BitMEX Debuts FX Perpetual Swap Contracts For All Investors
- BitMEX, a cryptocurrency trading platform, has confirmed the debut of FX swap contracts for retail and institutional investors as well.
- With this launch, the crypto exchange is now moving into the world of traditional finance amidst fears of recession and a bearish market.
BitMEX, one of the longest-running crypto derivatives exchanges, has confirmed its expansion into the traditional financial world with the launch of FX swap contracts for retail and institutional investors. These contracts will be tied to foreign currencies as well.
According to the official blog from the exchanges, investors will now be capable of investing in swap contracts. This decision has been taken due to increased demand from traditional and institutional investors that are customers of the platform.
Interestingly, the users of the platform will not be capable of trading more than 20 contracts tied to foreign currencies, which making it quite promising for the fans of traditional finance world.
“BitMEX FX perps are a transparent exchange-traded contract which allows FX traders to go long and short as a taker or maker for which we offer a 1 basis point fee rebate, which is unique in the industry,”
said Daniel Egloff, Head of Quants at BitMEX, in a statement.
Egloff further added that “for institutional users, FX perps provide an entirely new way to create synthetic crypto pairs to arbitrage – for example, Bitcoin quoted in non-USD currencies.”
Furthermore, this decision comes at a time when the founders of the BitMEX exchange recently faced charges from the DoJ for deliberately breaking AML/KYC laws in the US. The thee co-founders, Arthur Hayes, Samuel Reed, and Ben Delo had to pay millions to authorities for breaching the laws.
According to a report from Bloomberg, Hayes avoided jail time but was put on two years of probation and was ordered to spend the first six months of his sentence in home confinement.
“This is a very serious offense. There were real consequences. When individuals like Mr. Hayes operate platforms without anti-money-laundering programs or know-your-customer programs, they become a magnet for people to launder money,”
Assistant US Attorney Samuel Raymond told US District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan before Koeltl pronounced the sentence.
Therefore, with the FX contracts trading feature added to the BitMEX platform, the executives aim to provide “a broader range of crypto-margined contracts, including products that will allow traders access a range of currencies and commodities.”
According to the data from TheBlock, BitMEX derivatives platform overturned $17 billion in bitcoin futures volume in July, making it one of the biggest derivatives platform.