What Sets BitMEX Apart in the Digital Asset Race

by
Victoria d’Este

Revealed: July 16, 2025 at 11:24 am Up to date: July 16, 2025 at 11:25 am

by Ana

Edited and fact-checked:
July 16, 2025 at 11:24 am

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Sam Sandiford, Head of Product and Institutional Enterprise Improvement at BitMEX, brings over 17 years of expertise in conventional finance to crypto derivatives. On this interview, Sam discusses his journey to BitMEX, the platform’s dedication to safety, and what units it aside for skilled merchants. He additionally shares his ideas on BitMEX’s evolving product lineup, the significance of transparency, and the traits shaping the way forward for digital asset buying and selling.

Are you able to please share your journey to Web3?

I joined BitMEX six and a half years in the past after 17 years in conventional finance. I’d labored in derivatives for a very long time, and BitMEX reached out to me to assist work with their monetary engineering designs, notably round margining and perpetual swaps. 

It was a leap of religion on the time, and BitMEX has been a really attention-grabbing place to be during the last six and a half years, as I’m certain these studying this put up will know. We’ve steadily elevated the product vary and are nonetheless a power to be reckoned with within the crypto markets.

BitMEX describes itself as a house for actual merchants. How does this manifest in your shopper expertise and community-building efforts?

Once we discuss actual merchants, we’re taking a look at what I prefer to name semi-professional merchants and above. We’re probably not a spot for brand-new merchants who haven’t traded earlier than or who’re new to crypto. We’re a market specializing in derivatives. How does that present itself in what we do with purchasers and the group? 

We’ve an institutional crew that covers our establishments immediately with full white-glove service, and we now have VIP protection for our key retail merchants. That may be finished one-on-one with the retail gross sales crew, in addition to with teams and communities in our focus language areas. We notably concentrate on Russian, Chinese language, and English, and we now have leads for every. In a few of these, we even have separate advertising and marketing or copywriting groups that tackle and attain out to these consumer teams.

What particular UI customizations and superior order sorts do your most lively derivatives merchants depend on?

If we’re being clear, our most lively merchants will commerce through our API. What API merchants actually need is pace and low latency, which we now have – constant latency, reliability, and the preliminary ease of organising. The BitMEX API was one of many first sturdy APIs in crypto buying and selling, so lots of what we now have is similar to different venues already. It’s very straightforward for our customers to hook up with. 

Some components should not excellent, which we’ve been addressing as priorities. For instance, we labored on updating the readability and usefulness of our API documentation. We will now translate it – so from being a pure English-language API documentation, we may have Chinese language and Russian very shortly, the place we discover nearly all of our API merchants.

The subsequent set of shoppers are the whale merchants, buying and selling massive sizes – not on a high-frequency algo degree, however on a click on buying and selling foundation. They worth safety and pace of execution, so they need liquidity, which we’re engaged on enhancing to draw much more of these customers. Additionally they search for safety – BitMEX has by no means misplaced a single satoshi of buyer funds. 

Whale merchants need standardized market orders and have a tendency to make use of common restrict and market orders. They don’t want that complexity and sometimes do lots of their executions through cell units slightly than sitting at a display.

The third set is the extra OG merchants. They’ve been buying and selling for 5, six years or extra on venues like BitMEX and search for customization. They’ll add totally different elements to their buying and selling web page, resolve which set off to make use of for take earnings and cease loss, index, final worth, or mark worth. They’ll select between a restrict cease or a market cease. We’ve all this performance within the background. 

We’re attempting to make the bottom interface simpler for brand new customers by stripping that away in order that once you land on BitMEX, it’s not complicated and you can begin buying and selling immediately. Then, via our retail gross sales crew, KOLs, and group leaders, we make these different options discoverable to customers after they’ve are available in, to allow them to advance their buying and selling expertise in the event that they wish to.

The BMEX token presents buying and selling payment reductions and VIP perks. What function does the token play in consumer engagement and loyalty?

We launched the BMEX token as a pure utility token round three or 4 years in the past. It has principally served for payment reductions and withdrawal reductions. So, it had some utility however not monumental traction. Proper now, the BMEX token doesn’t play an unlimited function locally or our engagement, however that’s one thing we’re engaged on. 

Our subsequent step is to broaden the scope of our VIP program. You may already use BMEX to achieve entry to our VIP program, however in the mean time, it’s PTS and withdrawal payment waivers or reductions. There will probably be an elevated suite of VIP merchandise within the pipeline, together with white-glove service and invites to particular occasions, seemingly coming in Q3 this 12 months.

You combine buying and selling bots natively. What safeguards and monitoring instruments guarantee consumer funds stay safe?

