CME Bitcoin (BTC) futures and options markets are set to mature this Friday and traders are closely watching to see how spot prices will react to this event. The contracts expire every two months and according to market analysts, they negatively influence BTC’s price in spot markets. In fact, recent data from Cointelegraph and Arcane Research found that there is a 2.3% drop ahead of CME expiry. Although some investors claim manipulation could have been behind the price drops preceding CME contracts expiration, the futures average daily volume has been around $380 million. More importantly, the instrument is cash-settled, meaning …

Crypto exchange platform ErisX is bringing Ether (ETH) futures trading to the United States, becoming the second cryptocurrency derivatives product on offer in the country. The announcement came only a few days after the Chicago-based, TD Ameritrade-backed ErisX obtained a digital currency license from financial regulators in New York. Bitcoin (BTC) futures trading debuted back in 2017 with both the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange launching cash-settled BTC futures trading. CBOE has since shuttered its Bitcoin futures contracts trading service. The news comes after a year of speculation about a possible debut of ETH futures in …

Chicago-based crypto exchange ErisX has notified its members and participants that it will start offering trading on Ether futures in the United States. According to a company blog post on May 11, ErisX said individual and institutional investors will be able to access futures contracts based on Ethereum (ETH)–USD with monthly and quarterly expirations. The crypto exchange will introduce standardized futures contracts regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, on its existing infrastructure. ErisX said miners, speculators, hedgers and businesses running on ETH would benefit from the additional “investors, speculators, intermediaries, hedgers, miners/validators, and commercial users” as well …

The Binance-owned crypto derivatives exchange, FTX, has introduced oil futures following the recent record crash in U.S. oil prices — which fell as low as minus-$40 on April 20. FTX’s contracts will expire at the spot price of West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, plus $100 to protect against negative settlement prices. The exchange notes that should the spot price of oil fall below minus-$100, “FTX OIL contracts “can theoretically expire negative.” FTX launches crypto-based oil contract trading FTX comprises a top-10 ranked Bitcoin (BTC) futures exchange by both volume and open interest. The Binance-owned exchange is the largest to offer …

A study by TokenInsight indicates that the total futures trading volume in the crypto industry reached over $2.1 trillion in Q1 2020. This is an increase of 314% from the 2019 Q4 average. According to the “2020 Q1 Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange Industry Report”, except for a slight decline in Q4 2019, the trading volume of cryptocurrency futures grew in 2019. The total market turnover in Q1 2020 is roughly eight times than Q1 2019. For trading volume analysis, TokenInsight included BitMEX, OKEx, Huobi DM, Binance Futures, Deribit, Bitget, Binance JEX, FTX, Gate.io, BFX.NU, BitZ, and KuMEX, in addition to some …

Cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX announced a new Ether (ETH)-based futures contract on its trading platform. According to an April 24 announcement, the new derivative contract will feature a fixed Bitcoin (BTC) multiplier which will be unaffected by the Ether price in U.S. dollars. BitMEX explains that this feature allows traders to long or short Ether’s USD exchange rate without holding either ETH or dollars. The announcement explains: “Traders post margin in XBT [Bitcoin], and earn or lose Bitcoin as the ETH/USD rate changes.” The exchange plans to launch the ETHUSD futures contracts with a maximum leverage of 50x on May 5, …

BitMEX, one of the world’s biggest crypto derivatives exchanges, is still struggling to recover from a major market sell-off that followed the Black Thursday crash in March. According to an April 21 report by crypto analytics firm Coin Metrics, BitMEX has continued losing in both open interest and volume for Bitcoin (BTC) futures since last month’s historic market crash. At the same time, Binance’s Bitcoin futures trading arm, Binance Futures, has been increasingly gaining momentum, the report said. This data comes from Coin Metrics’ 47th “State of the Network” report, devoted to understanding the impact of the Black Thursday on …

A major United States financial regulator is holding its first science contest, asking devs for new tools to track foreign derivatives offerings that may be soliciting U.S. investors without proper registration. Project Streetlamp shines a light on offerings Per an April 21 announcement shared with Cointelegraph, the United States Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and its fintech office LabCFTC are launching Project Streetlamp, a contest to help find unregistered offerings. The contest aims: “To deploy technology, including artificial intelligence (‘AI’), to help the CFTC identify foreign entities that may be engaged in conduct that requires registration, but which have …

Singapore-based Delta Exchange has announced the launch of Bitcoin (BTC)/Tether (USDT) futures contracts, allowing users to trade BTC futures with USDT collateral, starting on April 14 at 9:00 a.m. EDT. According to the company, the industry has seen surging demand for a stable digital currency amidst fears of an economic recession. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Delta Exchange CEO Pankaj Balani said that, in the last three months, the exchange saw an increase in demand for USDT settled BTC contracts, stating that “Black Thursday” was a major catalyst for increased demand: “Post Black Thursday market has become more risk averse and we …

Top cryptocurrency exchange Binance has officially launched Bitcoin (BTC) options on its futures trading platform. Confirming hints earlier this month, the rollout was announced this morning, April 13. It is, for now, limited to the exchange’s mobile app. Binance offering U.S.-style Bitcoin options contracts Options contracts offer traders the chance to purchase either a right to buy (a call option) or sell (a put option) on a given asset at a specified “strike price.” Binance is offering the American, as opposed to the European, version of the derivative, in which traders can exercise their rights — i.e. settle the contract …

The chief executive of major cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao — often known as CZ — has revealed that the firm diverts a quarter of its profits into investment opportunities. Zhao’s comments follow Binance’s completion of several recent high-profile acquisitions — including crypto data site CoinMarketCap and Indian crypto exchange WazirX. In a recent interview with South China Morning Post, Zhao estimated that Binance reinvests roughly 25% of its annual profits into expansions and acquisitions. “We usually spend about a quarter of our profit on investment opportunities every year," Zhao said, emphasizing that Binance is currently looking to grow its …

Despite the volatility of the March 12 - 13 crypto market meltdown, Coinbase has identified several unusual methods through which traders were profiting amid the chaos. The crash saw rare profits being generated through ‘crypto-and-carry’ derivatives arbitrage, stablecoin speculation, and the failure of MakerDAO’s auction protocol. Derivatives arbitrage through ‘crypto-and-carry’ trades Coinbase asserts that the sudden flip in market sentiment from bullish to bearish created opportunities for derivative arbitrage through “crypto-and-carry” trades. With the exchange estimating that the crypto market is usually net-60% bullish with futures prices higher than spot prices, Coinbase asserts that arbitrage through derivatives is typically executed …