Binance, the world's most popular cryptocurrency exchange has just announced the launch of two standalone futures trading platforms, temporarily named 'Platform A' and 'Platform B'. As it stands, both platforms are running on a testnet.
The Malta-based exchange is looking to join the likes of CME Group and Kraken, offering traders a variety of Bitcoin futures products. Futures are a type of derivative that allows users to speculate on the price movement of an underlying asset, without actually owning it.
According to the announcement, participants testing each platform will be allocated 100,000 USDT in testnet funds, which can be used to test the trading features without risking real money. With the launch of two platforms, Binance is giving users the opportunity to select which platform they like best, and running a community voting competition between September 03, 2019 and September 08, 2019.
Participants that successfully vote for the winning platform will be awarded a slice of a 10,000 Binance coin (BNB) prize pool, worth approximately $22,500. Beyond this, Binance is also running a simulated trading competition, which will reward testers up to 1,000 BNB for maintaining a positive portfolio on their futures accounts, with the top 50 traders by volume sharing a pot of 5,000 BNB for each platform.
On the back of the positive news, BNB has gained close to 5 percent in the last 24 hours. BNB currently sits at $22.44—still down more than 20 percent in the last month.