Cryptocurrency Trading Contest Offers $1.8 Million Prize Fund

Gold and precious metals continue to do well, but that only underscores the state of other assets, as investors seek to move funds into a traditional safe haven. Forex markets in the pound and euro continue to be impacted by the spiraling cases of coronavirus in the US, which also appears to be causing deepening uncertainty among stock investors. 

Bybit Launches World Series of Trading

Amid all the doom and gloom, cryptocurrency traders have a gleam of sunshine on the horizon. Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange Bybit is running a trading contest this summer with a mega prize pool of 200 Bitcoin. At the current Bitcoin price of around $9,000, that represents a fund worth a cool $1.8 million. The best part? It’s open to absolutely anyone who wants to attend. 

Bybit is launching the event as the first in a bi-annual series of trading contests known as the “World Series of Trading.” Perhaps the name is a giveaway, but the company is aiming to capture a global audience of traders from across the globe. The contest comes on the back of a previously successful trading battle called “BTC Brawl” that Bybit ran in 2019. In that event, traders competed for the chance to win a share of a prize fund worth 100 BTC. This time, Bybit is doubling up the prize fund, taking a bet that raising the stakes will draw in an even bigger global group of traders. 

Because the prizes are allocated based on the percentage of profit and loss, everyone is competing on an even playing field. Along with institutional and retail traders, Bybit is also anticipating that some of the biggest names in cryptocurrency trading will join in to compete. 

Participation in the WSOT brings other benefits. The company is also offering those who register the opportunity to trade with a 20% discount on fees. There’s also the chance to earn up to $9,400 in bonuses payable in the Tether stablecoin, pegged to the US dollar. 

What is Bybit? 

For the benefit of the uninitiated, Bybit is an exchange established in 2018 and based in Singapore. Like rival exchange BitMEX, it’s flagship product is its BTCUSD perpetual swap contract, allowing traders to profit from movements in Bitcoin against the dollar but without taking custody of the underlying. The company recently launched a Tether-backed contract, meaning traders can gain exposure to Bitcoin’s volatility while funding their accounts and taking profits in the USD-pegged stablecoin. 

Unlike its rival, Bybit tends to be more user-friendly than BitMEX. Traders can deposit fiat on the platform, and take advantage of the company’s mutual insurance feature as a hedge against losses. Perhaps most importantly, the exchange’s matching engine can support 100,000 transactions per second. 

Bitcoin’s volatility offers traders plenty of opportunities to profit amid wider market uncertainty. Furthermore, Bitcoin is widely considered to be an uncorrelated asset, meaning it’s likely to escape the inevitable coronavirus carnage relatively unscathed. 

The recent third “halving” event in May puts additional pressure on supply by halving the rewards paid to Bitcoin miners. In the two previous halvings, the price of Bitcoin went on to achieve new highs in the next twelve months, leading to much speculation that Bitcoin could be set for a new bull run. Therefore, for traders jaded by the current state of the markets, Bitcoin could provide new opportunities – for profits as well as trading contest prizes. 

The World Series of Trading is open for pre-registration now, until July 30. The event itself runs from August 10 to August 31.