Whether you, as a retail client in Germany, may trade perpetual futures with two times leverage or with fifty times leverage hangs on a question of classification in European supervisory law. It runs as follows: are these contracts contracts for difference within the meaning of the existing EU measures? If they are, a leverage cap of 2:1 applies to retail clients. On February 24, 2026, the European Securities and Markets Authority, ESMA, stated in a public notice that derivatives marketed as “perpetual futures” or “perpetual contracts” are likely to fall within that scope. On September 30, 2026, the final day of the consultation period for the review of the MiCA regulation, the Hyperliquid Policy Center filed a submission with the European Commission that asks for exactly this classification to be settled differently.
For you, more rides on this than a question of terminology. The classification determines what leverage a provider may offer you at all, whether your losses are capped at the balance you have paid in, at what point a position is closed out, and which venues are allowed to take you on as a client in the EU.
What the Hyperliquid Policy Center filed with the European Commission on September 30
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