The Lightning FX service will be discontinued on Thursday, March 28th, 2024 at 6:00 pm (JST) and at the same time, our new service, bitFlyer Crypto CFD, will be launched.

What is Lightning FX?

Overview

In Lightning FX, you can margin trade bitcoin by making a deposit and then making a settlement.

Amplify the reach of your funds by taking advantage of Lightning FX's 2x* leverage capabilities.

Increase your trading efficiency and achieve better results by trading with more than your original deposit amount.

In addition, you can take a short position, allowing you to make a profit even when the Bitcoin prices drop.

Trading is open on weekends and holidays as well.

The max leverage is different for corporate accounts.

  • Spot trading
    Buy low and sell high
    • Spot trading:Buy low and sell high
  • Lightning FX
    There are opportunities for profit in both bear and bull markets with Lightning FX.
    • Long Position
      Long Position
    • Short Position
      Short Position

Benefits of Lightning FX

Leverage trading is available

Lightning FX (Bitcoin FX) lets you make a margin deposit and then make net settlements on purchases and sales of Bitcoin.

Lightning FX lets you trade Bitcoin with up to 2x the value of your margin deposit.

For example, a margin deposit of 100,000 JPY would let you trade up to 200,000 JPY.

Make a large trade with a small deposit
Make a large trade with a small deposit.

You can trade with large amounts but be aware that there is a risk you may sustain losses greater than the amount of your deposited funds.

Trade 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

Being able to trade on weekends and national holidays is a merit unavailable with ordinary financial instruments. Have fun trading whenever you like at times that best suit you.

Lightning FX trading times
Trade 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

*Excludes maintenance periods. Please click here for more information.

Other benefits

Lightning FX has many other benefits!

  • Tradable from 1/100 BTC
    You can start with just a small amount

    The minimum order size for Lightning FX is 0.01 BTC.

    Assuming a rate of 1 million JPY / BTC, you can trade from 10,000 yen approximately (if the leverage is 2x, the deposit margin will be 5,000 yen).

  • 特殊注文可能
    You can send special orders too

    With Lightning FX, there are various ways to place orders. By combining an array of order terms, you can place orders with a higher level of freedom than before. Both stop-loss and take-profit orders can be easily placed depending on your combination of order terms, allowing users unable to keep an eye on the Bitcoin market during the day to still enjoy trading.

  • API公開
    API is available

    By making use of the bitFlyer API, you can view orders, published trading history, and order books.

    You can also place new orders, cancel existing orders, and check your account balance.

    In addition to its web API, bitFlyer also offers a real-time realtime API feed.

    If you use realtime API, you can even receive data on iOS, Android, Ruby, JavaScript, Java, Objective C, .NET, and Node.js.

  • ビットコインで証拠金の差し入れが可能
    Margin deposits can be deposited in Bitcoin

    You can also deposit Bitcoin as a margin deposit on Lightning FX in addition to JPY.

    Your Bitcoin margin deposit is valued at 50% of the last trade price on Lightning Spot (BTC/JPY).

About Margin

Before being able to trade on Lightning FX, it is necessary to make a margin deposit.

Lightning FX regularly checks the status of margin deposits. If the retention rate of your deposit drops below a fixed level (maintenance margin), it will trigger a "margin call" or "sell out".

For more information on the retention rate of earnest money set forth by bitFlyer, please refer to the Fees & Taxes page (https://bitflyer.com/en-jp/commission)

For rules on margin calls and sell out, please refer to FX trading rules.

The margin deposit required to make an order with 2x leverage is determined with the following formula.

注文・約定価格×数量×証拠金率=必要証拠金

Additionally, the maintenance margin can be determined using the method below.

評価証拠金(預入証拠金+建玉評価損益+未決済スワップ損-手数料)/必要証拠金(建玉必要証拠金+注文必要証拠金)
  • Profit and loss (valuation), required margin, etc. are combined across Lightning FX markets.

    Please note that positions on different markets do not offset each other in calculation of required margin.

Glossary of Terms

Profit or loss from valuation

(P/L of acquired open positions) - (swap loss) - (fees)

Margin Deposit

The is the amount of deposited Japanese yen.

*The value of your Bitcoin margin deposit is calculated as 50% of the last trade price on Lightning Spot (BTC/JPY).

Required margin

This is the current required margin deposit for open positions and new orders.

(Required margin for open positions) + (Required margin for new order)

Valuation margin

Margin Deposit + Profit or loss from valuation

Maintenance margin rate

This is the ratio of Valuation Margin to the Required Margin

This ratio evaluates the criteria of a sell out.

Valuation Margin / (Required Margin)

Margin Call (Mgn. Call)

This is the margin that must be deposited to resolve margin call before the margin call due date, which occurs when the maintenance margin rate falls below 100% at the timing of determination of margin call.

Amount available for withdrawal

This is the amount that you can withdraw.

The smaller of (Valuation Margin - Required Margin) or Margin Deposit. However, a withdrawal may be limited by other conditions.

Profit or loss from valuation of an acquired open position

This is the profit or loss valuation for the open position.

Loss from unsettled swap points

This is the total amount of unsettled swap points.

Fees

This is the fee for the trade.

New Open Position

This is a new order creating an open position.

Repayment order

This order repays the amount of an existing open position.

Margin Rate

1 / Leverage

Open Position Required Margin

This is the required amount of margin deposit for the open position.

This is the total amount of (Execution Price × Position Size × Margin Rate) for each open position. (Values are rounded up after the decimal point.)

Order Required Margin

This is the Required Margin for a specific order.

This is the total amount of [Order price × Position Size × Margin Rate] on each order. (Values are rounded up after the decimal point.)

Combined open interest

The maximum number of positions you can hold are 500 BTC-FX per product (including order amounts).

How to make a margin deposit

  1. Click the ‘BTC-FX’ tab in the upper part of the Lightning screen. Next, display the menu by selecting ‘Menu’ from the upper-left section of the BTC-FX screen.
    メニューを開く。
  2. Click ‘Funds’ from the menu on the left of the screen.
    メニュータブの「入出金」をクリックする。
  3. Click the 'Lightning FX account' tab, enter the amount of your deposit, and click 'to Margin Account'.
    BTC-FX口座に預入れする。
  4. Return to the trading screen and check the amount of your margin deposit.
    BTC-FX口座に預入れする。
  5. Below is an explanation of the information shown.
    YTD P&L
    This is the P&L from the beginning of the year until now.
    MTD P&L
    This is the P&L from the beginning of the month until now.
    Daily P&L
    This is the P&L from AM 0:00 (JST) today until now.
    Delta
    Delta = (BTC volume + BTC-FX positions) x current price on the BTC spot board + the estimated JPY value of altcoins
    Bitcoin
    BTC possession
    BTC-FX
    BTC-FX position
    Yen
    Yen possession
    Total Net Assets
    Total Net Assets =
    (BTC volume + BTC margin) x current price on the BTC spot board + the estimated JPY value of altcoins + JPY balance + margin deposit + profit and loss valuation

About fees

Currently, there are no fees for buying and selling on Lightning FX.

Swap points occur separately. For more information on swap points, please refer to the Lightning FX User Guide.

About risks