LedgerX Claims 'Record' July for Bitcoin Options Trading

Bitcoin derivatives trading provider LedgerX says it saw a "record" amount of trading volume over the last two months.

The firm cleared $50 million in derivatives volume in July alone, president and chief risk officer Juthica Chou told CoinDesk. Earlier this month, the firm also executed its largest trade to date for a December $15,000 strike call.

Partly in response to increased client demand, LedgerX launched a new bitcoin purchasing system last month. Called one-click bitcoin, the service acts as a "one-stop shop" for institutional or high net-worth clients to buy bitcoin easily through a federally-regulated platform, Chou said. The service is built on top of the LedgerSavings platform LedgerX debuted in May.

The demand for this type of product is high, Chou said.

"[One-click bitcoin] was born out of a lot of the customer demand that we've seen. I think it's showing that derivatives and options are really useful long-term products and they can offer killer solutions to a wide variety of participants," she said, adding:

"June was one of the record months for us and July was a record month by far. If you look at how we've been doing our transactions, a third of the value has been over the last month, we've seen a lot of healthy activity."

The platform is available to all of LedgerX's clients, she said, which include roughly 130 institutions as well as high net-worth individuals.

The company has already begun conducting transactions with the system, and one client will see at 15 percent per annum return on their bitcoin for the next six months. This figure will remain steady, even if bitcoin's price drops or stays stagnant in that period.

Going forward, LedgerX hopes to add ethereum products. The firm is working with regulators to receive approval, but Chou is confident that the company will receive this approval as all of its products are "full collateralized."

LedgerX image via Piotr Swat / Shutterstock

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Original author: Nikhilesh De