Following major accusations of insider stock trading during the coronavirus-induced market crash, Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), the former CEO of Bakkt, is liquidating her holdings along with her husband. In an April 8 tweet, Loeffler said that she and her husband Jeffrey Sprecher, CEO of ICE, which is the company that owns Bitcoin (BTC) options contracts regulator Bakkt, are liquidating their holdings in managed accounts to focus on tackling the coronavirus situation. “I’m doing it because the issue isn’t worth the distraction” The former CEO of Bakkt has also published an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, emphasizing that …

As the volume of Bitcoin (BTC) derivatives trading continues to rise, the cryptocurrency industry keeps tapping more crypto markets, like stablecoin Tether (USDT), for futures trading. KuMEX, a derivatives arm of IDG-backed crypto exchange, KuCoin, is planning to roll out USDT-margined Bitcoin perpetual contracts on March 30, 2020, the firm officially announced on March 27. KuMEX currently supports only Bitcoin and USDT While the new type of futures contract will be launched next week, KuMEX users are already able to deposit USDT via the web or public API starting from March 26, the company said. KuMEX offers crypto derivatives trading …

Bitcoin (BTC) derivatives exchange BitMEX has fallen to third place in 24-hour trading volume for Bitcoin futures. Data from Skew analytics on March 23 reveals that the derivatives giant, founded by Arthur Hayes, is reporting $2.45 billion in 24-hour futures volume, as against Binance’s $2.48 billion and OKex’s $3.08 over the same time frame. 24-hour trading volumes for Bitcoin futures contracts on major exchanges. Source: skew.com Mid-term trends Earlier this month, aggregated open interest in BitMEX’s futures contract took a steep plunge from $1.2 billion on March 12 to $745 million the following day, and down to $607 million on …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, the sister exchange of stablecoin firm Tether, has rolled out futures trading for Tether’s new gold-backed coin. Starting on March 6, Bitfinex users can trade futures contracts on Tether Gold (XAU₮) against Tether (USDT), a widely-known and controversial stablecoin pegged to the United States dollar. New feature is only available to verified users in certain jurisdictions Announcing the news on Friday, Bitfinex specified that the futures trading enables traders to buy or sell assets at a specified price and data in future, featuring up to 100x leverage. The exchange also noted that futures and derivatives trading …

Daily trade volume for Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)’s bitcoin (BTC) futures produced a new low for 2020 on Feb. 21, with $118 million worth of contracts changing hands on Friday. The record low came just three days after CME daily volume exceeded $1 billion for just the third time in the market’s history, with CME bitcoin futures producing over 23,000 contracts or $1.1 billion worth of trade on Feb. 18. Daily trade volume for CME bitcoin futures. Source: Skew Despite the near-record spike in trade activity, CME bitcoin futures volume quickly faded, plummeting by nearly 55 percent the next day. …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced that it is about to launch a new futures product tracking crypto asset NEO. Per the announcement published on Feb. 16, the NEO/USDT futures will be launched on Feb. 17 and traders will be able to select leverage between 1x and 50x. The fees that the exchange imposes on trades of the contract in question are a 2% base initial margin rate, 1% base maintenance margin rate and a 0.5% liquidation fee. What is NEO? The Binance information page dedicated to NEO explains that it is an open source platform driven by its community that …

After launching TRUMP futures trading last week, FTX plans to release five additional 2020 presidential election-based futures products. “What we’re about to come out with is just similar contracts for the top five Democratic candidates,” an FTX representative told Cointelegraph in an interview. 2020 Reelection futures expand offering FTX plans to launch a Bernie Sanders (BERNIE) futures trading product, as well as futures on Joe Biden (BIDEN), Elizabeth Warren (WARREN), Pete Buttigieg (PETE) and Mike Bloomberg (BLOOMBERG). Although FTX has not finalized a release date for these products as of press time, the representative said they should go live within …

Crypto exchange unicorn Binance will launch Binance Coin (BNB) futures trading on Feb. 10. As the 17th cryptocurrency available on Binance’s futures trading branch, BNB comes with 50x leverage, paired against Tether’s USDT stablecoin, Binance detailed in a Feb. 7 press release provided to Cointelegraph. BNB pumped with the rest of the market Binance’s BNB coin has already rallied several dollars this month, hitting a price of $22.16 by press time. Cointelegraph analyst and trader Keith Wareing sees upcoming demand for the BNB asset itself. “Looking at trading volumes on Binance, it’s clear they don’t have to sell any of …

Crypto derivatives exchange FTX recently launched “TRUMP,” a new futures trading product that lets users bet on President Trump’s re-election in 2020. “So far most of the volume has traded on the offer, implying that traders think Trump is likely to win re-election,” an FTX representative told Cointelegraph. The TRUMP crypto product is merely a futures contract that is worth $1 if Trump wins the 2020 presidential election and $0 if he does not. TRUMP’s value at any given moment can be understood as an expression of how likely the traders think he is to win at any given moment. …

Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange FTX has created a new, specialized futures contract for traders to bet on President Donal Trump’s reelection in 2020. Dubbed TRUMP-2020 (TRUMP), FTX announced on Feb. 5 that the contract expires to $1 if Donald Trump wins the 2020 US presidential general election, and $0 if otherwise. The launch of TRUMP coincides with a fresh poll from Gallup this week, suggesting that the President's job approval rating has risen to 49% — his highest in any Gallup polling since he took office in 2017. Among Republicans, moreover, his approval rating is up six percentage points since early …

Binance’s futures platform is launching a Zcash (ZEC)–Tether (USDT) perpetual contract with maximum leverage of up to 50x. An announcement from the exchange on Feb. 4 revealed that trading for the new ZEC/USDT contract will go live at 8.00 a.m. on Feb. 5. In a bid to prevent market manipulation, Binance says it has chosen to set a pricing limit of ±1% on the mark price within the first 15 minutes after trading begins. Perpetual vs. traditional futures As reported, when the Binance Futures platform launched — offering maximum leverage of as high as 125x — the exchange emphasized it …

Little more than a month after their launch, Bitcoin (BTC) options contracts on the Intercontinental Exchange’s digital asset platform Bakkt appear to have seen sluggish uptake. The latest available reports for the contract, Jan. 24 and Jan. 27, reveal that 11 days have elapsed since the last trade. Traders bide their time As reported, Bakkt launched its new BTC options contract in early December, shortly after rolling out a cash-settled Bitcoin (BTC) futures offering in November. Options are derivatives that are designed to provide traders with additional flexibility hedge against an asset’s price swings in either direction: thus an options …