FTX
| FTX | |
| |
| Founded | 2019 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Antigua and Barbuda |
| Key People | Sam Bankman-Fried, Founder and CEO |
| Employees | 35 |
| Products | Cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform |
| @FTX_Official | |
| Website | FTX Exchange Home |
| Blog | FTX Blog |
FTX, a cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform, launched operations on May 8, 2019. It was founded by Alameda Research. Binance purchased shares in the company in December 2019 as well as took a long-term position in the platform's FTX Token.[1]
At the time of its December 2019 investment, Binance said that FTX had an average daily volume of nearly half a billion U.S. dollars across all of its products.[2]
In August 2020, FTX acquired Blockfolio, an app for retail investing consumers that allows users to keep track of the value of their cryptocurrency portfolios.[3]
Contents
Products and Services
Futures
FTX offers approximately 60 "futures" contracts which can either have expiration dates or be perpetual contracts. All of the contracts are priced in U.S. dollars against a cryptocurrency or an index of cryptocurrencies. The platform offers daily, weekly, and quarterly-expiring contracts on the net price movement in the U.S. dollar value of the underlying cryptocurrency between the start and end of the period as well as leveraged directional (up, down) contracts.[4]
In April 2020, FTX launched futures on oil expiring monthly tied to the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmark. The futures expire to the spot price of WTI crude oil, plus $100; at the time of the launch, the nearby month of crude oil futures on the CME Group's New York Mercantile Exchange was trading at negative price levels for the first time in history.[5] Users have to pass FTX’s KYC level 1 to be eligible to trade, and they can't be residents of the U.S., the U.K., the EU, the UAE, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Cambodia, Turkey and China. The exchange's CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said that FTX was planning on launching a digital token based on the oil futures.[6][7]
Options
FTX introduced options on January 13, 2020, listing puts and calls on bitcoin with a variety of expirations from one-day later to approximately five-and-a-half months later. The options are priced in U.S. dollars.[8]
Binary options
On May 15, 2021, CEO Sam Bankman-Fried tweeted that FTX is offering binary options that pay out if Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is re-elected in 2022.[9]
FTT token
The native token of the FTX blockchain is the FTT. The company has conducted at least three rounds of issuances of what the company refers to as its "utility" token. FTT can be used as collateral for trading on the platform and pays out a share of profits on the insurance fund that supports futures trading.[10] Depending on the amount held, holdings of at least $100 worth provide discounts on trading fees.[11]
In March 2020, FTX sold up to 15 million FT tokens which conveyed an equity interest in the company to its holders. Tokens were sold for $2.00 per token. There are no voting rights attached to the tokens.[12]
New platforms
FTX.US
FTX launched a U.S.-based cryptocurrency trading platform called FTX.US on May 22, 2020. The platform listed pairs based on bitcoin, Litecoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash, Paxos Gold and U.S. dollar Tether.[13]
Serum
In late July 2020, FTX announced the introduction of a DeFi driven trading platform for derivatives called Serum.[14] According to the white paper for the new platform, derivatives contracts will be smart contracts run on the blockchain from the Solana Project, whose native coin is called SOL. The platform is designed to be "trustless" by each party depositing collateral and having automatically implemented penalties for defaulting on contract performance.[15]
Tokenized stocks
Saying that the company wanted to broaden access to stock trading for customers who face barriers to markets, Bankman-Fried announced that FTX would launch a marketplace for bitcoin- and stablecoin-priced U.S.-listed equities like Tesla and Amazon. The stocks are to be "tokenized" and available in fractions of whole shares. The launch date was not given but registrations for trading were opened on October 29, 2020 when the platform was announced. FTX equity trading is not available to U.S. residents.[16][17]
References
- ↑ Binance Announces Strategic Investment in Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange FTX. Binance.
- ↑ Binance Announces Strategic Investment in Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange FTX. Binance.
- ↑ Cryptocurrency exchange FTX acquires portfolio tracker Blockfolio. Tech Crunch.
- ↑ Markets. FTX.
- ↑ What negative US oil prices mean for the industry. FT.
- ↑ Crypto derivatives exchange FTX launches crude oil futures. The Block.
- ↑ Derivatives Exchange, FTX, Adds Oil Futures With Buffer to Protect Against Negative Prices. Bitcoin Exchange Guide.
- ↑ Options. FTX.
- ↑ @SBF_Alameda. Twitter.
- ↑ Home Page. FTX.
- ↑ FTT. FTX.
- ↑ Crypto derivatives exchange FTX is selling its equity for bitcoin and other payment methods. The Block Crypto.
- ↑ About FTX US. FTX.US.
- ↑ FTX to Launch ‘Scalable’ Decentralized Exchange in Weeks. CoinDesk.
- ↑ Serum - White Paper. FTX.
- ↑ FTX Launches Bitcoin Pairs for Top Stocks Like Amazon, Apple and Tesla. CoinDesk.
- ↑ Crypto Exchange FTX to Trade Top Stocks From Tesla to Amazon. Bloomberg.
