Major cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, the sister exchange of stablecoin firm Tether, has rolled out futures trading for Tether'southward new gilded-backed coin.

Starting on March 6, Bitfinex users can trade futures contracts on Tether Gold (XAU₮) confronting Tether (USDT), a widely-known and controversial stablecoin pegged to the United states dollar.

New characteristic is only available to verified users in certain jurisdictions

Announcing the news on Friday, Bitfinex specified that the futures trading enables traders to buy or sell assets at a specified price and information in futurity, featuring upwards to 100x leverage. The commutation also noted that futures and derivatives trading on Bitfinex is provided by iFinex Financial Technologies, a product division at iFinex, which is the parent visitor of both Bitfinex and Tether.

According to the web log mail service, Tether Gilt/Tether futures trading will but exist available to verified users in certain jurisdictions. According to Bitfinex verification rules, account verification isn't mandatory to trade or transact with various cryptocurrencies on Bitfinex, while the exchange offers two levels of verification for deposits and withdrawals of stablecoins like Tether.

A spokesperson at Bitfinex clarified to Cointelegraph that the list of jurisdictions that are eligible for Tether Golden/Tether futures trading is the same as the one practical to general derivatives terms of service on Bitfinex website. Specifically, the listing mentions countries like Cuba, Democratic people's republic of korea, Venezuela, Iran, Syria as well equally the annexed region of Crimea as prohibited jurisdictions.

News comes later on Tether Gold purportedly becomes the biggest gold-backed token

The launch of futures contracts trading for Tether Gold will bulldoze fifty-fifty more exposure to the asset, Bitfinex noted in the announcement. According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, Tether Gold crossed a $21 1000000 market capitalization on March 4, condign the world'south biggest gold-backed digital asset by overtaking nearest rival PAX Aureate (PAXG).

At printing fourth dimension, Tether Gold's fully diluted market capitalization accounts for $26.8 one thousand thousand, PAX Gilded has just about $xviii.seven million in market place cap, according to information from major crypto tracker Etherscan.

PAX Gold was launched months before Tether Gold though. Equally reported past Cointelegraph, stablecoin operator Paxos launched PAX Gold in September 2022 every bit the "first crypto-asset redeemable for physical gold." Tether Aureate was launched in late January 2022, with its trading immediately rolled out on Bitfinex.

Commenting on the news, Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino said that Tether Gold has had a really great start, projecting that Tether Gold should shortly reach a market cap of at least $100 meg. He said:

"I believe that this is nil in comparison to the potential of this new asset, especially in the context of increased investor interest in take chances diversification and capital letter safety against political uncertainty. Tether Gold offers diversification in terms of risk and volatility and I look it to reach a marketplace capitalization of at least $100 million."

Bitfinex and Tether continue to actively cooperate in the cryptocurrency market despite facing course-action lawsuits accusing them of crypto market manipulation.