What happens to open futures positions, stop-loss orders, funding rate settlements and liquidation events during exchange maintenance windows — with real examples from 2025-2026 incidents.
The Problem: Markets Don't Pause
Crypto markets run 24/7/365. Exchanges don't. Every major platform schedules maintenance windows — sometimes planned, sometimes emergency. When an exchange goes offline, trading stops. But the broader market keeps moving.
For spot holders, this is mostly an annoyance. You can't sell or withdraw during downtime, but your assets don't change value on the exchange itself. The real risk falls on futures and perpetual traders.
If you hold a leveraged position when maintenance starts, you're locked in. You can't adjust your stop-loss. You can't add margin. You can't close the position. And when trading resumes, the price might be nowhere near where it was when you went offline.
This article breaks down exactly what happens during maintenance and what you can do about it.
What Gets Frozen During Maintenance
Not all exchange functions stop during maintenance. Here's what typically goes offline:
| Function | Usually Frozen? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Trading (spot + futures) | Yes | All order placement and cancellation blocked |
| Deposits | Varies | Some exchanges accept deposits but don't credit until after maintenance |
| Withdrawals | Usually yes | Most exchanges pause withdrawals during maintenance |
| Stop-loss / take-profit | Yes | Cannot trigger during downtime |
| Liquidation engine | Varies | Some exchanges pause liquidations; others process them post-maintenance |
| Funding rate settlement | Varies | May be delayed or accrue during downtime |
| API access | Usually yes | Bot traders fully offline |
The key takeaway: your risk management tools stop working. Your stop-loss, your take-profit, your trailing stops — none of them can execute while the exchange is offline.
Gap Risk: The Silent Position Killer
Gap risk is the biggest danger during maintenance. Here's how it works:
- You open a 10x long BTC position at $84,000 with a stop-loss at $83,500.
- Exchange announces maintenance at 06:00 UTC. Last traded price on the exchange: $84,100.
- During the 2-hour maintenance window, BTC drops to $81,000 on other exchanges.
- Maintenance ends. Your exchange reopens. The first available price is $81,050.
- Your stop-loss would have triggered at $83,500. Instead, your position is now down 3.5% — with 10x leverage, that's a 35% loss on margin.
Your stop-loss failed. The gap between $83,500 (your intended exit) and $81,050 (the actual reopening price) wiped out far more capital than you planned.
Maintenance gaps hit leveraged positions hardest. A 3% price gap with 10x leverage becomes a 30% loss. A 5% gap can trigger immediate liquidation.
This is fundamentally different from regular market volatility. During normal trading, your stop-loss would have executed at $83,500 (or close to it, depending on slippage). During maintenance, there's no execution at all until the exchange reopens — and by then, the damage is done.
Orphaned Orders and Missed Settlements
Beyond gap risk, maintenance creates several other problems:
Orphaned orders: If you placed a limit order before maintenance started, it sits on the book unfilled. When trading resumes, the order is still there — but the market has moved. Your limit buy at $82,000 might now be well above the current price. You need to cancel and re-place it, but you might not be watching when maintenance ends.
Missed funding settlements: Perpetual futures settle funding rates every 8 hours (typically at 00:00, 08:00, 16:00 UTC). If maintenance overlaps with a settlement time, different exchanges handle it differently:
- Some exchanges delay the settlement until after trading resumes.
- Some calculate funding based on the last available price before maintenance.
- Some accrue funding during downtime and settle it in a batch when trading resumes.
The inconsistency means you can't predict your funding cost during maintenance windows. If you're running a funding rate arbitrage strategy, maintenance can disrupt your entire calculation.
Delayed liquidations: If your position approaches liquidation during maintenance, the liquidation engine may not trigger. When trading resumes, your position might already be deeply underwater — and some exchanges will liquidate immediately at the first available price, while others give you a brief window to add margin.
The specific behavior depends on the exchange's maintenance policy. Read it before you trade.
Real Incidents: 2025-2026
Maintenance-related losses aren't theoretical. Here are recent examples:
April 2025 — AWS Tokyo outage: An infrastructure failure at AWS's Tokyo region hit multiple exchanges simultaneously, including Binance, KuCoin, and MEXC. Users experienced delayed trades and temporarily suspended withdrawals. Binance paused withdrawals for approximately one hour. Traders with open futures positions couldn't adjust their risk during the outage.
September 2025 — Bitget $351.6M breach: While not a maintenance event, Bitget's response followed the same pattern. The exchange suspended all withdrawals after detecting a backend breach. Traders couldn't access their funds, adjust positions, or hedge exposure on other platforms. Spot-futures basis spreads on Bitget blew out 300% within 60 minutes as liquidity providers pulled quotes.
February 2024 — Coinbase overload: During a period of extreme market volatility, Coinbase users saw zero balances displayed and couldn't execute trades. The exchange stated that assets were safe, but users were locked out of their accounts during one of the most volatile trading sessions in months.
The pattern is clear: exchanges are most likely to experience issues during the exact market conditions when you most need access to your positions.
How to Protect Yourself
You can't prevent exchange maintenance. But you can reduce the damage.
1. Reduce leverage before known maintenance. Exchanges usually announce scheduled maintenance 24-48 hours in advance. If you hold a leveraged position, consider reducing size or closing it entirely before the window. A 3% gap at 3x leverage costs 9% of your margin. At 10x, it costs 30%.
2. Don't hold your entire portfolio on one exchange. If you trade on Exchange A and keep your reserves on Exchange B, you can still hedge or add margin elsewhere when Exchange A goes offline. Single-exchange concentration is the highest-risk setup.
3. Check the maintenance schedule before opening positions. Most exchanges publish their maintenance calendar. If a 2-hour window is scheduled for 06:00 UTC and you're holding a position through that time, you're accepting gap risk. Plan accordingly.
4. Use wider stop-losses on volatile days. If maintenance is scheduled during a period of high volatility, set your stop-loss further from your entry. You'll take a larger loss if it triggers, but you're less likely to get stopped out by noise before the move plays out. Then during maintenance, the gap has more room before hitting your stop.
5. Monitor exchange status pages. Bookmark your exchange's status page. Emergency maintenance can happen without advance notice. The sooner you know, the more time you have to adjust positions on other exchanges.
6. Consider self-custody for long-term holdings. If you're holding spot assets for weeks or months, keeping them in a hardware wallet eliminates exchange risk entirely. Only keep trading capital on exchanges.
Looking for an exchange with transparent maintenance policies? OKX publishes its maintenance schedule in advance and provides clear documentation on how positions are handled during downtime.
Open OKX Account → Affiliate disclosure: We may earn a commission if you sign up through this link. This does not affect our analysis. See our methodology.FAQ
Can I lose money during exchange maintenance?
Yes. If the market moves sharply during maintenance, your position reopens at a different price than when it closed. Leveraged positions can face gap losses that exceed your initial margin. You cannot add margin, adjust stop-losses or close positions during downtime.
What happens to my stop-loss during maintenance?
Your stop-loss cannot trigger during exchange downtime. If the market moves past your stop price while the exchange is offline, your order executes at the first available price after maintenance ends — which may be far worse than your stop price.
Do funding rates still apply during maintenance?
It depends on the exchange. Some exchanges continue accruing funding during maintenance windows. Others delay the settlement until after trading resumes. Check your exchange's specific policy before assuming funding pauses.
How long does exchange maintenance usually last?
Scheduled maintenance typically lasts 1-4 hours. Emergency maintenance can be shorter or much longer — some incidents have kept exchanges offline for 12+ hours. Always plan for the worst case when holding leveraged positions through a maintenance window.