Why Is Binance Tempting Bitcoin Futures Investors With Free Teslas?

Bitcoin is booming, investor interest in BTC derivatives is fast approaching an all-time high, and crypto exchanges are reaping the benefits of a surge in Bitcoin trading activity.

So why has Binance already arrived at the seemingly urgent “free car giveaway” stage of business development? 

On Friday, the crypto exchange announced its Futures Ultimate Challenge, a month-long initiative to increase activity on its Binance Futures crypto derivatives platform. 

Starting Sunday, new users of Bitcoin Futures who sign up for an account and invest in a prediction of BTC’s price the following day at 2:00 pm UTC will be automatically entered into a competition to win a daily Bitcoin prize. The user who guesses Bitcoin’s future price most accurately will receive a token voucher of 0.05 BTC, worth $2,612 at writing.

The contesst will be held daily through March 17.

New users who participate in any futures trading for the first time will also earn one golden ticket for a weekly raffle, the winner of which will receive a free Tesla Model Y. Four Tesla cars will be given away in total.

Existing Binance Futures users can receive a golden ticket for the same raffle every day they trade more than $10,000 worth of futures, and every time they refer a friend to join the platform. Five raffle runners-up will also receive $1,000 USDT trading fee rebate vouchers every week of the sweepstakes. 

The giveaway comes at a curious time for Binance, which not only operates the largest crypto exchange in the world, but also the largest crypto derivatives platform (Binance Futures). In the last few weeks, open interest in Bitcoin—essentially, the total sum of open bets on Bitcoin’s future prices via instruments like futures and options—has rapidly approached matching the all-time record of $24.27 billion set in 2021. 

Total open interest in Bitcoin is currently at $24.05 billion, according to data from CoinGlass. And Binance controls a healthy portion of that share—$5.98 billion, or nearly 25%.

Rival crypto derivatives platforms like Bybit and OKX trail far behind, at 16% and 9% market shares, respectively. U.S.-based companies like Kraken and Coinbase both pale in comparison, with market shares well under 1%. 

Despite being the biggest crypto-native player on the block, Binance is not on top. CME Group, the world’s largest operator of derivatives exchanges, currently commands just over 28% of the Bitcoin futures market, about $6.79 billion worth. 

It would appear that Binance’s leadership is no longer satisfied with leading just within crypto. As Bitcoin becomes a major force in traditional finance, it would appear the exchange is seeking to go toe-to-toe with Wall Street giants as well.

Edited by Andrew Hayward and Ryan Ozawa