Huobi rebrands derivatives market as interest hits new heights

Huobi digital currency exchange is rebranding its derivatives market to reflect the growth it has experienced since launch. Formerly known as Huobi DM, the derivatives platform will now be known as Huobi Futures. As the exchange shared with CoinGeek, it has almost doubled its volume this quarter as interest in digital currency derivatives hits new heights.

“A name change is nothing too monumental. For us, it represents an acknowledgement of the changing times we have seen in the cryptocurrency trading space,” Huobi’s head of global business Ciara Sun told CoinGeek.

And the evolution of Huobi DM to Huobi Futures is the continuous progress towards market maturity and improvement in the process of dealing with the market.

Huobi’s derivatives market has registered stellar growth since launch in late 2018. In Q1 2020, the company saw an 88% increase in its derivatives trading volume, Sun told us. And according to TokenInsight, Huobi processed $438 billion in its derivatives market in Q4 2019, accounting for 22% of the total derivatives market.

Huobi has been striving to make the space as professional, secure and risk averse as possible. This is why professional traders have trusted its market more than any other, Sun said.

She added, “We have started doing so with familiar innovation like phased liquidation mechanisms, but we have also appealed to the regulators to prove our legitimacy and the legitimacy of cryptocurrencies. Our high level of security and the fact that in six years we have never had a major hack speaks volumes about the trust in the platform that we have, as well as our clients—old and new.”

The derivatives market has always been dominated by professional traders. However, Sun revealed that Huobi has seen rising retail interest in the market. With the Bitcoin halving creating scarcity and the current global turmoil, it has led to an increasing demand for digital currencies from the retail market.

She stated, “This creates a perfect environment for Bitcoin to thrive as an alternative asset for both institutional and retail traders. And we’re certainly seeing much more interest, not only from institutional investors but also retail. In fact, we recently launched a user-friendly mobile trading app called Huobi Lite to cater to the influx of retail interest.”

The journey is far from complete for the exchange.

“Both futures and coin margined swaps are still under construction. There are still features that are underdeveloped. Both futures and perpetual swaps will undergo a major system performance optimization,” Sun said, adding, “We are preparing to launch the options market in June.”