CoinCheckup

Tag: Exchanges

  • How to Create an NFT Collection & Mint Your Own NFTs on Binance NFT?

    How to Create an NFT Collection & Mint Your Own NFTs on Binance NFT?

    Binance is the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, and it offers a simple interface, high security, and a wide range of features. Founded in 2017, the exchange is the largest in the world in terms of both trading volume and user base.

    Suitable for everyone from beginners to professionals, Binance’s offering spans spot trading, highly leveraged futures, staking opportunities, an NFT marketplace, and an Academy and blog where you can learn about what’s going on in the market. Binance operates in accordance with different regulations in more than 180 countries it serves.

    To use Binance, you must complete a KYC verification and then turn on security measures such as two-way verification. You keep your funds safe when trading, transferring crypto, withdrawing funds, and in many cases, with two-factor authentication. You can use Binance with a browser, a Windows and Mac compatible desktop app, and an Android and iOS compatible mobile app.

    In this article, we’ll be focusing on the Binance NFT platform, which allows users to buy, trade and mint NFTs (non-fungible tokens).

    Explore and Mint NFTs on Binance NFT

    What are NFTs?

    Non-fungible tokens, better known as NFTs, are digital assets that can be proven as unique through cryptographic means. Used to represent tangible and intangible items on the blockchain, NFTs provide individuals with proof of ownership. With many use cases including music, artwork, digital collectibles, in-game items, and official documents, this technology is the fastest growing sector of the crypto industry.

    NFTs are cryptographic assets that contain identifying information created by smart contracts. Each NFT has metadata that distinguishes it from other NFTs. CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Azuki, Clone X, and many more NFTs, which are frequently seen on social media, are part of NFT collections that contain thousands of different NFTs. NFT collections often consist of algorithmically-generated images that have many different properties and rarities, and are priced according to how they contain these rare properties. Collections usually have a limited number of NFTs, such as 5,000, 10,000, or 20,000.

    In NFT games or metaverses, in-game items are limited in number and their ownership belongs entirely to the NFT owner. Players can use whatever NFTs they have, trade them on NFT marketplaces, or even stake or lease NFTs. The highest volume NFT marketplace on the BNB Chain blockchain is Binance NFT.

    Mint Your Own NFTs on Binance NFT

    If you are interested in the NFT world and the Binance NFT marketplace, you can take the first step to minting an NFT. To mint NFT in this marketplace, you just need to have completed your identity verification and gained at least 5 followers.

    Binance strives to ensure that anyone who is enthusiastic can join the world of NFT, regardless of their level of knowledge or experience. When creators meet this world, they can see that their creations reach their maximum value.

    Binance allows NFTs of all sizes and shapes to be issued on its platform. Check out the step-by-step guide below to create an NFT collection and mint NFTs on Binance.

    Creating an NFT Collection

    You can go to the user center to create an NFT collection. When creating a collection, you will be asked for information such as your preferred blockchain network and royalties. You must upload a logo and banner images for your collection.

    After reading and accepting the Binance NFT Minting Rules and Terms of Service, you should click the “Create” button. After creating the NFT collection, the information is committed to the blockchain and then cannot be changed, so you must ensure that the information is correct.

    Select the wallet address

    The wallet address you specify when creating the collection will be the owner of the smart contract on the blockchain. You use this wallet to collect royalties and claim ownership of NFTs in the collection.

    Minting NFTs

    Your wallet should have enough ETH if you selected the Ethereum network when creating the collection, and enough BNB if you selected the BNB Chain network. Once you have enough coins to cover the NFT minting fees, you are ready to mint the NFT. You can view the collection options or create a new one while minting the NFT.

    NFT Properties

    You can add up to 100 properties to NFTs. These attributes can determine the rarity of NFTs in your collection. An NFT, which has a rare property, is more valuable than others. Once you accept the Binance NFT Minting rules and click the Create button, the transaction will be completed. The automated verification system will review and confirm your NFT. To get timely updates about your collection and NFTs, you can enable notifications by going to User Center, Settings, Notifications.

    Listing NFTs

    After you create a collection and mint an NFT, you can choose whether to list the entire collection or just a few NFTs from it. If you decide to list, NFT will be available for sale on the Binance NFT Marketplace at a price you set, or will be auctioned at the terms you set.

    Binance NFT Content Verification System

    Binance has clearly stated cases of content violations in its rules. The verification system does not endorse NFTs that contain violence, spam, objectionable content, abuse, or fraudulent use. Each user can report NFTs on the platform that violate the terms of service. If the NFT actually violates the terms of service or rules, the content will be restricted or removed altogether.

    You can visit the official Binance website to learn everything you need to know when it comes to the rules and guidelines for minting NFTs.

    Collection Creation Fee

    Two networks that can be used to create collections on Binance NFT are BNB Chain and Ethereum. When creating a collection on one of the two networks, it is necessary to pay a gas fee. The smart contract deployment fee for Ethereum is about 0.75 ETH, while for BNB Smart Chain it is 0.04 BNB. Minting an NFT on BNB will only cost a few cents. To access the collections you have created, enter your user profile and click the Created button.

    Selling NFTs

    Want to sell an NFT you’ve created or purchased on the marketplace? You can select the NFT you want to sell by clicking the NFT Asset tab in your profile. You can decide on all the specific parameters for the NFT you will list on the market. You can choose to sell the NFT for a fixed price or set up a timed auction. You can choose the crypto currency you want as the payment option.

