After the assassination of Trump last weekend, Trump's pro-cryptocurrency attitude also led to a rebound in the crypto market. In addition, Trump plans to speak at a cryptocurrency conference at the end of this month, and investors are beginning to have high expectations for the market. In addition, with the upcoming listing of the Ethereum spot ETF, ETH ecosystem projects have also received attention from investors. For example, major Layer 2 ecosystem projects will receive attention from traditional OTC funds as Ethereum is widely exposed, and DeFi will also usher in important opportunities.
As a derivatives trading platform of the Starknet ecosystem on Ethereum's Layer2 track, ZKX has gained high attention due to its outstanding performance in recent on-chain data. The project team received funding from StarkWare in 2022 and a total of US$4.5 million in seed round financing. The founder also has work experience at SOSV, a top global venture capital institution, and has rich experience in the trading field.
Compared with other DEXs, ZKX has many features, such as the innovative launch of OG Trade and Pro Trade. OG Trade is mainly suitable for primary users, with a simple interface and provides visual real-time trading data. Pro Trade is built for professional traders, providing complex trading functions and tools such as API to meet the needs of different traders.
ZKX simplifies deposits and withdrawals and private key custody through AA accounts, and realizes gas-free transactions and fast transactions on the chain, so users don’t have to worry about congestion on the chain and gas expenditures, etc. Although the low depth of the crypto market has led to large price fluctuations recently, judging from ZKX’s on-chain transaction data and project dynamics, ZKX has withstood the test of the extreme market and has not caused unexpected losses to users, which is still worthy of praise.
Transaction data is growing steadily
The transaction volume on the ZKX chain has been growing steadily. As of mid-July, the total transaction volume of ZKX reached US$2.4 billion, the total number of users reached 26,000, and the 24-hour transaction volume reached US$9.24 million.
In addition, judging from the transaction data, ZKX's transaction volume and total assets are also growing steadily. The cumulative transaction volume doubled in the second quarter. The transaction volume of BTC on ZKX also soared to US$680 million, and the transaction volume of SOL also reached US$664 million. After the protocol went online, various data have been growing steadily.
Receive STRK token rewards for trading
ZKX airdropped $STRK tokens to trading users as part of the Starknet DeFi Spring event, which is still ongoing. Users can get $STRK token rewards by trading in the market. The rewards are distributed according to the event batches, and are calculated and distributed after each batch ends.
Currently, 209,000 $STRK tokens have been distributed, and the trading volume has reached 340 million US dollars. From June 27 to July 10 alone, ZKX distributed 48,000 $STRK tokens as rewards to traders.
The trading volume of other tokens on ZKX has also grown steadily, such as $SOL, which has a trading volume of over $664 million.
ZKX token launch and airdrop
The official $ZKX token was launched this year and the token distribution model was announced. The total supply of $ZKX is 100 million, and the initial circulation is 10.2%. In addition, ZKX also conducted two airdrop activities for community users, including participants of the Galxe Onchain Summer event who received airdrop rewards. $ZKX tokens have also been listed on Bitget, Gateio, Kucoin and other exchanges.
According to the official page, 15% of $ZKX tokens will be used for airdrop activities. Compared with many projects in the market, this ratio is very generous.
According to the official introduction, ZKX will carry out multiple airdrop activities in the future, such as Airdrop 3.0 and 4.0 stages. The airdrop activities will last for a long time. Currently, the Airdrop 2.0 activity is still ongoing and will end on August 18. For investors who have not yet participated, this is good news.
New feature rollout
Due to this round of market correction from mid-June to early July, the cryptocurrency market ushered in the second round of decline this year, resulting in local market risks and reduced liquidity. Some on-chain DEX exchanges have experienced continuous liquidation due to lack of liquidity, affecting user experience.
Therefore, for ZKX, there is still a need to continue to optimize prices and transaction depth. ZKX has currently introduced the liquidity of mainstream CEX, including quotes from exchanges such as Coinbase, to ensure smooth market transactions.
In addition to the growth of transaction data and the empowerment of $ZKX tokens, $ZKX will also launch an insurance fund and liquidation protection measures. The insurance fund will ensure that user funds are fully protected, and the liquidation protection measures can also avoid losses caused by price distortion in extreme market conditions.
The liquidation process of ZKX is mainly to maintain market stability and ensure that investors can effectively manage risks. Token pledgers can also obtain a portion of the liquidation income. At the same time, the remaining part will be transferred to the user's liquidation insurance fund, which is beneficial to the user's transactions to prevent losses caused by extreme market conditions.
Staking to get high returns
For traders, funds have costs, and Staking has attracted attention as a recent focus. Staking and re-staking on the Ethereum chain have reached new highs. For ZKX, Staking will be the next focus. Currently, ZKX has launched the staking function of $ZKX tokens, providing users with an annualized rate of return of 12%. At the same time, the official said that more token staking functions will be added in the future to provide users with more benefits.
User staking income is also a reflection of the protocol's income redistribution function and the empowerment of the $ZKX token. Users will receive $USDC income distribution. The staking period ranges from 3 months to 60 months, and also corresponds to different multipliers. 20% of the platform's daily income is deposited into the contract and distributed to all stakers.
When ZKX is not in use, StarkNet ecosystem may leap into the abyss
Whether it is Layer 1 or Layer 2, the development of DApp ecology has become a consensus, and the prospects of DApp ecology are further linked to the corresponding chains, just like Ethereum and Binance Chain in the last bull market and Solana and TON Chain in this bull market. Similarly, the subsequent development of ZKX is also closely related to whether the StarkNet ecology continues to prosper, so does StarkNet still have prospects?
In fact, from a fundamental point of view, StarkNet is currently making steady progress in technology, and the DApp ecosystem also has a certain scale. However, due to the "good news" after the STRK token airdrop, there will be a certain downturn during this period, and the ecosystem is expected to usher in a second rapid development. Judging from the performance of other airdrop tokens in the past, this downturn is actually a good time for layout.
For example, new public chains such as Aptos, SUI, Arbitrum, and Optimism have all experienced a period of downturn. Judging from the on-chain data, after the airdrop and market correction, the amount of funds on the StarkNet chain TVL did not show a unilateral and long-term sharp decline. Therefore, it can be inferred that funds are still willing to stay in the StarkNet ecosystem. This trend is similar to this year's Solana.
We also compare Drift Protocol, a derivatives trading platform in the Solana ecosystem. Last year, the market attention was not high, but this did not affect the team's improvement of the project. After Solana regained popularity, Drift also became a leader in the market.
Today’s ZKX is just like yesterday’s Drift Protocol. Only by grasping the initial stage of the project can we obtain unexpected returns, rather than waiting for the market to discover its value and then eat up the remaining profits and growth space. Therefore, from this perspective, the current ZKX still has great potential and space.
Final Thoughts
After the Cancun upgrade, the Ethereum ecosystem and Layer2 have ushered in important opportunities. After a deep market adjustment, DeFi will also have more development possibilities. Although the Layer2 track is becoming increasingly competitive, StarkNet still has obvious technical and market advantages, and decentralized derivatives will be the direction that DeFi must face in its development. Therefore, for ZKX, the next step is also an important opportunity, which will further promote the popularization of Starknet and decentralized derivatives tracks.
