Binance Futures Review, Month 8: Post-Halving Era

2020-05-14

In this latest monthly review, Binance Futures VP Aaron Gong contemplated on the major changes between the past two Bitcoin halving events. Also, Binance is the only major exchange to report crypto derivatives volume growth in April.

During the previous Bitcoin halving event in 2016, the crypto derivatives market was still in its infancy. Traders were more or less forced to express their opinions via spot; as such, most miners could only either hold onto their block rewards or sell in the spot market to pay for operating costs.

So much has changed in the last 4 years; it’s the first time that users who are looking to hedge or speculate have the ability to trade on Binance Futures. Now, with a liquid derivatives market at Binance, miners are able to hedge and lock in future bitcoin prices in order to cover expenses without selling bitcoins. 

We also saw continuing interest from market participants wanting to capture trading opportunities on Binance Futures before the halving. In April, Binance was the only exchange to report growth in derivatives volume, continuing its growth trend for the third consecutive month. Binance’s derivatives market volume increased by 11.6% in April, to $108 billion. The uptrend momentum continued in our 8th month. 

Source: CryptoCompare

Campaigns are the theme of the past month. We concluded our second global tournament, with 885 teams and 31,071 participants attending. Again, congratulations to all winners and teams.  Additionally, we launched the following campaigns: 

  • Binance Online Super Meetup

  • Binance Futures x Stream Promo Contest with Cryptonet

  • Binance Futures x CryptoPotato Airdrop 

We also introduced three features below: 

  • Trailing Stop - pre-set your orders for market swing

  • Batch orders - place multiple orders via API

  • Real-time funding rate - display real-time rates of all pairs in one page 

Constant innovation and introducing new features are core to us, even during this unusual time. The Halving was a scheduled event but no one could foresee it happen during a pandemic. But even so, while observers are closely monitoring the wider global economy, interest in crypto has only strengthened. Bloomberg reported last week that Tudor BVI, a hedge fund operated by Tudor Investment Corporate, may hold as much as a low single-digit percentage of its assets in Bitcoin futures, signaling the entry of more institutional investors. The question is how will the market look like at the next halving in 2024?

- AG, Binance Futures VP