Deribit Cryptocurrency Futures & Options Trading Platform Review

Bitcoin and Ethereum Options Exchange

Deribit is a popular cryptocurrency futures and options exchange with trading leverages enabled up to a very attractive 100x. The leverage you are trading with depends on the equity you have in your account. Deribit uses cross-margin auto leverage. For example: if you wish to trade with 10x leverage and want to open a position of 1 BTC in the Perpetual, you’ll need to have 0.1 BTC in your account. They do have sub accounts, so you can open a separate account for each trade. A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell a bitcoin at a predetermined price at a specified time in the future. 1 contract is 10 USD.

Launched back in 2016, the platform was originally based in Amsterdam but has since moved to Panama. John Jansen, CEO and Co-founder, developed the Deribit exchange for several years to ensure it would be both useful and incredibly fast. With <1ms latency now achieved, Deribit is one of the fastest exchanges in the industry. In terms of crypto options, the platform is arguably the best and is also one of the top dogs for futures trading. The CTO and other Co-founder is Sebastian Smyczýnski, a career crypto-enthusiast and developer.

The Positives

• Many options trading instruments are available, allowing users to follow various different strategies
• No charges for depositing BTC on the exchange
• BTC deposits are credited after 1 confirmation on the blockchain so that users can get to work quickly
• Privacy is well addressed, with no KYC, AML, or identification required by users
• 2FA is enabled for logging in, as is IP pinning
• The trading interface is easy-to-use and will feel familiar to many experienced traders, and includes:
  • Intervals from 1 minute to 1 day
  • Bollinger bands, RSI and MA analysis
  • Heikin Ashi candles, standard candles, hollow candles, and bar or area charts
• 99% of the exchange’s funds are in high-security cold wallets, which is good news for users, with the hot wallets being replenished every day
• Open to residents of more than 100 countries! Sign up here.

The Negatives

• Deribit features only Bitcoin and Ethereum, leaving competitors to take advantage of all the other amazing cryptocurrencies out there (BitMex for example, offers 8 different cryptocurrencies for futures trading)
• Deposits can be made only by BTC, and there are no fiat-to-crypto payment options
• Users from the USA and Canada cannot use Deribit at this time
• No live chat agents are available for support, only email tickets

Which cryptocurrencies are available?

Currently, the platform hosts just Bitcoin and Ethereum, the leverages are as follows:

• BTC/USD leverage up to 100x
• ETH/USD leverage up to 50x – the first of their kind in the industry

Some information about fees

A BTC mining fee is charged as standard for deposits.

Futures Contracts	Futures Contracts	Perpetual Futures Contracts	Options Contracts
Maker’s Fee	0.02%	0.025%	0.04%
Taker’s Fee	0.05%	0.075%	0.04%
Delivery Fee	0.025%	0.025%	0.02%
Liquidation	0.15%	0.15%	0.15%

Please note that liquidation fees go straight to Deribit’s insurance fund. More information on fees can be found here.

The final say

Deribit is a reputable futures exchange, as it has nicely positioned itself as a specialist and high performer in this niche. There are few other platforms that can offer their services for Ethereum and their liquidity and trading instruments for Bitcoin, making it a very attractive prospect. The rich user experience and excellent UI also makes it a useful platform. With safety and security being key to their smooth operations, we feel that Deribit can be trusted.