FTX Exchange Review 2020 — The Best Crypto Exchange
Getting Started On FTX Exchange
FTX has quickly become a crowd favorite among Traders since the exchange launched in May 2019. While other exchanges such as Binance, Kucoin and Huobi have began to embrace margin and futures trading on their platforms this year, FTX has proven to be one of the best cryptocurrency exchanges for Traders who are looking for an exchange with not only high liquidity but a vast amount of crypto coins to trade with up to 101x leverage.
FTX launched in May of 2019 and was incubated by Alameda Research, a top cryptocurrency liquidity provider. Compared to Exchanges like Kucoin or Huobi, FTX has no issues with liquidity regardless of the current Altcoin market and the lack of volume we’re currently experiencing on most other exchanges. FTX offers Perpetual Futures Contracts, Leveraged Tokens, MOVE Contracts and even an OTC desk built right into the platform.
FTX allows users to deposit cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and convert their holdings to USD Stablecoins for use on the various markets the exchange provides.
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101x Leverage on FTX Exchange
FTX offers up to 101x leverage on various perpetual contracts including BTC, ETH, XTZ and over 20+ other popular cryptocurrencies. FTX also offers index contracts for longing/shorting multiple coins at once, for example, PRIV-PERP takes the overall strength of several privacy cryptocurrencies such as XMR and DASH in order to create a single contract rather than having to go long or short on individual currencies. New contracts are being added constantly including DeFi projects like Compound (COMP), Balancer (BAL) and even newer projects like Solana (SOL) and Swipe (SXP).
Compared to other cryptocurrency exchanges, FTX Exchange is always adding the most popular projects and taking requests from the wider community seriously when deciding which projects to make available on the platform. FTX Exchange also holds votes where FTT holders help decide which projects make it onto the platform next.
Leveraged Tokens
If you’re not interested in trading perpetual contracts, FTX offers their range of Leveraged Tokens that enable traders to spot buy real ERC20 tokens that represent 3x and 10x long positions as well as 1x, 3x and 10x short positions. Leveraged Tokens are an easy way for Traders who aren’t familiar with Futures Contracts to realize larger profits. It’s important to keep in mind that these Leveraged Tokens work similarly to Futures Contracts in the way that not can you maximize your profits using higher leveraged tokens, losses can be made just as quickly.
On each Leveraged Token a simple description is shown which explains each token in simple terms. For instance, the 3X Long Matic Network Token (MATICBULL) is an ERC20 token which seeks a return that corresponds to 3 times the daily return of Matic Network. Here’s a more detailed description from the FTX Leveraged Tokens Help page.
Leveraged Tokens on FTX are becoming increasingly popular with traders that wish to avoid funding rates, liquidation levels and other metrics that come with trading traditional perpetual contracts. Traders who are looking to explore leveraged positions but want to start out small can benefit greatly from these tokens. FTX Exchange were the first popular exchange to offer leveraged tokens on the Ethereum blockchain and we’ve seen other exchanges such as Binance follow suite.
Options Trading
Bitcoin Options are just like traditional options but often riskier due to the volatility of cryptocurrencies in general. As FTX describes it on the Options Introductions page, Bitcoin Options give Traders the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell Bitcoin at a predetermined date and price.
Calls & Puts are set with parameters such as Strike Price, Expiration Date and Underlying Asset. We highly recommend reading the Introduction page prior to investing any serious funds into options trading as Bitcoin Options are somewhat similar to Bitcoin Futures but have various points of difference that make them inherently risky to less experienced Traders.
FTX Exchange is one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges to offer Bitcoin Options and are our top recommendation when deciding which exchange to trade on.
Volatility Contracts & Trading
FTX Exchange offers traders several contracts based around volatility of various metrics. BVOL, BTC-MOVE as well as BTC Options are all profitable depending on how volatile an asset is. BVOL, for example, is a token that rises based on the volatility of BTC and falls when BTC is consolidating within a tight range. For traders that aren’t sure if Bitcoin is about to rise or fall, a stake in BVOL is the best bet. This mechanism allows traders to profit from Bitcoin regardless of whether it goes up or down.