    You will be asked to choose a category to list NFTs in and write a description to inform potential buyers. The NFT listing will go through the verification phase by the Binance team. Within 8 hours, the listing request will be approved and your NFT will be available for sale on the terms you specify.

    Why Should I Create an NFT Collection on Binance?

    Binance NFT is a relatively new platform. In the past, only approved NFT creators could mint NFT collections on the platform, but Binance has now enabled this function for all its users. If you are looking to showcase your NFTs to millions of users and visitors by joining the vast Web3 ecosystem, this platform is one of the best in the ecosystem.

    Users who want to step into the NFT world often have to have coding knowledge and face high costs. In terms of transaction volume, TVL, dApp hosting, NFT trading, and other metrics, BNB Chain ranks among the top three blockchains. BNB, which ranks second after Ethereum among the smart contract platforms with the highest market value, has many advantages over its rival Ethereum. Creating NFT collections, minting NFTs, and trading on the Ethereum network is both a slow and costly process compared to BNB.

    Binance charges a 1% fee on NFT trading. This is a very low rate compared to the other most well-known NFT marketplace OpenSea, because OpenSea charges 2.5% for transactions.

    High Liquidity

    In addition to offering low gas fees to its users, Binance has high liquidity both as a cryptocurrency exchange and NFT marketplace. The high liquidity of a platform means that you will have an easier time selling or trading your cryptocurrency or NFT.

    Conclusion

    Many NFT collections and DeFi applications, including Mobox and Pancake Squad, choose BNB Chain as their blockchain platform. Binance NFT Market offers digital content creators great opportunities to monetize their content on a widely adopted blockchain while keeping minting costs low.

  • World Series of Trading Event Sets New Record amid Crypto Market Dip

    World Series of Trading Event Sets New Record amid Crypto Market Dip

    Key Takeaways

    • The World Series of Trading (WSOT) competition records massive success in terms of participants and prize money
    • Traders gained profits as high as 10,000% and the prize pool was up to $8 Million
    • Bybit continues to partner with UNICEF for the event, donating up to $40,000 for STEAM education program targeted at a vulnerable female student population in the Pacific and East Asia
    • The competition is described as a sign of hope for the crypto industry, amidst the market dip of 2022

    The World Series of Trading (WSOT) competition, which was held on July 17, hit new records despite the continued market dip being faced by the crypto sector this year, 2022. The world’s largest crypto trading competition, which saw traders gain profits as high as 10,000%, lasted for 20 days with a prize pool of up to $8 Million. The high numbers in profit simply added to the intensity of this year’s WSOT competition, making it even more interesting.

    WSOT 2022 – A Record-Breaking Competition

    Crypto users and investors now equate the World Series of Trading competition to be the world cup in the crypto trading world. It attracted up to 70,000 users with versatile skills in crypto trading. This year’s event also saw the prize pool doubled when compared to that of 2021. Last year’s event also saw only half of this year’s participants.

    In this year’s competition, the prize pool was segmented into three, where the largest chunk of the prize pool ($6 Million) went for the Squad Race event.  The Speed Zone Loot Events and Solo race each went for $1 million. There were also enough bonuses throughout the course of the competition. Bybit awarded participants over 1,000 NFT prizes as a bonus, some of which included the popular Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs and the CloneX NFT.

    The success of the World Series of Trading competition, amidst the backlash of the 2022 crypto bear market, reinforces the resilience of the cryptocurrency universe. It is also expected to have a positive impact in the industry.

    WSOT 2022 attracted a highly diverse audience.  The event saw participants from more than 1000 squads spread across 182 regions contesting for the big prize.  Of the 3,241 members, the Korean Titans were the largest team to play. Some of the other teams with many members include the Satto Squad and Sniper Squad.

    Changing the World with Crypto Competition

    Since the World Series of Trading Event entails smartness, bravery and keen knowledge of crypto trading, Bybit aligns with relevant bodies when hosting it. The dynamic exchanges is still in partnership with UNICEF, using the event to promote the education and enlightenment of women in both the Pacific and East Asia. This time, a donation of up to $400,000 in BTC was made to the relevant UNICEF department.

    According to reliable information, the donation will go towards facilitating the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) education program, mainly targeted toward young girls in a mountainous province in Vietnam.

    Looking Ahead

    Co-founder and CEO of Bybit, Ben Zhou, has expressed appreciation for the success of the World Series of Trading (WSOT) competition. He described the remarkable increase in the number of participants and its massive success as a sort of hope for crypto users, traders and investors amidst the continued market dip in 2022.

     In his words:

    “This competition demonstrated the unwavering faith of crypto enthusiasts all over the world; it’s a beacon of hope in the bear market.”

    With the conclusion of the competition phase of WSOT 2022, the afterparty is the next. It is also expected to be better than previous ones, in all ramifications. 

  • What Can You Do to Help Protect Your Assets on When Trading on Binance Margin?

    What Can You Do to Help Protect Your Assets on When Trading on Binance Margin?

    Margin trading allows users to access leverage and trade with larger positions while committing a smaller amount of capital. This is achieved through borrowing funds. For example, if you supply 1,000 USDT as collateral to borrow 2,000 USDT, you can enter a trading position that’s worth 3,000 USDT. This would be an example of 3:1 leverage (some people prefer to say 3x).

    Through margin trading, traders can achieve outsized returns if they predict the direction of the market correctly. For example, let’s say that we went long on Bitcoin in the example above. If the price of Bitcoin were to increase after we opened the trade, we’d be making the same absolute profits (setting aside fees and interest) as if we had invested 3,000 USDT, even though we only put up 1,000 USDT of our own funds as collateral.

