Some Famous Faces to Behind the Billion Dollar Bitcoin Futures Market

By Congecko News On Nov 19, 2019

Bitcoin futures were opened for trading for the first time in 2017 with the aim brings much-needed transparency, greater liquidity and efficient price discovery to the ecosystem. It is considered one of the biggest milestones for bitcoin since it emerged in the wake of the 2008 – 2009 financial crisis.

In recent years, the Bitcoin futures market has seen an unprecedented boom, and it is expected will continue to grow. Notably, BitMEX had touched over $16 billion marks, hit a new record for BTC futures trading in this summer.

When more and more users have interested, recently, CME petitioned the CFTC to double its BTC futures trading capacity. Binance has also taken part in the space, and Bakkt has issued with its physically delivered BTC futures product (albeit somewhat tepidly).

With development like that, do you curious about the key faces behind the billion-dollar BTC futures market? If yes, let’s read continue.

Arthur Hayes

Arthur Hayes, born in America, is known as one of the most influential people in the BTC futures space right now, he started BitMex the crypto exchange company in 2014. Before that, he worked as the market-maker for Deutsche Bank and Citibank’s Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) businesses. He had a quite successful career in investment banking before he started in the cryptocurrency world.

BitMex is registered in Seychelles, widely recognized as the most liquid in the market and daily trading volume reaches over billions of dollars. Additionally, It is the most popular Bitcoin margin trading exchange.

From a coincidence saw an article on the web about bitcoin, he started to study the market and its ups and downs, and Hayes saw a huge potential there. With a degree in economics from the Wharton School of Business and trading derivatives in Hong Kong for many years, he’s used his extensive knowledge to make BitMEX the number one platform it is. Bitcoin helps changed many lives forever, Arthur was one of them.

Kelly Loeffler

Kelly Loeffler, Chief Executive Officer of New York Stock Market’s Bakkt, has been part of the fabric of the BTC futures market for a while now. The company has enabled institutional, merchant and consumer access to digital assets in a secure, trusted ecosystem.

In summer 2018, Bakkt first reported that it plans to enter the market with the first physically settled BTC futures contracts. It has suffered various delays and setbacks from U.S. regulators, however.

Although Bakkt’s debut failed to cause the stir in the price of Bitcoin that was expected, many people consider its physically settled BTC futures product to be revolutionary as it will (when they’re ready) force investors to purchase or take delivery of the actual underlying asset for the first time. Furthermore, it seems as Bakkt is finally growing, as it saw its record day on trading futures contracts at over 1,100 BTC.

It can say that Loeffler is key in ushering in a new era of futures products and she’s a woman. She had a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree from the University of Illinois and graduated from DePaul University with a Master of Business Administration. She joined Intercontinental Exchange in 2002 where she built and led investor relations, corporate communications and marketing for over 15 years.

In the blockchain area, it’s refreshing to see a female making such an essential contribution to the BTC futures market.

Changpeng Zhao (CZ)

Changpeng Zhao (CZ) is the founder and CEO of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, and only recently entered the crypto derivatives space. It already hit a massive $150 million in 24-hour trading on their beta platform–and then surpassed the 24-hour trading volume of its spot markets earlier this month.

More importantly than that, the Chinese-Canadian business executive got personality in bucketload and are often leading and influencing debates going on in the crypto space. He’s also mentioned on the Forbes billionaires’ list with a real-time net worth of $1.2 billion. Zhao was a member of the team that developed Blockchain.info and also served as chief technology officer of OKCoin in the past.

Terry Duffy

Terry Duffy is chairman and CEO of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group (CME), the world’s leading derivatives marketplace. He has built CME Group into a brand recognized around the globe and often serves as the voice of the global derivatives industry.

In 2019, CME Group was called the world’s fastest-growing and most valuable exchange brand for the sixth consecutive year, with a brand value of $1.9 billion, beating out the New York Stock Exchange, the London Stock Exchange, and the Hong Kong Exchange.

As a result, it is said that the man at the helm of one of the highest-profile BTC futures trading products would be a little more bullish on Bitcoin. In spite of smashing trading volume records and his CBOE competitors into submission, he doesn’t see Bitcoin as having a long-term future.

In the FIA’s International Futures Industry Conference in Florida earlier this year, he said that he only saw fiat-backed digital currencies as staying the distance. He also believed that there is too much speculation in the space and not enough use cases (kind of ironic, given the nature of his business).

Anyway, the truth is that he is indeed an influential person in the cryptocurrency space.

Jesse Powell

Jesse Powell is an expert in cryptocurrency, online/international payments and fraud, as well as co-founder and CEO of Kraken, the most trusted and one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges in the world. Kraken is renowned for declining to give in to regulatory bullying and negating to comply with a New York inquiry for customer information.

Earlier this year, Kraken purchased UK-based Crypto Facilities derivatives trading firm not to miss the BTC futures space. The move made Kraken the first crypto exchange for offering spot trading and futures trading, despite not to US customers.

Adam Todd

This is perhaps the most surprising name on the list. Adam Todd, the CEO & Founder of Digitex Futures, a zero-fee non-custodial cryptocurrency futures exchange, however, it is yet not launched.

Todd has teamed up with developers SmartDec to lower the barrier to trading and open up new markets to crypto traders including traditional futures such as stocks, indices, Forex, and gold. This promised to bring something arguably unique to the BTC futures space.

In addition, Testnet is anticipated to issue at the end of November on the Ethereum mainnet, so traders will be able to trade BTC futures contracts aggressively and pursue scalping strategies without the fees, which don’t have in exchange models currently available.

Having many others

Having many more faces behind the billion-dollar Bitcoin Futures market as more and more exchanges throwing their hats into the ring all the time. From older established players like OKEx and Bitfinex to newer entrants like Derebit and Idax. There is a lot of money is changing hands daily in this developing industry.

With the growing of physically-settled BTC futures contracts and commission-free trading, it is not surprising to keep your eye on in the derivatives space.