Ukrainian wins the first world championship in crypto trading live

Ukrainian Max Hamaha won the final of the first-ever live crypto trading championship, the International Crypto Trading Cup (ICTC 2025). His name was also displayed on the LED scoreboard during El Clasico, when the whole world watched the match. Another Ukrainian, Eugene Loza, took third place, proving that Ukrainian traders are among the best in the world.

WhiteBIT, Europe’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by traffic, successfully hosted the first-ever International Crypto Trading Cup (ICTC 2025) on May 9−10. This global live tournament was an important step toward recognizing crypto trading as a competitive discipline that deserves the attention of viewers on par with traditional esports.

The two-day event brought together eight leading crypto traders from around the world on one stage to compete in real time. Trading for six hours each day for a total of twelve hours, they executed 269 trades, demonstrating their mastery of advanced trading strategies, risk management, and decision-making under pressure.

In addition to the main stage traders, 33 teams took part in ICTC 2025, the largest of which had 369 and 298 participants, as well as about 3000 individual traders from around the world.

Max Hamaha wins in a stunning comeback

Ukrainian Max Hamakha became the first ICTC champion after starting the competition from the last position in the ranking. His bold comeback on the second day — thanks to a strong Long position in Ethereum — brought him rPNL profit of 7488.84 USDT and the first place. He made 47 trades, the second highest number in the competition, behind only Muslim Abdullayev (Mus_money_) from Kazakhstan, who made 49 trades.

Max shared his experience as follows:

«Trading live on stage is an incredibly exciting experience, much more intense and interesting than trading at home. I had to adapt my usual approach to the tournament rules, but I focused on active day trading with high leverage. I felt confident throughout, although the final minutes were tense as others went all-in. WhiteBIT sets a new trend — trading tournaments can become as popular as e-sports. I believe that in a few years, crypto trading tournaments will be able to compete with Dota 2.»

Together with Max, the Dutchman Merlijn «The Trader «with rPNL 6745.96 USDT (second place) and another Ukrainian Eugene Loza (EXCAVO) with rPNL 4098.90 USDT (third place) climbed to the podium.

Meanwhile, Malik Roth Klindt Jensen (Coinvo) made the biggest profit of the tournament, with a sharp gain of 12,249 USDT on ETH-PERP. The largest loss, also on the ETH-PERP pair, was -10,725 USDT, which emphasizes the high risk of trading. Although the traders did not use personal funds, each was provided with 50,000 USDTB, WhiteBIT’s internal asset for futures trading, which created a powerful educational experience.

ICTC winner in the spotlight during El Clasico

A special moment was the display of Hamaha’s name on the LED scoreboard during El Clasico, the biggest football match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. This is the first time in history that the winner of a crypto trading tournament was represented at such an iconic sporting event.

Key trading strategies

The ICTC also provided a unique opportunity to see professional trading techniques as participants demonstrated their screens in real time, talking about setups and decision-making. One of the ICTC hosts and technical analyst Marc Principato emphasized the educational value of this format:

«The tournament showcased a variety of trading styles, including standout performances such as Mauro Ciami’s aggressive all-or-nothing strategy that dominated the first day and Merlin and Excavo’s high-risk overnight positions that paid off big on the second day.»

Mark adds:
«The lessons learned from this unique event are invaluable for both beginners and experienced traders. Risking your reputation and revealing your secrets to the world is not something most pros would dare to do. So watch carefully and take notes. From high probability patterns to mean-reversion tactics, you’ll gain practical knowledge that you can implement into your trading right away.»

Laying the foundation for a new era

Vladimir Nosov, founder and president of WhiteBIT Group, spoke about the success of the first tournament:

«With this tournament, we are breaking new ground. It is not only about trading, it is about building a community, sharing knowledge, and accelerating the global adoption of blockchain. We are building the infrastructure of the future. ICTC 2025 is the first step in understanding what works, what our traders and audience want, and where to go from here. Our goal is to make this tournament regular, bigger and better every year.»

What’s next: registration for ICTC 2026 is already open

WhiteBIT is already preparing for the next stage: registration for ICTC 2026 is open, inviting new and experienced traders from all over the world to compete, unite, and make history.

As the boundaries between finance, technology, and entertainment blur, ICTC 2025 clearly signals the future of crypto trading — interactive, competitive, and globally accessible.

Recordings of the broadcasts are available on WhiteBIT’s YouTube channel.

WhiteBIT is the largest European crypto exchange in terms of website traffic, founded in 2018. The exchange offers more than 820 trading pairs, 330 assets, and 9 state currencies. WhiteBIT is part of the WhiteBIT Group, which serves more than 35 million customers worldwide. The company cooperates with Visa, FACEIT, Barcelona and Trabzonspor football clubs, the Ukrainian national football team, and lifecell. The goal of WhiteBIT Group is to massively implement blockchain technology in Ukraine and the world.