The very first thing to say about having buying and selling bots in-house is that it brings all of the native safety of BitMEX. We’ve by no means misplaced a single Satoshi. We examine our system each 5 seconds to verify no funds have gone lacking. The bottom degree—”Are my funds nonetheless in BitMEX?”—is taken care of simply as should you’re a daily dealer. The subsequent bit is transparency. If I begin a buying and selling bot, can I see what trades are occurring as quickly as I flip it on?

The best way our buying and selling bots work is that you’ve got a separate account or run the bots on a chosen account, and you’ll see these positions in actual time. You may take over at any time, cease the bot, and shut out the positions your self if you wish to. So, there’s full transparency.

On the identical time, ought to we ever have any operational points, our buyer funds are backed by a 37,000 Bitcoin insurance coverage fund. We don’t anticipate that, however we monitor our buying and selling bots for any unhealthy conduct and check them earlier than they exit. 

Ought to there ever be any difficulty with the bots, BitMEX can cowl the losses that may be incurred. We’re at all times monitoring the product suite, and we now have a crew that vets all buying and selling bots earlier than they go reside, so we all know what they’re speculated to do.

To your most frequent derivatives customers, what aggressive edge do you provide versus different platforms?

Security and safety are paramount to BitMEX. We’ve by no means misplaced any buyer funds. It has slowed us down at instances, nevertheless it’s a non-negotiable for us, not solely by way of custody, but in addition ensuring the system itself doesn’t lose funds on one facet of the commerce. Leverage has been a key a part of BitMEX’s progress. We provide as much as 250x leverage. Different platforms provide comparable leverage, however not in an atmosphere as safe, one the place we will assure earnings for customers on the opposite facet.

We’ve acquired a backstop of a big insurance coverage fund that’s been constructed up and managed over time. We set the leverage on particular contracts (not all of them at 250x or 100x), so we will be snug getting out of these positions ought to liquidations happen. While you use excessive leverage, liquidations undoubtedly happen; it’s a part of the method. We encourage customers to make use of the leverage they’re snug with. Some merchants will commerce monumental quantities with excessive leverage and are pleased with the positive aspects and losses, whereas newer merchants, we advise, ought to average their leverage.

Transparency can also be vital. You may see every part that’s occurring in BitMEX. We’ve proof of reserves and liabilities to indicate our insurance coverage fund and the way we’ve acquired all our clients’ deposits below custody. Most significantly, we don’t commerce in opposition to our clients. Different exchanges run in-house market makers or facilitate market makers buying and selling in opposition to clients. We don’t do this. We’re actually a peer-to-peer trade. That’s tremendous vital for our transparency and buying and selling expertise. We’ve been round for 10 years, so we’re battle-tested. 

We’ve had a number of bumps alongside the best way, however that simply means we all know take care of the obstacles once we’re confronted with them. Our tech is sturdy and sturdy, making us one of the crucial dependable venues on the road.

In addition to Russia and China, what new areas or markets are you focusing on for enlargement, given the worldwide demand for derivatives?

We commerce virtually globally already and serve international markets, excluding the US and a handful of others. We wish to develop traction in sure focus areas, and we consider focus areas extra round language than particular geographies. Once we take into consideration licensing, geographies come into play as properly. We’re engaged on our licensing posture, and we now have a few jurisdictions the place there may be attention-grabbing alternatives for us to get regulated successfully. 

We’re already extra lively in Asian geographies than Western ones. As licensing progresses, we see ourselves with growing buyer numbers, in all probability throughout the Center East and West into Europe over the following 6 to 12 months. We’ve additionally grown our CIS crew considerably within the final 3 months, so we anticipate extra traction there as properly. We’re open to enterprise from CIS and Russian audio system.

As tokenization expands into real-world property, how is BitMEX making ready to assist or commerce these new asset courses?

For us, RWAs in all probability begin with stablecoins. We provide a small choice of stablecoins as margin forex in the mean time and are frequently seeking to broaden that. We added Ripple USD as a margin forex lately and are taking a look at different stablecoins –  probably yielding stablecoins and cash market-based funds as future collateral. We’re probably not a spot trade; we’re a derivatives trade, so our concentrate on RWAs is usually round utilizing them as collateral.

We’ve teams of purchasers incomes 50% plus yearly on buying and selling who should not so frightened in regards to the yield from their collateral as a result of they’re collateral environment friendly and commerce very continuously with small buying and selling sizes. For them, this doesn’t matter. There’s a group of shoppers we wish to carry on who maintain positions for longer and bigger sizes – for them, margin effectivity is vital. So, we’ll search for probably the most dependable collateral that may be transformed into our currencies simply. 

