Major e-commerce platform eBay is reportedly looking into the possibility of adding cryptocurrencies as a payment method, with a potential announcement set to come on March 10 according to its CEO Jamie Iannone.

Ukrainians are now buying more Bitcoin than ever in a bid to protect the value of their savings as the country fends off an invasion from Russia that started last week. Using leading exchange Binance, Ukrainians have been trading their hryvnia for USDT and BTC.

Derivatives exchange CME Group is set to roll out micro bitcoin and ether options later this month in a move that would allow traders to gain exposure to cryptocurrency options with nominal capital.

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Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• eBay Could Soon Accept Crypto Payments
• Ukrainians Buy Record Sums of Bitcoin on Binance
• CME Group to Roll Out Micro Bitcoin, Ether Options
• What are Bitcoin Perpetual Swaps?
• Sponsored: Register for a Rewarding Bybit Experience

eBay Could Soon Accept Crypto Payments

Major e-commerce platform eBay is reportedly looking into the possibility of adding cryptocurrencies as a payment method, with a potential announcement set to come on March 10 according to its CEO Jamie Iannone.

Iannone was quoted saying the company now manages $85 billion of volume on its platform directly, which gives it “the ability to open up new forms of payment.” The CEO added eBay accepts Google Pay, Apple Pay, and has a partnership with Australian payment platform Afterpay. It also offers a buy now pay later platform.

When asked about cryptocurrency payments, Iannone replied that eBay is “not accepting crypto currently” but added that “On March 10, we’re going to go deeper on all of these things, payments, advertising, our focus categories.”

Last year, eBay changed its policies to allow non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to be traded on its platform. While it didn’t formally announce the change, NFT transactions have been taking place on eBay.

Ukrainians Buy Record Sums of Bitcoin on Binance

Ukrainians are now buying more Bitcoin than ever in a bid to protect the value of their savings as the country fends off an invasion from Russia that started last week. Using leading exchange Binance, Ukrainians have been trading their hryvnia for USDT and BTC.

According to data from Arcane Research, Tether-hryvnia trading volumes shot up from a little over $6 million a day before the invasion to about $8.5 million, after rarely surpassing $4 million before Russia’s invasion was considered.

Similarly, Bitcoin-hryvnia trading volumes tripled from $1 million to $3 million a day. Ukrainians likely turned to crypto over worries the banking system in the country could collapse or that withdrawals limits may be imposed.

Last week, Bitcoin trading volumes denominated in the Russian ruble, the country’s fiat currency, exploded as well, with data showing that RUB denominated BTC volumes jumped as the ruble’s value plunged.

Ukrainian cryptocurrency exchange Kuna, also saw its trading volume explode after Russia’s invasion was launched. On average the exchange’s trading volume was hovering around 45 million Ukrainian hryvnias per day. On the day Russian forces entered Ukraine, its trading volume exploded to 150 million UAH, equivalent to around $5 million.

CME Group to Roll Out Micro Bitcoin, Ether Options

Derivatives exchange CME Group is set to roll out micro bitcoin and ether options later this month in a move that would allow traders to gain exposure to cryptocurrency options with nominal capital.

The micro options contracts will launch on March 28 and will be one-tenth the size of their underlying tokens. The CME, it’s worth noting, first launched BTC futures contracts in 2017 before launching cash-settled bitcoin futures contracts last year.

The derivatives trading platform added micro ether futures in November, as liquidity in ETH futures kept on growing. Tim McCourt, CME Group’s global head of equity and foreign exchange products, was quoted saying about 5.2 million micro BTC and micro ETH futures contracts changed hands in less than a year.

According to McCourt, traders favor short-dated options to manage risk, and as such the micro options contracts will feature Monday, Wednesday, and Friday weekly expiries.

What are Bitcoin Perpetual Swaps?

Perpetual swaps are a  type of derivative with no expiry date. When traders open a perpetual swap trade they essentially bet on whether the value of an asset will rise or fall and may have to pay funding fees.

Just like with other derivatives, traders can choose one of two directions: they can open a long position if they believe the value of the asset is going to increase, or open a short position if they believe the value of the asset is going to decrease.

The funding fees are a mechanism that ensures convergence of the perpetual price to the spot price by an exchange of currency swaps between traders in long and short positions. More often than not, the funding fees are paid every eight hours.

Learn more about perpetual swaps and derivatives via CryptoCompare’s guide.

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