    However, the risk of losses is amplified in the same way. If the price of Bitcoin were to drop, our losses in absolute terms (setting aside fees and interest) would be the same as if we had invested 3,000 USDT. In the worst case scenario, we would lose the entire 1,000 USDT that we put up as collateral.

    While simple spot trading or even just passively buying and holding will do for most cryptocurrency investors, many people want to pursue more active trading strategies where the ability to access leverage can come in very handy.

    Binance is offering much lower interest rates for margin traders

    The Binance cryptocurrency exchange is addressing this demand with a feature-packed margin trading product which offers a large selection of coins, a lot of flexibility when it comes to leverage, and support for different margin types (Cross Margin and Isolated Margin).

    At the time of writing, Binance is offering significantly reduced interest rates for users that are borrowing funds for the purposes of margin trading. Currently, the reduced interest rates apply for users who are borrowing Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Binance USD (BUSD) and Tether USD (USDT).

    Trade with Reduced Interest Rates on Binance Margin

    For regular users, the annualized interest rate for borrowing BTC and ETH has been slashed from 7.3% to 3.65%, while the interest rates for borrowing BUSD and USDT have been cut from 14.6% to 7.3%. Users with VIP-level accounts can access even lower interest rates.

    How to protect your assets when trading on margin?

    The reduced interest trades make margin trading on Binance a much more attractive proposition, but it’s important to keep in mind that it still carries significant risks. In this article, we’ll be taking a look at five ways you can help protect your assets while trading on margin.

    1. Choose a well-established exchange

    The popularity of leveraged trading has resulted in a large number of cryptocurrency exchanges offering the service—some platforms have even been launched that only specialize in highly leveraged trading, and don’t even offer spot trading services. And while there’s certainly a lot of quality exchanges that are still looking to establish themselves in the market, there’s also many platforms that suffer from low liquidity, poor customer service, and lax security practices.

    Unless you have very specific needs, it’s better to choose a more established cryptocurrency exchange if you’re looking for margin trading services. They likely have much stronger security measures, and are more likely to have sufficient capital to compensate affected users in the event of a security breach. Liquidity is also important—trading on illiquid exchanges can result in slow trades and unpredictable prices.

    Binance has been operating since 2017, and is the most liquid cryptocurrency trading platform in the world. They also have the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), which has been established to protect user funds in emergency situations.

    2. Understand the difference between Isolated Margin and Cross Margin

    You can access two margin trading modes when you’re margin trading on Binance – Isolated Margin and Cross Margin.

    In Isolated Margin mode, the risk is contained to each trading pair you’re using. In other words, if you have a long position open on the BTC/USDT trading pair that’s going poorly and is close to liquidation, you have to either close the trade at a loss or provide more margin manually. In the event of liquidation, you will only lose the margin that you committed to the position—the rest of your positions will be unaffected. On Binance, regular users can have up to 10 Isolated Margin trading pairs active simultaneously.

    In Cross Margin mode, your entire margin account balance is shared among all the positions you have open. Funds from one position can be moved to another position to avoid liquidation. This can be useful, but can also result in your entire margin account being liquidated. When using Cross Margin, you can use many different crypto assets as collateral.

    3. Monitor your Margin Level

    When margin trading cryptocurrency on Binance Margin, you have to pay very close attention to your Margin Level. The Margin Level tells you the risk level of your Margin Account, more specifically the ratio between your Account Equity and your Total Debt. The higher your margin level, the better.

    If you’re using Isolated Margin, you will have a separate Margin Level for each trading pair. If you’re using Cross Margin, you will have one Margin Level for your entire margin account.

    As a rule of thumb, the best scenario is when your Margin Level is above 2—this will give you access to full functionality, and you will be able to trade and borrow, as well as transfer assets out of your margin account to your other accounts on Binance.

    However, depending on the margin mode you are using and the amount of leverage, there will be different key Margin Level values to watch out for. For example, if you’re using Cross Margin and 3x leverage, you will get a margin call if your margin level drops to 1.3 or below. If it drops to 1.1, your Cross Margin account will be liquidated to repay your debt.

    Before you start trading, make sure to check the complete breakdown of how Margin Level and margin calls work on the official Binance website.

    4. Use stop losses

    One of the most important tools you have to avoid bigger losses while trading are stop losses. When trading on Binance Margin, you can set up a stop loss via the “Stop-limit” order type, which is a combination of a stop trigger and a limit order. The Stop-limit order type also allows you to choose the price level at which you’d like to exit the trade at a profit. Since the topic of this article is about protecting your assets, let’s focus on how Stop-limit orders can help you avoid big losses.

    For example, if you go long on BTC when it’s trading at $32,000, you can use a Stop limit order to place a stop at a lower level, for example $31,200. You also have to specify a price for the limit order that will be automatically submitted once the price reaches the stop level. If you’re trying to protect yourself from losses on a long position, you will typically set the limit sell order below your stop price.

    Stop losses are extremely useful—they give you the ability to define the maximum amount of money you’re willing to lose if the trade is unsuccessful.

    5. Cooling-off Period

    Trading with leverage is a risky endeavor that can be highly stressful. Some traders will try to “win back” their losses after an unsuccessful trade by entering a new, riskier trade with higher leverage. This can quickly turn into a downwards spiral where losses begin accumulating very rapidly.

    Binance has introduced a feature called the Cooling-off Period which essentially allows you to lock yourself out of margin trading for a specified period of time. You can choose a Cooling-off Period of 1 day, 3 days, or 1 week. Keep in mind that once you enable the Cooling-off Period, you can’t disable it until the specified period of time passes.

