Deribit Review – Is This Exchange A Top Pick?

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By Austin DeNoce

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Deribit Review

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Deribit Review

  • Perpetuals
  • Futures
  • Options
  • Data
4.6

Summary

Deribit is a cryptocurrency futures and options trading platform and exchange. This exchange allows users to speculate on popular crypto assets, without having to actually buy the underlying asset. Deribit includes charts powered by TradingView and supports perpetuals trading, futures trading, options trading, and block trades. Find out if this exchange is the right pick for your needs by reading our full Deribit review.

Pros

  • Aesthetic and advanced-level trading interface
  • Futures and options trading
  • Extensive data on the crypto market
  • Up to 50x leveraged trading
  • Reasonable trading fees

Cons

  • Limited number of crypto perpetual markets
  • Only three supported assets for futures contracts
  • Not available in many countries

About Deribit

The Deribit exchange is a leading cryptocurrency futures and options trading platform where users can easily speculate on popular crypto assets such as bitcoin and Ethereum without actually buying the underlying asset.

The Deribit platform offers several crypto trading products, including standard futures, perpetuals, options, block trades, and high-level market data to serve as a one-stop shop for crypto trading and derivatives.

Deribit does require KYC verification before you can start trading, but once completed, you’ll be able to take full advantage of all the futures and options trading and create multiple trading accounts (subaccounts).

However, the Deribit platform is currently unavailable to residents of Cuba, Canada, Guam, Iran, Iraq, Japan, The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Panama, Puerto Rico, Samoa, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, United States, and the Virgin Islands (U.S.).

If you want to learn all about Deribit’s services and whether or not creating a Deribit account to start trading is right for you, stick around for this in-depth Deribit review.

Deribit Perpetuals Trading

Deribit supports 19 different perpetual swap markets, some of which are traditional perpetuals and others that are paired with USDC.

While 19 is a bit more than other derivatives platforms like BingX, it’s far from matching the hundreds of perpetual markets of Binance.

Notwithstanding that difference, Deribit has more than enough markets for most traders, and the interface is very appealing, albeit a bit noisy.

Perhaps the best feature about the interface is that it is customizable. You can’t resize windows/panels, but you can place them wherever you’d like, which is always nice.

The Deribit charts are powered by TradingView, all the necessary order books are accounted for, and market, limit, stop limit, stop market, market limit, take limit, take market, and trailing stop orders are all supported.

Deribit Perpetuals

Deribit even has a panel for contract details and a panel for your account summary where you can see things like margin balance and your delta total.

The last important bit of information to mention is that Deribit supports up to 50x leverage, which won’t be as much as most other derivatives platforms, but that is probably for the best.

Deribit Futures Trading

The Deribit futures trading section is indistinguishable from the crypto perpetuals interface and will offer all the same panels and functionality.

In terms of markets for futures trades, Deribit only supports 18 for three different assets; seven contract expirations for BTC, seven contract expirations for ETH, and four contract expirations for SOL.

Three supported assets will undoubtedly be a significant drawback to many traders, but at least it has Solana, Ethereum, and bitcoin futures trading and a wide range of expiration options.

Deribit Options Trading

Similar to its futures trading markets, Deribit only supports trading options for Solana, bitcoin, and Ethereum.

That said, there are dozens and dozens of contracts to choose from with a wide range of strike prices and daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly expirations.

Deribit Options

The option chain will be very complicated to navigate if you aren’t overly familiar with trading options, but the panel where you place your orders is extremely digestible and easy to use. 

Deribit Options Orders

Deribit also has two panels at the bottom of the options window displaying the previous option trades, just like a traditional trade order book, which is a great feature.

Considering how rare it is to find crypto options platforms, Deribit will be one of the best options (no pun intended) to consider, right next to Bybit, FTX, and Binance. 

Deribit Block Trades

In addition to all the derivatives products Deribit offers, it also supports block trades through the over-the-counter (OTC) communication platform Paradigm.

Deribit Block Trades

A block trade is a sizable, privately negotiated transaction that allows clients to execute multiple asset trades off the order book and for a previously agreed price.

Block trades can be in futures, options, a combination of the two, or spreads. Once the transaction has been agreed upon, it will be submitted to Deribit to be automatically margined, executed, and cleared.

Block trades may not be useful to most traders because they presuppose a very large order size, but it’s a valuable feature for institutions or high-net-worth individuals.

Deribit Trading Fees

For both perpetual and standard futures contracts, Deribit users will be charged a 0.05% taker fee and a 0.01% maker fee, excluding SOL, which is 0.02%.

For its crypto options, Deribit charges 0.03% per contract for both maker and taker fees, though there is temporarily no maker fee for SOL options.

In the event you have a position automatically liquidated, there is a 0.75% fee for BTC and USDC positions and a 0.90% fee for ETH and SOL positions.

Liquidation fees on options are 0.19% of the underlying asset, 0.16% of the underlying asset, or 0.0016 BTC per contract is added to the insurance fund.

Altogether, Deribit’s fees are pretty standard, though not quite as competitive as Binance.

Deribit Crypto Market Data

The last feature worth mentioning about the Deribit platform is the data on the crypto market it provides for all Deribit users.

Most of the data are organized into charts so they can be easily digested, and there is a vast range of data points available.

Deribit Data Charts

Some data points you can dive into include a volatility index, the funding rate, blockchain data like wallet addresses, and options trading order book data.

Every section can be broken down by currency (BTC, ETH, SOL, and USDC), so you can be very intentional about what you’re looking for.

There’s also a “Metrics” section where you can see some of the most important data points organized onto one page.

Deribit Data Metrics

Overall, the entire data section is exceptional and potentially reason enough to use the Deribit platform.

Conclusion: Deribit Review 

After carefully walking through its platform and all its services for this Deribit review, we believe the Deribit exchange is a top-tier crypto derivatives platform for advanced traders.

Not only is the platform itself incredibly aesthetic and high level, but it includes crypto options in addition to futures and perpetuals, which is exceedingly rare.

The Deribit interface might be overwhelming at first and especially overwhelming if you aren’t an experienced trader, so it likely won’t be ideal for beginners.

However, anyone serious about their derivatives trading or who wants to dive into the amazing crypto database Deribit has available will not be disappointed with the platform.

Deribit is a little short on markets, but it supports more than enough perpetuals and options for most individuals who would be interested in futures and options trading.

Its futures trading market, however, is severely lacking with three assets, so that could be a deal breaker for some unless all you trade are Solana, bitcoin, and Ethereum.

In summary, we highly recommend Deribit for virtually any and all derivatives traders, especially those interested in options trading and crypto market data; just be mindful of the markets it doesn’t support.

Notwithstanding that minor caveat, any trader would be more than satisfied with Deribit, as it is truly a top contender in the crypto derivatives space.

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Austin DeNoce

Austin DeNoce is a writer, personal investor, and entrepreneur who is focused on trading and investing education for macro, crypto, equities, derivatives, and foreign exchange traders. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a bachelor’s in philosophy and carries a deep passion for a first-principles approach to investing and education therein. Austin specializes in topics related to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

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