(Bloomberg) -- The billionaire twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss’ Gemini is turning to a long-time crypto industry tactic to bolster usage on its derivatives exchange — daily competitions for prizes and the bragging rights that come with being listed as the most successful traders.

The Gemini Foundation will be hosting its first-ever “leader board” competition on the exchange in August. Participants will have to fund accounts with at least $250 of the Gemini Dollar stablecoin, and to maintain a similar balance during the month-long contest. 

The New York-based firm unveiled plans in April to target growth in Asia and to establish a non-US crypto derivatives platform amid a deepening regulatory crackdown at home. Customers in the UK and the European Union also can’t trade derivatives on the exchange. 

Overseas exchanges have run similar promotions over the years, often adding gaming elements to trading to rev up volume. Sam Bankman-Fried rose to prominence back in 2019 when his now bankrupt Alameda Research hedge fund climbed BitMex’s leader board. Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, has a weekly ranking of the top futures traders. Bybit’s leader board even distinguishes between regular traders and “master traders.”

“It is a promotional gimmick,” said Campbell Harvey, a finance professor at Duke University. “The amount of money these exchanges make is directly related to volume. Anything you can do to increase volume, will likely increase profit.”

The Gemini Dollar stablecoin has a market capitalization of about $400 million, and is the world’s eighth-biggest stablecoin, according to tracker CoinMarketCap. Usage for the stablecoin has declined since the collapse of market prices at the end of 2021, along with that of most other smaller stablecoins.

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