1. Overview
1.1. Introduction
1.1.1. Whalefin Markets Limited (the “Company” or the “Whalefin”) operates the platform offering central order books for Virtual Asset trading activities (“Whalefin Exchange”). Whalefin Exchange will follow the trading rules set out in the sections below, to provide Users with high-quality Virtual Asset trading experience.
1.1.2. Please ensure you read it carefully and familiarize yourself with these Trading Rules prior to and during your trading on the Whalefin Exchange. These Trading Rules are subject to change at our discretion and you are reminded to check the latest version on our website from time to time.
1.1.3. In the event of any inconsistency between these Trading Rules and other applicable terms on Whalefin Exchange, these Trading Rules shall prevail with respect to the subjects prescribed hereunder, including the trading procedures, etc.
1.2. Definitions
1.2.1. In these Trading Rules, the meanings of following terms are explained below:
Account means an account opened by a User with Whalefin Exchange for the purpose of
utilising the relevant services.
Asset means Virtual Asset or Fiat Currency.
Available Balance means a User’s total asset value excluding any amounts held for open orders and fees.
Cancel-only Mode means the Users cannot place new orders, but are able to cancel open orders. Under Cancel-only Mode, no Orders will be Filled.
Fill means an execution of an order occurs when a maker order is matched with a taker order.
Hold means locking of the amount of assets involved in an order.
Order means a user’s instruction to buy or sell a specified quantity of the Virtual Asset at a specified price.
Open Order means a maker order that has not been filled, cancelled or expired.
Users means the persons or entities who are the customers of WhaleFin Exchange and have
open Accounts to trade Virtual Assets via Whalefin Exchange.
1.2.2. Capitalised terms that are not defined hereunder shall have the same meanings given to them under Whalefin Exchange Terms of Service as published on Whalefin Exchange’s website or provided to Users from time to time.
1.3. Platform Trading Rules
1.3.1. Whalefin may publish such rules, requirements, decisions, direction, notices, circulars or similar instruments, as it considers necessary for the operation of Whalefin Exchange.
1.3.2. Any rules, requirements, decisions, direction, notices, circulars or similar instruments published will be effective from the date of publication, or such later date as may be specified at the time of publication.
1.4. Operating Hours
1.4.1. Except in the instance of Outages or Halts (as described below), or otherwise in anomalous market conditions, Whalefin Exchange is intended to operate 7 days a week.
1.4.2. There will be regularly scheduled maintenance windows. All maintenance periods will be published on Whalefin Exchange’s website and all users on Whalefin Exchange will be given notice ahead of the maintenance window commencing through Whalefin Exchange.
1.5. Trading Fees
1.5.1. Whalefin charges a maker fee for each maker order and a taker fee for each taker order that is posted to the Order Book. The fee is charged in the quoted asset and is calculated as a percentage of the order size. A fee is charged by debiting the User’s balance for the amount of the fee at the time that the order is posted.
1.5.2. Fees will be refunded if the order is cancelled.
1.6. Statement of Account
1.6.1. Whalefin provides monthly statements to Users. Virtual assets owned by the client will be valued based on Whalefin Exchange’s quotation on US Dollar. The value of each Virtual Asset shown in the monthly statement will be calculated based on the price of USD on the last day of each calendar month, at time of 23:59:59. It will be used to calculate the value of all assets owned by Users and the changes from last calendar month.
2. Orders
2.1. Order Types
2.1.1. Limit orders: A limit order is an order that specifies an execution price. The fill price of a limit order cannot be higher/lower than the limit price if the order is a buy/sell order. This is defined as a Good till Cancelled order.
2.1.2. Market orders: A market order does not specify a price; it is a buy or sell order for a specific quantity at the best prevailing price. Any unexecuted portion of a market order is cancelled immediately.
2.2. Order Time Limit
2.2.1. Valid Until Cancelled (GTC—Good till Cancelled): User GTC orders will remain valid until any of the following events occurs:
- All the Orders are executed.
- Users cancelled their Orders.
- Orders are cancelled by the system.
2.2.2. Execute Immediately or Cancel (IOC—Immediate or Cancel): An IOC order is executed immediately. Any portion of an IOC order that cannot be filled immediately will be cancelled.
2.2.3. Execute Entirely or Cancel (FOK – Fill or Kill): An FOK order must be filled immediately in its entirety or it will not execute and be cancelled.
2.3. Order Priority
2.3.1. Orders of Whalefin Exchange are matched based on Price-Time Priority.
2.3.2. Price-Time Priority means bid orders with higher prices are ranked higher and ask orders with lower prices are matched first and to the extent that these bid orders are filled, the system will match the next best price. Orders with the same price are ranked by their arrival time stamp. The earliest the order arrived at Whalefin Exchange’s order book will be executed first.
