Trading volume on unregulated Bitcoin (BTC) derivatives exchanges is growing rapidly, and continuing to far outpace their regulated-institutional counterparts, according to the most recent (March) CryptoCompare Exchange Review.
(source: CryptoCompare)
Both OKEx and bitFlyer exchanges hosted an average daily derivative trading volume worth well over a billion dollars during March – $1.5 billion and $1.14 billion respectively according to CryptoCompare. It seems then that the older derivative stalwart BitMEX, at $645 million daily average volume, has been rapidly eclipsed by the newer exchanges.
(source: CryptoCompare)
Institutional, fiat-dealing (regulated) exchanges hosted a fraction of this volume, the highest being $70.5 million on the CME exchange. CryptoGlobe reported last month the CME’s primary competitor, the CBOE, was shuttering its Bitcoin futures products citing low demand. CME volume spiked last month, but is down this month below to January levels.
However, despite the relatively low average volume, the CME did have one bumper day of record-breaking Bitcoin futures trading volume, trading nearly $550 million worth of bitcoin on April 4th – days after Bitcoin’s unbelievable breakout from its $4,200 resistance.
CME Bitcoin futures had a record trading day on April 4, hitting an all-time high volume of over 22.5K contracts (112.7K equivalent bitcoin), surpassing previous record of over 18.3K (64.3K equivalent bitcoin) on February 19. More #Bitcoin futures. $BTC_F https://t.co/kWYK203apA pic.twitter.com/CX5nF8dXyv
— CMEGroup (@CMEGroup) April 5, 2019
Outflanked
The ease of onboarding new customers may explain why the unregulated exchanges get more attention.
In a recent interview, BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes underlined his exchange’s ability to “onboard a [new] customer within 10 minutes,” by accepting Bitcoin and only Bitcoin for funding. In addition, no KYC/AML checks are required to trade on BitMEX, merely an email address; whereas OKEx offers margin trading only after basic KYC/AML checks. These exchanges are registered in Seychelles and Malta, respectively, specifically to avoid such onerous accounting requirements for their customers.
As CryptoGlobe covered early in 2019, however, BitMEX and other derivative exchanges including OKEx officially exclude certain citizens from trading on their platforms due to regulatory concerns, most notably US citizens.
Hayes also intimated at the upcoming launch of an interest bearing Bitcoin-only bond, which he speculated could be used to leverage credit into future Bitcoin-denominated economic activity.
