FTX Launches A Top 100 Uniswap Index Futures As DeFi Demand Grows

The cryptocurrency derivatives trading exchange FTX has launched a Uniswap futures index combining the top 100 pools on the Uniswap platform.

At the same time, the company’s recently released DEX dubbed Serum focused on the growing DeFi trend, continues with new developments.

FTX Lists a Uniswap Index

FTX announced the launch of the Uniswap futures index yesterday. Essentially, it allows traders to employ a traditional digital asset exchange to access markets from the decentralized trading platform. However, the index allows trading with leverage and paying lower fees, according to FTX.

“The Uniswap index price is the FTX ETH index multiplied by (the sum of the implied asset price of each of the below pools, each multiplied by the weights at the bottom of this document). The implied asset price is defined as the pool’s token0price statistic if the base currency is WETH, or its reciprocal if the quote currency is WETH.” – reads the statement, which has listed the ultimate set of Uniswap pools.

The 100 pairs available in the index were generated by ordering Uniswap pools by liquidity, removing any that didn’t include WETH as the base or quote currency, and removing those including stablecoins or ETH equivalents.

Tristan Yver, Operations Manager at FTX, told CryptoPotato that his company was inspired by a tweet from a popular cryptocurrency trader by the name Hsaka. Yver added that many of the FTX users have been using Uniswap lately, so they decided to “respond quickly to our users and the market demand.”

Serum Launch Amid DeFi Popularity Boost

Announced earlier this summer, the company’s DEX endeavor Serum relies on Solana’s decentralized oracle and offers cross-chain support enabling smart contract settlement. The SRM token, which skyrocketed by 1,500% shortly after the launch, will act as a governance token for the platform and will allow traders to receive up to 60% discount off trading fees.

Yver explained that the Serum Project is FTX’s answer to the growing demand for the DeFi sector, which has been rising in popularity since the start of this year. However, he believes that the sudden attention boost is the result of a lot of hard work put through the years:

“I think what we are seeing in DeFi is the culmination years of work from several parties, finally being truly appreciated. Projects like Aave, where Stani [Stani Kulechov Founder and CEO of Aave] has been quietly building through the entire bear market, or Compound which started this whole yield farming mania.

Also, genuine talent is being recognized because the market conditions are ideal for it. As such, we see guys like Andre Cronje receiving the attention and market fit they deserve.”

The article was first published on August 25, 2020.