One-Stop Shop? Binance Acquires Futures Exchange

Binance, the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, has acquired a crypto asset derivatives trading platform known as JEX. Binance JEX, as the new venture will be called, will focus on delivering cryptocurrency derivatives including futures contracts and options. Considering the acquisition and other recent developments, the exchange is starting to look a lot like a one-stop-shop that offers pretty much everything.

Binance Closer to Becoming One-Stop-Shop

According to a press release, Binance will manage the JEX token alongside the JEX team in order to increase its utility.

Earlier today, Binance announced a so-called “Battle for Binance Futures,” launching two futures testnet platforms. According to the rules, users who help test these platforms will receive 10,000 BNB. Moreover, those who vote for the winning platform will receive a 50% discount on trading fees for one month.

Have you seen any business launch 2 competing products at the same time? Well, with @Binance, there is a first time for everything, again.

Our Futures is in your hands! http://t.co/BNxjUHiULH

— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) September 2, 2019

Binance has introduced a few other interesting products in the past couple of months. Back in July, the exchange enabled margin trading, allowing users to use leverage with various cryptocurrency trading pairs. 

And just a few days ago, Binance launched the Binance Lending platform. It allows users to lend their crypto, namely Binance Coin, Tether (USDT), and Ethereum Classic (ETC) for a preset amount of time with an annualized interest rate. 

Competition For BitMEX?

BitMEX is currently one of the most popular Bitcoin margin trading platforms around, allowing traders to use up to 100x leverage with certain perpetual contracts. 

With Binance stepping into the field of futures and derivatives, however, things might get a bit more challenging for BitMEX. 

Moreover, BitMEX has been the target of a CFTC probe since July, which has caused some issues for the exchange. Nevertheless, data from TokenAnalyst shows that BTC net inflows to BitMEX over the past 30 days are up around 26%, while net inflows to Binance are up around 19%.

Still, it will be very interesting to see how Binance’s new acquisition will impact the market, if at all.