Cryptocurrency’s longest-running futures exchange, BitMEX, has introduced a series of spot markets on its platform just three days before founders Arthur Hayes and Ben Delo are due to be sentenced.
BitMEX will support seven spot trading pairs, with bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), Chainlink’s LINK, Uniswap’s UNI, Polygon’s MATIC, Axie Infinity’s AXS and APE all being traded against tether (USDT).
The exchange said it will be giving away $1 million in cryptocurrency for users that place trades on the spot pairs.
The platform launched in 2014 and was considered the market-leading derivatives exchange as it pioneered perpetual swap contracts, which are effectively futures contracts without expiry that require less margin and allow for higher leverage.
The emergence of FTX and Binance Futures saw BitMEX fall down the pecking order. It now has plans to become a “top 10 global spot exchange,” it said in an email.
The popularity of BitMEX dwindled after Hayes and Delo were charged by U.S. authorities in 2020 for facilitating unregistered trading and other violations. They could both serve between six to 12 months in prison when sentenced this Friday.
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