What Sets BitMEX Apart in the Digital Asset Race

by
Victoria d’Este

Printed: July 16, 2025 at 11:24 am Up to date: July 16, 2025 at 11:25 am

by Ana

Edited and fact-checked:
July 16, 2025 at 11:24 am

To enhance your local-language expertise, generally we make use of an auto-translation plugin. Please word auto-translation is probably not correct, so learn authentic article for exact data.

Sam Sandiford, Head of Product and Institutional Enterprise Improvement at BitMEX, brings over 17 years of expertise in conventional finance to crypto derivatives. On this interview, Sam discusses his journey to BitMEX, the platform’s dedication to safety, and what units it aside for skilled merchants. He additionally shares his ideas on BitMEX’s evolving product lineup, the significance of transparency, and the tendencies shaping the way forward for digital asset buying and selling.

Are you able to please share your journey to Web3?

I joined BitMEX six and a half years in the past after 17 years in conventional finance. I’d labored in derivatives for a very long time, and BitMEX reached out to me to assist work with their monetary engineering designs, significantly round margining and perpetual swaps. 

It was a leap of religion on the time, and BitMEX has been a really fascinating place to be during the last six and a half years, as I’m certain these studying this submit will know. We’ve steadily elevated the product vary and are nonetheless a drive to be reckoned with within the crypto markets.

BitMEX describes itself as a house for actual merchants. How does this manifest in your shopper expertise and community-building efforts?

After we speak about actual merchants, we’re what I wish to name semi-professional merchants and above. We’re probably not a spot for brand-new merchants who haven’t traded earlier than or who’re new to crypto. We’re a market specializing in derivatives. How does that present itself in what we do with shoppers and the group? 

We have now an institutional workforce that covers our establishments immediately with full white-glove service, and we’ve got VIP protection for our key retail merchants. That may be completed one-on-one with the retail gross sales workforce, in addition to with teams and communities in our focus language areas. We significantly deal with Russian, Chinese language, and English, and we’ve got leads for every. In a few of these, we even have separate advertising and marketing or copywriting groups that handle and attain out to these person teams.

What particular UI customizations and superior order varieties do your most energetic derivatives merchants depend on?

If we’re being clear, our most energetic merchants will commerce by way of our API. What API merchants actually need is pace and low latency, which we’ve got – constant latency, reliability, and the preliminary ease of organising. The BitMEX API was one of many first strong APIs in crypto buying and selling, so a whole lot of what we’ve got is similar to different venues already. It’s very straightforward for our customers to hook up with. 

Some components will not be excellent, which we’ve been addressing as priorities. For instance, we labored on updating the readability and value of our API documentation. We will now translate it – so from being a pure English-language API documentation, we can have Chinese language and Russian very shortly, the place we discover nearly all of our API merchants.

The subsequent set of consumers are the whale merchants, buying and selling giant sizes – not on a high-frequency algo degree, however on a click on buying and selling foundation. They worth safety and pace of execution, so they need liquidity, which we’re engaged on bettering to draw much more of these customers. In addition they search for safety – BitMEX has by no means misplaced a single satoshi of buyer funds. 

Whale merchants need standardized market orders and have a tendency to make use of common restrict and market orders. They don’t want that complexity and sometimes do a whole lot of their executions by way of cellular gadgets moderately than sitting at a display.

The third set is the extra OG merchants. They’ve been buying and selling for 5, six years or extra on venues like BitMEX and search for customization. They’ll add completely different elements to their buying and selling web page, resolve which set off to make use of for take income and cease loss, index, final worth, or mark worth. They’ll select between a restrict cease or a market cease. We have now all this performance within the background. 

We’re attempting to make the bottom interface simpler for brand new customers by stripping that away in order that whenever you land on BitMEX, it’s not complicated and you can begin buying and selling right away. Then, via our retail gross sales workforce, KOLs, and group leaders, we make these different options discoverable to customers after they’ve are available in, to allow them to advance their buying and selling expertise in the event that they need to.

The BMEX token presents buying and selling charge reductions and VIP perks. What function does the token play in person engagement and loyalty?

We launched the BMEX token as a pure utility token round three or 4 years in the past. It has principally served for charge reductions and withdrawal reductions. So, it had some utility however not monumental traction. Proper now, the BMEX token doesn’t play an infinite function in the neighborhood or our engagement, however that’s one thing we’re engaged on. 

Our subsequent step is to increase the scope of our VIP program. You possibly can already use BMEX to achieve entry to our VIP program, however in the mean time, it’s PTS and withdrawal charge waivers or reductions. There will probably be an elevated suite of VIP merchandise within the pipeline, together with white-glove service and invites to particular occasions, doubtless coming in Q3 this 12 months.

