IDEX

Dex Platforms Trade Over $2.4 Billion in 7 Days, Defi Swaps up 68% Since Last Week

16/08/2020 by Idelto Editor

Years ago the cryptocurrency community did not have access to a plethora of decentralized exchanges (dex). In 2020 with the rise of Ethereum, dex platforms have grown exponentially with trading applications like Uniswap, 0x, Kyber, and more.

Dex trading growth has spiked over 68% this week alone and during the last seven days, $2.4 billion was swapped on these exchanges.

Onchain data from Dune analytics shows that more than $2.4 billion in decentralized exchange (dex) swaps took place last week and $448 million worth during the last 24 hours.

Dex stats from Dune Analytics shows 24-hour dex volumes for Saturday, August 15, and seven-day stats as well.

Dex platforms on Ethereum have exploded with demand and every week dex trade volumes have swelled higher and higher. Today according to statistics, the billions of weekly trade volume stems from defi exchanges like Uniswap, Balancer, Kyber, Synthetix, Bancor, Loopring, Ddex, Curve, 0x, Idex, Dydx, Oasis, and Gnosis.

On Saturday, August 15, 2020, the top five dex trading platforms include Uniswap, Curve, Balancer, Kyber Network, and 0x.

For weeks now and today, statistics show that Uniswap is the most popular dex out there in terms of trade volume.

The top five dex platforms include Uniswap, Curve, Balancer, Kyber Network, and 0x. Essentially these exchanges allow people to trade value whether it be synthetic bitcoin like WBTC, stablecoins like DAI, or any Ethereum token standard.

The platform Uniswap is a dex that runs on the Ethereum blockchain and it allows permissionless swaps between ETH and over 200 ETH-based tokens. Instead of leveraging the typical order book model, Uniswap utilizes smart contracts and liquidity pools. On Saturday, 56% or $193 million out of the $448 million of 24-hour trades happened on Uniswap.

Uniswap is the most popular and top dex hosted on the Ethereum blockchain in terms of users and trade volumes.

21.3% of today’s dex trades are taking place on Curve a decentralized exchange liquidity pool that’s also built on Ethereum. Curve just recently launched in January 2020 and it allows low slippage trades, and a low fee algorithm.

Balancer is a dex aggregator that provides traders with swapping abilities between sourced liquidity. The project says it’s an “n-dimensional automated market-maker built on Ethereum.” $21 million or 6.4% out of all 13 dex platform trades are executed on the Balancer system. 0x is the fourth most used dex on Ethereum today with 4.5% or $15 million in global trade volume.

Since January 2018, there are now 264,638 defi users leveraging these platforms built on Ethereum (ETH).

The fifth most popular dex today is Kyber Network, which is an onchain liquidity protocol. Essentially, users pledge liquidity to the Kyber Network which allows anyone to swap their tokens in a single transaction. Kyber captures 3.5% of the market share of trades which adds up to a hair over $12 million in trade volume on Saturday,

August 15. All five of these exchanges have seen explosive trade volume increasing month over month. Dune Analytics data and charts from Richard Chen also shows that defi users have increased drastically as well in 2020.

There are 264,638 defi users over time and the platforms with the most users include Uniswap, Kyber Network, alongside other defi services like lending from Compound and NFTs from Opensea.

2020 stats clearly show that dex platforms are sustainable and permissionless trading can bring a lot of funds into the ecosystem.

Even though defi demand has grown exponentially, ETH fees have been climbing and the gas to pay for a dex trade on Uniswap can be costly. Gas prices for Saturday, August 15, 2020.

One of the clearest issues right now for defi is the exasperating ETH network fees. Uniswap is the second largest contributor to added gas costs for typical actions within the ETH ecosystem. A Dune Analytics chart that shows “Gas Cost for Typical Actions at Recent Gas Prices” indicates that a Uniswap trade can be around $6.48 today.

What do you think about the rise of decentralized exchanges (dex) on Ethereum today? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

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Total Value Locked in Defi Surpasses $4 Billion, ETH Up Over 70% Last 30-Days

03/08/2020 by Idelto Editor

Statistics show that the decentralized finance (defi) economy has grown massively this year as the total value locked (TVL) in defi recently surpassed $4 billion. Between dex platforms, derivatives, stablecoins, lending, and non-fungible asset creation the second quarter of 2020 has propelled the Ethereum network to new heights.

Decentralized finance (defi) is a term used often these days as it describes a disintermediation trend in the world of finance. A very large portion of defi applications, tokens, and platforms are hosted on the Ethereum (ETH) network and defi’s massive growth has made the price of ETH swell.

