S&P 500 Gains Can Earn You Bitcoin on New Bain Capital-Backed Exchange

Crypto investors have a new way to bet on the price of bitcoin - or on traditional assets - with the formal launch of EverMarkets Exchange's derivatives platform.

Co-founder Craig Austin told CoinDesk that the company wants to give customers access to a "World market" by trading derivatives tied both to crypto and traditional assets, and while it bills itself as "Institutional-grade," EMX is primarily interested in a retail market.

"We kind of over the last year and a half built one platform to let traders from around the world trade global markets collateralized in cryptocurrency," he said.

At present, EMX offers two products: a bitcoin perpetual swap contract and a U.S. 500 Equity Index perpetual swap.

The contract type was initially designed for the crypto market by derivatives exchange BitMex.

"A lot of those markets don't have strong KYC and AML procedures. We see the regulatory environment changing over the next 12 months and we want to be positioned that we're trading on the platform but we're also ready for more exchanges, more regulations."

When EMX first announced its intention of building a derivatives exchange in March 2018, the company intended to utilize a blockchain-based trading platform, co-founder Jim Bai told CoinDesk at the time.

Moving forward, the company does intend to make its trading platform compatible with different blockchains, allowing users to collateralize their trades with multiple cryptocurrencies.

The company previously raised $1 million in early-stage financing from Bain Capital Ventures and Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn.

Ultimately, once the exchange has raised sufficient funding, Austin said the company will try to apply for the requisite U.S. licenses to offer services in its home country.