HDR Global Trading Limited, the firm behind veteran crypto derivatives platform BitMEX, has undergone a corporate restructuring and will now be known as ‘100x Group.’ HDR announced the changes on July 15 and the Seychelles-based 100x will become the new holding structure for HDR and all other assets, including BitMEx. The announcement said the “new structure provides [the] group with more freedom to explore, incubate, and pursue new opportunities and investments.” There are also suggestions the company may expand into other ventures beyond BitMex. Facilitating investments The 100x Group is led by HDR’s founders, Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo, and Sam …

The Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued a joint fine to Abra, a crypto portfolio app that let users get synthetic exposure to traditional markets. According to the SEC’s release, Abra effectively offered “security-based swaps” to retail investors without the proper registration, in addition to “failing to transact those swaps on a registered national exchange.” Abra offered a type of “centralized” synthetic asset, where users were able to get exposure to traditional securities like stocks by putting up Bitcoin (BTC) and Litecoin (LTC) as collateral. The system removed or added the coins based on how much …

BitFlyer, the biggest crypto exchange in Japan in terms of trading volume, has announced a partnership with Brave, the privacy-protecting browser. According to the announcement, BitFlyer and Brave will develop “a crypto asset wallet for Brave browser users”. No further details about the new crypto wallet have been made available. Japanese users of Brave browser are rewarded with Basic Attention Token Points (BAP), due to regulations that prevent them from earning the cryptocurrency BAT, or trading their points for money on exchanges. The announcement is likely to fuel speculation that the new crypto wallet could pave the way to enable …

Monex Securities, a major Japanese online securities company, launched a cryptocurrency contract-for-difference service today. This marks the first time that a major online Japanese securities company has offered a crypto CFD. A CFD is a type of derivative in which the "buyer" of the contract pays the "seller" the difference between the current price of an asset and the price of that asset at a future date stipulated in the contract. According to a Monex announcement on July 8, the CFD is available for Bitcoin (BTC)/yen, Ether (ETH)/yen, XRP/yen, and Bitcoin Cash (BCH)/yen trading pairs. The leverage rate limit is …

A CryptoCompare report published on July 6 has closely analyzed monthly trends in the cryptocurrency exchange market and found that crypto derivatives volumes have begun to taper off after peaking this May. Crypto derivatives volumes dropped 35.7% in June to $393 billion. Historical Monthly Derivatives Volumes. Source: CryptoCompare The overall trend which was also observed in the spot markets can be partially explained by the lack of volatility currently seen in Bitcoin and the majority of crypto assets within the market. There are a few exceptions like DeFi tokens, which have outperformed Bitcoin (BTC) considerably in the last month. Despite …

21Shares, an asset manager specialized in cryptocurrencies, has chosen the custody service offered by crypto exchange Coinbase for its Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded product. According to a Wednesday Coinbase announcement, 21Shares will use Coinbase Custody to secure the Bitcoin backing the ETP launching Thursday. The derivative will launch on Deutsche Borse’s Xetra — Germany’s second-largest stock exchange. The product is purportedly the first physically backed Bitcoin ETP in Europe. Cryptocurrency derivatives see explosive growth Cryptocurrency derivatives are seeing new developments increasingly often. In late February, 21Shares also launched an inverse Bitcoin ETP called Short Bitcoin on Xetra. In January, the same …

Cryptocurrency market data aggregator CoinGecko has updated its Trust Score algorithm to consider the cybersecurity standards of the more than 400 cryptocurrency exchanges listed on its platform. From July 1, 20% of CoinGecko’s Trust Score will be determined according to a cybersecurity rating provided by security technology company Hacken. According to an announcement, the algorithm update will provide “a more holistic overview of cryptocurrency exchanges.” Speaking to Cointelegraph, CoinGecko co-founder and COO Bobby Ong stated that the firm has “wanted to work closely with a cybersecurity company to incorporate exchanges' cybersecurity score since [introducing] Trust Score in May 2019,” but …

On June 26, $675 million worth of Bitcoin options expired, while industry experts remain divided on its potential effect on price volatility. Some believe the record expiration date will cause Bitcoin (BTC) to see a large price movement. With less than 24 hours until the highly anticipated expiration, Bitcoin’s price dropped by 7% on a single day on June 24. Traders speculate the drop was partially triggered by the uncertainty in the United States’ stock market. A rising number of coronavirus infections and concerns around the high unemployment rate led to an overall increase in caution toward risk-on assets, including …

A number of analysts have suggested the meteoric price performance of the Compound Governance Token (COMP) may have been orchestrated using derivatives. After initially changing hands for approximately $80 each upon its June 18 listing on Poloniex, COMP quickly rallied 500% to post highs above $380 June 21 as news of a Coinbase listing appeared to entice buyers. COMP/USDT on Poloniex, 1hr chart: TradingView Since the high, COMP has shed 34% of its value and is currently trading for $253. Was COMP’s rally driven by organic demand? In a June 25 article, independent crypto blogger and Decentraland product lead Tony …

A cryptocurrency derivatives exchange led by eight former Morgan Stanley executives claims it is the world’s fastest. Phemex says its “user-oriented” approach has led to the creation of an ecosystem where traders can buy and sell contracts with confidence. The platform offers latency speeds of under one millisecond, and the company claims that its infrastructure can handle more than 300,000 transactions per second. Reliability is another crucial concern. To this end, it offers 99.9999% availability. Given that some of the more established exchanges in the marketplace have suffered outages whenever Bitcoin has made major price moves, this could prove crucial …

A growing number of indicators suggest that institutional players are continuing to enter the digital asset markets, which have been dominated to date by high-net-worth individuals and actively trading crypto enthusiasts. Case in point: Crypto markets are seeing all-time highs in futures contracts’ open interest at entities such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Widely known as one of the world’s largest financial derivatives exchanges, the CME enables sophisticated traders to trade in asset classes such as agricultural products, energy, metals and crypto futures and options. Traders on the CME are generally institutions, not individuals, which is why this open interest …

For those of us involved in the cryptocurrency space, we've gotten used to the fast-paced nature of this rapidly growing industry. New technology quickly becomes old, bright shiny projects lose their luster, and what started out as a few privacy advocates sending “magic internet money” to one another has mushroomed into a whole new asset class with a robust infrastructure established around it. Every new product, application or financial instrument that we add has value and attracts more participants. Options trading is a huge step for the crypto derivatives market — and it’s already proving its worth. How the crypto …