BitMEX, the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange announced that the company has reached all-time highs in trading volume during this week. As volume increases, the exchange is continuing to implement optimizations to its trading engine and processes.
Earlier in the week, new front-end updates were released and now there are major optimizations being made to the trading API, set to be completed in the next few days. Most optimizations will not have any visible changes, but the following may affect API connectors:
Changes to Instrument bidPrice, askPrice, and midPrice will now be made on a 5-second timer, rather than on every update to the best bid/offer.
For most users, this should not cause an issue. If up-to-the-millisecond quote data is needed, BitMEX says to use the quote subscription. The quote feed has been in stable operation for years and always contains the best bid/ask:
{“table”:”quote”,”action”:”insert”,”data”:[{“timestamp”:”2017-05-25T19:43:27.493Z”,”symbol”:”XBTUSD”,”bidSize”:62,”bidPrice”:2443.2,”askPrice”:2447.4,”askSize”:40}]}
The changes are scheduled to be effective from Monday, May 29 at 12:00 UTC.