Illustration from Freepik
On July 28, in a press release shared with The Chain Bulletin, Fireblocks announced the official launch of its Deposit Acceleration Program, designed to bring new institutional trading volume to exchanges while accelerating on-chain trading operations for digital asset businesses.
The press release states that once exchanges have joined the program, customers will be able to see an “ultra-fast” label next to the exchange’s name, enabling them to safely proceed with trading even in highly-volatile markets.
Since earlier this year, the largest crypto exchange by volume, Bitstamp, joined the pilot program, offering one confirmation deposits to members, the company reported a 30% volume increase to the exchange from the Fireblocks Network. Now, FTX has joined the program to become the first derivatives platform to offer Fireblocks customers zero-confirmation deposits.
“We’re really excited about partnering with the Fireblocks team to solve some of the core latency issues around moving digital assets on-chain,” said Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO and Founder of FTX. “As the first member of the program, we now have the fastest settlement venue for institutional traders.”
Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform providing a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Up to this point, more than $30 billion in digital assets have been securely transferred under their supervision. The company also supports an ironclad insurance policy, covering cryptocurrencies both in storage and in transit.
At present, exchanges require the pre-funding of assets, which can take from as little as 10 minutes to more than an hour in some cases. This process can be quite onerous for buyers as it requires effective risk management in terms of managing liquidity. Ultimately, this could result in the auto-liquidation of a position for derivatives traders, which could pose a big obstacle for users. With zero-confirmation asset transfers, clients can mitigate losses while efficiently trading even during volatile markets.
“Exchanges are looking for creative ways to drive volume and stay competitive,” said Stephen Richardson, VP of Product Strategy at Fireblocks. “The Deposit Acceleration Program is a great way to enable Fireblocks customers to trade on an exchange more actively because being able to deploy assets quickly with their exchange partners directly impacts their ability to drive return on capital.”