Crypto Facilities Review by professional Forex trading experts the “ForexSQ” FX trading team, Finding out everything you need to know about the broker in this Crypto Facilities Review.
Crypto Facilities Review
Crypto Facilities is a platform for cryptocurrency futures trading. This makes them one of the options for miners, looking to hedge their exposure. The most well-known other similar platform is BitMEX.
The company, security of funds
Crypto Facilities is registered in the United Kingdom and more importantly overseen by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This is very unusual as the British watchdog usually doesn’t look at companies dealing in the crypto-space. That being said, this is derivatives trading company, and the crypotocurrencies are only the underlying asset.
While the FCA oversees a lot of companies (like forex brokers) and enforces a lot of rules, there are a few specifics in regards to Crypto Facilities. You are probably familiar with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), especially if you have read some of our reviews on forex brokers. This is a mechanism, which guarantees client funds, in case their brokerage goes bankrupt. As point 3.2 of the Membership Agreement at Crypto Facilities states, the FSCS does not apply, as your account balance is kept in cryptocurrencies, which are not yet defined as either “money” nor a “Specified Investment”.
That being said, all of the client accounts are held in segregated cold-storage wallets, backed by Elliptic, an industry-leading crypto-security company. Additionally the blockchain settlement is insured by an “A-rated, Fortune 100 underwriter”. Given the fact the company is based in the UK, you probably have a pretty good idea of which insurer they are referring to, presuming you have any knowledge of that market.
With such major security claims, it probably wouldn’t surprise you to hear that Crypto Facilities has not been hacked yet. In general, this company appears to be much more secure than a lot of the traditional cryptocurrency exchanges.
There aren’t that many user reviews on Crypto Facilities, which is understandable, given the relatively complicated nature of their offering. The few comments we found were all positive.
Trading conditions
Account types (cash and margin)
Before we begin discussing the trading conditions at Crypto Facilities, we must reiterate that the accounts are only kept in Bitcoin and Ripple. Additionally, before you begin trading, you must transfer coins (internally) between your main (cash) account and one of your margin accounts. The latter vary by trading instrument. While all of this seems very complicated, in reality it isn’t.
Each of your secondary wallets serves as your trading balance for that particular futures contract. This provides a form of risk management, which is always appreciated.
Trading instruments (cryptocurrencies)
Crypto Facilities supports Bitcoin (with the newly agreed upon symbol XBT, instead of the more traditional BTC) and Ripple (XRP) futures trading. There are several instruments, with varying trading conditions.
The “classic” futures contracts are XBT/USD and XRP/USD. Additionally, a XRP/XTB cross is available, as well as the more short-term oriented “Bitcoin Turbo”, which allows trading with higher leverage.
The standard contract size at Crypto Facilities is 1 Bitcoin and 10,000 Ripple, for the respective contracts.
Trades are settled Wednesday around 17:00 UTC, but mature the previous Friday.
Leverage
The leverage ratios at Crypto Facilities vary by instrument. The “classic” Bticoin and Ripple futures are being traded at a 1:6 and 1:8, respectively.
The “turbo” bitcoin contracts are traded at 1:50, which is very high given the fact this derivative is based on cryptocurrencies. The XRP/XTB maximum leverage is limited to 1:5.
Margin netting, between long and short positions is available, presuming you trade from the same margin portfolio.
We must mention, that there are other derivatives based on digital assets. These are the spot CFDs, available at some forex brokers. While Bitcoin and Ethereum are the most popular, Litecoin is also occasionally being offered. While these CFDs are linked to the current price of the asset in question and not the future value, they do have some further specifics. You can read all about them here, if you are interested.
Fees
The fees at Crypto Facilities are charged in XBT and XRP, in accord with the specific contracts. Traders who place passive orders in the book, commonly referred to as market makers (not to be confused with brokers, who are market makers) trade for free. On the other hand the aggressive traders who hit the first available bid/ask currently pay fees varying between 0.0008 XTB and 8 XRP. Keep in mind these may be changed in the future, if significant price moves in the cryptocurrency space occur.
While we would like to compare these conditions to the ones provided at BitMEX, this would be a hard task, as their structure is percentage-based. The taker fee at BitMEX is 0.075%, while market makers get a 0.025% rebate (which is even better than free trading).
Trading platform
The trading platform at Crypto Facilities is web-based. While this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone familiar with cryptocurrencies, there is an argument to be made for desktop solutions. The main one is that some of them are less intensive on the hardware, like MetaTrader4. That being said let’s take a look at the main trading interface at Crypto Facilities:
The most obvious thing to note is the absence of a chart. This is not at all common, but given the relatively complicated nature of this exchange, those who use it, probably have external sources of charting or use an API.
The order book is placed on the left and is vertical. While this is a popular theme in the crypto-sphere, most trading veterans probably dislike it. The tape is placed on the far-right, which is surprisingly far away from the book, which is a bit of a dubious design decision.
The middle section is dedicated to everything else. The order placing module, while looking cool, is a bit clunky, when compared to more traditional solutions.
Despite the lack of charting in the main section, the “analytics” section offers this functionality, although it is a bit basic. Here is how the index charting looks (The overall index allows comparison to the quotes provided by Bitstamp, Bitfinex, BTC-E, Coinbase and ItBit.):
And here is a preview of the futures curves, which allow one to see if the market is in a contango or backwardatiwon:
Our opinion of the Crypto Facilities platform is neutral. While it offers some futures-specific elements, the main trading window is less than ideal. Additional tools will probably needed for serious trading.
Methods of payment
The only way of transferring funds in and out of Crypto Facilities is the blockchain. Once you register an account, you are given Bitcoin and Ripple wallets, to facilitate your trading. As mentioned above the control to specify how much to put into each margin wallet and how much to leave as “cash” is a neat feature.
Crypto Facilities is a London-based cryptocurrency futures trading platform, overseen by the FCA. While the they do not participate in the FSCS, they still follow other major rulings. The company’s overall security appears to be much higher than what is currently offered by other exchanges. That being said, trading at Crypto Facilities is not for everybody. The mere concept of futures trading is somewhat more complicated than the usual. Add the volatility of cryptocurrencies on top of that and you get a potentially explosive combination. More experienced traders, as well as miners looking to hedge their “virtual crops” may find this to be one of their best options.
Crypto Facilities Review Conclusion
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