Triaconta Weekly #262

The following topics will be addressed in this weekly:

  • Bundle performance
  • Winners & Losers
  • What is IDEX?

Bundle performance
Bitcoin’s share of the overall crypto market rose above 51% this week on rising positive sentiment about Bitcoin. Investors have high confidence in the success of the Bitcoin ETF application by the largest global asset manager Blackrock ($10 trillion) despite previous failed applications by smaller parties. When the first gold ETF became a reality in 2006, the gold price rose 500% in the following four years due to the improved availability of gold to institutions through the ETF. At least the same effect is expected by optimists for the Bitcoin price.

Deutsche Bank has applied to become a crypto custodian and on top of that came the announcement of a new crypto exchange EDX also already by major players in traditional finance, Citadel Securities, Charles Schwab and Fidelity Investments. The new exchange will trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. The prices of these coins immediately shot up. Not coincidentally, these are the crypto currencies, which the current chairman of the SEC has in the past referred to as definitely not “security”. These regulated parties are naturally very careful about their reputations, but so are finally stepping confidently into our crypto sector.

All bundles are shooting up with DeFi in the lead thanks to the addition of Stacks in the latest revision.

Big3:
1 Month: +5.89% | 7D: +13.44% | 24H: +0.26%

Top30:
1 Month: -10.17% | 7D: +12.76% | 24H: +0.10%

Penny:
1 Month: -12.74% | 7D: +13.76% | 24H: -0.94%

DeFi:
1 Month: -10.87% | 7D: +14.56% | 24H: -1.36%

Winners & Losers
In the previous newsletter, we wrote extensively about the latest addition to the DeFi bundle and coincidentally this week’s biggest riser Stacks (+48%). Bitcoin Cash (+42%) gets a big boost by being named in the “definitely not a security” list, and Fetch.AI (+30%) makes up for its loss of the past 30 days in 1 week. VeChain (+27%), with its supply chain solutions, remains a good example of a blockchain with a real-world application. Bitcoin (+20%), of course, did incredibly well itself.

What is IDEX?

New to the PennyStock bundle, IDEX is a unique crypto exchange that combines centralisation and decentralisation to make a so-called non-custodial decentralised exchange (DEX) available to everyone worldwide. IDEX aims to give users easy access to banking and financial tools and functions for exchanging crypto directly on multiple platforms, such as Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain and Polkadot. Non-custodial means that IDEX is the first decentralised exchange of its kind that allows users to retain full ownership of their cryptocurrencies so maintaining the security of the proprietary blockchain while enabling instant trade execution and fast transactions.

Who is IDEX
IDEX began in 2017 as Aurora, founded by Alex Wearn and Philip Wearn. Aurora was renamed IDEX in 2019, the first real-time exchange to combine a centralised order matching system and decentralisation without the need to move assets to the exchange first. Alex Wearn is still the CEO and Phil Wearn the COO of IDEX and have backgrounds in management of software development for Amazon, IBM and Adobe. A total of 30 people now work on IDEX.

How does IDEX work
When Ethereum was just getting started, the founders had already come up with the first decentralised exchange on this blockchain called EtherEx. It worked with a smart contract order book where limit orders could be placed. The seller made a transaction to place a sell order in the book. The buyer did a transaction with a buy order for the same price and quantity. There is a match so the complete transaction is added to the blockchain and the funds are moved. This had several drawbacks. For placing and cancelling each order, you pay transaction fees. If it was busy, it took minutes for your order to appear. The platform could not grow. And the user had to be sufficiently technically capable to make transactions on the Ethereum network.

With IDEX, you forget that there is a blockchain underneath and the user sees the same screen as with large central crypto exchanges. Orders are placed for free with a few clicks and appear quickly. Matching of supply and demand is automatic and lightning-fast, even in busy times. Trading costs are very low, especially if you also own a certain amount of IDEX tokens.

IDEX future
IDEX plans to integrate with more networks besides Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain and Polkadot. For the rest of 2023, the agenda besides marketing includes upgrades to the platform. Marketing involves competitions and special bonuses for traders, airdrops and a referral programme. Upgrades include advanced order types and improved portfolio management and a dynamic fee structure for even lower trading costs.

The Defi sector continues to grow and within it the share of decentralised exchanges. Which players will remain in that competitive market is of course impossible to say in advance. With less than 1% of the market, IDEX is now very small. However, IDEX’s hybrid CeFi / DeFi solution is unique and can certainly compete with central exchanges in terms of security and the other DEXs in speed and efficient order handling. Its rising popularity, active community and experienced team make this token sufficiently promising to move beyond Penny Stock status perhaps as early as next year.

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