Thalex offers Options and Futures which are settled daily in Tether tokens (USDT), thereby complementing the Bitfinex Derivatives offering.
Thalex has trading fees anchored around 1 bps, and gives equal access to advanced trading features and incentives to all traders.
Public Access to Integration
The integration offers full access to Thalex features and follows a first phase of private testing.
You can apply to sign up for access here.
If your application is accepted, you can onboard with Thalex from your Bitfinex Derivatives account.
Please note that Thalex also offers paper trading on testnet for those who want to try out the platform before deciding to fund live trades.
An overview of Thalex’s Futures and Options contracts
General overview
Thalex features include
linear options, futures & combinations,
contracts are USD-quoted and cash-settled in USDT,
margin from a universal account supporting USDT, BTC and ETH, and
supporting portfolio margin requirements for all contracts per underlying.
Perpetuals
Thalex has simplified perpetuals in an effort to make funding rates transparent:
Funding rate is (Mark – Index) / 24h
No dampers or caps, hence funding changes linearly with basis
Funding is continuously reflected in P&L
Futures
Futures have been designed to act as a delta-hedge for options:
Every option maturity has a corresponding future maturity
Simplified funding rates allow for better pricing of futures relative to perpetuals
Liquidity in futures is boosted by Implied matching with Perpetuals and Futures Rolls
Futures Rolls
Futures rolls facilitate, as suggested by their name, rolling a future to a longer maturity with atomic execution of both legs of the trades. This is achieved by creating dedicated order books for each combination of a Perpetual-Future and Future-Future spread.
Futures rolls can provide pricing for the convergence or divergence of the cost of carry embedded in Futures’ premia and expected Perpetual funding.
Features:
Future Roll orders are delta-neutral, which means correspondingly lower margin requirements than orders in outright contracts
Futures Roll orders execute as a simultaneous buy and sell of a Perpetual and a Future or two Futures with the same underlying asset
Order fills will result in two outright positions in the Perpetual or Future legs
Options
Thalex offers European, linear option contracts which are stablecoin-settled. This allows options to function as a hedge. A profitable option trade can increase an account’s USDT balance through daily settlement and offers traders the choice, not the obligation as with inverse contracts, if and when to rebalance profits into the underlying.
Beyond contract specifications, Thalex has put great effort towards providing market makers tools that can help manage their risk such as market maker protection, mass quotes and adequate rate limits and latency.
Thalex Market Quality Program
Thalex’s Market Quality Program (MQP) is designed to enhance the platform’s market liquidity by rewarding participants who contribute to visible liquidity with a substantial monthly reward pool of up to US$200,000.
The distribution of rewards is based on a liquidity scoring system that evaluates each participant’s relative contribution to the order book across various snapshots. This system ensures Thalex has deep, visible liquidity while simultaneously acting as a taker incentive for market makers to fill top-of-book limit orders that are placed by positional traders.
MQP stands out for its fair and inclusive approach, allowing anyone who adds liquidity to participate and potentially earn rewards from Thalex. There are no barriers to entry. As soon as a participant submits a limit order, they are eligible to earn MQP rewards.
Bitfinex Derivatives is provided by iFinex Financial Technologies Limited.
This blog post is not an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase any financial products. Thalex is a Third-Party Service as described in the derivatives terms of service available at https://www.bitfinex.com/legal/derivative/terms?refcode=0bC4Lljc .
The summary description of the products available from Thalex is provided for convenience purposes only. Thalex’s products are more particularly described on Thalex’s website found at https://www.thalex.com/ . If there are any differences between the description in this blog post and Thalex’s description on Thalex’s website, the description on Thalex’s website will govern. Please read Thalex’s description carefully to ensure you understand Thalex’s products. Any summary information regarding the above-referenced products in this blog post is provided for convenience purposes only and may not be relied upon. Please ensure you conduct your own research regarding these products.
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