Axi Introduces Fiat-Settled Crypto Perpetuals to Boost Transparency and Reduce Risk for Traders

Global online broker Axi today announced the launch of fiat-settled crypto perpetual contracts, a groundbreaking move designed to provide traders with a more transparent, secure, and streamlined approach to accessing the rapidly expanding crypto derivatives market. This strategic product launch comes at a critical time when the crypto derivatives sector is experiencing unprecedented growth and regulatory scrutiny.

Unlike many existing platforms that require traders to convert funds into stablecoins before trading, Axi’s innovative perpetual contracts are settled directly in fiat currencies. This fundamental difference reduces counterparty risk, eliminates hidden conversion costs, and offers traders significantly greater clarity over their account balances and overall trading performance.

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Leadership Vision: Transparency as Core Differentiator

“Too many traders are forced to operate in opaque environments where the risks aren’t always clear,” said Stuart Cooke, Head of New Business at Axi. “By introducing fiat-settled perps, we’re breaking away from that model. Traders get the same exposure and flexibility of crypto derivatives but within a more transparent, regulated, and secure framework.”

This statement reflects broader industry concerns about transparency and risk management in cryptocurrency trading, particularly as regulatory authorities worldwide intensify their scrutiny of digital asset platforms and their operational practices.

Market Context: Perpetual Contracts Dominate Crypto Trading

The launch comes amid remarkable growth in perpetual futures trading, which has emerged as the dominant force in cryptocurrency markets. According to recent market data, perpetual futures contracts now account for nearly 70% of all Bitcoin trading volume and represent more than three-quarters of global cryptocurrency derivatives activity.

Recent research from industry tracker Kaiko and other analytical firms reveals the extent of this shift:

• 68% of Bitcoin volume is now traded via perpetual contracts
• 59% of total crypto activity in Q2 2025 came from perpetual contracts alone
• 76% of all derivatives volume is driven by perpetual contracts, marking a sharp increase from previous years

This rapid adoption underscores the growing preference for leveraged, round-the-clock trading instruments that provide liquidity and accessibility similar to spot markets while enabling traders to hedge and speculate with greater flexibility.

Axi’s Competitive Response: Massive Expansion Initiative

Recognizing this market transformation, Axi has embarked on an aggressive expansion strategy. In early September 2025, the company announced the addition of over 150 perpetual contracts across leading and emerging digital assets, positioning itself as one of the few multi-asset brokers offering deep integration of crypto derivatives within a single, regulated platform.

“With perps driving most crypto activity, we’re broadening our offerings to meet traders where the market is going,” Cooke explained. “Our goal is to bring everything into one trusted ecosystem—perps, copy trading, mobile apps, and institutional-grade support.”

Addressing Critical Industry Pain Points

The announcement directly addresses mounting concerns raised by regulators and market participants about transparency in cryptocurrency trading environments. By aligning its offering with traditional financial safeguards, Axi is positioning itself as a responsible alternative to offshore exchanges that often operate with limited regulatory oversight.

Key Differentiating Features

Axi’s fiat-settled perpetual contracts incorporate several critical features designed to address common industry challenges:

Operational Clarity: Account balances remain denominated in familiar fiat currencies, eliminating the confusion and complexity often associated with stablecoin conversions. This approach provides traders with immediate, clear visibility into their actual financial position.

Enhanced Security Framework: Trading occurs within a platform that maintains a regulated pedigree, offering traders the confidence that comes with established regulatory compliance and oversight mechanisms.

Competitive Fee Structure: The platform offers taker fees starting from 0.035%, positioning it competitively against major exchanges including Binance, Bybit, and OKX. This pricing strategy demonstrates Axi’s commitment to providing cost-effective trading solutions.

Integrated Trading Environment: The ability to trade cryptocurrency derivatives alongside forex, indices, and commodities within a single account represents a significant operational advantage for multi-asset traders.

Regulatory Landscape and Compliance Considerations

The timing of Axi’s product launch coincides with a period of intense regulatory development in the cryptocurrency space. Multiple jurisdictions are implementing comprehensive frameworks for digital asset regulation, with particular focus on stablecoin oversight and derivatives trading platforms.

U.S. Regulatory Developments

In the United States, several significant legislative initiatives are progressing through Congress, including the GENIUS Act (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins), which was signed into law in July 2025. This landmark legislation establishes the first federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, requiring one-to-one reserve backing and prohibiting algorithmic stablecoins.

The regulatory environment is further evolving with proposals such as the STABLE Act and various state-level initiatives that aim to provide clearer guidelines for stablecoin issuers and cryptocurrency service providers. These developments reflect growing governmental recognition of the need for comprehensive digital asset regulation.

