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Cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX has 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 that will not be affected by the Ether price in US dollars. BitMEX explains that this feature allows traders to raise or lower Ether’s USD exchange rate without holding 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 ETHUSD futures contracts with a maximum leverage of 50x on May 5, 2020. The company promises that “the new product will be the only one of its kind available on the market.”
The new BitMEX derivative contract combines the Quantum feature of the exchange’s ETHUSD perpetual swap contract with the expiration and settlement of traditional futures contracts. The contract expires quarterly, just like the company’s altcoin futures contract.
BitMEX is losing ground to its competitors
BitMEX is well known to old school Bitcoin derivatives traders, as the platform was the most used for trading this type of contract. However, as Cointelegraph reported earlier this week, BitMEX continues to lose market share in derivatives trading to Binance Futures.
An analysis of the data from mid-April shows that BitMEX has bled Bitcoin since Black Thursday. This seems to suggest that traders lost faith in the platform after it performed poorly during the main market downturn, with some believing it was, in fact, intentional manipulation of the market by the exchange.
BitMEX could bet the new contract could help the exchange regain some of its lost popularity among cryptocurrency derivatives traders. A BitMEX spokesperson told Cointelegraph:
“We expect our new ETHUSD contract product how much futures will be popular with BitMEX users from launch on May 5th, and we are encouraged by the positive reaction we have already received from the market ahead of launch.”