You combine buying and selling bots natively. What safeguards and monitoring instruments guarantee person funds stay safe?

The very first thing to say about having buying and selling bots in-house is that it brings all of the native safety of BitMEX. We’ve by no means misplaced a single Satoshi. We examine our system each 5 seconds to verify no funds have gone lacking. The bottom degree—”Are my funds nonetheless in BitMEX?”—is taken care of simply as for those who’re an everyday dealer. The subsequent bit is transparency. If I begin a buying and selling bot, can I see what trades are occurring as quickly as I flip it on?

The best way our buying and selling bots work is that you’ve a separate account or run the bots on a delegated account, and you’ll see these positions in actual time. You possibly can take over at any time, cease the bot, and shut out the positions your self if you wish to. So, there’s full transparency.

On the similar time, ought to we ever have any operational points, our buyer funds are backed by a 37,000 Bitcoin insurance coverage fund. We don’t anticipate that, however we monitor our buying and selling bots for any unhealthy habits and take a look at them earlier than they exit. 

Ought to there ever be any situation with the bots, BitMEX can cowl the losses that could be incurred. We’re all the time monitoring the product suite, and we’ve got a workforce that vets all buying and selling bots earlier than they go stay, so we all know what they’re purported to do.

To your most frequent derivatives customers, what aggressive edge do you supply versus different platforms?

Security and safety are paramount to BitMEX. We’ve by no means misplaced any buyer funds. It has slowed us down at instances, nevertheless it’s a non-negotiable for us, not solely when it comes to custody, but additionally ensuring the system itself doesn’t lose funds on one facet of the commerce. Leverage has been a key a part of BitMEX’s development. We provide as much as 250x leverage. Different platforms supply comparable leverage, however not in an surroundings as safe, one the place we will assure income for customers on the opposite facet.

We’ve bought a backstop of a giant insurance coverage fund that’s been constructed up and managed over time. We set the leverage on particular contracts (not all of them at 250x or 100x), so we might be snug getting out of these positions ought to liquidations happen. While you use excessive leverage, liquidations positively happen; it’s a part of the method. We encourage customers to make use of the leverage they’re snug with. Some merchants will commerce monumental quantities with excessive leverage and are proud of the features and losses, whereas newer merchants, we advise, ought to reasonable their leverage.

Transparency can also be essential. You possibly can see all the things that’s occurring in BitMEX. We have now proof of reserves and liabilities to indicate our insurance coverage fund and the way we’ve bought all our prospects’ deposits beneath custody. Most significantly, we don’t commerce in opposition to our prospects. Different exchanges run in-house market makers or facilitate market makers buying and selling in opposition to prospects. We don’t try this. We’re actually a peer-to-peer alternate. That’s tremendous essential for our transparency and buying and selling expertise. We’ve been round for 10 years, so we’re battle-tested. 

We’ve had just a few bumps alongside the best way, however that simply means we all know methods to cope with the obstacles once we’re confronted with them. Our tech is sturdy and strong, making us one of the crucial dependable venues on the road.

Apart from Russia and China, what new areas or markets are you focusing on for enlargement, given the worldwide demand for derivatives?

We commerce virtually globally already and serve international markets, excluding the US and a handful of others. We need to develop traction in sure focus areas, and we consider focus areas extra round language than particular geographies. After we take into consideration licensing, geographies come into play as nicely. We’re engaged on our licensing posture, and we’ve got a few jurisdictions the place there could be fascinating alternatives for us to get regulated successfully. 

We’re already extra energetic in Asian geographies than Western ones. As licensing progresses, we see ourselves with rising buyer numbers, most likely throughout the Center East and West into Europe over the subsequent 6 to 12 months. We’ve additionally grown our CIS workforce considerably within the final 3 months, so we anticipate extra traction there as nicely. We’re open to enterprise from CIS and Russian audio system.

As tokenization expands into real-world property, how is BitMEX making ready to assist or commerce these new asset lessons?

For us, RWAs most likely begin with stablecoins. We provide a small number of stablecoins as margin foreign money in the mean time and are regularly trying to increase that. We added Ripple USD as a margin foreign money not too long ago and are different stablecoins –  doubtlessly yielding stablecoins and cash market-based funds as future collateral. We’re probably not a spot alternate; we’re a derivatives alternate, so our deal with RWAs is generally round utilizing them as collateral.

We have now teams of shoppers incomes 50% plus yearly on buying and selling who will not be so fearful in regards to the yield from their collateral as a result of they’re collateral environment friendly and commerce very steadily with small buying and selling sizes. For them, this doesn’t matter. There’s a group of consumers we need to convey on who maintain positions for longer and bigger sizes – for them, margin effectivity is essential. So, we’ll search for probably the most dependable collateral that may be transformed into our currencies simply. 

