Thalex is making waves with its latest strategic moves aimed at positioning itself as a formidable contender to industry leader Deribit. Following a successful integration with Bitfinex and having secured $13 million in funding to date, Thalex is aiming to ramp up its presence in the market as it gears up for a crucial Q4 of 2024.
Founded in 2020, Thalex has built a platform offering stablecoin-settled options, futures, and perpetuals. Its unique approach—simplifying complex trades and enhancing user experience—has attracted notable investors including Bitfinex, Bitstamp, Flow Traders, IMC, and Wintermute.
The platform, which went live in 2023, has already processed $1.5 billion in trading volume, primarily from institutional customers.
As the crypto options market matures, particularly in the politically charged environment of Q4 2024, traders are increasingly turning to options not just to hedge positions but to express views on market volatility. Thalex’s innovative offerings, including linear options, daily-settled futures, and perpetuals in USDT, cater to this growing demand with support for multi-asset collateral and native combination trades.
Co-Founder and CEO of Thalex, Hendrik Ghys, said: “We built Thalex because we believe that options, futures, and perpetuals are symbiotic and we expect to see significant volume growth across all of these contracts. We are close to delivering the customer experience we aimed to realize when we started building Thalex and hope to realize our objective of delivering a frictionless trading experience.”
Thalex’s ambitions are not just technical but also strategic. The company is actively bootstrapping liquidity through its Market Quality Program (MQP), which offers a $200,000 monthly pool to reward limit orders, regardless of volume. This approach targets both institutional market makers and retail quants, emphasizing the platform’s commitment to leveling the playing field. By ensuring that all participants, whether large or small, have equal access to incentives, Thalex is setting a new standard in market fairness.
Furthermore, Thalex’s hybrid distribution strategy, which combines direct onboarding with integrations like the one with Bitfinex, is designed to maximize reach and simplify the trading experience for its users. This strategy is expected to play a key role as Thalex seeks to expand its user base and scale operations in preparation for its Gibraltar licensing.
As Thalex continues to scale, the crypto derivatives market could see a significant shift. With its focus on user experience, liquidity, and fair market practices, Thalex is positioning itself as a serious alternative to Deribit.
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