Crypto Exchange Binance Rolls Out Bitcoin Options Trading On Mobile App

The largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance, announced that it will be offering trading in options exclusively on its mobile app. This news comes after the exchange hinted about testing options trading earlier this month.

Binance Launches Bitcoin Options Trading

Binance has officially launched options trading on the exchange’s latest version of its mobile crypto trading app, according to the official announcement. 

Options are trading tools that give users an efficient way to hedge their bets by allowing them to buy or sell the underlying asset at a predetermined price at a specified date.

With Binance options, traders will be able to exercise their rights any time before and including the expiry date as they will be American style options. The underlying asset with these options will be the BTCUSDT Binance Futures contract.

To begin trading in Binance’s options, users will be required to login to the mobile app on either Android or iOS from where they will be able to transfer their preferred amount of USDT from the spot wallet to the futures wallet. Advertisement

They will then choose the expiry date ranging from 10 minutes to 1 day. This is notably a short-dated expiry period compared to traditional options.

Binance noted that traders will have to pay a premium fee before they can own an options contract. This fee will be deducted from the futures wallet balance after the profits have been calculated. This means that the net profit for traders’ options trades will be equal to the profit minus the premium.

Binance further warned that options trading is risky as there is “no guarantee that your options purchase will execute at a profit after the premium has been deducted.” Traders should, therefore, exercise cautious optimism as some options purchases can be very profitable. 

Binance becomes the latest entity to launch bitcoin options trading. The CME Group and Bakkt launched regulated bitcoin options just months ago. Deribit exchange, however, remains the world’s largest BTC options market by volume.

Suffice it to say, Binance’s foray into the options market poses serious competition to these other derivatives platforms. 

Binance Continues With Its Expansion Plans Amid Global Economic Meltdown

Notably, the ongoing coronavirus-fuelled economic downturn has not slowed down Binance’s expansion plans.

In late-March Binance launched a visa-issued Binance card that will allow users to shop online and also make payments from anywhere in the world. 

Moreover, the exchange also unveiled a bitcoin mining pool earlier this month ahead of the halving slated for next month.

Perhaps the most astounding move was Binance’s purchase of the most-referenced crypto data aggregation platform, CoinMarketCap (CMC) for an alleged $400 million. Despite concerns that Binance would manipulate CMC, Binance’s Changpeng Zhao assured that the two would work independently moving forward.