Leverate has announced to Forex Magnates today, it has begun offering Bitcoin trading support to the technology company’s broker-clients using its Sirix platform.

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According to the announcement, Bitcoin was added due to client demands,  citing its growing popularity with traders,  as well as the virtual currency’s “potential as a trading vehicle”. A few Leverate brokers have already gone live with the new feature and have started offering Bitcoin trading.

Itay Damti, Leverate’s VP of Products, said that the company will start by offering Bitcoin/Dollar trading and keep on adding new digital currency alternatives as demand for them increases. He added: “Leverate believes that decentralized currencies such as Bitcoin are the future of the market.”

Regarding execution, Mr. Damti said that while Leverate is initially offering Bitcoin trading using a CFD model, the firm will eventually add STP Bitcoin opportunities, as it is already experimenting with STP execution with certain clients. Bitcoin pricing data rates feed will be available via LXFeed, Leverate’s data pricing feed.

Leverate said in the announcement that it has thoroughly researched the best policies for brokers who wish to add Bitcoin to their list of instruments, and will provide assistance to brokers in selecting the most lucrative trading terms and leverage. Last month, Plus500, the first broker to offer Bitcoin and Litecoin CFD trading, had to change the trading conditions to cope with the volatility.

Mr. Damti was cautious about the risks brought on by offering trading on Bitcoin, as he said: “Offering Bitcoin can be challenging for a broker without previous experience in digital currencies. The main risk is possible overexposure caused by price fluctuations, with Bitcoin having eight times more volatility than gold, and seven times more volatility than silver.” Leverate is still fine-tuning the leverage to be offered.