Infrastructure · May 13, 2016
BitMEX launches the XBTUSD perpetual swap
Price at event
$455
Today
$73,594
Since then
×162
On 13 May 2016, BitMEX listed XBTUSD, the first perpetual swap: a leveraged futures contract with no expiry, kept tethered to spot by a periodic funding payment between longs and shorts. The funding-rate design was promptly copied by essentially every other derivatives venue, and perpetuals went on to become the single most-traded instrument type in crypto. Not bad for a product that launched on a Friday the 13th.
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