Bitfinex Offers Crypto Crude Oil Swaps With Up To 100x Tether Leverage
Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex’s derivatives platform has expanded its offerings to provide perpetual contracts for three popular commodity instruments.
Customers of the platform will now be allowed to trade commodities that are otherwise found on traditional financial exchanges. Usually these commodities are restricted to regular trading hours, but these will be available to trade on Bitfinex Derivatives around-the-clock using Tether (USDT).
UK crude oil, palladium and platinum are the three commodities that will be available on the platform. UK crude oil is used for refinement into diesel fuel and gasoline. It also serves as the benchmark for the light oil market in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Palladium is mainly used in manufacturing processes, including in uses for dentistry and jewelry. It primarily comes from the US, Russia, South Africa and Canada. Platinum too can be made into jewelry, but it can also be used for computer hard disks and in chemotherapy drugs used to treat cancer. Like any commodity, their prices are influenced by demand.
The launch of these three global commodities will add to Bitfinex’s more than 60 crypto perpetuals, including Tether gold perpetuals and silver perpetuals. They went live on the platform on March 15, and offer users up to 100x leverage, settled in USDT tokens, meaning traders have the option to execute trades much larger than their initial margin.
Founded in 2021, Bitfinex offers almost 200 different tokens and 400 unique spot trading pairs. Its latest move appears to be a novel one, as it isn’t common for crypto exchanges to offer global commodity indexes to trade.
“We anticipate great interest in these products, particularly among funds and professional investors seeking to take directional positions or to hedge risk,” Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer at Bitfinex Derivatives, said in a statement.
The commodities will trade similarly to other crypto perpetuals. Both transactions and funding will be settled in USDT, and margin collateral will be denominated in USDT.