    The Cooling-off Period can be a useful tool to prevent yourself from making compulsive decisions. However, don’t rely on it completely—if you’re having difficulties with maintaining a disciplined approach and often make hasty trading decisions that you regret shortly after, margin trading is likely not suitable for you.

    Conclusion

    Binance is the premier platform for margin trading cryptocurrencies, offering a large selection of coins, isolated and cross margin, different levels of leverage, and very competitive rates for borrowers. Hopefully, this article provided useful information that will help you protect your assets and minimize potential losses when using Binance Margin.

    It’s important to keep in mind that margin trading is highly risky, even if you’re trading “traditional” assets like stocks. Due to the high levels of price volatility, this is especially true when it comes to cryptocurrencies.

    Binance provides extensive resources about their margin trading products, so make sure to learn about how margin trading works on the exchange before you start trading. As always, don’t invest more than you’re willing to lose.

  • KuCoin Earn – a One-Stop Platform for Earning Passive Income with Crypto

    KuCoin Earn – a One-Stop Platform for Earning Passive Income with Crypto

    Key takeaways:

    • With over 700 supported cryptocurrencies and over 10 million users, KuCoin is among the top 5 crypto trading platforms
    • The exchange’s native financial products platform – KuCoin Earn offers a wide range of passive income opportunities such as earning yield through flexible savings, staking, and various promotion products
    • KuCoin Earn supports over 50 coins and boasts with APRs of up to 150%

    KuCoin is a cryptocurrency exchange that launched in September 2017. In 2018, the platform secured $20 million in Round A funding round led by IDG Capital and Matrix Partners. The company saw continued growth in the following years, and raised $150 million at a valuation of $10 billion in 2022. Today, this Seychelles-headquartered exchange caters the needs of more than 10 million crypto traders from 207 countries and regions around the world.

    KuCoin is among the top 5 cryptocurrency exchanges

    Over 700 supported digital assets and over 1,200 trading pairs make KuCoin one of the biggest altcoin exchanges, while the platform’s trading volumes place KuCoin among the top 5 most popular crypto exchanges. This centralized exchange offers product ranging from spot trading and margin trading all the way to P2P fiat trading, futures trading, staking, and lending.

    The KuCoin exchange is secure, simple, and easy-to-use, which is why the platform is sometimes referred to as the “people’s exchange”.

    What is KuCoin Earn?

    KuCoin Earn is KuCoin’s native one-stop wealth management service that allows users to earn passive income on top of their crypto holdings by locking their crypto assets in various savings and staking deals. KuCoin Earn currently supports over 50 coins and tokens.

    Grow Your Crypto with KuCoin Earn

    KuCoin Earn Products

    KuCoin offers both flexible deals, where users can redeem their funds at any time, as well as products with fixed terms, which means that the funds are redeemed automatically at the product’s maturity. As on other platforms, the yields of fixed term products are usually higher than that of flexible term products.

    The highest APRs, however, are offered on promotional products, which are usually quickly sold out because of their high popularity and limited availability. In addition, KuCoin Earn also allows users to participate in Polkadot parachain auctions and ETH2.0 staking.

    Savings Products

    KuCoin Earn savings products are like a savings account for your crypto assets. These products allow investors to move their crypto assets to flexible or fixed savings products and earn rewards on crypto that would have otherwise been idle.

    At the time of writing, KuCoin offers a 2.87% APR on USDT deposits with a flexible term. The platform also offers a 6% APR on KSM deposits, 10% APR on OLT, 20% APR on DFI and an astonishing high 45% APR on HYDRA deposits. Please note that the rewards are paid out in the same token that’s deposited.

    Staking Products

    KuCoin also facilitates easy one-click staking of coins and tokens. Naturally, the staking products are only offered for coins and tokens belonging to proof-of-stake blockchains. Again, the highest APR of 47.17% is offered for staking HYDRA. Other APRs are as follows: XPRT (27.44%), ZIL (11.17%), KSM (10.26%), VSYS (8.17%), ATOM and DOT (both 7.44%). KuCoin earn also supports staking for coins like MATIC, TRX and ADA.

    Promotions

    Exceptionally high APRs are offered through promotions, but the number of participants or rewards to be distributed among them is usually capped. These products are available on a first come, first served basis, and the ones with the most lucrative rewards are often sold out quickly. KuCoin offers both fixed term promotions, where token holders must lock their tokens for the displayed duration to get rewards, and flexible term promotions, where tokens can be subscribed and redeemed at any time.

    At the time of writing, there are 3 available flexible terms promotions offering an APR of over 50% and 9 flexible terms promotions with an APR of over 30%.

    BurningDrop Token Distribution Platform

    BurningDrop is KuCoin’s fair token distribution platform, where users can lock their crypto assets to access a share of tokens, usually belonging to a newly launched project or blockchain. After locking up their crypto assets, participants can additionally increase their end reward by burning KuCoin Earn’s native Proof of Liquidity (POL) tokens.

    Several blockchain start-ups have already successfully distributed their tokens through KuCoin’s BurningDrop. In the past HORD, TCP, LOCG, LNCHX and XCAD were distributed, while there is an ongoing FreshCut (FCD) distribution at the time of writing.

    Polkadot Parachain Auctions

    KuCoin Earn also allows DOT holders to participate in Polkadot’s parachain auctions. If the project to which a user allocates his DOT stake wins the auction, the user receives on-chain rewards plus a share of the exclusive KuCoin Rewards Pool, while the staked DOT are gradually returned after the lease period. However, if the project fails to win the parachain auction, the user will receive their full DOT stake back immediately.

