On January 21, the derivatives exchange by Matrixport, Bit.com, announced the launch of the first bitcoin cash perpetual swaps and options. The exchange says before the product launch there was no options market for bitcoin cash and the firm believes there’s room for improvement in this arena of crypto derivatives.
Bit.com to Launch Crypto Economy’s First Bitcoin Cash Options Market
Bit.com, one of the leading derivatives trading platforms developed by Matrixport, has revealed the exchange plans to launch bitcoin cash (BCH) perpetual swaps and options. The exchange detailed that Bit.com will introduce the perpetual swaps product on January 20 and the BCH options trading will begin on the 1st of February.
The announcement notes that BCH is a major crypto-asset “recognized by institutions,” and remains in the top ten positions among the leading crypto market capitalizations.
News.Bitcoin.com recently reported on Bit.com as being among the exchanges with the most open interest in terms of BTC and ETH options. Bit.com’s BCH options announcement details that both bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) derivatives markets “grew tremendously during the past few years.”
“Currently, the cryptocurrency perpetual swaps market is dominated by BTC, which accounts for ~53% of the market share, while ETH attributes to 20%,” Bit.com said. “BCH takes only 1% of the crypto perpetual swap market share, which is disproportionate to the relative market share of the underlying asset.”
The exchange further added:
Similar [to the] options market, [the] market is hugely dominated by BTC (accounts for ~90%) while ETH takes up the rest, the options market for other major crypto and/or altcoins are close to non-existent. In short, the BCH derivative market is far from maturity compared to its size and underlying price volatility. With Bit.com’s product launch, this gap in the market will soon be filled.
Crypto Options Open Interest Surges
Bit.com is based in Singapore and the trading platform initially launched its BTC and ETH perpetual swaps and options back in August 2020. The firm states that during the first fives months, the trading platform’s volume exceeded $6 billion. During the last two weeks, crypto derivatives exchanges have seen BTC and ETH options open interest tap all-time records. The exchange thinks bitcoin cash options and BCH perpetual swaps will add to this volume.
“The launch of BCH derivatives by Bit.com enables miners to hedge against risks associated with BCH volatility, which helps make their operation more stable and efficient,” the exchange detailed. “More specifically, miners can lock in profits in advance while generating additional cash flow by selling covered calls; or can hedge against downward price moves by buying protective puts. Users can make use of comprehensive derivative trading strategies made possible by liquid perpetual swap and options market to construct various payoff profiles to best serve their interests.”
During the last few weeks, Bit.com has seen anywhere between $100 to $200 million in crypto derivatives trade volume.
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