Crypto derivatives exchange, Bybit took one step closer to its ultimate goal of being the world’s most influential digital-asset platform with the launch of a spot market.
The Singapore-based exchange announced that it would immediately support USDT trading pairs with other four cryptocurrencies, namely bitcoin, ripple, EOS and ethereum. Upon launch, Bybit users will trade BTC/USDT, ETHUSDT, XRPUSDT and EOSUSDT, with more trading pairs to be listed shortly.
The new product is the latest addition to Bybit’s focused service portfolio, which has registered substantial growth over the past few months. While the spot market launch is a major milestone, Bybit sees it as a logical step within the exchange’s broader roadmap.
“It has been Bybit’s utmost privilege to have enjoyed the ardent support of our community and partners as we continue to grow and improve. We are excited to bring with us to spot trading the world-class liquidity and reliability derivatives clients have come to associate with Bybit.”
Ben Zhou, co-founder and CEO of Bybit.
This move comes as Bybit recognized the overall market growth as a key factor and prepared their infrastructure well to take advantage of it by increasing server capacity and building in redundancy.
Many of Bybit’s team members already have backgrounds working with exchanges and clearinghouses, but the launch of a spotting platform is definitely a nontrivial amount of work.
A spot market is an essential part of the Crypto investment ecosystem, and alongside derivatives, it plays an equally important role in the digital asset space.
Crypto volatility increases attention to spot market
Spot trading is the most basic type of investment for any asset class, given it entails buying and selling cryptocurrencies for immediate delivery. In other words, traded assets are directly transferred between market participants.
In the past, Crypto derivative volumes have frequently exceeded their counterpart turnover in the spot market. But as prices have been on a wild streak this year, the spot market has gained more traction.
In the background, spot trading venues act as intermediaries for buyers and sellers to bid and ask for supported crypto coins. One of its major advantages is that it operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Bybit has recently extended its know-your-customer (KYC) procedures to more users as it seeks to protect clients’ funds further. The exchange cited the launch of ETH futures, the introduction of spot trading and hot wallets for making the change in anticipation of significantly higher trading volumes.
Bybit has a long-standing reputation in cryptocurrency derivatives trading. At press time, the Asian exchange accounts for $8.4 billion in 24-hour volumes. That share of the market turnover puts Bybit just behind three derivatives exchanges in terms of global ranking.
Established in 2018, Bybit provides online trading and mining services and API support to retail and professional investors. In contrast to many crypto platforms, Bybit’s onboarding process is seamless, eschewing the usual KYC process for new users before trading.