Futures Exchange Promises Zero-Fees: Startup Hits One Million Sign-Ups for Waitlist

Blockchain startup Digitex Futures is ready to launch its commission-free futures exchange. The platform is planning to add traditional futures markets — including forex, metals, commodities and indexes — to crypto options in order to attract different groups of traders.

One of the goals of the new startup is to fill the gap that Digitex sees in the exchange market. The company notes that regulated exchanges offer high security, together with high fees. Smaller platforms are cheaper for traders but riskier, as they are more attractive for crypto criminals.

For example, in January 2019, New Zealand exchange Cryptopia was attacked, and thousands of its users lost their funds from Ethereum (ETH) wallets. The damage from the cyber theft was estimated at over $16.1 million.

Decentralized exchanges charge lower fees and provide better security, but a lack of user adoption causes low liquidity, Digitex says.  

The company says they have already managed to build one of the most active communities in the industry, with more than 65,000 members in the Digitex Telegram channel. In February 2019, Digitex announced that it reached 1 million users who signed up on their waitlist and who are looking forward to Digitex’s platform launch.

The company says that, because of the high demand for their project, they are ready to release the exchange on April 30. Moreover, plans for the upcoming quarter include a mobile app for rapid-fire trading on the go.

“Digitex aims to hit the sweet spot by optimizing all the features a trader needs,” Digitex says. The company will provide automated market makers, an easy-to-use, one-click trading user interface, assured liquidity through high demand and zero trading fees.

Traditional futures markets

Digitex Futures is planning to offer its users not only a wide range of crypto futures contracts for Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC) and ETH, but also traditional futures markets — including forex, metals, commodities and indexes. They will also be adding stocks during the third quarter of the year, as well as additional cryptocurrency futures markets according to demand.

The company says the goal is to expand its platform beyond the crypto market and appeal to traditional retail futures traders who are interested in commission-free trading on the markets that they are familiar with. Digitex will also add spot markets during the second half of 2019, which the company says should “make the audience for the exchange potentially massive.”

Digitex was developed on the Ethereum blockchain, and the company states that it will be one of the first platforms to implement Ethereum’s scaling solution, the Plasma protocol, after its launch in the third quarter. Due to the new protocol, Digitex Futures won’t hold their users’ funds.

All account balances will be sent to a smart contract programmed on the Ethereum blockchain. The platform will be noncustodial, so the traders will be responsible for their own private keys. They will be offered the opportunity to create decentralized accounts, which will go live after Digitex implements the Plasma protocol to its system in the third quarter of 2019. At the same time, the company will guarantee that the funds are secure and protected from hacker attacks.

Although the exchange is free, traders who want to use the platform have to buy Digitex’s native cryptocurrency, the DGTX token, through the Digitex Treasury or one of the company’s exchange partners. The startup says zero fees should increase the demand for the exchange, and as a result, will cause increased demand for the DGTX token.