Author: Weilin, PANews

As a pioneer in the field of crypto derivatives trading, BitMEX, established 11 years ago, has rapidly risen to become one of the largest crypto derivatives platforms in the world, thanks to its aggressive market strategies and technological innovations. However, with the increasingly stringent global regulatory environment and the intensifying competition in the derivatives market, BitMEX is also facing unprecedented challenges.

In contrast to BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes, who is known for his high-profile style and keen market insights, BitMEX CEO Stephan Lutz is not one of the original founders of BitMEX, and his early career has few direct ties to the crypto field. After joining BitMEX as CFO in 2021, Stephan took over the CEO position from Hayes during the company's regulatory crisis in 2022, leading the team through bull and bear markets while advancing the platform's development, user education, product innovation, and security measures, aiming to continuously build a more neutral, transparent, and secure derivatives trading platform.

Recently, PANews interviewed Stephan, who reflected on his journey from Deutsche Börse to BitMEX and provided an in-depth analysis of BitMEX's product planning and strategic focus for 2025. He shared his profound understanding and insights into the crypto derivatives market, covering topics from perpetual contract selection mechanisms to user education in high-leverage trading, from AI-driven trading analysis to features like copy trading and multi-asset margining. Additionally, Stephan expressed a strong commitment to the Asian market, believing that the future growth of derivatives will be built on a more inclusive, intelligent, and transparent foundation.

From Deutsche Börse to BitMEX: Connecting Traditional Finance with the Crypto World

In Stephan's resume, there is no visible experience related to cryptocurrencies before he joined BitMEX in 2021. However, as he stated, this relationship is much deeper than it appears. As early as around 2010, he began to pay attention to distributed ledger technology. "At that time, I was working at Deutsche Börse Group, and we were evaluating whether this technology could replace the existing securities trading and settlement infrastructure. The answer was no: its performance was not sufficient, and the throughput was not high enough. So I put it aside for a while," he recalled.

Nevertheless, in the following years, Stephan participated in financial stability consulting projects for multiple central banks, including those in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Middle East. It was during this process that he realized that in Southeast Asia, apart from mature markets like Japan and Singapore, many countries still had over two-thirds of their populations unable to access banking systems.

"These people are still part of the global supply chain. They were already widely using smartphones at that time, and I thought, is there an opportunity here? Isn't this where cryptocurrencies come into play? Later, I also started buying and trading small amounts, but mainly out of a passion for researching the projects and technology itself."

In 2020, Stephan experienced a turning point in his life. When BitMEX invited him to join, he described that moment as "like winning the lottery": "Finally, I could turn what I was truly interested in into my career." He joined BitMEX in early 2021 as CFO, experiencing rapid growth during the bull market of 2021. In 2022, when BitMEX faced accusations from U.S. regulators, Stephan chose to step up during the most turbulent time in the market, taking over as CEO and facing the winter brought on by the FTX collapse alongside his team. He candidly stated in the interview that this decision was not driven by a pursuit of "titles," but rather by a sense of responsibility towards the team, the mission, and the industry.

Breaking the "Listing Equals Peak" Curse: Unveiling BitMEX's Contract Listing Strategy

In the reality where many trading platforms experience a "listing equals peak" phenomenon, it is no longer uncommon for new tokens to plummet shortly after their debut. However, according to BitMEX's first-quarter 2025 derivatives report titled "Perpetual Contract Listings on Top CEXs: Peak Signals?", BitMEX's performance in contract listings during that quarter was impressive: 58.33% of perpetual contract tokens listed on BitMEX appreciated after the first day, achieving an average return of 62.55%. Additionally, only 41.7% of BitMEX-listed trades reached their all-time highs on the first day, indicating a sustainable price trend.

When discussing the reasons behind this phenomenon and the standards for listed projects, Stephan stated, "When we list new tokens as perpetual contracts, we conduct strict due diligence rather than listing all projects available in the market. We start evaluating from the early stages, focusing on several characteristics: first is market interest—whether this token is something our users are genuinely interested in trading. It's not just about 'someone is paying attention.' Is there real market trading interest? This market interest includes potential new users and existing users. Second is the community situation. Does this project already have, or is it likely to establish, an active and enthusiastic community? Will it still exist two weeks later? We also delve into the project's background and narrative, ensuring that the token meets certain compliance standards before listing, especially if it plans to list on the spot market."

