Coinarch, a CFD-like Trading Platform for bitcoin prices, has expanded to China due to reported interest from Chinese traders.
The platform, based in Singapore, bears some similarities with BTC.sx. Traders can open leveraged positions, up to 10x, betting on long/short bitcoin price movements. Trading features like stop losses are available.
Deposits/withdrawals are apparently made only with bitcoin, but USD wallets are also offered, to/from which bitcoins can be converted.
In the "booster" (high leverage) offering, there is the equivalent of a daily premium fee, except that it is charged every six hours. The size of the fee ranges from 0.04% to 0.10% per period, depending on the amount of leverage taken on a position. These fees comprise both interest charges and cover the risk of gapping into under-margined levels.
One ought to be cautious before diving into the "maximiser" offering, which is advertised as letting you "earn up to 85% p.a. or buy bitcoins at a discount." This product bears some resemblance with binary options. A USD "cash" settlement is paid out if the bitcoin price is above the strike price, and a "bitcoin settlement amount" is credited if it is equal to or below. Other factors which are said to increase the value of positions include: proximity to maturity, a reduction in bitcoin's implied Volatility and a decrease in USD interest rates.
In China, the platform will be competing with the "big three": BTC China, Huobi and OKCoin, which have previously launched leveraged and USD trading options of their own.
Late last year, Vietnamese bitcoin exchange VBTC reportedly partnered with Coinarch to launch a new platform, leveraged (up to 8x) and margin trading.
