The cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform FTX has made a lasting imprint on the cryptocurrency trading space since its launch in May 2019. It is one of the biggest crypto derivatives exchanges, with more than USD 1.5 billion in trading volume over 24 hours and more than USD 565 million in open interest over the same period as of the time of writing. Now, they’re looking to complete a strategic partnership with the up-and-coming trading platform Upbots and bring trading into a new era.
Upbots: A One-Stop Shop for All Things Trading
Ever since cryptocurrency trading entered the stage, there has been a solid divide between it and traditional finance. Unfortunately for many traders looking to diversify their portfolios, even the exchanges with the most options tend to choose between either cryptocurrencies or fiat-based assets. Upbots, on the other hand, intends to become the first platform where traders can find everything from cryptocurrencies, their derivatives, to forex, to commodities trading by integrating a number of different exchanges through secure APIs.
Aside from offering a single dashboard with a staggering variety of available trades, Upbots also intends to integrate bot trading: a widely used feature with a long history, but sometimes considered controversial due to lack of understanding. Upbots will also offer an online learning system where users can get answers to their specific questions related to all things trading. Once they’re confident in their skills, they can try their hand at paper trading, create an automated trading protocols for themselves, or use the social copy feature to “borrow” a trading bot from another, more experienced user. In turn, veteran traders who share their knowledge through trading signals and bots will receive a commission as an incentive.
FTX and Trading Bots: A Match Made in Heaven
Experts estimate that between 75% and 90% of all trades on FTX are made through its application programming interface (API) — in other words, by bots. The exchange and its myriad of different tools are especially attractive to algorithmic and quantitative traders, not least due to the amount of trading pairs available: a whopping 610 according to CoinGecko at the time of writing. Not only does the exchange recognize the need for automated trading — they also fully encourage it.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that FTX found an echo of their own ideas within Upbots, and that a strategic investment (and certainly a partnership) soon followed. The steep learning curve of bot trading has long been a thorn in FTX’s side, and Upbots offering a knowledge base to cover this section, as well as a social copy trading feature, fits in with them like a missing puzzle piece.
With both of these features, the barriers to entry in the trading space are not inherently prohibitive. New traders will be able to learn trading — especially the more mathematically inclined type — from a theoretical standpoint, while using other people’s tried and true methods at a low cost. The latter offers a much-needed practical exercise without the risks usually associated with it, compounded by the infamous cryptocurrency volatility, that tend to turn away all but the most tenacious traders.
A Partnership to Introduce a New Era in Trading
There are several benefits of a partnership between Upbots and FTX for both parties, as well as their users. Those range from relatively simple improvements in user experience, over increased liquidity, to significant new changes in the different approaches to trading. We cover a few of the expected changes here, although the full scope will only be visible with time.
- Upbots featuring tools that will interest algorithmic and quantitative traders: through an integration of the FTX platform, Upbots users will be able to take advantage of all the different trading tools and derivatives pairs that FTX offers, while combining them with existing bot trading mechanisms and Upbots’ innovative social copy trading feature.
- More liquidity to the FTX platform: one of the biggest issues FTX faces, according to what Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer at investment management firm Arca, told CoinDesk in an interview, is the lack of liquidity. But with Upbots attracting users due to its simplified interface and multi-exchange integration, users may be more inclined to use FTX when they can reach it — along with their other exchanges — from a single dashboard.
- More clarity for newbie users: users without relevant experience in bot trading will be able to gain it through the aforementioned social copy trading and online learning features on Upbots, in order to fully utilize the array of options at FTX.
- FTX’s bot trading experience can jumpstart Upbots: while Upbots has already taken the necessary steps to ensure smooth API trading, the fact that FTX already has significant experience in this regard will both lend more credibility to the newcomer and potentially help them through any unforeseen pitfalls.
Upbots Token Sale: What’s Next?
Both the Upbots institutional sale and the private sale were completely sold out, one of their institutional investors was also Alameda Research, the owner of the FTX trading platform. Other partners include DEX AG, HXRO and Reserve when it comes to DeFi and DEX. Broker partnerships that have already been secured include Binance, OKex, ByBit, but also FTX itself, with more to come, according to an official announcement on the Upbots blog.
Another round of the token sale is expected to take place soon, this time in the form of a public sale. The public sale will offer a total of 6% of the total token supply of 500 million at the price of USD 0.01. Thanks to the enthusiasm of Upbots followers, the sale is expected to conclude very quickly once the hard cap is reached. A pre-registration competition is also on its way, where 10 lucky users will win USD 100 in the platform’s native UBXT token just for registering for the sale.
But how does this tie in with the FTX partnership and the future of Upbots? Quite simply: Upbots is proving that their product is well on its way, securing important partnerships and kicking it into motion through token sales. Users who want to be first to try all the exciting features are welcome to pre-register for the sale (although that doesn’t guarantee you’ll be able to actually purchase any tokens if you’re not quick enough). Once they’ve moved past the token sale stage and launched their product, we might well learn that the partnership between Upbots and FTX will yield significantly more than just the sum of its parts.