In any other case, somebody on the alternate bears the slippage. If we need to get Bitcoin or Tether again from a cash market fund token, we have to know that we will do it reliably, in measurement, and with out an excessive amount of slippage. These are the avenues we’re exploring on RWAs. Outdoors of tokenization, we’re additionally exploring the usage of securities via a accomplice, significantly T-bills, for use as collateral, after which the accomplice will present buying and selling funds of Tether or different stablecoins on BitMEX. 

We are going to keep in contact with different RWA initiatives and take into account itemizing these both as spot or as perps, the place they’re giant and open sufficient to the universe of BitMEX merchants. We most likely gained’t have a look at a token with very particular necessities, however we’ll have a look at a globally out there token.

What macroeconomic or geopolitical forces do you imagine will most importantly form the crypto derivatives market over the subsequent three to 5 years?

That is fascinating. As markets are transferring proper now, we’ve had a dominant place, significantly within the centralized alternate area. BitMEX is registered in Seychelles, however most of our workers are primarily based in Asia, and a whole lot of buying and selling has been from this area. Value discovery, retail merchants, institutional merchants, and even buying and selling information facilities are primarily based largely out of Asia, significantly Tokyo. A lot in order that we’re transferring our information heart to Tokyo from Dublin within the subsequent couple of months.

Within the final six months, the U.S. has come out of its shell and can spark development. The U.S. has three and a half years left of Trump’s presidency to essentially make its mark on home and international  crypto markets. There’s a whole lot of pressure in the midst of the globe, nevertheless it’s actually an Asia versus U.S. stability. 

For exchanges which are neither U.S.-centric nor Asia-centric, there’s a possibility to intermediate that circulation. I feel we’ll see consolidation within the U.S. to 2 or three venues, consolidation in Asia to a few or 4 massive venues, after which localized onshore exchanges, as we see in locations like Korea with dominant exchanges like Upbit. Then a handful of gamers, and I see BitMEX on this area, will intermediate that circulation. 

It’ll be very laborious for an onshore dealer within the U.S. to commerce in opposition to a retail dealer in China, for instance, until it’s within the centralized area. That circulation will doubtless be intermediated by licensed venues exterior of the U.S. and Asia. The geopolitical drive driving that’s most likely the U.S. in the mean time.

By 2030, what do you imagine would be the defining characteristic of profitable crypto buying and selling platforms, and the way is BitMEX aligning with that imaginative and prescient?

I feel there are just a few profitable variations of a crypto buying and selling platform. We transfer extra in direction of the retail facet, mass adoption, and buying and selling on private gadgets – buying and selling on cellular moderately than on desktop. That’s partly a generational factor. Lots of our merchants beneath 30 are rather more mobile-focused, whereas these 35 and above are desktop merchants, doubtlessly former finance professionals. We see that shifting quite a bit. 

First, it’s easy accessibility and ease, and with that most likely comes passive buying and selling. We talked about buying and selling bots earlier, and duplicate buying and selling positively comes as a continuation to that. Possibly even entry to asset administration and personal merchandise would be the norm. 

The historic crypto merchants haven’t actually been as as a result of they’ve been 20%, 30%, 50% annualized yields moderately than 5, six, or seven. However with that comes a big threat urge for food, which the common crypto adopter gained’t have in three or 4 years’ time. They’ll have a decrease threat urge for food and be proud of decrease yields. So, for starters, having robust cellular assist can be a major defining characteristic. 

Within the institutional area, we’ll most likely begin to look somewhat bit like TradFi, at the very least from a tech angle – co-location, regulation, stability, and probably darkish swimming pools for individuals to commerce. There’s a slight issue with the best way the crypto derivatives market is true now to make that work. In the meanwhile, each contract on a special alternate, even when its underlying may be very comparable, is definitely a separate instrument. There’s no direct fungibility throughout these devices. 

Members, together with ourselves and merchants, prefer it that approach as a result of they perceive the variations, and that creates buying and selling alternatives. Standardization and central clearing, which could be an concept that comes up, should change a bit. We’d see extra standardized contracts, at the very least on Bitcoin and ETH, so individuals can actually be fungible. 

There will probably be resistance from quite a few gamers as a result of it mainly eats into their margins. There’s a chance that clearinghouses will probably be in place. It was tried seven or eight years in the past and didn’t work, however possibly the market will resolve in three years’ time if that’s essential. That would definitely be simpler to grasp from a regulatory perspective.

About The Writer

Victoria is a author on a wide range of expertise subjects together with Web3.0, AI and cryptocurrencies. Her intensive expertise permits her to put in writing insightful articles for the broader viewers.

Extra articles

Victoria d’Este