New decentralized crypto exchange is inspired by r/Wallstreetbets

A decentralized crypto exchange is being launched that is specifically designed to cater to r/Wallstreetbets and other like-minded investing groups.

The creators of the Wallstreetbets.com DEX say distrust in centralized financial institutions has never been higher following the GameStop short squeeze earlier this year, which prompted the trading app Robinhood to limit transactions.

Overall, the DEX intends to deliver a platform where users can trade what they want and when — complete with self-custody, no middlemen and no companies taking fees.

The infrastructure that’s underpinning Wallstreetbets.com is a fork of Uniswap, but a number of changes have been made. The governance structure has been overhauled to ensure that users govern the protocol, and a decentralized autonomous organization will empower users to decide how tokens are used.

“We believe other projects give way too many tokens and power to the founders. This is aimed to be a fair launch completely owned by the community,” Wallstreetbets.com said.

Reinventing the DEX

Although Uniswap’s surprised airdrop of UNI tokens to all users who had interacted with the protocol delighted many users, analysts at Glassnode called the project’s decentralization into question after it emerged that Uniswap’s team, investors and advisors had been allocated 40% of all tokens in circulation. By contrast, the Wallstreetbets.com DEX creators will retain at most 5% of the tokens at launch, to ensure the economic and political decentralization of the protocol.  

Wallstreetbets.com has said that it does not plan to hold an initial coin offering or a presale before it launches next month — and interested users can now sign up to receive updates about the launch.

“Decentralized peer-to-peer trading technology is the future of finance and will take the power and control from big corporations who often don't have their customers best interests in mind — giving it to the investors themselves,” a representative said.

“The possibilities are endless”

Unsurprisingly, developers behind this decentralized exchange say one of their biggest achievements over the past 12 months has been securing such a coveted domain name.

All the same, it’s a rather interesting choice. In mid-April, r/Wallstreetbets had finally announced that it would allow crypto discussions to take place in a concerted push to accommodate members without detracting from its focus on the stock market. However, the relaxed rules proved exceedingly short-lived — and a day later, a ban was reimposed.

The Wallstreetbets.com developers are certain these restrictions don’t reflect a lack of crypto interest from the r/WallStreetBets community — and confident that DeFi will become increasingly more important in the global fintech landscape. 

“The possibilities are endless,” the project said.