The Bitcoin.com Podcast: Timo Schlaefer of Crypto Facilities

A new bitcoin derivatives trading platform called Crypto Facilities has launched in London, backed by a pair of co-founders with longtime experience in the City's traditional financial markets. Crypto Facilities currently lets customers trade just one instrument, a forward contract on the bitcoin price. It currently offers the contract with three expiry dates. A trader can lock in the price of a bitcoin by selling or shorting a forward. The platform's pedigreed co-founders are Timo Schlaefer, a former executive director at Goldman Sachs in London that worked on credit quantitative....

Derivatives marketplace CME Group today unveiled two bitcoin benchmarks designed to give investors a new way to hedge. Built in partnership with London-based Crypto Facilities, the prices for the two benchmarks will be derived from six different bitcoin exchanges – Bitfinex, Bitstamp, Coinbase, Genesis Global Trading, itBit and Kraken – and are designed to be compliant with global regulatory requirements. The benchmarks can be used as bitcoin price reference points in derivatives that help manage the risk of bitcoin investments. Speaking with CoinDesk, Crypto Facilities chief operating....

Crypto Facilities, a London-based firm that provides regulated risk management and trading for digital assets, will become the first derivatives exchange to list regulated XRP futures contracts, Ripple Labs announced on its website. Ripple formalized its partnership with Crypto Facilities in February. Crypto Facilities also partnered with CME Group, a Chicago-based financial exchange that operates some of the largest futures and derivative exchanges in the U.S., which has invested in Ripple. Expanding Trade. The partnership with CME provides an added venue for trading XRP and a larger....

Digital asset trading service Crypto Facilities has announced a $1.5m seed round led by Pamir Gelenbe's AngelList syndicate. Already operating with a license from the UK's Financial Conduct Authority, the company plans to use the money to add new products and cryptocurencies to the site, grow its workforce and work more closely with US regulators. Co-founder and CEO, Timo Schlaefer told CoinDesk: "For us it’s really expanding the platform by adding additional products, assets, derivatives. Just giving people more tools to use. We are still relatively narrow with bitcoin futures, but....

Crypto Facilities Ltd., a London-based broker founded by former Goldman Sachs Executive Director Timo Schlaefer, has announced the launch of its bitcoin derivatives trading platform. In financial jargon, a derivative is a contract that derives its value from the performance of an underlying entity, in this case the exchange value of bitcoin. Crypto Facilities trades financial products such as bitcoin options and futures, allowing users to "go long" and bet that the price of bitcoin will rise, or "go short" and bet the price will fall. The first derivative offered by Crypto Facilities is a....