Like Coinbase in its first few years in existence, BitMEX has long been slow with the crypto assets and pairs it is willing to support. The company has stuck to its guns — the Bitcoin perpetual futures contract — and has succeeded, so it makes sense why movement has been slow on the listing front.

But this is changing. For the first time since listing Ethereum, BitMEX is adding new trading pairs.

The exchange is seemingly listening to the community, with the pairs listed being coins promoted by many in the crypto industry.

BitMEX lists pairs for four top altcoins: Chainlink, Cardano, EOS, and Tezos

Announced on Sep. 4, the leading crypto derivatives platform will be listing for new “Altcoin/USDT quanto futures contracts,” which allow traders to gain exposure to certain cryptocurrencies with Bitcoin, not the underlying asset or a stablecoin.

“As with all quanto products, they have a fixed Bitcoin multiplier regardless of the underlying Altcoin price. This allows traders to long or short each coin without needing to hold the specific coin or USDT. Traders post margin in XBT, and earn or lose XBT as the future’s price changes.

These contracts combine the quanto feature of our perpetual swap products with the expiry and settlement found in traditional futures. As with every BitMEX Altcoin future, they expire quarterly.”

The four contracts will be for EOS, Chainlink, Tezos, and Cardano — four prominent cryptocurrencies that all are in the top-15 by market capitalization as per CryptoSlate data.

BitMEX is adding these pairs as it intends on providing users with trading products they want and see demand for:

“LINK will be the first DeFi-linked contract available on the BitMEX platform, and together with XTZ, they represent two of the highest market-cap and heavily traded Altcoins, and are a further step in our aim to provide our users the best coverage of liquid, high quality products.”

The company purportedly intends on adding more altcoin contracts in the future.

It’s important to note that Arthur Hayes, CEO of the exchange, has been increasing his personal exposure to altcoins over recent weeks and months as DeFi has taken off.

Implementing KYC

This latest BitMEX news comes shortly after the exchange revealed that it will be moving forward with applying KYC procedures for all clients on the platform.

The company revealed on Aug. 14 that all customers will need to submit ID within the next six months to enable BitMEX to “create a more trusted and secure trading environment for all BitMEX users.”

Many don’t think that this will negatively affect the platform’s prominence as it is reported that most high-volume traders are already “KYCed.”