Bybit CEO Ben Zhou has revealed several new developments behind the scenes at the popular crypto derivatives exchange. Former forex trader Zhou, who has been at the helm of Bybit since it launched in December 2018, shared the news during an AMA session with CoinTelegraph on March 24.
Replicating Spot Markets While Increasing Leverage
The biggest development is the introduction of USDT perpetual swaps, sure to be a popular product among margin traders seeking a universal reference for pricing. Zhou revealed that USDT-margined perpetual swap trading was the result of growing demand, and that the exchange’s state-of-the-art backend matching engine had been upgraded to better cope with an expected spike in volume: it is now capable of achieving 10,000 TPS per single shard with less than 20ms delay.
By adding dollar-pegged perpetual contracts, Zhou said, Bybit seeks to mimic the underlying spot markets while giving traders access to increased leverage of up to 100x. The feature will also help traders avoid paying extra transaction fees typically incurred when opening a new contract. USDT perpetuals have no expiry date and the price is anchored to the underlying index to assure price accuracy.
More Volume, More Options
Speaking of volume, Zhou indicated that Bybit commands daily trading volume exceeding $1.1 billion, positioning it as one of the leaders in the derivatives market alongside BitMEX, Huobi, OKEx, Binance and FTX. Daily active users, meanwhile, stands at 15,000, with almost 70% hailing from Europe.
Bybit’s introduction of Tether perpetual contracts follows similar moves by Binance and OKEx earlier this year, and Zhou said it would enable traders to hold long and short positions simultaneously to better hedge their positions. The USDT stablecoin can be used as both quote and settlement currency, enabling two-way trades and giving traders exposure to underlying spot market prices for coveted digital assets including bitcoin.
As well as USDT perpetual contracts, Bybit has introduced a dark mode UI, upgraded frontend architecture to combat lag, and added a new multidimensional monitoring system to flag individual problems.
Crypto Market Rallies After Massive Sell-Off
Although disruption to global markets has been harshly felt in the cryptosphere, bitcoin is currently on the march, a consequence of the Federal Reserve’s hypodermic injection of liquidity: BTC’s value rose as high as $6,863 on Tuesday, having pushed from $5,700 to $6,600 on Monday. This can only be a good thing for derivatives platforms like Bybit, with BTC/USD being its most popular trading pair.
Zhou, who previously announced plans to move into the Thai, Vietnamese, Spanish and Turkish markets in 2020, also took a moment to express solidarity with those whose lives have been disrupted by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
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