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In the last few years, cryptocurrency derivatives have grown in popularity immensely and eclipsed spot markets in terms of trading volume. Crypto derivatives offered by platforms like Binance Futures, OKEx and FTX are regularly surpassing $10 billion in 24-hour volume, and trading activity keeps growing as cryptocurrencies continue making their way into the mainstream.
ApolloX review
In this article, we’ll be taking a look at ApolloX, a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange launched in September of 2021 that specializes perpetual futures contracts. ApolloX offers a lot of flexibility when it comes to order types and leverage, which makes it suitable even for more demanding and experienced traders. However, the ApolloX interface is simple enough that even traders who are just getting started with leveraged crypto trading should be able to get around the platform just fine.
One of the more interesting features of ApolloX is that it currently doesn’t require any KYC (know your customer) verification from users, which is becoming increasingly rare in the cryptocurrency industry.
Before we take a closer look at the most important aspects of the ApolloX exchange, let’s quickly check out some of the platform’s main advantages and disadvantages:
ApolloX pros:
- Cryptocurrency derivatives with high leverage
- Several options for securing your account
- Cross and isolated leverage
- KYC is not required
ApolloX cons:
- The selection of listed cryptocurrencies is small at the time of the review, but ApolloX says they will be adding more coins and contracts
- Doesn’t support fiat currency trading yet
Which coins are listed on ApolloX?
ApolloX currently lists a relatively small amount of cryptocurrencies. Across the exchange’s perpetual contracts, users can trade the following coins:
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Cardano (ADA)
- Dogecoin (DOGE)
- Solana (SOL)
- XRP (XRP)
There are some additional options when it comes to funding your account on ApolloX. The exchange accepts deposits in the six coins mentioned above, plus Tether USD (USDT), Binance USD (BUSD) and Binance Coin (BNB).
Even though these coins represent the lion’s share of the total cryptocurrency market cap, it’s hard to recommend ApolloX to traders who like to speculate on smaller altcoins. However, many crypto derivatives traders prefer to stick exclusively to large market cap coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum, simply because they are more established assets and have much stronger liquidity.
ApolloX’s small selection of coins that are available for trading is definitely an area where the exchange has a lot of room for improvement. Whether this is a deal breaker for you or not will depend on your trading preferences – if you prefer to stay away from small market cap coins, the coins listed on ApolloX should still provide plenty of trading opportunities for you. However, keep in mind that ApolloX is a relatively new exchange and plans to add more coins in the coming months.
ApolloX specializes in crypto derivatives
The ApolloX exchange is focused on derivatives trading, and currently offers 6 USDT-margined perpetual contracts. There are 6 different contracts available for trading – BTCUSDT, ETHUSDT, ADAUSDT, DOGEUSDT, SOLUSDT and XRPUSDT.
Even though some derivatives exchanges like Binance Futures and FTX have been moving away from ultra-high leverage, ApolloX sticks out from the competition by offering leverage of up to 100x on all of its perpetual contracts. It’s always nice to have more options, but traders should be aware that trading with high leverage is very risky, especially in the highly volatile cryptocurrency market.
The ApolloX platform also offers useful information about its contracts that will be especially helpful to experienced traders. Users can track real-time funding rates, the funding rate history and indices for each contract listed on the exchange. This can provide some very valuable insights about where the markets could head next.
Notably, ApolloX gives traders the option to choose between cross margin and isolated margin. In cross margin, all the trader’s positions that use the same margin asset share the same margin balance. In isolated margin, traders can manage their risk on a position-by-position basis.
The exchange also has an option called Hedge Mode, which gives traders the ability to hold both long and short positions at the same time in any given contract. This feature can help protect traders from downside, and will be particularly handy for advanced traders.
For traders who need some help, ApolloX has a comprehensive Help Center with tutorials and FAQs.
ApolloX trading interface and order types
The ApolloX user interface will be easy to navigate for anyone that has experience with centralized cryptocurrency exchanges. There’s the price chart in the middle of the screen, and the order book and order section is positioned to the right.
A nice feature of the ApolloX trading interface is customization. You can select between two main layouts, and toggle which elements you want to be displayed on your screen. Here’s all customization options that are available:
Most exchanges don’t offer much in the way of customization, so the trading interface is definitely an advantage that ApolloX has over most competitors.
ApolloX is also pretty flexible when it comes to order types, as traders can choose to enter their positions in the following ways:
- Market order
- Limit order
- Stop Limit Order
- Stop Market Order
- Trailing Stop Order
ApolloX’s charts are powered by TradingView, which provides a lot of customization options. The chart supports all the key drawing tools and patterns, so traders that put a lot of emphasis on charting will feel right at home.
The ApolloX exchange supports 11 different languages, covering the world’s major markets. We don’t have the necessary language skills to comment on the quality of all the different translations. However, we can say that the English version is well made and explains everything clearly.
Crypto conversions
ApolloX doesn’t have dedicated spot markets, but it does have a “convert” feature that allows users to instantly swap between the different cryptocurrencies supported by the exchange. ApolloX doesn’t charge any fees on these conversions, although users don’t have the option to submit limit orders. ApolloX will present you with an exchange rate, and you can either take it or leave it.
The conversion feature is helpful if you’re trying to withdraw some of your trading profits to an external wallet, and would like to choose which crypto to withdraw.
Security and account options
ApolloX offers several options that will help you protect your account against unauthorized access. You can set up 2-factor authentication through an app like Google Authenticator, as well as SMS authentication. It’s highly recommended to enable 2-factor authentication, as it can protect your account even if someone else gets access to your password.
You can also manage which devices are allowed to access your ApolloX account. For example, if your laptop gets stolen, you can delete it from the list and the device will no longer be allowed to access your account.
The exchange also gives you the option of creating a list of whitelisted cryptocurrency addresses. If you enable the withdrawal whitelist, your account will only be able to withdraw cryptocurrencies to whitelisted addresses. This will protect your funds if someone manages to get into your account and tries to withdraw your crypto to their own address.
Is ApolloX a safe exchange to use?
ApolloX launched in September of 2021, so it is a new entrant in the cryptocurrency exchange industry. So far, there haven’t been any security breaches related to ApolloX, but the exchange hasn’t been around for long enough to establish a serious track record on security either. Still, as we’ve mentioned earlier, ApolloX does give users multiple options to enhance the security of their accounts, which is always a plus.
ApolloX review verdict
Even though ApolloX is a new player in the cryptocurrency exchange industry, the team has delivered a very polished product.
When it comes to the derivatives trading experience, ApolloX’s offering is competitive with the largest crypto derivatives platforms out there. The exchange offers a lot of flexibility when it comes to leverage, hedging, order types and customization of the trading environment. ApolloX also gives users a lot of options to help secure their accounts, and the exchange’s documentation does a good job of addressing the most common issues that traders might encounter. The fact that the exchange currently doesn’t require KYC is a bonus for users that value privacy.
The main downsides of ApolloX are its small selection of listed cryptocurrencies, limited spot trading features, and lack of fiat currency support. However, more coins and features will be added as the platform matures.