2.4. Execution of Order
2.4.1. Limit order: When you place a limit order, Whalefin Exchange will Hold the amount of asset that is involved in the order. When a limit order is received the Whalefin Exchange will check the opposite side of the sorted order book to try and match this order. If there are price match(es) and sufficient quantity the limit order will be fully filled.
2.4.2. Market order: When you place a market order, Whalefin Exchange will determine if the Available Balance in your Account exceeds the total trading amount plus all necessary fees. Order entry will be blocked if the condition is not met. Order book will be sorted for the closest price to match this order and fill the order on different price levels according to the price-priority until the quantity is fully filled. If there is not enough liquidity/quantity in the order book, then the market order will be partially filled and the remaining amount will be withdrawn.
2.5. Order Cancellation
2.5.1. Users may submit a request to cancel any of their orders at any time before it is filled. The orders are cancelled in order of the arrival of the cancellation request.
2.6. Fills/clearing and settlement
2.6.1. When a maker order is matched with a taker order, both orders are filled. An order may be matched with and filled by one or more orders at the same price.
2.6.2. All Users shall settle all Orders through the system and comply with the terms and conditions of the system. Whalefin Exchange settles all filled orders automatically, by debiting and crediting the relevant balances of Virtual Assets and Fiat Currencies in both Users’ Accounts.
2.7. Deposit/withdraw procedures
2.7.1. Two-factor authentication must be enabled before Users can deposit and withdraw Virtual Assets in their Account. Deposit/Withdraw requests will be processed once reviewed and approved by Whalefin Exchange, and the requested amount will be credited to the User’s Account or bank account.
2.7.2. Subject to daily withdrawal limits a User may withdraw all Virtual Assets and Fiat Currencies in their Accounts.
2.8 Orders Verification
2.8.1. Immediately upon trade execution, a unique transaction ID will be generated, containing all relevant details of the transaction. This information will be accessible to users logged into their accounts on the Whalefin HK platform.
2.8.2. All fund movement transactions will be recorded with an audit trail log for future reference.
2.8.3. Automated emails will be sent to users upon trade execution, notifying them of the completed transaction.
2.9 Exception Management
2.9.1. Any discrepancies or mismatches in trade details identified by users must be reported to the Whalefin HK team within 24 hours of execution.
2.9.2. Users can contact the Whalefin HK team via the Whalefin HK helpdesk, accessible through the email link or directly through the platform.
2.9.3. In the event of an unresolved discrepancy, Whalefin HK has established internal protocols to escalate unresolved issues to higher authorities.
3. Market Integrity
3.1. Self-trade Prevention
3.1.1. Users are not able to place an order which would result in self-execution, i.e. where the same User would act as both the maker and taker for a trade. If two orders would result in self-execution, the resting order(s) that would self-trade with the incoming order will be withdrawn and the incoming order will also be withdrawn.
3.2. Market Manipulation Prohibited
3.2.1. Users are prohibited from engaging in any form of Market Manipulation. Market Manipulation is defined as actions taken by any market participant or a person acting in concert with a participant which are intended to:
- Deceive or mislead other Users;
- Artificially control or manipulate the price or trading volume of [any Virtual] Asset; or
- Aid, abet, enable, finance, support, or endorse either of the above. This may include actions on or outside of OSLDS’s platforms.
3.2.2. Market Manipulation specifically includes, without limitation: front-running, wash trading, spoofing, layering, churning, “pump-and-dump” and quote stuffing.
3.3. Fills and Settlement
3.3.1. When a maker order is matched with a taker order, both orders are filled. An order may be matched with and filled by one or more orders at the same price.
3.3.2. Whalefin settles all filled orders automatically, by debiting and crediting the relevant balances of virtual assets and fiat currencies in both Users’ Accounts.
3.3.3. Subject to daily withdrawal limits a User may withdraw all virtual assets and fiat currencies in their Accounts.
4. System Maintenance and Interruptions
4.1. Outage and Halts
4.1.1. Whalefin may suspend the trading in specific instruments or the entire system, for regulatory compliance reasons, technology-related reasons, network events, or where Whalefin believes that suspension is necessary to ensure market integrity or otherwise protect the interests of Users. In case of:
- a market suspension, or
- technical reasons that:
- prevent or degrade Users’ ability to place or cancel Orders, or
- prevent or degrade access to Whalefin’s APIs or the Platform User Interfaces, or
- affect the operation of the order books or matching engines
4.1.2. If the occurrence of fore mentioning situation, Whalefin may, in its discretion, take one or more of the following measures:
- Temporarily disable depositing or withdrawing Assets;
- Cancel Open Orders;
- Disable the ability to place new Orders (Cancel-only Mode);
- Disable sign-in;
- Disable the API functionality; or
- Disable access to Whalefin Exchange’s website.
4.1.3. In the event there is a service or transactional interruption, Whalefin will inform Users by email, system notification or announcement on Whalefin Exchange’s official website.