The cryptocurrency market has witnessed several updates and developments in the past few months. One of the biggest positive takeaways from this was the fact that multiple activities took place despite the crypto market cap taking a hit over the last couple of weeks.
In another message that virtual asset markets were more confident than ever, BitMEX launched its latest Ethereum-based futures contract on 24 April. The derivative contract will contain a fixed bitcoin multiple that will be untouched by the value of Ethereum in USD.
The popular trading platform stated that the latest feature was one of its kind in the market with the ability to open new doors for trading on the platform. Investors holding ETHUSD quanto futures contracts will not have to worry about daily exchange rate changes, according to the platform.
BitMEX users can use the latest feature to their advantage by going long or short on ETH trade without holding actual tokens or USD. According to an official BitMEX release:
“This allows traders to long or short the ETH/USD exchange rate without ever touching either ETH or USD! Traders post margin in XBT, and earn or lose Bitcoin as the ETH/USD rate changes.This contract combines the quanto feature of our ETHUSD perpetual swap with the expiry and settlement found in traditional futures. As with every BitMEX altcoin future, it expires quarterly.”
Sources indicate that BitMEX will enter into a futures contract on May 5, the day after the much-awaited bitcoin halving. Users will be able to trade the same contract with a leverage of 50x, a high rate considering that BitMEX has been trailing its competitors in terms of market share capture. The exchange created the new contract by combining its perpetual swap contract quanto feature with the expiry of traditional futures.
Users also need to keep in mind that quanto contracts will also expire every quarter just like BitMEX’s altcoin futures contract. The Bitcoin multiplier will work at a rate of 0.000001 with a maker fee of -0.025 percent. The taken fee proposed by the exchange is 0.075 percent with a base initial margin of 2 percent.
Those interested in dabbling in the futures contract can test BitMEX’s product for the next two weeks on the released testnet version of the quanto futures. The company will want to win back its lost ground by gaining dominance in the burgeoning market. The current ETH-USD trading contract will expire by June, after which analysts expect a new surge of investors.