In the past year, ‘cryptocurrency’ has been one of the most searched topics on Google after ‘Covid-19’. This peak in interest came after prices of many different crypto assets skyrocketed. Many investors made a killing with percentage profits running into the thousands. Users who joined the craze in time managed to bag astronomical profits. One of the companies that enabled most Americans to corner the cryptocurrency market was none other than the FTX exchange.
In this article we will take a closer look at the FTX platform.
FTX: Our Opinion
Those who are interested in cryptocurrencies can find all they need at one convenient spot with FTX. Compared to other cryptocurrency exchanges, FTX can provide a superior trading experience for more experienced traders.
What is FTX?
FTX is a centralized cryptocurrency trading company whose main headquarters is in the Bahamas. The platform offers various variations of derivatives and leveraged products.
FTX was created back in May 2019 by Sam-Bankman Fried, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It offers a wide array of services such as derivatives, spot trading, futures, and tools that make trading easy.
The platform has fast execution speeds, tight spreads, and deep liquidity to cover trades of any size. The company opened an American branch called FTX.US, which is fully compliant with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations. On January 31, 2022, the company hit a market valuation of $32 billion after successfully concluding a Series C of its funding to raise $400 million. In addition to cryptocurrency spot and futures trading, FTX offers leveraged tokens and options trading.
Pros
- Very low trading fees
- Advanced tools for advanced traders
- Supports Margin and Futures trading
Cons
- Not recommended for beginner traders
- Limited support options
- US platform is restricted
Fees
Fees have been a huge concern for newcomers joining the crypto space because of the highly popular Ethereum network, on which most cryptocurrencies exist. However, FTX has resolved this by supporting a host of other networks such as Binance Smart Chain, Chiliz, AVAX, Polkadot, and Fantom, among others, making it a one-stop shop for all things crypto.
The platform has set up a tiered fee structure for all their futures and spot trades. FTX fees are very low for industry standards.
Trading Fees
FTX charges trading fees based on a maker/taker model. Makers are traders whose orders are not matched directly with an existing order. Their orders are added to the order book, increasing the exchange’s liquidity. Takers, on the other hand, are traders whose orders are quickly filled using orders already present in the order book. These traders reduce the market’s liquidity.
For the Tier 1 trader, which is where most traders will fall into, the Maker fees on FTX are just 0.02%. Taker fees are 0.07%.
This compares to the Crypto.com exchange where the maker fees for the first Tier is 0.4%.
Fee Discounts
For people who are holding and Staking FTT, the native cryptocurrency of FTX, there are additional discounts. People who trade alot might want to consider holding some FTT in their trading wallet to benefit from these discounts.
FTX Coin (FTT)
The FTX Coin (FTT) has a use case within the the FTX ecosystem as traders are encouraged to hol it for lower trading fees. The FTX price has, therefore, done quite well since the launch of the platform (see chart below).
FTT has a current market cap of $3,717,771,701 with a circulating supply of 130 Million FTT coins and a total supply of 330 Million. It is available to trade on the FTX Exchange as well as on Bitget.
Conclusion
The US government has made it difficult for cryptocurrency exchanges to thrive in the United States because of tight regulations, but if the recent Super Bowl was an indicator, Crypto will be reaching mass adoption in the near future. The company FTX managed to buy an advertisement slot in this great event held in February 2022 and managed to promote the exchange to over 92 million people. Apart from this, FTX’s machinations have been seen in several of the largest crashes in crypto, including Terra Luna, and Celsius.
Vincent Munene is a freelance writer and a great blockchain enthusiast. Blockchain has changed his life in terms of financial freedom and in return, he likes to educate people and keep them up to date on everything blockchain. He is a Biochemist by profession and also loves to play the piano.
