1Fox is a btc/usd leveraged trading exchange. Released by popular bitcoin CFD platform 1broker, we were surprised they chose to roll out a full-fledged exchange rather than sticking with the CFD model they have utilized to such success. A brave choice and one with immense potential; but a challenge for 1Fox to build the volume necessary to seriously compete in the market. 

And indeed, 1Fox seems to be demonstrating tremendous growth. No doubt capitalizing on their massive preexisting customer base of 45,000 traders over at 1broker, user numbers are getting close to 10,000, an amazing number. For a low fee, easy to use, anonymous platform that accepts US traders, check out 1Fox.  But if it you are after massive liquidity and big leverages, go to industry leader bitmex. (US users must be comfortable using a VPN to mask US-based IP though).

Starting with 1Fox

1Fox is designed for the bitcoin holder. Only bitcoin may be deposited, all trades are collateralized and settled in bitcoin. Customer privacy is of paramount concern. Only an email is required to trade with 1Fox. Withdrawals are processed extremely quickly, a point of pride for predecessor 1broker which will be continued with 1Fox.

The 1Fox Leveraged Trading Platform

Like predecessor 1broker, 1Fox’s trading platform has been carefully designed to provide an extremely simple trading experience.

The platform is currently in soft launch, and so only the btc/usd market is available, but as there is a drop down called “markets” plural, we assume more cryptopairs will be integrated as trading volumes permit. Trading is limited to the spot market and, like bitmex who 1Fox plainly used as a benchmark when developing the platform, a funding mechanism is used to anchor trading to the underlying index, which is 100% based on GDAX at the moment.

It works like this. If trading inflates the price of bitcoin higher than the underlying index, then longs will pay the shorts a certain percentage from their position. Funding occurs every hour on the hour, and the funding rate is meant to create selling/buying pressure which will naturally move the exchange price towards the underlying index.

Choose between market orders, which carry a fee of .04, and limit orders with 0% fees. Stop entries are limit orders set up at less favorable than market price. These are generally used when a trader believes a certain trading level will indicate a breakout.

Note also the “public trade” box, which shares your trades with the community. This is a spinoff of the popular “copy trader” functionality on 1broker, in which spectators may automatically duplicate the trades of their favorite traders. This is not really possible in an exchange format, so the public trade concept is more used as a social function. Users may comment on public trades, follow the most successful traders, etc.

All positions are set an automatic stop loss position. In the event that the market moves too quickly and the trader ends up with a balance less than his position, the loss is socialized and added into the funding rate and deducted hourly from the opposing side.

How 1Fox stacks up against Bitmex

OK, so obviously Bitmex  is the most liquid spot and futures derivatives exchange in the market. It’s got tiny spreads, extremely low fees, and a number of cryptoassets available for trading. Bitmex is the Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Danny Devito 1Fox. As it stands right now, there is little sense using 1Fox over Bitmex. There are, however, four points in 1Fox’s favor that, if they build liquidity, will make it an attractive destination in its own right.

• They accept US customers, Bitmex does not.
• The 1Fox trading platform is simpler to use.
• The social trading option is an interesting feature – users can follow and replicate their favorite traders.
• Withdrawing on 1Fox is much cheaper and quicker – Bitmex batches their withdrawals and ships them once daily, and charges a lot more.

But in terms of trading volume, fees, liquidity, leverage, the number of markets and derivative types – BitMex is the undisputed champion, and most likely will remain champion for quite some time.

Bottom Line

We love 1Broker, and we have confidence the team will develop 1Fox into an excellent product as well. The winning formula remains – easy depositing and withdrawing regardless of location, anonymous registration, simple and fast trading, and low fees. If they are able to build the liquidity from their massive base at 1broker, the product will be successful.