In any other case, somebody on the trade bears the slippage. If we wish to get Bitcoin or Tether again from a cash market fund token, we have to know that we will do it reliably, in dimension, and with out an excessive amount of slippage. These are the avenues we’re exploring on RWAs. Exterior of tokenization, we’re additionally exploring using securities via a companion, notably T-bills, for use as collateral, after which the companion will present buying and selling funds of Tether or different stablecoins on BitMEX. 

We are going to keep in contact with different RWA initiatives and think about itemizing these both as spot or as perps, the place they’re massive and open sufficient to the universe of BitMEX merchants. We in all probability gained’t take a look at a token with very particular necessities, however we are going to take a look at a globally out there token.

What macroeconomic or geopolitical forces do you consider will most importantly form the crypto derivatives market over the following three to 5 years?

That is attention-grabbing. As markets are transferring proper now, we’ve had a dominant place, notably within the centralized trade house. BitMEX is registered in Seychelles, however most of our employees are primarily based in Asia, and lots of buying and selling has been from this area. Worth discovery, retail merchants, institutional merchants, and even buying and selling knowledge facilities are primarily based largely out of Asia, notably Tokyo. A lot in order that we’re transferring our knowledge heart to Tokyo from Dublin within the subsequent couple of months.

Within the final six months, the U.S. has come out of its shell and can spark progress. The U.S. has three and a half years left of Trump’s presidency to actually make its mark on home and international  crypto markets. There’s lots of rigidity in the course of the globe, nevertheless it’s actually an Asia versus U.S. stability. 

For exchanges which can be neither U.S.-centric nor Asia-centric, there’s a chance to intermediate that circulate. I believe we’ll see consolidation within the U.S. to 2 or three venues, consolidation in Asia to 3 or 4 large venues, after which localized onshore exchanges, as we see in locations like Korea with dominant exchanges like Upbit. Then a handful of gamers, and I see BitMEX on this house, will intermediate that circulate. 

It’ll be very laborious for an onshore dealer within the U.S. to commerce in opposition to a retail dealer in China, for instance, until it’s within the centralized house. That circulate will seemingly be intermediated by licensed venues outdoors of the U.S. and Asia. The geopolitical power driving that’s in all probability the U.S. in the mean time.

By 2030, what do you consider would be the defining characteristic of profitable crypto buying and selling platforms, and the way is BitMEX aligning with that imaginative and prescient?

I believe there are a number of profitable variations of a crypto buying and selling platform. We transfer extra in direction of the retail facet, mass adoption, and buying and selling on private units – buying and selling on cell slightly than on desktop. That’s partly a generational factor. A lot of our merchants below 30 are way more mobile-focused, whereas these 35 and above are desktop merchants, probably former finance professionals. We see that shifting quite a bit. 

First, it’s quick access and ease, and with that in all probability comes passive buying and selling. We talked about buying and selling bots earlier, and duplicate buying and selling undoubtedly comes as a continuation to that. Possibly even entry to asset administration and personal merchandise would be the norm. 

The historic crypto merchants haven’t actually been as as a result of they’ve been taking a look at 20%, 30%, 50% annualized yields slightly than 5, six, or seven. However with that comes a big threat urge for food, which the typical crypto adopter gained’t have in three or 4 years’ time. They’ll have a decrease threat urge for food and be pleased with decrease yields. So, for starters, having sturdy cell assist can be a major defining characteristic. 

Within the institutional house, we’ll in all probability begin to look a bit bit like TradFi, a minimum of from a tech angle – co-location, regulation, stability, and presumably darkish swimming pools for individuals to commerce. There’s a slight issue with the best way the crypto derivatives market is true now to make that work. In the mean time, each contract on a special trade, even when its underlying may be very comparable, is definitely a separate instrument. There’s no direct fungibility throughout these devices. 

Members, together with ourselves and merchants, prefer it that approach as a result of they perceive the variations, and that creates buying and selling alternatives. Standardization and central clearing, which may be an concept that comes up, must change a bit. We would see extra standardized contracts, a minimum of on Bitcoin and ETH, so individuals can actually be fungible. 

There will probably be resistance from numerous gamers as a result of it principally eats into their margins. There’s a risk that clearinghouses will probably be in place. It was tried seven or eight years in the past and didn’t work, however perhaps the market will resolve in three years’ time if that’s mandatory. That would definitely be simpler to grasp from a regulatory perspective.

About The Creator

Victoria is a author on quite a lot of expertise subjects together with Web3.0, AI and cryptocurrencies. Her intensive expertise permits her to jot down insightful articles for the broader viewers.

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