The world’s largest cryptocurrency derivatives platform, BitMEX has announced that it will be unveiling a perpetual swap contract for Ripple’s XRP tomorrow (February 5, 2020). According to the tweet published by the exchange, official trading for the XRPUSD perpetual swap will commence at 4.00 UTC. BitMEX first disclosed this XRP perpetual swap last month.
The XRP perpetual contract will offer traders up to 50x leverage with bitcoin as the only accepted collateral. Also, similar to the bitcoin perpetual contracts offered by BitMEX, this XRPUSD perpetual swap will not have an expiration date as well. Therefore, traders will be expected to pay for the product every eight hours.
Speaking about this new XRP product, BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes said mockingly:
“Is it called Ripple, XRP, or dogshit? Who knows, who cares. It’s worth more than zero so it’s time to trade the USD pair on BitMEX. Boo-Yaka-sha!”
Notably, BitMEX has made quite a name for itself in the cryptocurrency industry. As such, many believe this new product could have a huge impact on XRP which is currently hovering at around $0.25.
What Effect Will This Have On XRP?
There’s growing interest in XRP as evidenced by the many exchanges launching perpetual contracts on the asset. BitMEX joins the likes of OKEx and Binance which offer leverage up to 100x and 75x respectively.
Nonetheless, Crypto Twitter is divided on how BitMEX’s XRP perpetual swap could affect the price of the third-largest cryptocurrency: some speculate that XRP will take a beating while others think the added liquidity will be a boon for XRP price.
Popular crypto analyst and trader Josh Rager said “dump it Arthur”, suggesting that XRP is primed for a huge tumble after the launch of the perpetual contract tomorrow. Fellow analyst Luke Martin shared the same sentiments, noting that he is “sending thoughts and prayers” to Ripple.
Contrarily, analyst Sean Nance believes tomorrow’s perpetual contract listing could light a fire under XRP bulls.
It’s important to note that ethereum tanked in 2018 after BitMEX launched the ETHUSD perpetual swap. However, there is no guarantee that the same trend will play out with XRP. It will, therefore, be pretty interesting to see how the price of XRP will react after the XRPUSD perpetual swaps go live tomorrow.
