Crypto Traders Cash in On New Competitions
League of Traders and Phemex Early Pioneers in New Wave of Gamifying Crypto Trading
By Claire West
It’s no surprise that crypto owners gravitate toward gamification of trading. The fact is 55% of Millennial gamers own cryptocurrency, compared to just 5% of all Millennials, according to a survey by Worldwide Asset eXchange.
What started as individuals attempting to outperform their friends has transformed into sophisticated, global competitions with prize packages nearing US$1 million. These competitions are mainly springing from social trading apps, such as League of Traders, that already provide a platform for traders to compare strategies and profits/losses. These social trading platforms combined with the technical prowess of cryptocurrency exchanges, such as Phemex, FTX and BitMEX, ensures traders have a secure and fair environment to compete.
COMPETITIVE TRADING BASICS
These competitions challenge participants to reach “top trader” status by yielding the highest growth rate at the end of a competition, which can span anywhere from a couple of days to months. Each competition comes with its own set of rules, conditions and incentives, designed to attract the best and brightest traders.
The number of participants in a tournament vary greatly depending on the size of the sponsoring organizer and the prize money. Smaller competitions expect up to 1,000 competitors, while larger organizers will expect numbers to reach 5,000 to 10,000.
Prize money runs the gamut from 0.5 to 15 BTC. The determining factors include how many participants and the overall volume of trading. For instance, a Phemex/League of Traders contest recently offered a prize package of up to US$250,000. Often, the prize pools are distributed among winners according to participation volume.
The contests test competitors’ trading skills against peers and help them earn reputations and bragging rights in a real-world environment — not to mention earning substantial prize money.
INTEGRATION INTO THE MARKET
The social trading platforms are embracing competitions to expand their services to their communities.
“We built the League of Traders app from the ground up to easily integrate our community with unique experiences, such as competitions,” says John-Ting Li, CEO and co-founder of League of Traders. “By giving everyone in the community visibility into each trader’s history we all learn from each other. And if you identify a trader you want to emulate then you can copy his/her exact trades. These top traders are also often the winners of the competitions.”
League of Traders integrates aspects of trading competitions into the daily trading experience. Public-facing profiles are a key feature of the app, enabling users to analyze top-traders portfolios, seeing their growth, current picks, trade history and risk assessment. A real-time leaderboard ranks the top traders by profit growth rates.
BIG COMPETITIONS, BIG RESULTS
League of Traders typically has monthly competitions in collaboration with cryptocurrency exchanges lasting about three weeks.
For instance, League of Traders recently completed a trading competition in collaboration with Phemex. Nearly 250 competitors vied for top honors over a three-week period. Maximus was the winner with a 834.90% ROI earning him 0.28 BTC.
Rounding out the top three were:
This is just one of many competitions for traders. For competition listings, visit:
Gamification of crypto trading is a natural evolution since many crypto traders are also gamers. Is it too early to start honing your competitive trading skills? Not if you are in to win it.
