Cryptocurrency exchange Bitmex announced the launch of its BMEX cryptocurrency on Friday, November 11.

As the company aims to regain market share in the derivatives space, Bitmex said the new digital currency will be used to reward users of its platform.

Rewards are distributed through trading fee discounts, withdrawal fee waivers, enhanced staking rewards and access to new products and services on the Bitmex platform.

The launch of the digital currency was initially announced in December last year and users started claiming it in February.

According to the platform, millions of BMEX cryptocurrencies have been dropped by more than 80,000 traders since February.

Like other exchanges like BNB for Binance and FTT for FTX, BMEX is a digital currency issued by Bitmex.

Although BMEX was expected to launch in June, the platform decided to delay the launch due to unsatisfactory market conditions.

Bitmex’s Chief Marketing Officer later revealed that the time was right to launch a digital currency and that the platform wants to contribute to the growth of liquidity and revitalization of crypto markets.

Bitmex will begin trading BMEX on Friday by first listing the BMEX/USDT pair on its recently launched spot trading platform and then launching two new permanent swaps – BMEXUSDT and BMEXUSD – on its derivatives platform.

As the platform prepares to launch its digital currency, it seems the company is still not comfortable with the state of the market.

Earlier this month, Bitmex decided to reduce its workforce as part of its long-term strategy.

In its statement, Bitmex said:

We are moving away from our derivatives strategy and focus more on providing a crypto derivatives trading experience that people turn to.

We focus on a vibrant derivatives community including liquidity, latency and BMEX trading.

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