BitMEX, a P2P trading platform offering leveraged contracts bought and sold in bitcoin, traded close to 1 million in XBT in the last 24 hours, worth more than $8 billion, an industry record, the company noted in a tweet .
The platform, which offers a variety of contracts, including perpetual contracts and contracts with fixed date expiries, thanked its users and congratulated its engineers for delivering the capacity to make the trade amount possible.
Arthur Hayes, the co-founder and CEO of BitMEX, has predicted bitcoin’s price will reach $50,000 by year-end, although he expects more volatility after the end of summer.
Hot Summer Trading
As bitcoin sustains a summer price surge and institutions continue to explore cryptocurrency investment options, innovations are emerging in bitcoin trading.
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A pair of institutional investors recently completed the first-ever exchange for physical (EFP) transaction for bitcoin futures.
E D & F Man Capital Markets facilitated the CME EFT bitcoin transaction while itBit had two institutional traders in CME’s bitcoin futures market swap a position for an equivalent quantity of the “physical” asset. E D & F Man Capital Markets is a futures commission merchant while itBit is an institutional level cryptocurrency exchange.
EFPs are used by Wall Street traders to hedge futures while diversifying exposures. EFPs can also offer tax, liquidity, capital and leverage benefits to trading firms. The EFP transactions are decided off-exchange, then settled on the exchange.
Another First
The CME EFT transaction was the first instance of an EFP being reported to an American futures exchange where cryptocurrency was the underlying physical asset.
The EFP trade is also relevant in light of the fact that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to date has approved cashed settled bitcoin futures, in which investors receive bitcoin cash value when a contract expires, as opposed to the physical asset. EFPs, could bring more flexibility in the way they interact with bitcoin futures.
Meanwhile, the CBOE futures exchange has filed for a bitcoin ETF with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to allow investors in the public market to trade bitcoin.
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