The World Series of Trading (WSOT) came to a thrilling conclusion on August 31, with winning traders taking home their share of a $1.27M prize pool. Hosted on Bybit’s derivatives exchange, WSOT was the largest cryptocurrency trading event in history.
A total of 135 teams took part in the event, comprising 12,368 individual traders. The main competition - The BTC Troop Showdown - was won by South Korean team W.T.C, who took home the first prize of 35 BTCs. The winning team recorded over 5,242% ROI gains over the course of the trading event. An individual from the winning team also took first place in the USDT (Tether) Solo Throwdown after recording 4,974% gains. First prize in the solo competition was 90,000 USDTs.
Over 100 BTCs were shared among the top finalists in the team competition. Second place was taken by the group Jalapeño, while one user from the same group, SalsaTekila, also won second prize in the USDT Solo event after recording almost 4,000% gains. Third place in the team event was won by a troop led by international poker star, Mike McDonald.
The prize money offered up by Bybit more than doubled 2019’s 50 BTCs pool, in a prerunner event to WSOT, and co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou believes next year’s event will be even bigger. He said:
"We are honored to bring the exhilaration of competitive trading to the crypto community with WSOT, and grateful for the incredible enthusiasm and support the competition received. WSOT will return even bigger and better in the next edition."
As Traders Win, the Market Tumbles
As the combined cryptocurrency market cap fell by $60B on September 3, the returns on investment found at WSOT would have been difficult to replicate anywhere else. Bitcoin fell under $10,000 for the first time in four weeks, while Ethereum lost 21% of its value in a sharp, short crash.
The market crash coincided with notable dips in the traditional finance sector. The Nasdaq was down 5% on the day; the S&P 500 closed at -3.5%, while the Dow Jones also lost 2.8%. Some speculate the dip was caused by worrisome Wall Street investors who fear impending mass unemployment in the wake of the Covid-19 lockdown could sink the share prices of major tech stocks.
The sudden dip in the crypto market resulted in some major rearrangements in the market cap top ten. Bitcoin SV (BSV), the project led by self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, Craig Wright, fell out of the top ten for the first time since it hard-forked from Bitcoin Cash in November, 2018.
TRON (TRX) briefly moved back into the top ten after a long absence, as it continued an ascension which carried it to 108% growth in the past week.
Meanwhile, recent yield-farming sensation SushiSwap lost 46% in the three days following September 1. The plunge comes just days after the SUSHI token recorded 509% growth in the 48 hours following its launch.