What Is a Margin Call in Crypto Futures?

A Margin Call is a warning that your margin balance has dropped too close to the maintenance margin requirement on an open position. It tells you to add margin or reduce your position size, or the position risks being liquidated once the shortfall keeps growing without action. Pluang issues margin call warnings in stages, escalating as your margin ratio keeps climbing toward the liquidation threshold, so the restrictions placed on your account get tighter the closer you get to that point. A margin call is not liquidation itself — it's the system's way of flagging that a position needs attention before the automatic closure stage is reached, and how you respond to it directly determines whether you keep any control over how the position resolves.

• A margin call isn't liquidation — it's the warning stage before it, meant to give you a chance to act while you still have options available to you.
• Above a 50% margin ratio you get an Initial Margin Call, which is a warning only — trading is not restricted, and Pluang sends you a notification and an email. Above 75% you get a Final Margin Call, and only orders that close or reduce your exposure are accepted. Liquidation happens at 100%.
• Margin calls escalate as your margin ratio rises: an early-stage call still lets you add margin or trade normally, while a later-stage call only accepts orders that close or reduce your exposure, with no ability to add new exposure at all.
• Adding margin, reducing position size, or closing the position outright are the standard ways to clear a margin call before it reaches liquidation, and any of the three can bring your account back to a normal trading state.
• Margin calls are triggered off your ongoing margin ratio, not a single price point, so they can be resolved and re-triggered multiple times on the same position depending on how the market continues to move.

Related questions:

Q: What should I do when I get a margin call?
Add margin to the position, reduce its size, or close it — any of these can bring your margin ratio back to a safer level. The right choice comes down to whether you still want the exposure or would rather lock in the current outcome, and how much additional capital you're willing to commit to keeping the position alive. There's no single correct answer — base it on your own read of the market and your risk tolerance.

Q: Can I still open new positions after a margin call?
It depends on the stage. After an Initial Margin Call (margin ratio above 50%), yes — it's a warning only and trading is not restricted. After a Final Margin Call (above 75%), only orders that close or reduce your exposure are accepted, so you can't open anything that adds to it. Adding margin or reducing your position brings the ratio down and widens your options again.

Q: Is a margin call the same as liquidation?
No. A margin call is a warning stage; liquidation is the final, automatic closure that follows if the margin ratio keeps rising unaddressed. The two are sequential stages of the same risk process, not the same event, and how you respond during the margin call stage determines whether liquidation happens at all. Treating the two as interchangeable can lead to underestimating how much control you still have.

Q: Does Pluang give more than one margin call warning?
Yes, warnings escalate in stages as your margin ratio increases, with the final stage accepting only orders that close or reduce your exposure. Each stage removes more of your available actions than the last, so the earlier you respond, the more flexibility you retain over how the position resolves. Waiting for the final stage before acting leaves you with the fewest options of any point in the process.

Q: Can a margin call happen more than once on the same position?
Yes. If you clear a margin call by adding margin but the market keeps moving against you, your margin ratio can climb again and trigger another warning on the same position, which is common during a sustained, one-directional price move rather than a brief spike. Each recurrence should be treated with the same urgency as the first one.