17 Aug 2023, Dubai: BIT, a professional crypto exchange specialising in options trading, has today launched options trading of XRP, the native token of the open-source, energy efficient and decentralised XRP Ledger (XRPL). XRP now stands as the sixth token available for options trading on the BIT platform, following BTC, ETH, ADA, TON, and LADYS.

On July 13, The court ruled partially in Ripple’s favor, dismissing some of the SEC's claims that XRP should be classified as a security. This outcome prompted mainstream exchanges to relist XRP, and in response, the price of the cryptocurrency surged by an impressive 70%. The partial win against the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission marks a major milestone for Ripple and has undoubtedly sparked renewed interest and optimism in the XRP market.

As a testament to the growing interest in XRP, BIT has seized the opportunity and announced the launch of XRP options trading. The initial liquidity is being provided by OrBit Markets,  an institutional liquidity provider of options and structured derivatives in digital assets. This development will provide XRP holders and investors with an additional means to effectively manage and hedge their portfolio risks by selling calls or utilizing other combinations of strategies.

Crypto options trading offers investors a relatively low-cost and low-risk approach to trading digital assets. Along with other crypto derivatives, options trading enables traders to manage their exposure to digital assets and speculate on their future prices. Crypto options trading is a fast-growing segment of the digital asset trading market that is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years.

Justin Buitendam, BIT’s Global Head of Institutional Sales said: “We are proud to become one of the first exchanges making XRP options trading accessible to both institutional and retail traders, enabling long and short for options traders at the same time. We look forward to bringing this product to more traders and investors alike across the globe”.

As a USD denominated and settled exchange, users can trade XRP options without needing to hold the underlying assets. Furthermore, all profits and losses are calculated in USD, facilitating easier performance assessment and return calculation for users.

Trades executed on BIT benefit from its advanced risk management and fund efficiency features, supported by its unique portfolio margin and unified margin systems. The portfolio margin system evaluates potential losses resulting from predefined market conditions, identifying risk exposure at the portfolio level. This enhances capital effectiveness and reduces margin requirements for hedged positions. The unified margin system serves as an enhanced trading and risk management solution, offering a unified account that allows users to utilize all assets in their account, including XRP,  as collateral for trading various products.

About BIT

BIT is a full-featured cryptocurrency exchange that is designed for use by professionals, with advanced risk management and fund efficiency supported by Portfolio Margin and Unified Margin.

BIT was launched in August 2020 as an affiliate of Matrixport, a prominent crypto financial service company. BIT is one of the top crypto options trading platforms which offer innovative USD-margined trading pairs.