    ETH 2.0 Staking

    As Ethereum 2.0 staking went live in November 2020 many centralized cryptocurrency exchanges offered an easier way to stake on the new Ethereum chain secured by the proof-of-stake consensus.

    KuCoin is no exception, as it offers an ETH 2.0 staking service which allows users to earn staking ewards on their ETH. The feature makes Ethereum staking much more accessible, since “solo staking” ETH requires a lot of capital upfront (32 ETH) and technical knowledge.

    Users that stake their ETH on KuCoin Earn receive an equal amount of ETH2 tokens, which are issued by KuCoin and represent the rights to an ETH 2.0 token plus the corresponding staking rewards. By holding specific amounts of ETH2 in their main and trading accounts, ETH stakers can earn additional POL mining rewards on top of ETH staking rewards.

    The advantages of using KuCoin Earn

    KuCoin Earn helps you boost your earnings by receiving savings and staking rewards on crypto assets that would otherwise sit idle on your trading account. All assets held in Earn products also count towards the POL mining power, for which you receive some extra income in the form of the POL token. In addition, the suite of products on KuCoin Earn is extremely diverse and flexible. If you subscribe to flexible products, you will be able to immediately withdraw your coins at any time, should the need arise.

    The bottom line

    KuCoin Earn is an easy-to-use platform that offers a wide variety of passive income products. Every user can pick between savings, staking, promotion products and BurningDrop – KuCoin’s token distribution platform based on his needs, expectations, and risk tolerance.

    The platform offers competitive yields while maintaining high flexibility and asset liquidity. It supports over 50 coins and tokens, including BTC, USDT, USDC, ETH, ATOM, SOL, KSM, ZIL and more. Furthermore, the platform’s native POL token enables unique features and can provide additional income in the form of mining rewards.

  • Crypto.com Faces Backlash After Reduced Benefits for Cardholders, CEO Announces “Revised” CRO Staking Rates

    Crypto.com Faces Backlash After Reduced Benefits for Cardholders, CEO Announces “Revised” CRO Staking Rates

    Crypto.com logo

    Key takeaways:

    • The Crypto.com cryptocurrency exchanges has partially walked back its decision to reduce cardholder benefits
    • However, most of the unpopular changes like the reduction of CRO cashback rewards will remain in place
    • The CRO markets have responded negatively to the changes announced by Crypto.com

    Crypto.com partially walks back decision to reduce cardholder benefits

    Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek has announced “revised” card staking rates for owners of the Crypto.com Visa Cards, after a previous announcement from the company was met with a heavy backlash from its userbase.

    The Crypto.com Visa Cards are prepaid cards that allow users to spend cryptocurrency or fiat from their Crypto.com account. The cards come in five different tiers, with progressively larger benefits.

    In order to obtain a Crypto.com Visa Card of the Ruby Steel tier and above, users have to stake CRO tokens in the Crypto.com App Wallet for a period of 6 months (180 days). Higher card tiers require a bigger stake but offer higher cashback rewards, which are paid out with CRO tokens. The cards also offer other benefits like reimbursements of subscriptions to popular services like Spotify and Netflix. Holders of certain card tiers also earn staking rewards on the CRO they staked in order to obtain their card.

    Crypto.com recently announced a large update that reduced the benefits enjoyed by cardholders, which includes significantly reduced cashback rewards and card CRO staking rewards. The exchange says the reason for reducing the benefits is to “ensure long-term sustainability”.

    Midnight Blue cardholders will no longer be earning any cashback rewards on their purchases with the card, while the rewards for Ruby Steel cardholders with an active stake have been slashed from 2% to 0.5%. The cashback rewards were also reduced substantially for other card tiers. Crypto.com is also capping the amount of cashback rewards that can be earned on a monthly basis by Ruby Steel cardholders ($25) and Royal Indigo / Jade Green cardholders ($50).

    In their original announcement (archived version), Crypto.com said that card CRO staking rewards would be phased out entirely for all card tiers. After the backlash from the Crypto.com userbase, Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek said that the CRO staking rewards will be revised to 8% APY for users with Obsidian, Icy White and Frosted Rose Gold cards, and 4% APY for users with Royal Indigo and Jade Green cards. These changes are now also reflected in the company’s official post regarding the reduced benefits.

    Despite these revised CRO staking rates for cardholders, the other unpopular changes like the reduced cashback rates will still be coming into effect starting with June 1.

    Crypto.com’s move to reduce benefits for cardholders has had a negative impact on the CRO market. CRO is one of the worst performers in the cryptocurrency top 100 in the last 7 days, losing around 26% of its value.

  • MoonXBT Review – First Social Trading Platform With Up To 150x Leverage on Bitcoin Options

    MoonXBT Review – First Social Trading Platform With Up To 150x Leverage on Bitcoin Options

    While derivatives trading can be an excellent investment method for turning short-term market volatility into high-earning plays, it typically has a high barrier to entry, which prohibits most newcomers from participating in the lucrative marketplace.

    MoonXBT is looking to challenge this premise. With a unique blend of social-oriented trading features, an easy-to-use interface, and a low fee structure, MoonXBT allows crypto beginners, and experts alike, to make the best out of short-term market volatility or engage in spot market trades for longer term plays.

