WazirX launches crypto Futures With 0.02% fees, targets India’s $100 billion monthly derivatives market amid post-hack recovery and rising Futures demand as crypto traders shift away from spot Trading due to higher taxes and TDS burden
Indian crypto exchange WazirX has officially introduced crypto Futures trading with one of the lowest fee structures among exchanges in the country, as it seeks to revive user activity and regain market share after the $230 million cyber attack nearly seven months ago.
According to WazirX researchers, they estimate that Futures trading volumes in crypto currently range from $80 billion to $100 billion per month, and Futures trading volumes per day are nearly $3-$4 billion. This shows continuous growth in the country’s derivatives market.
WazirX Introduces Low-Cost Futures Trading for Retail Users
The exchange said that its Futures platforms would initially support 36 tokens in the first phase, with a leverage of up to 10x, and would eventually grow to 100x in the future, depending on liquidity and market conditions.
The exchange has introduced a maker fee of 0.02%, while the taker fee is 0.04%, which it claims to be the lowest in the country among exchanges that do not require high-volume institutional trading thresholds.
Users will also be able to trade Futures directly in INR without having to first convert their funds into USDT, which has posed a friction in the Indian retail trading segment.
“Futures trading in India has meant high fees unless you are a large-volume institutional trader. We have changed that baseline. A trader starting out on WazirX Futures gets the same fee rate as an institutional trader on most other platforms. The aim is to provide a robust platform with low fees for futures traders,” said Nischal Shetty, founder, WazirX.
Crypto Futures Dominate India’s Trading Activity
The exchange added that the crypto trading environment in the country has heavily tilted towards derivatives following the recent implementation of 1% TDS on transactions and 30% taxes on virtual digital assets (VDA).
“It’s not like there’s a lot of daily trading in spot in India. Overall, less than $10 million is being traded on a daily basis. We are maybe at 5% of that,” said Shetty.
He added, “Our daily trading volumes are around half a million to $1 million at present. That’s 5-10% range of the market share. Earlier, it used to be 50-60%, but the market has shrunk because of TDS and the 30% virtual digital asset income tax. Everyone’s gone to futures.”
Also Read: WazirX Launches ‘Guardians of Trust’ to Strengthen Crypto Security and User Awareness
WazirX Links Futures Launch to Platform Recovery Plan
The exchange also said the launch is linked to its overall restructuring plans that resulted from last year’s security incident.
In addition to the 85% of the funds distributed, WazirX stated that Futures trading revenues may be used to recover for other eligible creditors who are holding Recovery Tokens.
Users are required to pass a training quiz on the topics of leverage, risks of liquidation, and margin trading before using the Futures products, in order to promote responsible trading.
“This is the biggest initiative we are taking after relaunch, apart from the zero-fee trading that we brought in for spot,” Shetty added.
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