BitMEX recently announced the launch of its new ethereum-based product: ETHUSD Quanto futures contract.
The ETHUSD pair will be traded with a maximum leverage of 50x, initial equity of 2%, a base maintenance margin of 0.90%, and without having to hold ETH or USD, the exchange said in a blog post.
BitMEX Launches New ETHUSD Quanto Futures Contract
In an announcement today (April 24), BitMEX revealed that it has introduced a new ETHUSD quanto futures contract that bears some semblance to the exchange’s ETHUSD perpetual contract.
What makes this new product unique, however, is the fact that traders will be allowed to margin trade the ethereum quanto futures contract with XBT. This means that they will be able to earn or even lose BTC as the ETH/USD rate fluctuates.
Additionally, the new offering comes with a fixed bitcoin (BTC) multiplier regardless of the price of ETH in USD terms. BitMEX noted that this aspect will allow traders to long or short ETH/USD without ever touching ETH or US dollars.
The post goes on to state that the new ETH futures contract is a combination of the quanto feature of BitMEX’s ETHUSD perpetual swap and the expiry and settlement used in traditional futures. Moreover, just like any other BitMEX altcoin future, this new product will expire quarterly.
Trading will begin on May 5, 2020, at 4:00 UTC.
First Mover
This new ETHUSD quanto futures contract is “the only one of its kind” available in the crypto market, BitMEX observed. In other words, no other cryptocurrency exchange currently offers quanto futures contracts.
Notably, BitMEX has been losing dominance to Binance since the catastrophic market crash on March 12. To put things into perspective, open interest and BTC futures volume on BitMEX has been plummeting while Binance Futures has been gaining steady momentum.
That said, this could be part of BitMEX’s plan to regain market share in the spot and derivatives markets by giving traders a variety of trading opportunities on the platform.
Meanwhile, the first contract (ticker symbol is ETHUSDM20) is set to expire on June 26, at 1200 UTC.