The defi ecosystem just celebrated a milestone as the total value locked (TVL) within the economy is $4.22 billion today.

Most of the defi growth took place in 2020 as a number of projects have seen significant demand. For instance, a report written by Tokeninsight details that the defi TVL dropped to $500 million on March 12, otherwise known as ‘Black Thursday.’

Since then, however, the defi TVL jumped 744% from mid-March to August 3. Tokeninsight’s report shows defi’s “explosive growth” stemmed from the yield farming ecosystem. Alongside this, the TVL was also bolstered by defi projects with high lending interest.

According to stats from Defi Pulse, the top six defi platforms include Maker (lending), Compound (lending), Synthetix (derivatives), Aave (lending), Instadapp (lending), and Curve Finance (dex).

Out of the $4.22 billion, the project Maker has a dominance of around 31.9% today. Tokeninsight’s 2020 Q2 Defi Industry Research Report also reveals the number of defi users has swelled immensely from 100,000 users in January to 230,000 users by the mid-year-end.

The research findings indicate that derivatives and oracle projects swelled in 2020 as well and Synthetix (SNX) has been the “most successful derivatives idea so far.” Furthermore, decentralized exchanges (dex) saw an increase in demand as well in the second quarter of 2020.

Right now the most popular dex platforms include Curve, Balancer, 0x, Dydx, Kyber, Bancor, IDEX, Oasis, and the Gnosis Protocol.

Dune Analytics data shows that dex platforms saw $213 million trades during the last 24 hours. There’s been $1.7 billion in trade volume during the last seven days and growth has jumped 5% this week so far.

A number of defi projects have cushioned the TVL today, but a large portion of the recent demand stems from yield farming and flash loan concepts.

Yield farming is a relatively new way to leverage applications like Aave or Compound in order to invoke a yield-generating pasture. A flash loan is the ability to leverage uncollateralized defi capital in order to profit from a well-executed dex trade.

The analysts at Tokeninsight Research Johnson Xu, Norah Song, Harper Li, and Fanger Chou believe that defi presents a “significant innovation” in the crypto space.

The report also stresses that the economy is still learning from traditional counterparts. The researchers think that the defi space has a “unique value proposition” going forward.

“Strong growth potential and innovative concepts can drive the broader cryptocurrency market to another level,” the researcher’s report concludes. “At some point, proof-of-stake, centralized finance, and decentralized finance will come together to form an enormous cryptocurrency financial ecosystem to achieve the potential of ‘money legos.’”

What do you think about the defi economy surpassing $4 billion? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Seeking Profits: A Number of Large Crypto Exchanges Are Mining and Staking Digital Assets

18/04/2020 by Idelto Editor

Seeking Profits: A Large Number of Crypto Exchanges Mine and Stake Digital Assets

During the last 12 months, large cryptocurrency exchanges have been getting into digital currency staking and creating SHA256 mining operations. Just recently, Binance announced the launch of its mining pool following exchanges like Okex, and Huobi. Alongside this, a great number of crypto exchanges are staking proof-of-stake (PoS) coins, which have caused some grievances among the crypto community.

Also read: Crypto Marketplace Purse.io to Dissolve Operations After 6 Years

Binance Reveals the Firm Plans to Launch a Mining Pool in Q2 2020

Since the 2017 cryptocurrency bull run, a number of crypto trading platforms have grown massive over the years. For instance, a variety of digital currency exchanges like Kraken and Coinbase have been acquiring a slew of startups and projects in order to scale themselves further. Last summer, news.Bitcoin.com reported on how the San Francisco-based digital currency exchange, Coinbase acquired Xapo and has been quietly becoming the world’s biggest bitcoin bank by reserves held. Now in order to increase revenue, a bunch of exchanges started to stake PoS coins and mine SHA256 assets like BCH, BTC, and BSV. Now Binance, one of the top crypto exchanges worldwide by trade volume, has announced the company is starting a mining pool.

Seeking Profits: A Number of Large Crypto Exchanges Are Mining and Staking Digital Assets — The exchange Binance recently announced the launch of a mining pool. Earlier last year the two Chinese exchange Huobi and Okex launched SHA256 mining pools as well. Exchanges that also have SHA256 mining pools include Okex, Huobi, and Pool.Bitcoin.com. The Binance pool aims to launch in Q2 2020.