FTX Exchange is one of the first to offer contracts based on instrument volatility and there’s no doubt that the team is going to add more major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum to the roster of contracts in the near future. Tokens such as BVOL offer traders the unique advantage of avoiding any sort of liquidation that they would normally have to take on when trading traditional perpetual contracts. BVOL tokens can also be sent to other addresses seeing as they’re ERC20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain
Trading volatility is becoming more popular as traders look for an edge on the competition and safer contracts in times of uncertainty. FTX Exchange has even gone as far as to list BTC Hashrate as a contract, allowing traders to bet on the hashrate fluctuations on the bitcoin network. FTX Exchange are the kings in innovation when it comes to exchange features
FTT — The FTX Exchange Token
FTT is the native token to FTX Exchange. FTT gives fee rebates to holders as well as access to new listing votes and most recently access to the Serum (SRM) IEO held on the exchange. As little as $100 USD worth of FTT needs to be held in order to qualify for a 3% trading fee discount but discounts up to 60% are on offer for those who wish to accumulate large amounts.
FTX Exchange currently buys back their own FTT token from the market equal to 33% of the fees generated on the exchange, 10% of the net additions to the FTX insurance fund and then an additional 5% of fees earned from various other uses of FTT on the exchange. FTT is bought back on a weekly schedule so there are no mysterious burns like those seen performed by exchanges like Binance. If you’re trading on FTX, owning FTT is extremely valuable and more use cases for the token are being brought in on a regular basis.
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FTX Exchange — Pros & Cons
FTX Exchange is one of the most innovative exchanges operating at the time of writing. With leverage on 20+ popular altcoins, indexes and volatility contracts as well as just as many leveraged tokens to choose from, there’s not much reason to trade elsewhere once you’re setup on FTX. There are some downsides to trading on such an advanced platform but with a bit of experience most of these can be overcome.
Pros:
- Perpetual contracts for all popular Altcoins
- Volatility contracts and Options trading
- Index contracts for exposure to more than one altcoin
- Leveraged tokens for limiting account risk
- Heavy focus on trading while also enabling spot purchases
- FTT token has various use cases on FTX Exchange
- Consistently adding requested tokens and listening to community.
- Recently launched IEO feature and first project.
- High referral fee rebates (30%)
Cons
- UX/UI can be confusing to new traders. Experienced traders will have no issues.
- Some more obscure contracts can lack liquidity at times
- KYC required for large withdrawals and IEO participation
FTX exchange is an excellent place to trade a wide range of contracts and instruments. New traders may struggle at first but traders with experience on any other exchange offering perpetual contracts will have no issues here. FTX Exchange is our top recommended exchange in 2020.
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FTX Exchange Fees
FTX Exchange offers some of the lowest fees in the industry, reducing high volume traders fees to as low as 0.01% should they reach a particular threshold, and that’s before FTT balances are taken into account which can reduce fees even further. Maker and Taker fees differ greatly as FTX tries to attract Makers to provide liquidity. FTX does a far better job than other exchanges at attracting liquidity due to the large discounts Makers get on their orders.
FTX Exchange Fees are the following
- Tier 1 || <$1m volume over 30 days || Make fees = 0.02% || Take fees = 0.07%
- Tier 2 || >$1m volume over 30 days || Make fees = 0.02% || Take fees = 0.06%
- Tier 3 || >$5m volume over 30 days || Make fees = 0.015% || Take fees = 0.055%
- Tier 4 || >$10m volume over 30 days || Make fees = 0.015% || Take fees = 0.05%
- Tier 5 || >$15m volume over 30 days || Make fees = 0.01% || Take fees = 0.045%
- Tier 6 || >$30m volume over 30 days || Make fees = 0.01% || Take fees = 0.04%
Holders of FTT tokens get further discounts as mentioned in our breakdown of the FTT token above but cannot decrease taker fees below 0.015%. Overall fees on FTX Exchange are extremely low and the thresholds that are required to qualify for these fee reductions are very reasonable for any serious trader.
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FTX Exchange Leaderboard
Once you think you’ve mastered the platform FTX Exchange provides, there are various leaderboards available for you to rank on. PnL screenshots and tweets aside, the real traders are front and center on the FTX leaderboard. Various trading competitions take advantage of this part of the exchange and users can remain completely anonymous.
Show the rest of the trading community what you can do. Signup to FTX today and get trading!
Trade on FTX Exchange. Make The Switch Today
A Wide Range Of Markets
Trade Bitcoin, Altcoins and even DeFi projects at FTX Exchange
A+ Support On Demand
A strong Twitter presence and quick email support keep you out of trouble
Perps, Options & More
Markets to suit Beginners and Experts alike
Their Native FTT Token
FTT holders receive reduced fees and rewards as the platform grows
