Blockbid crypto exchange’s 0% fee trades to run to about 31 September
If you're going to do something, it's worth doing it right – especially when you can do it with 0% fees.
As they say, you can't rush a good thing. In this case, that might be good news for Blockbid cryptocurrency exchange users, who can look forward to about a month of 0% fee live trading between five crypto and seven fiat currencies:
- BTC, XRP, LTC, BCG, BCH
- AUD, USD, Euro, Pound, HKD, JPY, NZD
It's a compelling list, especially with the wide range of fiat pairs which have so far eluded many other exchanges.
Update 30/8/2018
The launch of BlockBid's live trade beta has been pushed back to 28 September, while the full launch is anticipated for sometime in late 2018. You can't rush a good thing, right?
The updated gist is:
- Any dates on this page outside this box should not be trusted. The details on cryptos available, how BID works and similar are still correct.
- 0% trading fees on real live cryptocurrency trades will be available from 28 September until official launch.
- The exact date of the official launch is still to be decided, but expected for sometime in late 2018.
- You can still sign up for the beta here to try the platform with dummy testnet trades, and to be ready for the 0% fee goodness when live trading is enabled on 28 September.
The 0% trading fees, as well as unlimited deposits and withdrawals, come courtesy of Blockbid moving out of its beta testing phase on 31 August and having a soft launch with live trades, which is intended to run for roughly a month from then.
It's a set of features you certainly don't see every day, so it might be worth registering for the ongoing beta while you can to make sure you can get those benefits in live trading when the soft launch arrives.
After the full launch, tentatively scheduled for about 31 September, trading fees will go up to a still-tempting flat 0.1% and a wider range of cryptocurrencies will be introduced, including ERC20s.
The BID token
However, Blockbid token holders will be able to hang onto the deal after the full launch. The Blockbid ICO pulled in 3,518 ETH and distributed a million-odd BID tokens, entitling holders to a 100% discount on transaction costs in the first year, and 50% every year after that.
Functionally, they work as a kind of way to buy time, with each BID being worth 30 minutes of fee discounts.
In the grander scheme of crypto exchanges
The crypto exchange business has become extremely competitive extremely quickly, while the borderless nature of cryptocurrency typically means being competitive globally, rather than just in local markets.
These days any exchange that wants to be a big fish needs to get its ducks in a row before launch and be competitive right from the start.
This thought seems to have crossed Blockbid's mind. Not only do the fees range from zero to competitive, but it has also made extensive banking arrangements before launch to onboard fiat customers right from the start. But to be fair, this is probably much easier in Australia, with its relatively forward-looking crypto regulations, than in other countries.
Beyond that, it also says it's one of very few exchanges to be fully covered by cybersecurity insurance and to be scalable up to one million transactions per second. It also intends to support a wider range of cryptocurrencies than any other platform and will, of course, hold 95% of customer assets in cold storage as is industry best practice.
If you're going to do something, it's worth doing it right – especially when the thing in question is an attempt at grabbing a piece of the enormous and growing global cryptocurrency markets.
Try the beta to take Blockbid for a spin.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author holds ETH, IOTA, ICX, VET, XLM, BTC and ADA.
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