Many consider this is
the path of an experienced crypto trader: spot trading,
trading with leverage, and
Bitcoin futures trading. Let’s take a look at
the second level of your game: crypto
trading with leverage.
What is
leveraged Bitcoin trading <a name=\'more\'></a> ?
You’ve been following a few coins for at least three years now, you’re in control of your luck, (meaning you don’t believe in luck), you spend hours doing fundamental and technical analysis and you can afford to lose a certain amount of money. You’re ready for
leveraged Bitcoin trading, but what is this exactly?
Definition: Leveraged
Bitcoin trading is a kind of
trading where you borrow
Bitcoin from a crypto exchange or other traders to increase your
trading position beyond what would be available from your cash balance alone. You should keep in mind that leverage will also multiply
the potential downside risks in case
the crypto coin of your choice goes down.
Example: Say, you want to buy two BTC that cost $10K each, but you’ve only got enough money for one Bitcoin. You go with
the 2X leverage and buy two Bitcoins. After some time,
the price of
the coin goes up 10%, meaning that you have now earned $20K + 10%, or $22K. You return $10K to
the exchange, extract fees from your earned $2K, and these are your earnings. Without
the leverage
trading feature, your earnings would be half as much.
On
the other hand, if
the market goes in
the wrong direction, and Bitcoin’s price goes down to $7K,
the overall price of your funds is now $14K, but you still have to pay back $10K to
the exchange. The bad news is you’ve lost $6K of your own funds. That’s why leverage
trading is dangerous.
In other words, leverage is a ratio between
the position value and
the investment needed and can be expressed as 2X, 3X,10X etc. In
the stock market, 2:1 is an often-case ratio, while futures contracts are often traded at a 15:1 leverage. In
the forex markets, traders can get much higher leverages, up to 400X. The ultimate maximum leverage in
the crypto niche is 100X offered by BitMEX.
That said, cryptocurrency leverage
trading gives you a chance to trade larger amounts of tokens than you could have done solely with your funds. Depending on
the leverage options of
the crypto exchange and collateral requirements, you can trade bigger or smaller amounts of money.
Crypto exchanges with leverage
There are several crypto exchanges out there that offer you to leverage
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. We’ve chosen
the platforms with
the highest number of video tutorials on YouTube, so that if you like
the platform, you can go and learn more about it.
BitMEX
With this peer-to-peer
trading platform, leverage is not a fixed multiplier but rather a minimum equity requirement. The Initial Margin and Maintenance Margin levels determine your leverage. They specify
the minimum equity you must hold in your account to enter and maintain positions.
The highest leverage BitMEX offers is up to 100X on its Perpetual
Bitcoin / USD Perpetual Contract.
The fees for leverage
trading on top of BitMEX are quite high and apply to
the entire
leveraged position.
The maker fee for
trading Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple with
the 100X leverage is 0.0250%, while
the taker fee is 0.0750%.
PrimeXBT
With PrimeXBT,
the exchange provides you with
the funds to trade with increased exposure. You can trade Bitcoin, Ethereum and other coins without tying up lots of capital.
The highest leverage PrimeXBT offers is up to 100X leverage on Bitcoin, Ethereum and a few other major alts.
The fees for leverage
trading on top of PrimeXBT are flat. As
the exchange reports on their website,
the borrowing cost depends on
the liquidity of
the underlying asset. If you open and close a
leveraged position within
the same
trading day, you are not subject to overnight financing.
The trade fee is 0.05%, plus you also pay a day-long or a day-short fee, for example, 0.4166% for BTC/USD.
Bybit
Bybit is a peer-to-peer crypto exchange that allows you to engage in
leveraged trading with Bitcoin, Ethereum, EOS and Ripple.
The highest leverage Bybit offers is 100X, which means that if you opened
the position for $100 with
the 100X leverage, you would be able to trade a contract value of 10,000 USD.
According to their website, you will need to pay a maker fee of 0.025% and a taker fee of 0.075% for
the highest leverage of 100X with this exchange.
Binance
One of
the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in terms of
trading volume, Binance launched its margin
trading feature in July 2019. The exchange lends you funds directly, which is different from
the p2p model on BitMEX, for example.
Right now there are 29 borrowable cryptocurrencies, and you can raise your maximum leverage from 3x to 5x if your total debt is less than one Bitcoin, and your margin level is more than 1.25. The latter is calculated by taking total asset value and dividing by
the sum of total borrowed and total accrued interest.
Also, on top of Binance Futures, you can trade derivatives with a maximum of 125X. The available pairs include but are not limited to BTC/USDT, ETH/USDT, BCH/USDT.
Your
trading fees depend on your tier level. For example, with
the spot
trading platform and
the number of Bitcoins less than 50, your maker/taker fees are 0.1%. As for derivatives, with
the zero tier level and
the number of
Bitcoin contracts less than 250, your maker/taker fees will be 0.02 and 0.04%, respectively.
Long story short
Leveraged
Bitcoin trading is a risky venture that you should only try if you feel like you’ve got enough experience.
While giving you a chance to trade with more money than you have, it also exposes you to greater risks if
the market doesn’t go into your direction.
If you’re interested in crypto
trading with leverage on a certain platform, carefully read each platform’s blog before giving leverage
trading a shot.
While progressing as a trader, you will most likely go through some stages: automated spot
trading with TradeSanta,
leveraged trading, and
Bitcoin futures trading.