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Nearly two months ago, ViaBTC introduced a BIP148 futures market. All tokens are traded under the 148 ticker. These tokens are valued against Ethereum, which always caused some confusion. Under normal circumstances, this market should have been removed on August 1st. However, the futures are still trading today and the market generates a lot of daily volume. Rather dubious, considering these futures have no real value anymore.
When ViaBTC introduces their BIP148 futures market people questioned this decision immediately. Speculation on a successful BIP148 activation wasn’t exactly a top priority for Bitcoiners at that time. Then again, the company saw a major opportunity and took it. Users are able to deposit Bitcoin, which is converted to 148 tokens and BTC_Frozen. On August 1st, all of the frozen bitcoins would be returned as bitcoins to ViaBTC users. It makes a lot of sense, yet things don’t always work out as expected.
ViaBTC Leaves Futures Market Open for no Reason
Today, on August 8th, the BIP148 futures market is still active on ViaBTC. It is unclear why that is, though. The user-activated soft fork when into effect a week ago without any issues. In fact, very few people even pay an attention to it by the look of things. There is no reason for this market to still exist today. Some people are still trading them on ViaBTC with success, though. The past 24 hours saw nearly 7.800 148 futures worth of trading volume on this market. There is still a lot of buy support as well, for some reason. A very strange and dubious decision by ViaBTC, that much is certain.
Investing in this market is not advisable, though. Withdrawing your 148 futures is impossible right now. Moreover, this market may very well be erased sooner rather than later. This is not a good move by an exchange struggling to make a name for itself. This market needs to be disabled as soon as possible. Especially when considering how there is still a lot of money in buy orders right now. A lot of people may lose out on good money if this market remains open.
All of this shows ViaBTC has some issues to sort out. Listing futures markets are perfectly acceptable. Some of the more reputable exchange do this as well. Not removing said market is unacceptable, though. This 148 trading market needs to go sooner rather than alter and users need to be reimbursed if they still have open orders. It will hurt the reputation of ViaBTC as an exchange the longer this market remains active. It will be interesting to see if the company comes up with an official explanation for this behavior.
