At this year’s CryptoFrontiers Conference in New York City, digital currency exchange Huobi announced that it will begin offering derivatives contract trading. The service will be available via Huobi’s Derivative Market (Huobi DM) to customers of select countries and will allow them to open both short and long positions for a handful of coins.

In an interview with Bitcoin Magazine, Joshua Goodbody, general counsel of Huobi’s global institutional team, said, “Our derivative contracts are agreements to buy or sell an asset on a specific future date and at a specific price. Once the derivative contract has been executed, both counterparties will buy and sell at the agreed-upon price irrespective of the actual market price.”

When buying and selling these futures contracts, traders will have the option of 5X, 10X and 20X leverage.

At press time, Huobi DM is in beta testing mode, and its services are unavailable to users in the U.S., Singapore, Israel, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria. Goodbody says, “We are taking things slowly, but we are working with our lawyers and the relevant regulatory authorities to assess the requirements in each jurisdiction, and we will take the necessary steps required to offer this in a compliant manner.”

Huobi has sought to limit both risk and uncertainty for its customers by utilizing 24-hour exchange monitoring. It also provides an insurance fund of up to 20,000 BTC to any customer victimized by a massive security failure, as well as an insurance fund for every trading pair against unfilled liquidation order losses. Huobi also employs a circular break mechanism that protects customers from unnecessary or forced liquidations.

Furthermore, market makers (those who create new trades on the platform rather than taking others) pay no trading fees while utilizing Huobi’s services and are entitled to financial bonuses granted they always trade as makers.

“Huobi has a track record for innovation in the digital asset space,” said Goodbody. “We look to the future and will always bring our clients with us on this journey. This is another exciting and important development for our global business.”