    Create MoonXBT Account

    Pros of MoonXBT

    • Trade with 1x to 150x leverage
    • Spot trading with market and advanced limit order functionality
    • Intuitive and easy to use trading interface
    • Liquid Contracts offer several benefits over conventional contracts
    • Copy trading benefits both newcomers and experienced traders
    • Options premium is lower than on rival platforms

    Cons of MoonXBT

    • Relatively limited selection of supported digital currencies

    MoonXBT trading features

    MoonXBT supports more than 30 digital currencies that can be traded with a leverage of up to 100x for altcoins and as high as 150x for Bitcoin. The options trading platform allows customers to enter positions with as little as 1 USDT, which underscores MoonXBT’s goal of providing access to trading services to as wide of an investor audience as possible. The platform differentiates itself from most others in the industry with special Liquid Contracts and an intuitive and easy to master trading interface. In addition to crypto derivatives offering, MoonXBT provides access to spot trading as well. We’re going to discuss these features in more detail in the following sections.

    Easy to use trading interface with advanced features

    The MoonXBT market view offers quick access to all of the most important trading features – the features are readily available and located where you would expect them to be. Users who are familiar with TradingView’s offering will be happy to learn that the leading market tracking solution is seamlessly integrated into the MoonXBT platform.

    Trading view provides quick access to options markets available on MoonXBT.

    As one would expect, users are able to make use of advanced charting features, market indicators, and a plethora of customization options that allow them to make precise and efficient trades based on contemporary market patterns.

    One of the stand-out features is definitely the multi-screen trading and the ability to show multiple trading views side by side for an added layer of convenience.

    If you wish to experience the mechanics of options trading in a risk-free environment, you can do so thanks to the Demo mode, which can be accessed through a drop-down menu on the right side of the trading view screen.

    What are liquid contracts?

    Liquid Contracts are MoonXBT’s own take on contract trading, a widely-used investing practice that allows traders to gain exposure to markets without actually owning the underlying asset. For example, a trader using 100x leverage can enter a position of 10,000 USDT with as little as 100 USDT. This means that if the price of an underlying asset increases by just 1%, the trader in this case earns a 100% return.

    Compared to other similar offerings in the market, Liquid Contracts offer several distinct advantages. For starters, MoonXBT’s Liquid Contract can be opened for just 1 USDT and suffers from the minimal risk of overweight taking place. Secondly, Liquid Contract’s handling fee starts at 0.05% with no additional capital cost. Last but not least, Liquid Contracts are anchored to the best price in the global spot market, ensuring reasonable prices and eliminating the possibility of human manipulation. For a more detailed look at Liquid Contacts, click here.

    Perpetual contracts

    MoonXBT has also introduced perpetual contracts, which is a very popular type of derivative among cryptocurrency traders. Perpetual contracts are a product that allows traders to go long on short on specific cryptocurrencies, and utilize leverage. A unique aspect of perpetual contracts is that they don’t have an expiration date—as long as the margin requirements are met, positions can be held indefinitely.

    The perpetual contracts on MoonXBT are denominated in USDT—the margin, profits and losses are calculated in USDT, giving users an intuitive overview of how their trades are performing.

    MoonXBT’s perpetual swap is one-way, meaning a trader can either open a long or short position for one contract instead of holding both long and short position for one contract at the same time.

    Perpetual contracts are a welcome addition to the MoonXBT platform, bringing its offering in line with the biggest cryptocurrency derivatives exchanges on the market.

    Options trading

    MoonXBT offers several options types, which are optimized to streamline and simplify the trading experience. MoonXBT users can take advantage of European spread “call” and “put” options. For context, a call option gives its holder the ability to buy an asset, while a put option gives the holder the option to sell an asset.

    In contrast to European spread options, MoonXBT’s American standalone options provide more flexibility and lower inherent risk as they can be exercised at any point before and including the expiration date. MoonXBT also supports warrant options, which are based on American options, but feature better liquidity and a more streamlined transaction process.

    For those who seek a specified payout based on predetermined upper and lower price trigger levels, MoonXBT offers access to double one-touch options.

    Spot trading

    In addition to a comprehensive suite of derivatives crypto trading products, MoonXBT can also use spot trading functionality. Cryptocurrency traders can choose to grow their portfolios with several of the most popular digital assets, including: 

    All cryptocurrencies listed above can be bought or sold in Tether (USDT) stablecoin trading pairs. MoonXBT users can utilize different order types with different levels of trading precision, including limit, market, and advanced limit orders.

    MoonXBT social trading features

    MoonXBT prides itself on providing an engaging social trading experience that gives experienced traders and casual investors a reason to collaborate and share trading tips and investment strategies. In addition, the platform boasts a highly competitive rewards program and various promotions that make trading on MoonXBT particularly profitable. Learn more about MoonXBT’s core social trading features in the following sections.

    Copy Trading

    One of the highlights of MoonXBT’s focus on the community aspect of trading is the so-called copy trading. The feature can be especially beneficial to novice traders, for the purposes of copy trading called “followers”, who have less experience and time to identify good buying and selling opportunities. Here’s a brief summary of the copy trade feature, as explained by MoonXBT:

    “Investors can choose one or more traders to follow. After following the trader, there is no need to manually open and close positions, and they can directly follow the trader to automatically conduct contract transactions without having to watch the order, so as to maximize the profit!”

    Following the investment strategy of an experienced trader can be a useful shortcut to fast portfolio growth. However, the feature doesn’t benefit only casual investors but offers clear incentives for traders with a proven track record to share their trading endeavors with the community.

    The Copy Trading dashboard display advanced trading stats and sorting filters.

    Those who apply and are selected to become senior members of the MoonXBT community, dubbed “traders,” are able to significantly increase their income flow by earning up to 10% of the follower’s profit share.