Furthermore, Stephan revealed that BitMEX also evaluates liquidity and price reliability. "We must be able to obtain reliable price data sources, usually assessing which exchanges the price data comes from, whether these exchanges are legitimate and legal, and whether they manipulate prices, minimizing the risk of market manipulation as much as possible."

It is this comprehensive consideration that allows BitMEX to maintain sufficient "momentum" amidst the "listing equals peak" trend.

Q2 Planning Focus: Enhancing Liquidity, Launching Copy Trading and Multi-Asset Margining Features

When highlighting BitMEX's key focus for the second quarter (Q2), Stephan stated that BitMEX will continue to enhance the liquidity of altcoins and newly listed tokens and plans to launch a copy trading feature that allows users to replicate the actions of successful traders.

"If you look at altcoins and newly listed tokens, BitMEX still needs to further enhance liquidity. Compared to the fourth quarter of last year, our liquidity has at least doubled in these categories."

Stephan mentioned that the second feature to be launched in Q2 is copy trading. "This is a natural continuation of the trading bots we launched last year. Trading bots can help users automate their strategies. Copy trading, on the other hand, allows you to replicate the actions of successful traders. We have many of the strongest traders and 'whales' on our platform, and if you want to 'join their rhythm,' for example, by following their entries and exits, you can use the upcoming BitMEX copy trading feature."

Stephan added that the third focus is to collect user feedback, respond to it, and optimize the user experience. "As a new generation of users enters the crypto market, we want to retain core functionalities while improving usability and understandability to provide a good experience for users. The entire Q2 will revolve around this theme. Finally, we are perfecting the multi-asset margining feature, which means you can use a wider variety of assets as margin. This feature will be gradually launched in Q2."

11 Years Without a Single Hacker Attack, Upholding Three Core Principles

In the increasingly competitive crypto market, BitMEX has maintained a record of zero hacker attacks since its establishment 11 years ago. Stephan stated that BitMEX adheres to three core principles: neutrality, transparency, and security. He explained that from the very beginning, the platform has upheld the philosophy of "being true to the spirit of cryptocurrency," aiming to create a truly fair and just peer-to-peer derivatives trading platform. BitMEX does not have its own market makers and does not bet against users; the asset price discovery mechanism, including funding rates, is completely neutral.

At the same time, BitMEX insists on transparency, releasing asset and liability proofs twice a week, allowing users to verify their balances through open-source software. BitMEX publicly publishes all infrastructure documentation.

Additionally, BitMEX maintains a security line, or more precisely, asset security rather than just technical security. It continues to use an industry-leading cold wallet custody system for user assets. "We completely isolate assets, so user assets are not mixed with anything related to the company. BitMEX has built a 100% cold wallet custody system since its inception, using multi-signature (Multisig) rather than standard MPC (multi-party computation) solutions. As for hot wallets, they are used to meet the need for real-time withdrawals. Until about two years ago, we only offered withdrawals once a day because all assets were in cold wallets. BitMEX's security rules have been deeply embedded in the company's daily operations, always emphasizing 'trust, but verify.' This culture permeates all our processes."

High Leverage ≠ High Risk, Aiming to Help Individual Traders Become More Mature

BitMEX is known for its perpetual contracts with leverage of up to 100 times. However, during market volatility, high-leverage trading often leads to user liquidations, especially for inexperienced traders. Does BitMEX have plans to help users better manage this risk? In response, Stephan provided his answer.

"First of all, we actually offer up to 250 times leverage on certain specific contracts, but it's not open to everyone. The first point is that we believe traders should decide how much leverage to use themselves. In fact, 100 times leverage is not the cause of liquidations; this is actually an educational issue. We always remind users in our platform documentation and provide a wealth of educational materials on the platform and our official website. For example: the BitMEX Alpha series content; how-to guides."

