Cryptocurrencies began to have a systematic spot trading system in 2010, and the cryptocurrency at that time was very small in terms of both the number of users and the amount of funds. At the same time, the volatility of cryptocurrencies at that time was very violent, so for For the users who held the spot at that time, every day was a "roller coaster" of the market. Referring to the traditional financial field, since 2013, based on the value of the cryptocurrency itself, the game of cryptocurrency derivatives with the purpose of hedging risk arbitrage and aiming at small and large has gradually shown its edge.

Since 2017, the trend of currency issuance on Ethereum has been prevalent, and the use of ICO as a tool has led to the continuous expansion of the volume of cryptocurrencies and the high market sentiment. In 2017, there were not many traditional institutions entering the market, and the cryptocurrency has not yet formed a system, such as the number of users and the amount of funds, so we can completely think that compared with the bull market in 2020, the bull market in 2017 is full of speculative bubbles.

From the perspective of traditional finance, the bursting of a bubble does not mean that the whole market bursts directly, but the gradual bursting of small bubbles makes the market gradually show a sluggish trend. For example, the bubble in 2017 did not gradually burst until the end of 2018. The exhaustion of Bitcoin finally showed a big bear market at the end of 2018, and Bitcoin fell to the bottom of $3,000.

Then, in the case of insufficient funds in the market, users want to meet the gold standard growth of their own assets, and spot transactions alone cannot meet the demand, and only derivatives in the market can carry the banner and meet the needs of users. Since 2019, the layout of derivatives games such as contracts has been accelerating, and 2019 has also become the first year of cryptocurrency derivatives, and derivatives games have gradually formed a system. Well-known domestic and foreign trading platforms such as BitMEX, Huobi, OKEx, Binance, and FTX have successively deployed innovative derivatives markets, while emerging derivatives platforms represented by FTX are constantly innovating on the basis of old-school derivatives gameplay.

For example, the leveraged ETH launched by FTX in early 2020 (currently there are 110+ ETF types), the Trump coin launched during the US election, and the recently launched 100 times leveraged quarterly futures of companies such as Google and Apple, etc., so for derivatives The brain hole of the product platform is really limitless (FTX has always been paid attention to by users because of its "playability"). According to statistics, the volume of derivatives in traditional finance accounts for more than 85% of the overall traditional finance, while for the cryptocurrency system, the current volume of derivatives is less than half of that of the cryptocurrency system, so there is room for imagination for derivatives. Still huge.

Specifically, although the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) launched the cryptocurrency futures game at the end of 2017, making the contract stand on the "top spot" of the cryptocurrency derivatives system, but after 2018, it can be small The extensive and low-threshold spot leverage gameplay has gradually become a favorite of users, and spot leverage has gradually become one of the key layouts of major platforms. On the other side of spot leverage, such as lending, its interest model has changed from being completely dominated by trading platforms to a form where users also have the right to dominate. For example, the c2c lending model allows more users to participate and reap some benefits. Recently, the "popular" derivatives platform FTX launched the spot leverage game, which also made the competition on this track enter a fierce stage.

Who is better at the spot leverage game of the major platforms?

At present, there are dozens of platforms that deploy spot leverage. As for the FTX platform, in the second half of the derivatives competition, it has entered the field of spot leverage. Let’s take OKEX, Huobi and Binance as comparison objects. Let’s take a look at FTX Whether there is an advantage in spot leverage.

1. Trading varieties

Among the borrowable tokens of Binance and OKEX, they are mainly old mainstream tokens or old public chain tokens. Although users have a high degree of choice, many of these tokens are highly volatile. However, Huobi and FTX are based on the most mainstream currencies at present, and their stability is relatively good, especially FTX also supports platform currencies of other platforms.

2. Comparison of loan rates and maximum leverage ratios

BTC and USDT are currencies that both support lending, so we compare the lowest lending rates for borrowing BTC and USDT

From the data, it is clear at a glance that FTX is a derivatives-based platform after all, so the interest rate advantage for both Bitcoin and USDT is quite obvious. The hourly rate is currently maintained at around 0.003%-0.004% for Bitcoin, and 0.001%-0.004% for USDT, which is also the basic hourly rate for ordinary users.