The story was first published by the newsdesk Coinlife from Russia and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) later confirmed the rumor on Twitter. The move follows the $400 million cash and stock deal at the end of March, which saw Binance acquire the popular website Coinmarketcap.com. “Yes, there is a Binance Mining Pool coming soon,” CZ tweeted. “A new addition to our suite of Binance finance products we offer including staking, earning, savings and loans,” the CEO added. The Coinlife report explained that Binance was hiring people to maintain the SHA256 mining rigs and the new pool would be open to the public during the second quarter of 2020.

Various Exchanges Start Mining Proof-of-Work Coins, While Exchange Staking Exposes Vulnerability In PoS Systems

Binance also follows a number of other exchanges that are getting into SHA256 mining and have launched pools. Mining rigs that process the SHA256 algorithm and attempt to mine blocks can dedicate hashrate to any of the top three Bitcoin-based branches (BTC, BCH, and BSV). Last August the cryptocurrency exchange Okex started a SHA256 mining pool and the following September, Huobi announced a pool as well. Okex has a decent amount of hashrate on the BTC chain, while Huobi is mining both BTC and BCH on a regular basis. Neither of these exchanges that operate SHA256 pools mine the Bitcoinsv (BSV) network. Bitcoin.com also operates an exchange and maintains a mining pool that dedicates hashrate to both BCH and BTC.

Lastly, there’s a large amount of exchanges that are staking PoS coins as well and allowing customers to stake tokens using the trading platform’s wallet. Lots of crypto proponents have enjoyed exchanges that offer staking, but the scheme doesn’t come without controversy. For instance, many people think that mega-sized crypto exchanges pose a threat to PoS systems and the Tron-Steemit fiasco had exemplified the issue.

Steemit community members accused a slew of exchanges of leveraging large swathes of PoS tokens in order to sway the governance model. Some believe that the Steemit community wasn’t able to fork off initially because of this problem. However, eventually, the Steemit community who believed they were wronged, formed another project by forking Steemit and called the platform Hive. Although, the event still opened a can of worms for the firm believers of proof-of-stake consensus.

What do you think about mega crypto exchanges getting into SHA256 mining operations and PoS staking? Let us know in the comments below.

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Four IDEX Alternatives That Don’t Require KYC

04/11/2018 by Idelto Editor

4 IDEX Alternatives That Don’t Require KYC

One of the main selling points of decentralized exchanges (DEXs) is that tokens can be traded almost instantly. There’s no lengthy sign-up process and no interminable wait for know your customer (KYC) checks to be performed. But then IDEX, the leading Ethereum DEX, announced that it would be emulating centralized exchanges by introducing KYC. Thankfully, there are still plenty of DEXs that don’t follow this model and have no intention of doing so.

Also read: Review: A Side-by-Side Comparison of Decentralized Exchanges

Ethfinex Trustless

Trustless stands primely positioned to fill the void left by IDEX’s departure from the permissionless trading game. The exchange benefits from the liquidity provided by Ethfinex and Bitfinex, facilitating the trading of ERC20 tokens without the need to undergo KYC. News.Bitcoin.com spoke to Ethfinex project lead Will Harborne to determine whether the company’s Trustless DEX may be forced to go down the same route as IDEX and begin verifying traders.

“We will do everything within our power not to introduce KYC on Ethfinex Trustless now or ever,” he explained. “I believe Open Access is one of the core innovations of this space, and what makes cryptocurrencies so powerful, and as an exchange is something we have a duty to protect.” He also pointed out that users of decentralized exchanges already undergo a greater degree of scrutiny than their centralized counterparts, pointing out that “using Ethfinex Trustless, it is genuinely impossible to successfully obscure the source of a person’s funds: every transaction is visible and recorded forever on the blockchain. The trail of funds is linked, and unbroken, from the user’s Ethereum address at the time of acquisition of funds, to final disposal.”

Four IDEX Alternatives That Don’t Require KYC — Openledger DEX

Openledger DEX

Openledger’s DEX is a little different in that it isn’t Ethereum-based – instead it’s built around Bitshares. This yields a number of benefits, including the ability to trade assets like BTC and EOS, which are paired with the bitshares token, in a decentralized fashion. Like Ethfinex Trustless, Openledger DEX has some way to go before it can reach IDEX’s trading volume, but it’s got a number of attributes in its favor. In addition to boasting a clean and intuitive trading platform, the exchange benefits from a range of stablecoins developed by Openledger that are pegged to various national currencies. The latest of these, bitcny, is pegged to the Chinese Yuan and available on a handful of other DEXs in addition to Openledger DEX.

