Biggest Bitcoin Options Exchange Deribit to Launch Zero-fee Spot Trading

Deribit, the world’s largest cryptocurrency options exchange, is expanding into spot trading. Late Wednesday, the business revealed that it will start a zero-fee spot exchange on April 24. The announcement comes just days after rival Binance’s zero-fee spot trading trial concluded late last month.

“We have been working on the implementation of the spot trading solution for the past few months,” Deribit’s chief commercial officer, Luuk Strijers, told The Block. “We are now able to provide clients with a full range of trading opportunities, including both derivatives and spot trading.”

Deribit will initially offer spot trading in three pairs: BTC/USDC, ETH/USDC, and ETH/BTC. According to Strijers, it may offer more coins in the future, but free costs will not remain. “For the foreseeable future,” he continued, free trade will exist.Deribit’s foray into spot trading comes seven years after the company was founded.

According to the Block’s Data Dashboard, the exchange is presently the market leader in the crypto options market, accounting for more than 90% of open interest in bitcoin and ether options trading. The value of outstanding derivative contracts that have yet to be settled is referred to as open interest.

Deribit faced difficulties last year when it had to liquidate Three Arrows Capital’s (3AC) investments after the now-bankrupt crypto hedge fund failed to pay its margin calls. As a result, Deribit took a “small” damage and eventually raised $40 million from current shareholders at a $400 million valuation.

In its recent investment round in August 2021, the company was valued at $2.1 billion. Strijers stated at the time that the valuation “is essentially irrelevant” because the funds were raised from existing investors.

Deribit intends to attract more retail consumers with the advent of spot trading, according to Strijers. It also intends to obtain a cryptocurrency license in Dubai and relocate its headquarters from Panama to the city.

It remains to be seen whether Deribit will replicate its options performance in the spot market, which Binance now leads. “As the digital asset space continues to evolve,” Strijers said, “trading venues will have to grow alongside it to ensure the ecosystem remains secure, transparent, and compliant.”

Deribit’s spot exchange, like its derivatives platform, will be unavailable to users in the United States and a few other restricted nations, according to Strijers.