LedgerX's cryptocurrency derivatives market is up and running and in its first week of trading, LedgerX traded $1 million worth of Bitcoin derivatives.

Which marks the first time regulated cryptocurrency derivative trades have taken place on a US based exchange.

LedgerX had gained approval from regulators a few months back but the exact timing of when it would start trading cryptocurrency derivatives wasn't entirely known.

However, it appears they are up and trading already!

According to LedgerX in a statement out yesterday, they had already just completed their first week of trading.

The specifics:

According to figures provided by LedgerX in the release, they saw 176 swaps and options contracts traded in the first week.

The dollar value of the trades totaled more than $1 million USD.

The CEO of LedgerX, Paul Chou, had this to say:

"This week a new standard is set for transparency, oversight and counter-party assurance. Institutional investors and traders can now rely on a guaranteed clearing and settlement process when transacting bitcoin contracts."

It feels good to be the first eh?!

Some more specifics:

The trades in the first week appear to have been done exclusively in Bitcoin, but the company has the ability to include other cryptocurrencies should they so choose.

In fact, in their original release they stated that they planned on including a handful of the most popular cryptocurrencies in their derivatives market and then would branch out from there.

More than just "in their plans" though, the license they already received gives them the option to add other cryptocurrency assets, with Ethereum derivatives expected to be next in line.

What is LedgerX?

LedgerX is a licensed swap execution facility as well as a licensed derivatives clearing organization that was founded in 2013.

It is based out of New York and first received licensing as a swap execution facility back in 2015.

The company is made up of former Goldman Sachs employees, MIT graduates, and former CFTC alumni.

It's key people include:

Paul Chou, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder
Juthica Chou, President and Chief Risk Officer, Co-Founder
Zach Dexter, Chief Technology Officer, Co-Founder

Looking to expand?

LedgerX is also exploring working with options trading shops, assets managers, hedge funds, bitcoin miners, and major investment banks as a way to grow its user base.

For now the derivatives are being offered exclusively to institutional clients as a way for those clients to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency industry without having to take the risk of purchasing the assets outright.

Choe echoed that sentiment:

"Our regulated, institutional-grade platform enables participants who were sitting on the sidelines, to enter the digital currency market"

This may not be as good as having more people buy the assets directly, but anytime more money is coming into the ecosystem the better.

Some of that money will eventually find it's way into the assets themselves, especially since the exchanges may have to buy them to back up some of these derivative contracts.

Stay informed my friends.

Sources:

http://www.marketswiki.com/wiki/LedgerX

https://www.coindesk.com/ledgerx-trades-1-million-bitcoin-derivatives-first-week/

Image Sources:

http://news.dinbits.com/2017/07/cftc-grants-ledgerx-digital-currency.html