WhiteBIT, Europe’s largest crypto exchange by traffic, hosted the first-ever International Crypto Trading Cup (ICTC 2025), crowning Ukrainian Max Hamaha as the competition’s first winner after a dramatic comeback.
The participants were allocated 50,000 USDTB, WhiteBIT’s internal asset for futures trading, and traded for twelve hours, six hours each day, executing 269 trades in total. During the tournament, trades provided insight into advanced trading strategies, risk management, and decision-making under pressure.
In second place, Dutch Merlijn The Trader joined the podium with a rPNL of 6,745.96 USDT, while Eugene Loza, another Ukrainian, known as EXCAVO, came third with a rPNL of 4,098.90 USDT.
Hamaha also ranked second in the Total Trades metric with 47 transactions, just behind Muslim Abdullayev, known as Mus_Money, from Kazakhstan, who made 49 total trades.
Malik Roth Klindt Jensen, known as Coinvo, achieved ICTC’s single-largest gain with 12,249 USDT profit on an ETH-PERP position. Meanwhile, the tournament’s largest single loss, also on the ETH-PERP pair, totaled a loss of 10,725 USDT, stressing the high-risk nature of trading.
This marked the first time a trading competition winner was featured during one of the world’s most-watched traditional sporting events. As such, the tournament, watched by thousands, marked a “significant step toward establishing crypto trading as a competitive, spectator-worthy discipline on par with traditional esports.”
Hamada reflected on the experience, sharing, “trading live on stage was an incredibly exciting experience—more intense and way more fun than trading at home. I had to adjust my usual approach to fit the tournament rules, but I still focused on active intraday trading with high leverage. I felt confident throughout, though the final minutes got nerve-wracking as others went all-in.”
He also suggested that “WhiteBIT is setting a new trend—competitive trading could easily go mainstream like esports. In a few years, I can see crypto trading tournaments rivaling Dota 2.”
Marc Principato, one of the tournament hosts and a market technician, emphasized the event’s educational value:
The competition highlighted diverse trading styles, including standout performances such as Mauro Ciami’s aggressive “go big or go home” strategy that dominated day one, and Merlin and Excavo’s high-risk overnight positions that paid off significantly on day two.
Principato considers that the one-of-a-kind event offers “priceless” lessons for aspiring and experienced traders alike, as they come away with practical knowledge that can be incorporated into their style. Meanwhile, the founder and President of WhiteBIT Group, Volodymyr Nosov, stated:
With this tournament, we’re pioneering a new frontier. This is not just about trading—it’s about building community, sharing knowledge, and accelerating global adoption of blockchain. We’re building the infrastructure for the future. ICTC 2025 was a first step to understand what works, what our traders and audience want, and where we can go from here. Our goal is to make this a recurring, global event—bigger and better with each edition.
As a result, the crypto exchange is preparing for the next installment of the event, with registration now open for ICTC 2026, inviting “new and experienced traders worldwide to compete, connect, and make history.”
