positions have a liquidation price within 10% of the current price

The higher the leverage, the closer the liquidation price is to the current price. The liquidation price is the level at which the exchange closes the position by force.

Of the 3,134 positions on the 30-day tab that show a liquidation price, 21 have it within 10% of the current price, worth $38.3M in total. Widen that to 20% and it is 69 positions.

On the 1-day tab, 43 of 1,282 positions are within 10% ($177.8M) and 116 are within 20%.

The 1-day tab has fewer than half as many positions, yet twice as many are close to liquidation. As we saw above, the top 1-day traders are holding large, high-leverage longs.

Closing — leverage depended on the exchange and the size of the money

The leverage used by top traders in this snapshot could not be summed up in a single number.

By count, half of positions were at 5x or less. By dollars, the average was 12x, because a few positions moving large sums ran high leverage.

By exchange it ranged from Lighter's 10x to dYdX's 0.6x. Within a single coin, BTC and ETH shorts were at 20x while longs were at 4–10x, so direction mattered too.

Losses were concentrated in the 6–10x band, and the share of positions in profit was higher the lower the leverage.

"Top-return trader" was the common label, but the leverage behind it varied widely with the exchange, the size of the money and the direction of the trade.

FAQ

Shouldn't top-return traders be using high leverage?

By count, the median is 5x and 62% of positions are at 5x or less. By dollars, though, the average is 12x, and the 102 positions in the 21–40x band move $607M. Most positions run low leverage, while a slice of the large money runs high leverage.

Does higher leverage mean bigger losses?

On the 30-day tab, only the 6–10x band is losing, at $56.0M, and the other bands show small gains. The share of positions in profit was higher at lower leverage (64% at 1x or less, 51% at 11–20x). These are one snapshot's figures and will change at the next one.

Where can I see these numbers myself?

On the Satoshi Index (satoshinote.io/traders), each account row on a coin page shows leverage, position size and liquidation price. The exchange buttons split the data by exchange and the period buttons switch between 1 day, 7 days and 30 days. No login is needed and the data refreshes every 30 minutes (dYdX every 3 hours).

Satoshi Index

Satoshi Note's Satoshi Index shows the positions of top traders on four exchanges, Hyperliquid, Lighter, dYdX and Pacifica, in one place.

You can see what the top traders of each window hold, how much is long versus short, and the leverage and liquidation price of every position.

No login required.

https://satoshinote.io/traders

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Data as of October 28, 2026, 07:38 KST (22:38 UTC October 27). Leverage, position size and liquidation price were collected from the positions of the top accounts in each window on the four exchanges. Leverage is the per-coin setting on Hyperliquid and Lighter; on dYdX, and on Pacifica accounts without a setting, it is total position size divided by account equity. A leverage setting is closer to the maximum the account allows and may differ from the actual ratio of position to margin. Distance to liquidation is worked back from entry price and unrealized P&L, and the 2,227 positions without a liquidation price are excluded. Unrealized P&L is not locked in and will change with the time of the snapshot. This content is provided for information about market data and does not recommend any coin or position.