If you've been on Crypto Twitter lately, it's difficult to ignore the constant referral links to FTX Exchange circulated by large accounts. You might even be wondering why everyone is shilling for FTX Exchange.

The answer is FTX Exchange just might be the best cryptocurrency exchange to come around since Binance. However, unlike Binance, Coinbase, and Gemini, FTX Exchange is aimed at traders, rather than investors, interested in derivatives products for mostly DeFi assets.

In 2021, the cryptocurrency bull market mantra is up only, traders yolo longing DeFi tokens are all degens, and FTX Exchange is where all the action is happening.

FTX Exchange is a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange built and backed by institutional trader Sam Bankman-Fried and the quantum trading firm Alameda Research. As an exchange built by traders for traders, FTX brings the best leveraged crypto trading products to the market.

FTX Exchange background

Founded in 2019 by Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX Exchange has been aimed at both pro and amateur traders since day one. Like BitMex, FTX is focused squarely on providing a suite of mostly leveraged cryptocurrency derivative trading products using a high capacity secure exchange platform.

The team behind FTX Exchange is what makes the exchange really shine. Composed of former Google, Silicon Valley, and Wall Street traders and engineers, the FTX team has stellar backing behind its products.

What makes FTX better than other crypto derivatives exchanges?

If you're looking for a crypto derivatives exchange these days, there are plenty of options. But, in our humble opinion, FTX tops them all. Here's why:

• Backed by Alameda Research, an in-touch crypto fund managing billions in assets
• Super smooth trading experience across a wealth of crypto trading products
• Lowest trading fees when using FTT token
• Lowest hourly funding rates (instead of every 8 hours like other exchanges)
• Uses trading fees & profits to fund FTX Insurance for users
• Backing from Alameda Research means great marketing exposure + growth for FTX
• FTX Exchange has the blessing of Crypto Twitter's best traders

FTX Exchange features & products

While Coinbase is used for spot buying and selling cryptocurrency assets, FTX is specifically aimed at crypto derivatives traders. Margin trading carries risks, but FTX traders should already know that.

In other words, if you're looking to ape into a degen 10x long, FTX Exchange is the place for you.

A cryptocurrency derivative is a trading product that derives its value from the asset being speculated on. So, Bitcoin perpetual derivatives are really just contracts using the spot price of Bitcoin, rather than Bitcoin itself, to wager on price direction.

• 101x leverage — FTX offers crazy amounts of leverage up to 101x. Traders with maximum conviction in their positions should have no problem reaching for the moon.
• Crypto & DeFi derivatives — Go long or short using several innovative derivatives products. Perpetual futures, fiat-supported spot markets, leveraged tokens, and MOVE contracts for trading price volatility.
• Leveraged tokens — Long and short DeFi tokens up to 3x without resorting to margin
• Crypto collateral — Usually, fiat and stablecoin currencies are the only accepted forms of collateral. At FTX, you can use a vast array of cryptocurrencies as collateral including ETH, LINK, MKR, YFI, and many others.
• Quick fiat deposits — Deposit USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, & CAD with quick bank transfers, debit cards, and even credit cards.
• Stablecoin settlements — A pretty nifty feature for traders is settling PnL 1:1 with stablecoins rather than USD. While USD is the default, you can rotate into your supported stablecoin of choice.
• Customizable UI/UX — For some traders, everything needs to be in the right place for success. FTX Exchange enables you to drag, drop, and rearrange its entire layout to your liking.

FTX Exchanges fees and FTT token

Besides being incredibly trader-friendly, FTX Exchange also boasts the lowest trading fees of any exchange out there. Yes, including Binance.

Currently, on the taker side of the fee schedule, fees begin at 0.07% and decrease from there the more you trade.

However, to lower your fees even more, you can stake FTT token, the exchange's native digital currency asset. At its core, FTT token is designed as an incentives token much in the same way as BNB for Binance, HT for Huobi, and UNI for Uniswap are.

You might become extremely interested in FTT token once the talk about fee rebates, staking, and token burn begins.

FTT fee rebate structure

As you can see, holding FTT is hugely beneficial if you plan on using FTX Exchange for your trading needs.

Of particular note is that FTT holders are also eligible to receive Serum Exchange airdrops. Serum is a decentralized exchange built by Alameda Research that is a companion to FTX.

FTT staking

Stake your FTT tokens to increase your rewards and incentives, including:

• Increased referral rates: referrers that stake FTT are paid a higher fraction of their referees' fees
• Maker fee rebates: stakers get maker fee rebates (in addition to the standard FTT fee discounts)
• Bonus votes: stakers get bonus votes in our polls (in addition to the standard number of votes, based on FTT held and trading volume)
• Increased airdrop rewards: stakers get increased SRM airdrops (and potentially later other airdrops and yield)

FTT token burn

To increase the scarcity and value of FTT token, FTX Exchange conducts a buyback and burn program every week.

Other exchanges run similar programs, but do so on a quarterly basis. FTX Exchange's weekly bias means FTT burning is a constant, which might explain why FTT has been zooming up in value.

FTT tokens are bought and burned in proportion to:

1. 33% of FTX Exchange fees earned
2. 10% of net profit added to insurance fund
3. 5% of 'other' FTX fees

Burning FTT tokens refers to the supply of tokens being permanently removed from circulation, meaning the token supply decreases while demand is hopefully increasing or remaining stable.

FTX Exchange security and insurance fund

FTX Exchange takes massive amounts of pride in its platform’s security, starting with having security audits conducted by trust third parties like Blockchain Consilium.

You might take a step back from FTX Exchange because it hasn't been around as long as competitors like BitMex and Bitfinex. However, with the backing from Alameda Research and other trusted names like FBG Capital and Circle, FTX is clearly on the up and up.

Furthermore, FTX Exchange manages an insurance fund meant to cover hacks, security exploits, and other unforeseen events.

Conclusion

Compared to BitMex, FTX Exchange lacks a little bit of reputation, but that will develop with time.

But when it comes to platform features, trading products, trade speed, security, and customer support, FTX Exchange is second to none. Currently, we can't think of a better crypto derivatives exchange out there now.

FTX calls itself the exchange for traders, by traders, and in our experience, it certainly lives up to that billing.