Crypto moves fast, yet transferring Bitcoin to a major exchange can take up to an hour, sometimes even longer. Traders don’t want to wait — and nor should they. With this in mind, Liquid is now able to process deposits of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash significantly faster than the vast majority of other established exchanges. Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash deposits made to Liquid are now reflected in client balances after just one confirmation, which can mean as little as 5–8 minutes.
This is made possible thanks to our partnership with GAP600, a global pioneer in cryptocurrency payment transaction enablement.
To show how significant this is, we gathered data from more than 20 major crypto exchanges, including Coinbase, Kraken, Huobi, Bitstamp and Bitfinex. Only two, OKCoin and Bitmex, are able to consistently process deposits after one confirmation. More than half require three or more confirmations, while eight require six confirmations. Practically for users, this means that on other major crypto exchanges, a deposit of Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash can take up to six times as long to reflect in a user’s account compared to Liquid. You can see a sample of the data in the table below or view the full data set in this spreadsheet.
Exchanges typically use this time and these confirmations to mitigate risk by nullifying instances of double-spend and ensuring deposit validation. But GAP600’s proprietary risk engine analyzes and performs live risk scoring for each transaction as it reaches the mempool. This enables us to guarantee cryptocurrency payments before they reach the blockchain.
“GAP600 facilitates instant, risk-mitigated cryptocurrency commerce by enabling exchanges, and other payment service providers, operators and merchants that accept cryptocurrency, to recognize unconfirmed Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash transactions as final,” said Daniel Lipshitz, GAP600 founder and CEO.
This puts Liquid significantly ahead of the industry norm for Bitcoin deposits. Previously, deposits would be reflected in a Liquid customer’s balance after five or six confirmations, which could take up to an hour, sometimes even longer.
With Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash deposits showing up faster, this leaves more time for traders to buy and sell the range of cryptocurrencies on the platform and also make use of the fiat currencies we offer, such as USD, EUR and JPY. Liquid is also home to a robust margin trading feature with leverage of up to 25x and highly liquid order books thanks to the World Book, a piece of tech that matches orders under the hood.
This enhances the customer experience for and means traders can get to work quicker and contribute to the liquidity on the platform.
GAP600 was chosen as the partner to deliver this feature after a thorough due diligence process.
“The bespoke solution implemented for Liquid includes unique implementation aspects, which will provide significantly faster deposit authorization than the industry standard for other exchanges. It will also enable transactions guaranteed against double spend by GAP600, which is insured with a superior A+ underwriter,” said Lipshitz.
This service will in particular appeal to high-volume traders who usually need to move quickly to react to shifts in the market.
“Enabling these capabilities would mark another significant step towards maintaining our position as one of the top tier cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. Our partnership with GAP600 and fast BTC deposits reflects Quoine’s focus on serving our clients with innovation,” said Seth Melamed, Liquid Head of Business Development and Sales.
Liquid is the first major exchange to adopt GAP600 technology. Liquid clients can now benefit from faster Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash deposits than on just about any other major crypto exchange. This paves the way for the possibility of expansion of our business into payment processing.
This is just the latest in a series of new and planned upgrades to Liquid that will make life better for traders on the platform. We believe that customers should be in full control of their finances, which is why we are committed to offering a full suite of services.