Kyber Network

Kyber Network doesn’t look like a conventional DEX because it isn’t, but for the purposes of trading tokens in a decentralized fashion, it performs a similar role. Using an onchain liquidity protocol, Kyber enables the swapping of tokens through connecting an Ethereum interface such as Metamask.

There are no order books with Kyber Network: instead you select the asset you’re seeking from a dropdown menu, adjust a slider to set a minimal acceptable conversion rate, and then the order will be fulfilled onchain. Kyber’s volume, at less than $150,000 a day, is around half that of other DEXs featured here, but its implementation is arguably more decentralized and resistant to the sort of pressures that might compel a platform to introduce KYC.

Forkdelta

Forkdelta, which is reviewed in more detail here, was the dominant Ethereum DEX before IDEX came along. Now that the latter is changing to a full verification model, Forkdelta has an opportunity to claw back some of the market share it’s lost. Its 24-hour trading volume and number of active users, according to Dappradar, suggest that it’s catching up fast. Low liquidity is one of the biggest pitfalls to using a decentralized exchange, and thus Forkdelta, despite its mediocre UX and checkered reputation, has a key advantage over the likes of Kyber Network.

With new hybrid and decentralized exchanges under development from the likes of Binance, and interoperability standards improving, it will soon be easier to trade a wide range of digital assets in a trustless setting. It will be a long time, if ever, before DEXs can match the liquidity, choice and user experience of centralized exchanges. So long as the majority of DEXs remain free of KYC, however, they will perform a valuable role within the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

What’s your favorite decentralized exchange to trade on? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Ethfinex, Openledger, Kyber Network.

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.

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‘Decentralized’ Exchange IDEX to Introduce Full KYC

02/11/2018 by Idelto Editor

IDEX, the world’s most popular decentralized exchange, is to transition to a full verification model. The move comes days after the platform began excluding residents of New York State as part of its compliance efforts. Its latest measure, described by IDEX as “pragmatic decentralization” has drawn ire from a segment of the cryptocurrency community.

Also read: China Updates Crypto Ranking, Downgrades BTC Further

IDEX Goes Full KYC

A cryptocurrency exchange introducing know your customer (KYC) requirements is not generally headline news. When the platform in question is a decentralized exchange (DEX), however, typically one of the last outposts of privacy, it’s a major talking point. IDEX’s decision will be monitored closely by the cryptocurrency community to see whether it is an isolated incident or the shape of things to come. IDEX’s dominant position within the DEX market, capturing around 7x the trading volume of its nearest competitor, means it exerts significant influence.

Explaining its transition to a full KYC model, IDEX wrote: “Decentralization exists on a spectrum, and unless your system or application lacks any centralized parts it can be subject to regulation. Aurora is working to create a fully-decentralized financial system, but the path to getting there requires significantly more control and centralization than the end state. In addition to IP blocking, IDEX will be implementing KYC/AML policies in order to comply with sanctions and money laundering laws.”

Same Security, Less Privacy

Traders tend to use decentralized exchanges for three reasons: custody (they retain control of their funds at all times, mitigating the likelihood of theft), privacy (no KYC means not having to disclose your activities to the authorities, or risk having your identity stolen) and finally to gain access to desirable tokens before they make it into a major exchange. With the privacy element removed from the equation, all that’s left is the marginal benefit of greater security and the equally slender benefit of accessing newly unlocked tokens.

Profiting from trading IDEX tokens is extremely difficult in the current market climate, and the added inconvenience of needing to register for the privilege may be the last straw for many traders. Trading volume and the number of active users have both dropped sharply since IDEX announced its new KYC policy a day ago, though it is too early to conclusively link the two events. In the coming weeks, a clearer picture should emerge of the effect that IDEX’s new policy has had on the platform’s trading activity.

First Shapeshift, Now IDEX

In the closing remarks to its lengthy blogpost on “pragmatic decentralization,” IDEX referenced Shapeshift, the cryptocurrency-changing service which was also forced to go full KYC recently, under pressure from U.S. regulators. It concluded:

Over the next few months IDEX will begin instituting KYC procedures for all users to comply with both AML and sanctions laws. Like other exchanges, IDEX will have tiers which correlate with the amount of funds users are able to move through the service. Those trading a small amount of funds will be required to provide a minimal amount of information, while those who wish to trade larger amounts will need to undergo additional KYC steps.

There is an emerging trend for cryptocurrency exchanges that are accessible from the U.S. to kowtow to regulatory pressure out of fear or threat of being shut down. For now, there remain other decentralized platforms and protocols where cryptocurrency users can ply their trade. The question is for how long.

What are your thoughts on IDEX introducing KYC? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Dappradar.

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.

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