Global Regulatory Harmonization

The European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) Regulation has set a precedent for comprehensive cryptocurrency regulation, establishing requirements for stablecoin reserves, operational transparency, and consumer protection. Similar frameworks are being developed or implemented across multiple jurisdictions, creating a more standardized global approach to digital asset oversight.

According to the Atlantic Council’s Cryptocurrency Regulation Tracker, 99% of all stablecoins are pegged to the U.S. dollar, highlighting the importance of regulatory clarity in dollar-denominated digital assets.

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Stablecoin Market Dynamics and Associated Risks

The cryptocurrency industry’s reliance on stablecoins for trading and settlement has created both opportunities and significant risks. The global stablecoin market has grown from $5 billion to over $200 billion in recent years, with projections suggesting potential growth to $2 trillion by 2030.

Transparency and Stability Concerns

Recent analysis by Moody’s defines a stablecoin “de-peg” as fluctuating by more than 3% in a day against its designated fiat currency reference. Historical data shows that in 2022 alone, there were 2,347 de-pegging events, highlighting the inherent volatility risks even in assets designed to maintain price stability.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has issued warnings about stablecoins in its Annual Economic Report 2025, citing concerns about potential threats to monetary sovereignty, transparency issues, and risks of capital flight from emerging economies. The BIS specifically noted that many stablecoins have experienced “substantial deviations from par,” highlighting the “fragility of their peg.”

Counterparty Risk Mitigation

Axi’s fiat-settlement approach directly addresses these concerns by eliminating the need for traders to hold stablecoins as collateral. This approach reduces exposure to stablecoin-specific risks, including de-pegging events, reserve adequacy questions, and issuer creditworthiness concerns.

Traditional crypto derivatives platforms typically require users to deposit stablecoins or cryptocurrencies as margin collateral, creating additional layers of risk beyond the underlying trading exposure. By enabling direct fiat settlement, Axi removes these intermediate risk factors while maintaining full trading functionality.

Technical Architecture and Trading Infrastructure

The implementation of fiat-settled perpetual contracts requires sophisticated technical infrastructure to manage multi-currency operations, real-time settlement, and regulatory compliance across different jurisdictions.

Platform Integration and User Experience

Axi’s perpetual futures are available through the company’s proprietary trading platform and mobile applications, but notably not available on the widely-used MT4 or MT5 platforms. This strategic decision reflects the technical requirements of perpetual contract trading and the need for specialized infrastructure to support continuous settlement operations.

The contracts operate on a 24/7 trading schedule with only brief maintenance windows from 16:59 to 17:05 UTC weekly, ensuring traders can respond to market movements across global time zones. This round-the-clock availability is crucial in cryptocurrency markets where price action continues outside traditional trading hours.

Leverage and Risk Management

Like traditional crypto perpetual contracts, Axi’s offering provides significant leverage capabilities, with ratios up to 125:1 available for certain contracts. While this leverage amplifies potential returns, it also increases liquidation risks, making the transparent, fiat-denominated approach even more valuable for risk management purposes.

The platform incorporates sophisticated margin requirements and liquidation mechanisms designed to protect both traders and the platform from excessive risk exposure during volatile market conditions.

Competitive Landscape Analysis

Axi’s entry into fiat-settled perpetual contracts positions the company to compete directly with established cryptocurrency exchanges while offering unique value propositions that traditional crypto-native platforms cannot easily replicate.

Traditional Crypto Exchange Model

Major cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, Bybit, and OKX have built their perpetual trading offerings around stablecoin collateral systems. While this approach has proven successful in terms of trading volumes, it creates several challenges:

• Conversion Complexity: Users must convert fiat to stablecoins before trading, adding steps and potential costs
• Stablecoin Risk: Exposure to issuer risk and potential de-pegging events
• Transparency Issues: Multiple currency conversions can obscure true profit and loss calculations
• Regulatory Uncertainty: Stablecoin regulatory frameworks remain evolving in many jurisdictions

Multi-Asset Broker Advantages

As an established multi-asset broker, Axi brings several competitive advantages to the crypto derivatives space:

Regulatory Compliance: Existing licenses and regulatory relationships provide credibility and operational stability that pure cryptocurrency exchanges may lack.

Cross-Asset Integration: The ability to trade crypto derivatives alongside traditional financial instruments appeals to institutional and sophisticated retail traders.

Customer Service: Established customer support infrastructure and relationship management capabilities developed for traditional trading markets.

Risk Management: Proven risk management systems adapted from traditional derivatives trading.