    Earn Moonpoints for rich rewards

    MoonXBT’s loyalty program offers rich rewards for high-volume traders and newcomers alike. Also, MoonXBT rewards trading activity and promotional tasks completion with the platform’s own MoonPoints. 

    Affiliate Program

    The trading platform features an affiliate program as well, which lets affiliates earn up to 60% commission on trading fees generated from their referrals. The affiliate program is an excellent choice for those who are looking to earn a steady income and are unwilling to partake in inherently risky derivatives trading.

    Trading Battle

    Customers can participate in the Trading Battle promotion, which pits traders against each other and allows top users to win a share of a community-funded crypto prize pool. Individual Battles can be created by users that hold over 10,000 MoonXBT Points or are subscribed by over 10 subscribers, and feature-rich prize pools. Trading Battle costs 5 USDT to create, but do keep in mind that the creator is eligible to receive 5% of the total prize pool. The rewards distribution follows a very straightforward approach – the higher the profit, the higher the ranking.

    Forum

    MoonXBT’s community forums are a great place to share trading tips and form new and lasting relationships. As long as you stay within the boundaries of community guidelines, you can ask questions about anything trading-related, post your thoughts on the crypto market, or simply read what others have to say about various, mostly derivatives-related topics.

    MoonXBT fees, deposits, and withdrawals

    MoonXBT charges two types of trading fees, namely the fee associated with opening and closing a position and the so-called Overnight financing fee, which is incurred every day at 0:00 UTC on open positions. The base trading fee of 0.05% increases in proportion to leverage and margin levels, based on the following formulas:

    • Trading Fee(Open/Close a position) = Margin * leverage * 0.05%
    • Overnight Financing = Margin * leverage * 0.05%

    In addition to the trading fees described above, MoonXBT charges fixed fees on USDT withdrawals. USDT withdrawals via the OMNI and ERC20 networks cost 28 USDT and 20 USDT, respectively, while TRC20-based USDT withdrawals incur a fee of only 1 USDT.

    The minimum withdrawal is 10 USDT, while the maximum withdrawal amount caps at 30,000 USDT. Most withdrawals are usually processed in minutes, while withdrawals of more than 2,000 USDT can take up to one working day.

    While you can fund your MoonXBT account with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT, be aware that the deposits are automatically converted to USDT. The MoonXBT team is planning to offer bank card and bank transfer fiat deposits and withdrawal options in the near future.

    Is MoonXBT a safe exchange to use?

    MoonXBT is headquartered in the Cayman Islands and has offices across Asia, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. The MoonXBT team includes experts in the field of secure trading systems, which is tasked to protect the exchange against potential malicious activity. 

    MoonXBT also maintains a dedicated insurance fund and risk control system to prevent short-term volatility from having an impact on the platform’s liquidity. Also, most digital assets are held in multi-signature, cold wallets with strong encryption. For an added layer of user account security, MoonXBT allows users to set up 2-factor authentication via their favorite 2FA service. 

    Mobile app

    In addition to its desktop offering, MoonXBT offers access to its trading platform via native applications for the iOS and Android operating systems. The mobile applications provide access to the complete feature set of their desktop counterpart tailored for the smaller screen real estate of handheld devices.

    Customer service

    The MoonXBT support staff can be reached 24/7 via a direct request form on the webpage, email, or through a live chat feature. Multilingual customer support can also be reached through the usual social media channels, including Telegram and Reddit. Before reaching out to the support team, make sure to visit the comprehensive FAQ section, which provides clear and concise information about the platform’s features and a wide range of investment topics.

    Final thoughts

    Although a relative newcomer on the exchange scene, the MoonXBT team has been quickly adding new features to its platform and, thanks to its focus on social aspects of trading, has managed to build a lively community of cryptocurrency investors.

    The team has recently expanded the MoonXBT platform’s offering beyond derivatives exclusivity and launched spot market trading. If you are looking for a cryptocurrency trading platform that makes spot and contracts trading highly accessible and engaging, look no further – MoonXBT is the right platform for you.

  • Bybit Inks $150M Sponsorship Deal With Red Bull Racing F1 Team

    Bybit Inks $150M Sponsorship Deal With Red Bull Racing F1 Team

    Key takeaways:

    • Bybit has signed a three year $150 million deal with Oracle Red Bull Racing 
    • Bybit will help the racing team launch fan tokens and will be its exclusive cryptocurrency exchange sponsor for the next three years
    • Over the past year, several Formula One teams have partnered with crypto-focused businesses

    Bybit, a rapidly growing cryptocurrency trading platform, has signed a three-year deal with the Oracle Red Bull Racing team. The $150 million sponsorship will see Bybit become the exclusive cryptocurrency sponsor of the UK-based Formula One team. 

    Bybit becomes the “Principal Team Partner” of Red Bull Racing, will help the team launch fan token

    According to Wednesday’s announcement, Bybit will become the exclusive “Principal Team Partner” of one of the winningest teams in the world’s most prestigious automotive competition. As a part of the newly-signed $150 million sponsorship, Bybit will become the team’s exclusive crypto exchange partner and will help incubate and release the team’s fan token.

    Red Bull Racing’s drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez are competing in the FIA Formula One Championship driving Honda-powered cars. The team has won five Drivers’ Championship – four consecutive titles from 2010 to 2013, and another one in the 2021 season – and four Constructor’s Championships. 

    Christian Horner, the CEO of Red Bull Racing, believes the partnership between the crypto firm and the racing team will “disrupt the status quo” and introduce new ways of engagement between the team and its global fan base. 