Stephan stated that BitMEX has always emphasized that users should set stop-loss and limit orders so that in the event of severe market fluctuations, they do not "liquidate to zero," but can exit the market in advance. Users should set their own entry points, stop-loss levels, etc. As long as you have these basic operations, you will not be easily liquidated. BitMEX's goal is to help individual traders grow into more mature traders.

At the same time, from another perspective: if one party in a trade is liquidated, the winning party may also encounter problems because BitMEX is a peer-to-peer platform and does not act as an intermediary clearing counterparty, nor does it cover losses for one party. "This is precisely why BitMEX established an insurance fund—and we have the largest insurance fund in the entire industry. In terms of the ratio of the insurance fund size to open contracts, we are even leading," Stephan added in the interview.

AI Investment Tools Still Need Maturity, Related Products Will Be Launched at the Right Time

In this interview, Stephan also discussed the current trend of AI. He believes that most discussions about so-called "AI-driven investment decisions" are largely hype and do not bring any substantial help. Essentially, this is just the next stage following "trading bots" and "copy trading."

"This is a path that will inevitably emerge in the future; it is a natural evolution. We will also launch such products at the appropriate time. But I believe it is not mature yet. Perhaps in a few months, or even a year or two later, there will be mature solutions," Stephan revealed in the interview.

Stephan further stated that BitMEX will significantly apply AI at the user interface (UI) level in the next 12 to 18 months. "If you look at the foundation of large language models like ChatGPT and DeepSeek, their essence is not to provide 'knowledge' but to provide 'translation capabilities' in a broad sense—when you open a web trading platform, regardless of which exchange it is, you will see charts, order panels, news feeds, chart trading tools, various KPI indicators… you need to understand and operate it yourself. Although it is not difficult, it always presents a barrier."

He indicated, "In the future, it is entirely possible to achieve further automation through AI Agents, which can convert your voice into structured trading instructions and connect to exchanges via API. It can even be programmed to find the best prices from ten exchanges for execution. We have more open interfaces (APIs), and the exchanges themselves are more flexible in integration, which traditional financial companies are unlikely to open so thoroughly."

Stephan mentioned that BitMEX has another development direction, planning to launch a new feature in the third quarter: AI-driven trading behavior analysis reports. This feature will analyze trading behavior using AI and provide regular suggestions. For example, the AI might tell users: you frequently made trades after news releases last quarter, indicating that you are reacting too slowly/too early and should be more disciplined. Your timing is good, but your risk control is lacking; you are either too aggressive or too conservative, missing opportunities for maximizing returns.

Continuing to Deepen the Asian Market, Education and Risk Control Will Drive the Expansion of the Derivatives Market

Currently, BitMEX primarily serves the Southeast Asian and East Asian markets, and the company has long adhered to a policy of "not onboarding U.S. users," while maintaining active investment in the Asian market.

Stephan explained, "This year, BitMEX has received a pardon in the U.S., which pertains to a relatively distant historical period, such as events between 2016 and 2018. We are very grateful for this, but it will not change our current strategic direction."

He stated that the current trend in the U.S. is that the crypto industry is increasingly dominated and influenced by traditional financial institutions (TradFi). In contrast, the Asian market will continue to maintain higher innovation, focusing more on retail and individual users. BitMEX will continue to deepen its commitment to the Asian market, which is sincere and steadfast.

At the same time, regarding the further expansion of the crypto derivatives market, Stephan believes the focus should still be on the educational aspect that BitMEX is already working on. Although there is a foundation, there is still significant room for improvement. Another direction is to create more accessible risk management tools. Looking to the future, he hopes to achieve a truly AI assistant that allows users to freely express their trading intentions, avoiding "instruction translation errors."

Finally, he stated that this natural path is to let more people first enter the crypto spot trading market and then transition to derivatives. Many users typically start using perpetual contracts after engaging with the spot market. This trend will become more apparent in the near future. He explained that this round of the bull market is not driven by a massive influx of new users; rather, it is more about increased trading volume from existing users, along with some institutions beginning to get involved. Therefore, I believe the next breakout point will not be three years from now, but rather a closer one: it will be driven by two factors: AI lowering the trading threshold and more people willing to try trading due to trust and ease of use.

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