About Deribit
Created by John and Marius Jansen, Deribit aims to compete at the very forefront of the crypto derivatives market. Deribit concentrate solely on offering just Bitcoin and Ethereum derivatives, in particular futures and options. By only offering Bitcoin and Ethereum products Deribit is able to offer an exceptionally high standard of service.
Any modern cryptocurrency exchange must be capable of processing thousands of transactions per second. John and Marius Jensen aim to create a fully liquid marketplace which holds the same standards as those of a traditional derivative marketplace. The core values of Deribit are integrity, innovation and quality of service.
Deribit has been developed to process a large number of trades with extremely low latency and a target speed of less then 1 millisecond. All of the technology in the Deribit stack is proprietary including the matching engine, risk metrics and portfolio managing meaning the code is copywrited and not open source. Furthermore, there have been zero instances of loss of service since platform launch.
During the crypto crash of May 2021 Deribit processed $13.5 billion worth of turnover in 24 hours with no unexpected down time. It is therefore safe to say Deribit is a secure, robust and reliable platform to trade large and complex crypto.
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Deribit – professional cryptocurrency exchange which offers advanced trading products to the modern cryptocurrency trader
Deribit Deposits & Withdrawals
Since November 2020 all new registrations to Deribit must complete Know Your Customer (KYC) checks before any trading can commence. The required documentation must state proof of residence and some form of photo I.D. Only customers who have passed the KYC verification process will then be allowed to deposit and trade on the platform.
Deribit is accessible from any country in the world with the exception of – Cuba, Canada, Guam, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Korea, Panama, Puerto Rico, Samoa, Sudan, Syria, USA & US Virgin Islands.
Deposits can only be made in Bitcoin although plans to accept fiat currencies are in the pipeline.
99% of customer deposits are kept in cold storage with only a small proportion used for daily liquidity. However, because of this withdrawals may take upto 24 hours and incur fees as funds need to be transferred from cold to hot wallets. If there are sufficient funds in the hot wallet then there is no fee for withdrawal.
Deribit Derivative Products
Deribit offers a comprehensive array of both futures and options trading contracts with leverage upto 100x on Bitcoin and 50x on Ethereum.
Deribit Futures
Deribit provide 4 styles of futures contracts. 1 contract = $10. The contracts are:
1. Bi-weekly Futures. Expiry every Friday at 08:00am UTC
2. Monthly Futures. Expiry last Friday of every month at 08:00am UTC.
3. Quarterly Futures. Expiry last Friday of each calender Quarter (March, June, September, December) at 08:00am UTC.
4. Deribit Perpetual. No expiry date. Uses a funding rate scheme to ensure prices are kept close to underlying asset.
New futures contracts are added immediately after the expiry of each prior contract.
Deribit Options
Deribit options are European Vanilla Style meaning exercise is automatic if they expire in profit. Minimum order size is 0.1 Bitcoin or 1 Ethereum and they are settled in cash in the equivalent of Bitcoin/Ethereum.
Deribit options are available in daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly formats with the expiry times being 08:00am UTC.
Remember, although Options can be bought or sold, selling the option only generates profit from the premium and is therefore far less lucrative than buying.
Deribit Trading Tools
Deribit provide two tools to assist traders in their knowledge and understanding of crypto futures and options trading. The provision of these tools allow their customers to make better decision and are particularly useful to those new to crypto derivatives. Their provision shows the platform have a mature and responsible attitude to derivative trading which can be high risk.
• Options Discovery allows traders to use example options contracts that help traders understand the risk and break even points necessary for a contract to become profitable.
• Calculator allows traders to fill in desired variables in order to calculate results of futures contracts.
Both tools allow users to anticipate the likely outcomes before placing trades.
Deribit Fee Structure
Deribit follows a classic Maker/Taker fee structure which essentially means that orders that provide liquidity (maker) could have a different fee than those that take (taker). Fees are calculated as a percentage of the underlying asset of the contract and are subject to market movement.
Both futures and options products are also charged a delivery fee which is settled at expiry. The rates are 0.025% for futures and 0.0125% for options however the fee for options can never be higher than 12.5% of the options contract value.
Liquidations are also charged a fee on Deribit and the fee is increased by a percentage of the underlying contract size. The liquidation fee for BTC futures and perpetual futures is 0.50% where the liquidation fee for BTC options is 0.19%. ETH fees are 0.9% for futures and perpetual and 0.19% options.
Deribit does not charge for deposits and withdrawal fees are dependant on the state of the Bitcoin network. This is due to the fact that Deribit assets are split between hot and cold wallets. If the hot wallet is depleted then the platform must draw funds across the Bitcoin network to its hot wallet thus incurring network fees which are then passed on to the consumer.
Deribit Testnet
Deribit includes a handy Testnet feature which allows users to try out their trading strategies in real time with a demo account of up to 10 BTC. A testnet is a helpful way for new users to get used to the Deribit trading interface. Testnet can also be used by developers looking to build a trading bot before connecting to the Deribit API.
Deribit Developer API
Deribit provide comprehensive details regarding the API necessary to authenticate program applications wishing to connect to the platform. The set up page is informative, well written and easy to follow and offers three options for developers looking to connect –
• FIX
• JSON RPC / websocket
• JSON RPC / http
As mentioned above this is especially helpful for developers looking to build and connect their automated trading software.
Deribit Partners
Deribit fully support a collaborative approach to industry development and consequently have a rich list of varied partners who offer a broad spectrum of different services to the organisation. Particular areas of significant collaboration include trading software (eg Coinrule, Caspian), signal and data providers (Bitcopy, Koinly), index constituents (Coinbase, Gemini) and custodians (Copper, Cobo).
Deribit Educational Information
Deribit features a comprehensive educational resource with a variety of videos, how-to’s, and step by step guides for both the beginner and expert derivative trader. In particular they include information concerning market research, educational resources and information concerning the Deribit platform. The resources also includes market and crypto industry insights, commentary regarding the flow of money in crypto options and a series of podcast episodes which provide further discussion about derivatives in particular crypto options.
The website also offers a fully free to enrol cryptocurrency options course which is ideal for beginners and offers over 4.5 hours worth of content, 43 lectures and quizzes to keep you on your toes and an interactive screen cast function allowing students to effortlessly interact with the Deribit interface. Students who enrol on this course are entitles to a 20% discount on all trading fees incurred while on the platform.
As you can see Deribit have a responsible and helpful attitude to providing first class crypto derivative products and are committed to ensuring their users make wise and informed decisions when using the platform.
Deribit Customer Support
Deribit features a comprehensive and effective customer support function through a variety of different channels. Although primarily email based, customers also have the option of communicating via Telegram, Twitter and YouTube or by raising a support ticket through their zen-desk function.
Conclusion
Overall, Deribit offer a highly professional feature heavy method for crypto enthusiasts to trade options and futures contracts. The platform is well established, has a good reputation and is secure. The look and feel is one of professionalism and often found in traditional financial markets.
Deribit only offer Bitcoin and Ethereum based products and therefore it feels as if more focus and attention has been given in perfecting those products over offering a large quantity of different crypto to trade.
The support functions are comprehensive and provide everything a professional crypto trader is looking for including detailed educational resources and how-to guides.
In conclusion Deribit provide an excellent platform for the secure trading of crypto derivatives.