Market Impact and Industry Implications

The launch of fiat-settled crypto perpetuals by a regulated, traditional broker represents a significant development in the maturation of cryptocurrency derivatives markets. This evolution reflects broader trends toward institutional adoption and regulatory compliance within the digital asset ecosystem.

Institutional Adoption Catalyst

Institutional investors have often cited regulatory uncertainty and operational complexity as barriers to crypto derivatives trading. Fiat-settled contracts offered by regulated brokers address many of these concerns, potentially accelerating institutional adoption.

The ability to maintain familiar accounting and operational practices while gaining crypto exposure could prove particularly attractive to hedge funds, family offices, and other sophisticated investors who require clear audit trails and regulatory compliance.

Pressure on Traditional Crypto Exchanges

Axi’s competitive positioning may force traditional cryptocurrency exchanges to reconsider their operational models and fee structures. The combination of competitive pricing (0.035% taker fees) and enhanced transparency could attract traders currently using stablecoin-based platforms.

This competitive pressure may drive innovation across the industry, potentially leading to improved transparency standards and more sophisticated risk management practices industry-wide.

Future Outlook and Strategic Vision

Axi’s fiat-settled perpetual contracts represent part of a broader “everything in one platform” strategic vision that aims to provide comprehensive trading solutions under unified management and regulatory oversight.

Product Development Roadmap

The company’s recent expansion to over 150 perpetual contracts suggests continued product development, likely including:

• Additional cryptocurrency pairs and trading instruments
• Enhanced mobile trading capabilities
• Institutional-focused features and services
• Integration with traditional portfolio management tools

Regulatory Adaptation

As global regulatory frameworks continue to evolve, Axi’s approach positions the company to adapt more readily to new requirements. The fiat-settlement model aligns well with emerging regulatory preferences for transparency and traditional financial safeguards.

The company’s established regulatory relationships and compliance infrastructure provide advantages in navigating complex and evolving regulatory landscapes across multiple jurisdictions.

Risk Considerations and Market Dynamics

While fiat-settled perpetual contracts address many traditional concerns about cryptocurrency trading, they still involve significant risks that traders must carefully consider.

Inherent Trading Risks

Cryptocurrency markets remain highly volatile, and leveraged trading amplifies both potential gains and losses. Even with improved transparency and reduced operational complexity, traders face:

• Market Risk: Cryptocurrency price volatility can result in rapid, substantial losses
• Leverage Risk: High leverage ratios can lead to quick liquidation during adverse price movements
• Liquidity Risk: Market conditions may impact the ability to exit positions at desired prices

Platform and Counterparty Considerations

While Axi’s regulated status provides certain protections, traders should consider:

• Platform Risk: Reliance on Axi’s operational stability and continued regulatory compliance
• Technology Risk: Dependence on trading platform functionality and availability
• Regulatory Risk: Potential changes in regulatory requirements affecting product availability

Conclusion: Transparency as Competitive Advantage

Axi’s introduction of fiat-settled crypto perpetual contracts represents a significant evolution in cryptocurrency derivatives trading, addressing long-standing concerns about transparency, risk management, and regulatory compliance. By eliminating the need for stablecoin intermediation, the platform reduces operational complexity while maintaining full exposure to cryptocurrency price movements.

“Transparency and fairness aren’t optional extras — they’re what will define the future of trading,” Cooke emphasized. “Our role is to give traders the confidence that comes from knowing the rules of the game.”

The success of this initiative will likely depend on Axi’s ability to attract traders from existing cryptocurrency platforms while maintaining competitive pricing and execution quality. The company’s established regulatory framework and traditional broker infrastructure provide significant advantages in this competitive landscape.

As the cryptocurrency derivatives market continues to mature and face increasing regulatory oversight, Axi’s approach of combining traditional financial safeguards with innovative crypto trading capabilities positions it well for sustained growth. The fiat-settled perpetual contracts are available immediately to eligible clients, marking a new chapter in the evolution of institutional-quality cryptocurrency trading platforms.

The broader implications extend beyond Axi’s specific product offering, potentially influencing industry standards and competitive dynamics across the global cryptocurrency derivatives marketplace. As regulators continue to implement comprehensive digital asset frameworks, approaches that prioritize transparency and traditional risk management principles may become increasingly attractive to both traders and regulatory authorities.

This development represents another step in the ongoing institutionalization of cryptocurrency markets, where traditional financial services principles are being adapted to serve the unique requirements of digital asset trading while maintaining the regulatory compliance and operational transparency that institutional participants demand.

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Photo source: Google

By: Montel Kamau

Serrari Financial Analyst

17th September, 2025