    Ben Zhou, Bybit’s co-founder and its CEO, remarked that Red Bull Racing shares the crypto exchange’s core value and believes the F1 team based out of Milton Keynes revolutionized the automotive landscape in the same way that Bybit revolutionized the cryptocurrency exchange industry.

    Red Bull Racing is not the first Formula One team to partner with a cryptocurrency firm. In mid-2021, FTX crypto exchange signed a multi-year sponsorship deal with Mercedes-AMG Petronas. At the tail end of last year, Scuderia Ferrari inked a partnership with Velas Network, a Swiss-based blockchain company that specializes in NFT-related products. 

    The price of Bybit’s native BitDAO (BIT) token increased to a cycle high of $1.75 on the news, gaining nearly 10% over the last 36 hours.

    Create Bybit Account
  • The Crypto Derivatives Market is Heating Up

    The Crypto Derivatives Market is Heating Up

    The crypto derivatives market is heating up. Hot on the news that Coinbase is buying a crypto futures exchange, FairX, as part of its plans to open up crypto derivatives to US traders, we look at the current offering for those who want to trade decentralized crypto deviatives.

    First of all, let’s start by looking at the difference between centralized and decentralized crypto derivatives. Centralized refers to the conventional money markets, where brokers offer listings on a variety of cryptocurrencies. Usually, the broker takes the other side of the trade, effectively as the market maker.

    The benefits of decentralized derivative exchanges

    Decentralized derivatives as their name suggests work in a different way. In this case exchanges like Binance, OKEx and CoinTiger offer traders the chance to trade contracts on underlying crypto assets often in a peer to peer fashion. In this case, the market makers are the market participants themselves and there is no conflict of interest in this case. Another upside of decentralized derivatives trading is that the market is transparent and there is no question that the prices can be tampered with as in the case of centralized brokers. That’s because all activity takes place on the blockchain, which automatically verifies and authenticates every transaction conducted.

    The downsides of decentralized exchanges

    The downside of this model is often one of depth of liquidity, meaning there are sometimes not enough market participants providing enough liquidity to take the other side of the trade. One derivatives exchange that is completely decentralized and open and is not dealing with shallow liquidity is SynFutures. 

    The platform allows a wide selection of assets, including Ethereum native, cross-chain and off-chain real world assets to be synthesized and traded. It features an Automated Liquidator (ALQ), which minimizes the entry barrier of liquidators and also assists with automating and balancing the liquidation process so the market is always busy and supports more exotic assets with thin liquidity.

    In addition, the platform allows users to list literally any trading pairs in under a minute, that includes blockchain projects that can list their own tokens and thereby create their own margined market. It allows traders to trade and list crypto majors, altcoins, NFTs, indices and real-world assets with a single token via our sAMM model.

    According to SynFutures,  “SynFutures is an innovative project that is driving the growth of DeFi by bringing complex financial instruments such as derivatives to digital assets. People in TradFi have been using derivatives to gain leverage, hedge their positions, or amplify the returns for decades. Users can access the same services in DeFi, thanks to projects like SynFutures.”

    The bottom line

    As traders and institutional investors pile more money into the crypto derivatives markets, decentralized trading is one way for traders to play the markets in a way which is transparent, permissionless and fair.

  • Crypto.com Launches Novel OTC Solution With Instant Quotations, Designed for Institutional Investors and VIPs

    Crypto.com Launches Novel OTC Solution With Instant Quotations, Designed for Institutional Investors and VIPs

    The Crypto.com exchange has announced its institutional and VIP clients will from now on be able to take advantage of the newly launched OTC Portal to more easily execute block trades and thus carry out large over-the-counter (OTC) market orders with greater efficiency.

    Key takeaways:

    • The new feature was launched on November 19 and is currently available only to select large-scale corporate and retail investors. Although there is no definite date for a full launch, the OTC Portal feature will be rolled out to all eligible users “soon,” according to Crypto.com’s blog entry.
    • Over-the-counter trading is used by market participants that wish to trade certain assets between other parties without a central exchange acting as a middleman.
    • The access to OTC trading on Crypto.com is reserved for institutional and VIP clients who frequently place large orders and engage in trading assets between two parties, with minimal interference from a central exchange. 
    • Kris Marszalek, co-founder and CEO of Crypto.com, is excited about the new service: “We are excited to launch our OTC solution for Institutional and VIP clients, allowing them to easily execute block trades and capture market opportunities more efficiently.”
    • The Crypto.com exchange has been receiving a lot of spotlight over the last couple of weeks. The 10 million users strong crypto exchange has recently obtained naming rights to LA’s iconic Staples Center, which will see the prominent sports and entertainment venue be renamed to Crypto.com Arena in a $700+ million deal.
    • Last month, Crypto.com announced that Hollywood superstar Matt Damon will become the face of Crypto.com.
    • Earlier this year, Crypto.com signed a $175 million 10-year contract with a premier fighting organization UFC, and a $400 million deal with NBA franchise Philadelphia 76er as a part of its giant marketing campaign.
    • Judging by the market performance of Crypto.com’s native exchange token CRO, the marketing strategy and addition of new features have already started paying dividends. CRO has renewed its all-time high today and is currently up nearly 300% in the past month. With a market cap of $18.7 billion, CRO is the second-largest centralized exchange token, trailing only Binance’s BNB.
    • To learn more about CRO, check out our latest Coins to Watch article, where we discuss its near-term prospects and evaluate Crypto.com’s recent moves.
    Create Crypto.com Account