Adding Coins And Reducing Fees: Will BitMEX Survival Efforts Help Despite The Mandatory KYC?

BitMEX, one of the world’s leading Bitcoin margin trading exchanges, appears to be taking major steps to increase its value proposition.

In a couple of recent announcements, the exchange said that it’s going to reduce some of its fees while also adding more cryptocurrencies for trading. This comes months after the exchange had to introduce mandatory KYC procedures and following its clash with US regulators.

BitMEX Reducing Fees and Adding Coins

BitMEX used to be the world’s leading Bitcoin margin trading exchange in terms of daily volumes. Now, according to CoinMarketCap, it rests on the third spot after Binance Futures and Huobi.

A couple of days ago, the exchange announced a fee reduction on its linear futures contracts. First, the take fees are reduced to 0.075% on the ALTXBT linear futures contracts, while also adjusting the maker fee to -0.025%. Both changes are to take effect today, October 23rd.

“This change, which applies to all future ALTXBT listings, is intended to align the fee structure across our products and optimize the overall trading experience for this product segment.” – Reads the announcement.

Additionally, the exchange is taking extra steps to add more cryptocurrencies for trading. BitMEX will open trading for Binance Coin, Polkadot, and Yearn Finance’s YFI token based on quanto futures contracts starting October 30th, 2020.

“These three contracts aim to provide our users with quality coverage of highly liquid products. We plan to introduce several more altcoin product listings before the end of the year.”

Survival Efforts?

It’s no wonder that BitMEX is doing its best to catch up with its competitors. What was once the world’s leading derivatives trading platform is now taking serious steps to catch up.

Binance Futures has introduced a myriad of features for its traders, for the time being, with Huobi following suit close by.

Meanwhile, BitMEX has other issues to worry as well. Towards the beginning of October, the US Commodities and Futures Trading Commission charged the owner-operators of BitMEX with illegally running a derivatives platform. Shortly after, CEO Arthur Hayes and other top-level executives stepped down, highlighting the seriousness of the situation.