WhiteBIT, the centralized exchange with a focus on the EU market, will host a live-streamed global crypto trading competition. The top eight traders will also face off in real-time to compete for the top spots. 

WhiteBIT, the largest European cryptocurrency exchange by traffic, will run an International Crypto Trading Cup (ICTC). The live-streamed event will bring crypto trading to the forefront. 

Traders worldwide will be able to show their skills in the event running on May 9-10. The event will be widely publicized and visible as an educational tool, with insight into the trades of top performers. 

‘With ICTC, we are setting a new standard for competitive trading,’ said Volodymyr Nosov, Founder and President of WhiteBIT Group. 

‘It is not just another competition—it’s a trading championship that blends skill, entertainment, and learning into an action-packed showdown. It’s a chance for traders worldwide to test their limits, engage with the global trading community, and compete in an immersive environment,’ he said.

ICTC tournament picks eight world-class traders

WhiteBIT will invite eight top traders for a demonstrative competition. Each trader will start with a balance of 50,000 USDTB, a stablecoin exclusively used on WhteBIT. Traders will compete on the futures markets, and the ultimate winner will be chosen for having the highest returns. The trading strategies will be completely transparent to the event’s audience. 

The traders will be chosen in a pre-selection tournament to select one competitive leader to join the other 7 hand-picked traders. 

The pre-tournament will run from March 27 to April 7 and will determine one winner to join the live trading competition. 

The pre-tournament winner will get access to the May 11 football match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, as well as the competition and reward ceremony in Andorra. WhiteBIT has VIP access to the game, by being the official crypto exchange partner of FC Barcelona. 

All WhiteBIT registered users can join the pre-tournament. They must open an account with the exchange and start trading for at least 10 deals. Those with the highest performance in regular trading on the live WhiteBIT markets will be selected for the next rounds of the tournament. 

Traders who deposit 50 USDT before March 26 will be given a bonus of 50 USDTB for their sub-account to encourage more active deals. The tournament gives traders of all abilities an opportunity to enter the spotlight with world-class performance. The pre-tournament is just one of the special programs of WhiteBIT, as there are almost daily incentives and bonuses for depositing or trading tokens.

Just ahead of the pre-tournament and tournament, WhiteBIT further increased its daily trading volumes to over $1.7B in 24 hours. The exchange offers over 300 assets, though 40% of the trades are focused on Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) for their high liquidity. 

WhiteBIT WBT trades close to a one-year peak

WhiteBIT boosted its native WBT token after a year of expansion and growing trading activity. WBT trades near its one-year peak, defying the bearish market trends in Q1. 

WBT rose to $28.61 after a recent hike above $30. Exchange tokens are still gaining attention as they reflect real economic activity and user inflows. The exchange carries a mix of retail services and institutional tools for high-volume trading. It has previously partnered with Bequant to offer institutional access to specialized services. 

WBT is ranked in the top 5 exchange tokens based on recent growth, flipping Uniswap (UNI) in market capitalization. The asset was also among the top 3 best-performing assets for 2025, defying market trends and even BTC’s slide.

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On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve decided to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged in the 4.25%–4.5% range – and Bitcoin reacted instantly. The pause, while widely anticipated, came with a slightly revised outlook that includes a slower timeline for future rate cuts and a notable adjustment to the central bank’s balance sheet reduction pace.

According to the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) statement, the Fed’s “Dot Plot” now indicates only two 25 basis-point rate cuts for this year—fewer than many market participants expected in December. Policymakers stressed that while interest rates remain in restrictive territory, the timing of actual cuts hinges on the path of economic indicators, particularly inflation and employment.

However, the latest statement no longer asserts that inflation and employment are “in balance,” reflecting the Committee’s growing concern about economic uncertainty. But perhaps the most significant pivot was the Fed’s announcement that it will slow the reduction of its bond holdings, commonly known as “quantitative tightening” (QT).

Beginning in April, the monthly runoff for government bonds will drop from $25 billion to $5 billion—a substantial downshift that many analysts consider a prelude to a more accommodative stance if economic or market conditions deteriorate.

What This Means For Bitcoin

Shortly after the Fed’s announcement, Bitcoin rallied roughly 4–5%, briefly surpassing the USD 86,000 level. Nik Bhatia—founder of The Bitcoin Layer and author of Bitcoin Age—took to his latest video update to dissect the decision’s implications. “Bitcoin up 4% on the news that the Fed slows QT and is still committed to cutting interest rates,” Bhatia said at the start of his analysis, noting that the market had been laser-focused on whether the central bank would modify its quantitative tightening approach.

Bhatia explained how the reduction of the monthly runoff cap from $25 billion to $5 billion can loosen liquidity constraints in the overall system: “Now the Fed is also still contracting its balance sheet, but now it will do so by only five billion a month as opposed to 25 billion a month, and that is a material change,” he said.

“This isn’t some, ‘Hey, we’re on the cusp of QE now just ‘cause we went from 25 to a five,’ but the first step is to get the balance sheet to stop shrinking … so that if the Fed needs to pivot, it can go quickly from 5 billion in QT a month to some modest expansion.”

Bhatia underscored that such a move can fuel market risk appetite: “The market sees the Fed for what it is: it supports credit creation which expands balance sheets across the world, and that flow ends up in asset prices … some of those assets can be stocks, Bitcoin—[and] other financial assets.”

Other experts are even more drastic in their assessment. BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes stated via X: “JAYPOW delivered, QT basically over Apr 1. The next thing we need to get bulled up for realz is either SLR exemption and or a restart of QE. Was BTC $77k the bottom, prob. But stonks prob have more pain left to fully convert Jay to team Trump so stay nimble and cashed up.”

Jamie Coutts, Chief Crypto Analyst at Realvision, pretty much agrees: “After last night, QT is effectively dead (for some time). Treasury volatility has backed right off and is now mirroring the decline in DXY from earlier this month. This is all extremely liquidity-positive.”

At press time, Bitcoin traded at $85,881.