Leading crypto derivatives platform BitMEX has continued to support new cryptocurrencies after promising to do so earlier this year. The firm recently announced the addition of three new futures contracts for its users.
BitMEX has been a subject of much scrutiny over recent weeks due to the U.S. CFTC announcing it is charging the exchange and its co-founders. The exchange’s parent company, 100x, subsequently went through an executive restructuring to instate new executives.
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BitMEX Adds Three New Trading Pairs
Announced on October 22nd, BitMEX plans on adding quanto future contracts for three crypto assets: Binance Coin (BNB), Polkadot (DOT), and Yearn.finance (YFI). These are three of the industry’s most popular cryptocurrencies.
The exchange intends to complete this addition by October 30th at 4:00 UTC, at which time trading will begin.
What makes these new BitMEX contracts unique is that traders can post margin in Bitcoin, and will make profits or losses in Bitcoin as the price of the contract changes. This is different from traditionally margined contracts, which require traders to own the token being traded or a fixed asset such as Tether’s USDT:
“As with all quanto products, these contracts have a fixed Bitcoin multiplier regardless of the underlying Altcoin price. This allows traders to long or short each coin without needing to hold the specific coin or USDT. Traders post margin in XBT, and earn or lose XBT as the future’s price changes.”
BitMEX intends on adding “several more Altcoin product listings before the end of the year.”
The exchange did not tip its hand as to which pairs will come next. However, it was noted that BitMEX is looking to take a focus on decentralized finance, which has become a focus of crypto investors in recent months.
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KYC Mandated
The announcement of these new contracts comes hot on the heels of another announcement that BitMEX will be accelerating its Know Your Customer mandate.
BitMEX says that all users of the exchange must be fully verified by November 5th to use the platform further:
“We are introducing changes to accelerate the rollout of our User Verification Programme for individual and BitMEX Corporate customers. Users must now be fully verified by 5 November 2020 at 00:00 UTC to continue trading on the platform.”
Those that do not complete KYC by the deadline will not be able to open new positions or withdraw capital from their account.
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Photo by NICHOLAS CAPPELLO on Unsplash Price tags: xbtusd, btcusd, btcusdt Charts from TradingView.com BitMEX adds Yearn.Finance (YFI), Polkadot (DOT), and Binance Coin (BNB)