There are two main types of cryptocurrency trading: spot trading and futures and futures trading. The difference is that spot trading involves buying and selling the underlying asset itself, while futures trading is basically trading the right to acquire the underlying asset at a later time, at a predetermined price. This means that the investor who buys a futures contract seeks to make a profit by increasing the price of the underlying asset. In this article, we will introduce you to this type of trade, as well as its advantages and disadvantages.
1) What is cryptocurrency futures trading?
Futures trading involves buying and selling futures contracts. This contract is an agreement between the buyer and the seller regarding the future delivery of the purchased item on a predetermined date and at an agreed price or the payment to the buyer of an amount of money equal to the price of effective future contract. .on the expiration date. On this date, the buyer is free to sell his contract to another person, even before settlement. The price of futures contracts is roughly the same as their assets. On the other hand, it may differ from the price of the underlying asset, especially during times of strong rise or fall in the markets. Therefore, in boom times, futures contracts tend to be more expensive than their underlying assets; on the contrary, in times of decline, they are often less expensive.
Each futures contract has several parameters:
- Contract price – amount of money paid by the buyer to the seller for the contract;
- Term of the contract – when the physical delivery or credit of the money to the holder of the contract is due;
- Expiration date – for fixed futures contracts, this is the date that the contract holder will receive their asset or the amount of money based on the price of the contract executed on that date.
Besides fixed-term contracts, there are also so-called perpetual contracts. They do not provide an expiry date, ie the contract holder can keep it as long as he wants. Some cryptocurrency exchanges offer such contracts.
Depending on the type of delivery, contracts can be categorized into deliverable and non-deliverable contracts. The latter suggests a cash settlement (ie settlement in monetary form and not in the form of the underlying asset).
2) How does futures trading differ from other financial instruments?
The main difference between traditional (spot) trading and futures trading is that through trading contracts, market participants do not get the underlying assets (ie cryptocurrencies) and only receive the right to get them in the future. By trading futures before settlement, the investor hopes that the price of the contract will rise in the future, allowing him to sell it at a profit.
Another major difference is that the liquidity of the futures market is greater than the spot (spot) markets. This allows positions to be opened on a larger scale with less impact on the price.
3) What are the advantages of crypto-futures?
Cryptocurrency futures trading has clear advantages over spot trading:
- Higher liquidity than the spot market. High liquidity makes it easy to open large volume positions without affecting the asset price. The fact is that large positions influence the price of the underlying cryptocurrency: they make it go down or up, so that the trade is executed at a less favorable price for the trader than he wants. This does not happen in the futures market.
- A large number of assets for trading. For example, the Bitget exchange offers the sale of several futures contracts, depending on the trader’s preferences.
- An option to use margin trading, which allows traders to get more for their money. Many crypto exchanges offer margin trading, including Bitget, which has several cryptocurrency pairs for it.
- An option to open long and short positions to take advantage of bull and bear markets.
4) What are the most common risks associated with cryptocurrency futures?
Besides the advantages, trading crypto futures also has disadvantages.
- First of all, margin trading can result in big losses, so the trader should be careful.
- Second, a futures trader cannot withdraw the asset from their account, so there is a risk of fraudulent activity from dishonest crypto exchanges.
5) Are cryptocurrency futures legal in the DACH zone?
Yes, cryptocurrency futures are allowed by law in the DACH countries, namely Austria, Switzerland and Germany. Financial regulators in these countries oversee cryptocurrency companies and exchanges, and the latter are required to obtain a license to offer cryptocurrency market services to their users. The DACH countries have the following regulators:
- Austria – Financial Markets Authority (FinanzmarktaufsichtFMA);
- Switzerland – Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA);
- Germany – Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, or BaFin (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht).
6) Where can I trade cryptocurrency futures?
Cryptocurrency futures trading is offered on many exchanges, including Bitget, Binance, CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange), FTX, OKX and others. At Bitget, you can find many cryptocurrency futures for sale, including the most popular pairs such as BTCUSDT, ETHUSDT, as well as less popular pairs. Futures trading on Bitget uses a funding rate mechanism, which is an accumulation or debit to the trader’s account of an amount of money equal to the difference between the pre-determined price and the spot price of the asset. , based on the current contract price.
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