In terms of leverage, FTX can provide a maximum leverage of 10 times, which is no different from that of Binance and OKEX. The current industry average multiple is between 3 and 5 times. Although generally speaking, the higher the leverage, the greater the risk, but the risks borne by large funds with small leverage are definitely far greater than those with small funds and large leverage.

In the past, for CEX, the platform had a certain pricing power, so whether it is Huobi, Binance or OKEX, it is basically the platform that defines the lending fee, and it is basically a fixed fee at different levels. Then the definition of handling fees on FTX has a higher degree of freedom.

There are two roles of lender and lender on FTX, which can be understood as C2C lending. In the actual loan matching, for example, A and B are the lenders (lending out their own idle coins to collect interest), A has 100USDT and the interest rate is 0.001%, B has 400USDT and the interest rate is 0.002%, and C If the demand is 300 USDT, the system will give priority to matching A’s 100 USDT, and match B’s 200 USDT loan to C. When calculating the interest rate, the interest rate given by B will be calculated, which is the highest interest rate. However, lenders generally choose an interest rate that is lower than the lending rate in the industry for lending, so that their loans will be more competitive. At the same time, it is difficult for lenders with high interest rates to match. This is also a good check and balance for both borrowers and lenders. .

3. Ease of using the product

Users have formed a mindset for spot leverage, and basically follow the process of applying for loans, obtaining loans, transferring assets, and opening/closing leverage positions. The reason is that Huobi, OKEX, etc. will set up several wallet accounts such as currency accounts, Fiat currency account and margin account, etc., if you want to use margin trading, users need to transfer between the currency account and the fiat currency account.

In the design of the overall consolidation of the product, FTX has "pinched" several accounts together, and users can start leveraged transactions in the background.

Choose leverage

Then, if you want to conduct leveraged trading, you can directly go to the spot trading interface, and you can directly choose between leveraged trading and spot trading.

When opening leverage, there is no need to apply for and other operations, and the loan will be automatically opened by directly increasing the value to exceed the value of your own assets. Therefore, many unique innovations for FTX are really pioneering.

In terms of positions, FTX mainly focuses on full positions, and users can create sub-accounts to open the isolated position mode. Currently, users including OKEX, Huobi, and Binance can choose their own positions. FTX is no different from the three majors.

4. Transaction fees

For users who trade pending orders and take orders, FTX’s adjusted fee rate is 0 for pending orders, and the highest for take orders is 0.07%, which is still very attractive to many users with large funds.

At the same time, FTX only charges commissions for takers and interest when borrowing in leveraged transactions. Since no other operations are required, no other fees are charged. For other platforms such as Bitfinex, when users transfer funds to a loan account, they will charge Handling fee, there will be another handling fee after the loan is successfully matched. For users who lend money, FTX only charges 20% interest on borrowing users.

Therefore, on the whole, FTX's spot leveraged products have certain advantages in terms of lending interest rates, handling fees, and indirect operations. FTX also supports USD direct deposits with better stability and convenience. Based on the user base and trading volume in its derivatives field, the competitiveness of FTX's newly launched spot leverage segment can also be seen.

1. FTX burning benefits

The trading volume of the platform on Thanksgiving Day broke the historical record. FTX will use all the handling fees on Thanksgiving Day to repurchase and destroy FTT. The estimated burning amount will be as high as 1 million US dollars.

2. User trading benefits

[Level 1: Recharge and trade]

After the FTX net deposit reaches the following amount and completes the corresponding transaction volume, the user will be able to obtain a transaction fee discount coupon.

[Level 2: Trading Spot Leverage]

On the basis of completing the first level, users can use the deposited funds to experience FTX spot leveraged trading. After completing the corresponding level of the first level, users can get cash rewards and VIP handling fee experience cards.

Tradable products:

All trading pairs on the FTX platform (excluding USDT, TRYB, BRZ, CUSD, PAXG, XAUT contracts, spot and leveraged tokens).

Event time: November 27, 2020, 4:00 pm - December 11, 2020, 4:00 pm Singapore time