The Rise of Crypto Derivatives
Over the past year we have seen the rise of crypto based derivative products. From the well established CME group launching Bitcoin futures, to BitMEX becoming the most liquid crypto exchange. The industry has seen huge growth. Now he we have Delta Exchange entering the fray hoping to put its mark on to the industry. The team is well respected all having previous experience in the Finance industry.
Introduction to Delta Exchange
Delta Exchange currently offers trading pairs for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and Stellar Lumens. Offering up to 100x leverage on these contracts. All contracts are derived in Bitcoin. Eliminating the need for FIAT and thus pesky KYC and AML. All thats needed to sign up is an email, password, and a VPN if you're in a prohibited country but don’t tell anyone I told you that.
Delta Exchange is currently making a big push in getting traders to join their platform and thus generate more liquidity. In the past they have done fee-less trading periods, trading competitions, and the recently announced deposit matching where they will double all deposits up to 0.01BTC.
Trading
The trading UI is sleek and minimalist and is well laid out. Everything such as Depth chart, Leverage, etc are easy to find understand unlike some other exchanges where you need a degree in Finance to figure it out. One minor criticism is that there is no calculator for seeing risk reward, or liquidation prices.
Pricing & Index Price
BTC Futures and Perp Swaps are priced from Bitstamp and GDAX. ETH Futures are priced from Binance, Kraken, and Poloniex. XLM Futures are priced from Binance. XRP Futures are priced from Bitfinex and Binance.
Each contract is priced from a different source aside from Binance so make sure to trade and chart accordingly or use the inbuilt TradingView interface Delta Exchange.
USDT
Delta Exchange does offer a BTC to USDT feature. This is a relatively unique feature. Other exchanges leave hedging entirely in the hands of the users hedging strategy. This is a quick and easy way to hedge exposure.
Conclusion
After using Delta Exchange for the past few weeks its main issue is that of all infantile exchanges. Liquidity. Delta also sees this as their primary concern and have offered the previously mentioned trading incentives(Fee free trading, Deposit bonus, etc). In all other aspects of the platform it is a joy to use. Trade execution is fast with minimal delay, fees are competitive, there are multiple trading pairs, the platform is easy to use and their is no shadiness like we see on other exchanges (cough cough BitMEX) I am optimistic about the future of Delta, as long as it can get past its shortcomings.