In brief
Seychelles-based crypto derivatives exchange Bit.com has announced the launch of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) perpetual contracts trading, and incentivized users to try them out by offering $100,000 worth of BCH as a giveaway.
“Bit.com launches BCH perpetual swaps, $100,000 in BCH to Be Won,” the exchange announced, adding, “New users have to trade the perpetual contract at least once during the event period, and the trading pair is not limited.”
Perpetual swaps are derivative contracts akin to futures—but with several key differences. For example, they don’t have any expiration date (meaning that users may hold them indefinitely) and their underlying asset itself is never actually traded. Additionally, the swap price closely tracks the price of the underlying asset and such contracts can be easily shorted.
The campaign will last for a week—from January 20 to January 27. However, Bit.com stressed that only people who never used any of its products previously will be considered “new users”—and thus eligible for the giveaway. Furthermore, each account will be limited to a maximum of $10 reward in BCH while “cheating will not be rewarded.”
“BCH airdrop rewards will be distributed to the Bit.com account within three days after the event ends,” the platform explained.
Bit.com was established in February 2019 by Matrixport, a crypto-financial services platform that sprouted from mining equipment giant Bitmain Technologies. The latter’s CEO Jihan Wu is also one of Matrixport’s co-founders and investors—alongside Standard Crypto, IDG Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
As Decrypt reported, Wu has been locked in a battle for control over Bitmain against the company’s other co-founder, Micree Zhan, for over a year. On December 31, Zhan has reportedly bought Wu out of the company for $600 million. Some commentators have speculated that Wu will soon return to Matrixport.