What are some ways to short bitcoin? Futures are 5 BTC/contract which is way too much for me. I'm looking to short around half a coin. Thanks.
you can trade CBOE exchange XBT which is 1 bitcoin / contract. CME exchange offers 5 bitcoin/contract. XBT margin requirement is about 50%. ie you need about $8k to trade a contract.
Only works if you have BTC already. If not, you need to buy some at a spot exchange, transfer it, short on bitmex, transfer it back to spot exchange, sell for fiat, withdraw. That's going to be a lot of transfer fees.