The Daily: Derivative Market Hits $12B in Volume, Reports of Layoffs, Another Fork

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi has announced reaching $12 billion in cumulative trading volume on its derivative market in December. The news comes amid reports of job cuts at its Shenzhen office. Also in The Daily this Saturday, major trading platforms have confirmed support for the upcoming Constantinople hard fork in the Ethereum network.

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Huobi DM Ends Month With $12 Billion in Trading Volume

Huobi, the fourth largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has revealed that its derivatives platform, Huobi DM, registered over $12 billion of trade deals within the first month of its launch. Commenting on the financial results, Huobi Global CEO Livio Weng said the rapid growth “illustrates the strong desire” from institutional investors and professional traders to invest in cryptocurrencies. The executive added:

The time has come for tools to manage the risk and volatility of cryptocurrency – particularly during bear markets, like the one we find ourselves in now.

Huobi Derivative Market was launched in beta in November. Last month the parent company, Singapore-based Huobi, announced its integration with Huobi Global, the group’s main digital assets trading platform. Also in December, Huobi DM’s daily volume exceeded $1 billion. On Dec. 25, the combined trading volume of both platforms reached $2 billion.

Huobi DM’s contract trading service allows users to take long and short positions on bitcoin core (BTC), ethereum (ETH), and eos (EOS). It also provides clients with options for arbitrage, speculation and hedging in cryptocurrency trading.

Reports of Layoffs at the Shenzhen Office

The positive news about Huobi’s trading volumes coincided with Chinese media reports that the company is closing its Shenzhen branch, laying off all of its 14 employees. According to Odaily, the local subsidiary of the global exchange, which was focused on exploring innovations, was registered in October 2016 and at some point had over 20 full-time employees.

The online edition quotes multiple sources from the company who shared information about the upcoming closure of the Shenzhen office. Huobi’s director of public relations Shi Wei confirmed the plans for job cuts, stating they will affect only the worst-performing employees. She did not specify, however, the exact number of layoffs.

According to another source quoted by the business outlet Caijing, Huobi is closing its branch in Shenzhen because its activities are overlapping with those of other offices. The source also revealed some of the employees will join other Huobi branches, 8btc reported.

Major Exchanges to Support Constantinople Fork

Leading cryptocurrency trading platforms have announced their plans to support the upcoming Constantinople hard fork of the Ethereum network. The fork, which is expected to occur in mid-January, will reduce the block reward from 3 to 2 ETH, which in turn should decrease the circulating supply of ethereum in the future.

Ethereum core developers have also recently discussed and agreed to implement a new ASIC-resistant proof-of-work algorithm aimed at increasing the efficiency of mining with GPUs. The price of the coin with the second-largest market capitalization has increased in the past seven days, from around $135 to almost $157 at the time of writing.

In an announcement published on its website, Binance confirmed support for the Constantinople fork, asking traders to leave sufficient time for deposits to be processed in full prior to block height 7,080,000. Okex informed its customers that it will take a snapshot of all its accounts at the same block height, which is expected to occur between Jan. 14-18. Huobi Global stated it will help users to resolve any technical issues and all three exchanges promised to handle any airdrops during the hard fork.

What are your thoughts on today’s news tidbits? Tell us in the comments section.

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