Deribit, the popular crypto futures and options exchange, today updated users on future developments to take place on the exchange by releasing a mini 2019 Roadmap. The development view forward comes on the heels of the launch of Ethereum (ETH) derivatives support.
So far this year, Deribit has managed the launch of ETH products (perpetual swaps, futures, and options), reduce only stops enabling much more convenient position/risk management and released v2.0 of both its UI and API.
2019 Roadmap Highlights
Layout v3.0 – Despite only recently launching v2.0 of the user interface to accommodate new currencies, the next version is already largely developed and should be ready for release in the next couple of months. This will bring a completely customizable layout allowing users to reposition and resize every element of the trading screen. It will also bring a depth chart to the futures and the ability to see the order books, recent trades, current positions and order form on the same page as the option chain.
Mass Quote Protection – There are around 100 different strike price/expiry date combinations on Deribit at any given time, and that’s just for bitcoin. Then consider that each one of these has both a put and a call, and a bid and ask. That is a lot of instruments that the liquidity providers need to quote on simultaneously.
Mass quote protection allows the market makers to quote larger sizes on each instrument without being overly exposed to the risk of having every order hit at once. As a simple example say an account is protected for anything over 500 contracts, once 500 contracts of that account orders have been hit in a given time period the rest of their orders will be canceled, allowing them time to hedge or reposition the rest of their orders accordingly.
This will not only protect the liquidity providers from taking on positions too large for them in a short space of time, but will also allow for considerably better liquidity across the whole option chain which will benefit all traders.
Block Trade Functionality – A block trade helps two parties who wish to transact larger sizes to do so privately without exposing themselves to risk on the public order book. They both agree on a price and this is then executed in full without the need for either party to place the order on the order book. This will make the process of executing large privately arranged trades considerably easier.
Deribit Analytics – The more information available to traders the better decisions they can make. With this in mind, Deribit is developing a separate analytics website that will offer a range of new tools based on live data from Deribit. This will include volume, option statistics, historical funding data, equity charts, and volatility data. The analytics site will provide all traders with useful data that is relevant to their trading decisions.
Education Tracks – Educating users on how to use the platform and also how to trade the derivatives on offer is extremely important to Deribit. Derivatives can have a steep learning curve, particularly options. The goal is to create an educational resource that will make Deribit accessible and easy to use for as many people as possible. Reducing any barrier to entry by providing all the resources anyone could need to get the most out of the platform.
Additional Currency Listings – While bitcoin is still king in the cryptocurrency space with a market share of around 50% at the time of writing, there is a serious and growing demand for additional currencies. The ETH product development brought with it several important upgrades. The new user interface and API have now moved from being a single currency system to supporting multiple currencies. This means adding more currencies in the future will be a more streamlined process.
Advanced Order Types – Deribit users already have access to limit orders, market orders, stop orders (both limit and market), post only, hidden and reduce only order types. But more advanced order types are also planned for the future. Advanced order types such as One Cancels Other (OCO) and trailing stops will give traders even more flexibility in how they structure their trades, and more freedom to step away from the screen knowing their orders will execute exactly as they intend.
“With these upcoming features and continued development Deribit intends to remain at the forefront of the crypto derivatives market by giving traders all the tools they need. And it’s not just the platform itself that is being improved. The Deribit team is also continuing to expand, providing support in more languages, expanding into new markets and developing strategic partnerships and integrations with other companies and software providers. 2019 has been a very successful year so far and there is plenty more to come in the very near future.”
