BitMEX Platform Hits 1 Million BTC in Daily Volume [Again]

Bitcoin investors may be suffering under the weight of one of the asset’s heaviest-ever bear markets, but for cryptocurrency derivatives exchanges like BitMEX, the mood is anything but sour.

“What market downturn?,” begin a press release sent from a public relations firm representing BitMEX, reporting that the Seychelles Island-based exchange had on Wednesday crossed 1 million BTC in daily trading volume for the second time ever.

Altogether, the platform saw 1,027,214.62 BTC contracts traded for the day, worth approximately $6.6 billion at the present exchange rate.

“Once again meeting our own record of 1 million bitcoin traded within 24 hours is a major milestone for the crypto-coin market and testament to the strong community BitMEX is growing,” said BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes.

Hayes attributed the great hit in part to the firm’s recently-launched ETH/USD perpetual swap product, which allows traders to make leveraged bets on the ethereum price without ever holding ether.

The exchange previously crossed the 1 million BTC mark on July 24, notching a record both for the exchange and the industry at large. At the time, those contracts equated to more than $8 billion in 24-hour volume.

BitMEX platform isn’t the only cryptocurrency derivatives that has seen an uptick in trading in spite of the bear market. U.S. exchanges CME and CBOE have each seen a steady rise in bitcoin futures volume since these products launched in December, with the 2 platforms accruing a combined $573 million in volume on the same day in which BitMEX crossed 1 million bitcoin contracts for the first time.

LedgerX, a lesser-known U.S. cryptocurrency derivatives exchange that exclusively serves wealthy investors and institutions, also reported that its clients had traded a record $50 million worth of contracts on the CFTC-regulated platform during July.