Sam Bankman-Fried’s popular cryptocurrency exchange FTX is allegedly planning to add spot trading for several new digital currencies in the coming months, including Cardano’s ADA, Polkadot’s DOT, and Avalanche’s AVAX. The move comes as part of the platform’s strategy to bring in even more retail investors and increase its customer count.
Bankman-Fried, the 29-year old billionaire who found its fame and wealth through cryptocurrency, said that there are numerous blockchains that are fairly significant in the crypto industry these days, and FTX aims to connect with them by offering their native coins and tokens.
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At the moment, FTX is the most interested in listing Polkadot, which dominates its list. Avalanche (AVAX/USD) and Cardano (ADA/USD) are also on the list, as he noted, concluding that these are all the biggest blockchains that the exchange is interested in currently. Whether or not additional chains might find their way onto the list in weeks and months to come remains to be seen.
For the moment, FTX is the fourth-biggest crypto exchange by daily trading volume, and Bankman-Fried aims to add more post listings in order to help the exchange grow further. This is why he is focusing on the most popular projects that are likely to attract the most volume.
Why ADA, DOT, and AVAX?
As many are likely aware, the altcoin market is once again booming, with many projects currently seeing major price rallies on their own, independently of Bitcoin which still struggles to return to and breach the barrier at $50,000.
Cardano is one of the prime examples, which is expected to introduce smart contracts to its mainnet in only a few days. The anticipation has led its coin to skyrocket recently, passing the $3 mark and surging further up. Cardano is also currently the 3rd-largest crypto by market cap, right behind BTC and ETH.
Polkadot and Avalanche, on the other hand, are projects that launched only last year, but they still saw major amounts of popularity, which brought them to FTX’s attention due to their growing prices, communities, and volume.
As for FTX, the exchange currently mostly deals in futures products, which allow investors to bet on which way crypto prices will go, instead of having to buy coins and actually own assets. However, it does already offer spot trading, which it wishes to improve, as it currently only translates to around 20% of its business, while futures dominate with the remaining 80%.
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