Bybit is fond of trading competitions as a means of wooing new users and further gamifying the trading experience. Its last such promotion saw USDT bonuses given away on St. Patrick’s Day. To celebrate its new USDT perpetual contracts, however, Bybit’s Tether airdrop ups the ante considerably. Traders with a minimum balance of 0.5 BTC when a snapshot is taken will be eligible for USDT rewards, with an additional 20% bonus for those who’ve registered for the campaign between April 9-12.

“The launch of USDT perpetual contracts on Bybit is a cause for celebration,” said CEO Ben Zhou, adding that the Tether airdrop “will incentivize traders to hold the most liquid and trusted stablecoin on the market. Small traders, as well as bigger players, will be rewarded according to their activity, giving all Bybit users an incentive to get involved.”

Bybit traders who move significant volume on the derivatives exchange will be eligible for up to $1,000 worth of USDT. An airdrop campaign , launching on April 13, will see between $50 and $1,000 of Tether doled out to qualifying traders. The giveaway follows Bybit’s decision to introduce USDT perpetual contracts, following a complete overhaul of its infrastructure.

Airdrops Entice Crypto Traders

Airdrops have evolved over the years, and are now usually administered centrally by crypto exchanges. They are more commonly undertaken on spot exchanges such as Binance, which awarded Hive tokens to users who held Steem tokens on March 20, when Steemit hard forked. In the aftermath of the airdrop, the value of HIVE tokens exceeded that of STEEM, though it is too early to tell whether the Steemit fork will gain traction.

Airdrops remain popular with traders, particularly when they are automatically added to their exchange balance, simplifying the process of liquidating them. Such campaigns are less common on futures exchanges, however, distinguishing Bybit from the clutch of competitors it’s seeking to best – namely BitMEX, OKEx, Binance Futures, and Deribit.

Derivatives exchanges are locked in a fierce battle for market share, with the decline of long-time market leader BitMEX providing the impetus for challengers to step up and flaunt their credentials. Bybit has sought to position itself as a more reliable trading venue than BitMEX, with a new, improved trading engine that can handle up to 10,000 TPS and withstand periods of volatility, when volume soars. So far that strategy seems to be paying off, with Bybit’s trading volume and user numbers creeping up.

BitMEX, in comparison, has seen its BTC balance drop three times faster than other exchanges in the wake of the events of March 13, when the exchange ground to a halt. Bitcoin futures, once the preserve of “pro” traders, many of whom have a Forex background, have become normalized, with retail traders increasingly trying their luck on leveraged trading of BTC, ETH, and other leading crypto assets. Binance Futures is currently the market leader for derivatives volume, while Bybit is closing in on bitFlyer and BitMEX.