Bitmex Alternatives

[Samarkand]

Are there any websites that offer a comparable service to Bitmex?

I´m interested in trading Bitcoin for high leverage again using a similar
product, but I have stopped using Bitmex a while ago for various reasons.

During a quick search I found Deribit (deribit.com). Has anyone of you
positive or negative experiences with Deribit? Are there other
comparable services that are reputable?

Thank you.

[1Referee]

I have been searching for alternatives and thus far the only reputable service that's actually allowed to operate these products is Deribit.

It obviously can't compete with BitMex and their massive volumes, but it's good enough for home traders.

One thing to take into consideration is this;

We may share your personal data with law enforcement, data protection authorities, government officials and other authorities when compelled by court order or other legal procedure or when disclosure is necessary to report suspected illegal activity.

As always, be cautious regardless of how reputable a service may seem or be. Try it with a smaller amount, withdraw to see if it comes through in a timely fashion, etc.

May I know why you have stopped using BitMex? If you don't want to tell it's fine.

[Samarkand]

I have been searching for alternatives and thus far the only reputable service that's actually allowed to operate these products is Deribit.
...
May I know why you have stopped using BitMex? If you don't want to tell it's fine.

I guess that we will probably see more companies that offer a comparable service
as the Bitcoin industry continues to grow.

I was having trouble with order execution at BitMex and had the feeling that this trouble only
occurred at times when it was bad for my open positions. Of course this could be some sort of bias
and I might be mistaken, but at least I wasn´t 100 % convinced that order execution was fair.
Nevertheless, I still continued to use BitMex.

Unfortunately, I discovered this post about BitMEX a few months ago:
https://medium.com/@mattcollburner/bitmex-insiders-caught-in-a-web-of-lies-6d9b90baa693

I´m not sure that every claim there is accurate, because the author might have
a grudge against BitMEX or one of the involved people, but the part about the
in-house trading arm is true and was enough for me to quit BitMEX. Arthur Hayes
(the BitMEX CEO) later admitted on the BitMEX blog that they indeed do
run an own in-house trading arm. Of course he tried to explain the problem away by claiming
that they are separate operations and that they don´t have any privileges that the
normal BitMEX user doesn´t have. But how much trust can you really put in a claim like this?
This is exactly what every guilty person would say as well. The fact that the in-house trading
arm that trades on the same platform is run by an old buddy of Arthur Hayes didn´t really
increase my confidence either and so I quit BitMEX for good.

Besides, I really had to laugh at the comment under one of the pictures in the Medium
article that shows a screenshot of the LinkedIn profile of the guy, who runs the
in-house trading arm of BitMEX:

TFW ‘Business Development’ is actually privileged insider trading

 

[1Referee]

BitMex if operated in a fair manner, would be emptied by whales within a year, where the only way to avoid this is to bust them out of their positions, or to prevent people in general from executing trades during certain 'critical' moments. In other words, they have no choice but to cheat. I'm not saying it's good, but that's how they stay alive.

That being said, every exchange likely applies insider trading itself, and or provides it as a service to market makers for staying loyal to them. No way that if a massive wire comes in or someone deposits a shitload of Bitcoins they don't utilize that information to front run these orders themselves or notify their market movers. If it happens on highly regulated stock markets, it surely happens on shitty mostly still unregulated crypto exchanges.

Everything regarding BitMex very likely applies to Deribit as well. If you run these type of businesses, you have to cheat to stay in the game.

[TheQuin]

BitMex if operated in a fair manner, would be emptied by whales within a year, where the only way to avoid this is to bust them out of their positions, or to prevent people in general from executing trades during certain 'critical' moments. In other words, they have no choice but to cheat. I'm not saying it's good, but that's how they stay alive.

Are you saying that BitMex is actively taking the opposite side of the trades rather than just matching orders of their clients? If that's the case then definitely stay away from them. A similar thing happens in fiat trading with some CFD, forex and spread betting providers. Only ever trust an exchange that has no financial interest in the outcome of your positions.

[mobnepal]

There is one broker that I have tried few weeks ago but with relatively small amount and it worked great, tested both deposits and withdrawals and it worked as described almost instant. I don't like to just promote them here because I haven't done enough research about them and if you like to join them than do your own research before making any deposit. Their name is Weltrade (yeah the same promoted by hitbtc which don't have good reputation at all), but I have tried them with MT4 trading platform and it was nice.

[JohnChanna]

Digitex Futures which launches in Q4 looks a good alternative

[1Referee]

Are you saying that BitMex is actively taking the opposite side of the trades rather than just matching orders of their clients? If that's the case then definitely stay away from them. A similar thing happens in fiat trading with some CFD, forex and spread betting providers.

As with everything, especially in the crypto market, if more money means you are able to steer the market to your preferred direction and constantly be on the winning side, the platform you trade on will cheat on you. There is no point in having a business where wealthy players suck the money out of it. Casinos at least have their house edge working for them, these platforms don't have anything other than faul play.

This makes things even worse (comes from the article posted by Samarkand);

On April 30, a groundbreaking post surfaced on the BitMEX blog, admitting that the exchange operates its own (previously undisclosed) for-profit trading arm. This subsidiary trades against customers on their own exchange, and enjoys unfair advantages not available to other customers.

No way they are just randomly gambling.

Only ever trust an exchange that has no financial interest in the outcome of your positions.

In other words, fully decentralized peer to peer exchanges.

[richardsNY]

BitMex if operated in a fair manner, would be emptied by whales within a year, where the only way to avoid this is to bust them out of their positions, or to prevent people in general from executing trades during certain 'critical' moments. In other words, they have no choice but to cheat.

Could this potentially be a reason why Bitmex doesn't want to comply with US laws and for that reason doesn't allow US registrants to use its service? It's not that it is too difficult or expensive for them to comply with US laws, so there might be something playing a role of importance. Bitfinex as largest USD exchange doesn't allow US registrants either, and people don't trust it for obvious reasons. It seems that Coinbase, Gemini and Bitstamp are the only reasonable exchanges out that we can choose from, the rest either reeks of shady business or is just too incompetent to be taken seriously....

[TheQuin]

Only ever trust an exchange that has no financial interest in the outcome of your positions.

In other words, fully decentralized peer to peer exchanges.

I fiat markets it works differently. Only trust the centralised exchanges. If I want to trade forex I wouldn't go to a forex broker because there is no guarantee they are placing my trades to be filled by other traders rather than taking the other side themselves. I use currency futures on CME instead because they just provide an order matching engine for a fixed fee. My broker and clearinghouse just charge a fee for their services and none of them as an interest in whether I profit or not.

[ByBit.com]

Please check out - ByBit.com

BTC Perpetuals
100x leverage
24/7 Customer Support
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More information here - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5080966.0

[gr3y]

My picks:

1. Bybit
2. Deribit
3. PrimeXBT

...Here's a quick review of all 3 bitmex alternatives.