Original author: Grapefruit
Recently, the crypto debt trading platform OPNX (Open Exchange), founded by Su Zhu, the founder of Three Arrows Capital, and others, has attracted the attention of the crypto community with many positive news, such as the increase in trading volume and the surge in the price of the platform currency OX.
On June 26, OPNX tweeted that its daily trading volume had exceeded $50 million, with an average daily trading volume of $41 million. Since its launch on June 1, its platform token OX has risen from $0.011 to $0.044, with a maximum increase of 300%. Now the price has fallen back to $0.036, with a total market value of approximately $119 million, ranking 233rd among crypto assets.
Judging from the transaction data of OPNX platform, the transaction volume of this new crypto trading platform, which has been online for only 3 months, is comparable to that of old crypto trading platforms such as Crypto.com (24-hour trading volume is 79.63 million US dollars) and Bitfinex (24-hour trading volume is 68 million US dollars).
All of this seems to indicate that OPNX is developing in the direction set by its founder, but due to the particularity of the founding team, users are always skeptical about the platform.
On June 22, a community user pointed out that the volume and price fluctuations of OPNX's BTC asset trading pairs were inconsistent or there were "fake transactions", which caused extensive discussion in the crypto community. In addition, OPNX, which was originally positioned as a crypto debt trading platform, has long used debt tokens as a gimmick product, and its real business is actually contract trading.
The combination of "dishonest founder + failed platform" always lingers around OPNX and is difficult to fade away.
OPNX's trading volume of tens of millions was questioned as "fake trading", but it was less than two dollars on the first day of listing
Since entering June, OPNX has released a lot of good news. On June 26, OPNX tweeted that the daily trading volume has exceeded 50 million US dollars, and the average daily trading volume is 41 million US dollars, etc. On June 25, it announced the launch of the first Launchpad project, the unsecured credit market Raiser Raiser Raiser provides a permissionless credit market (RaiseR). By introducing a third-party credit estimation and evaluation agency, Raiser allows anyone to borrow based on their on-chain and social media credit scores without requiring any collateral (in fact, it is an optional mode). In addition, Raiser will also provide a trading market (RaiDEX) to allow bonds to flow freely in the market. See more (RZR), all OX stakers will share 10% of the RZR supply allocation; on June 24, OPNX announced the launch of the credit currency oUSD, which can be exchanged with USDT1:1; on June 1, announced the launch of the new governance token OX and the governance platform The Herd, OX allows users to trade for free through staking, and supports the use of FLEX FLEX FLEX (FLEX) is a cryptocurrency launched in 2019 and runs on the Ethereum platform. The current supply of FLEX is 98,735,764.89 and the circulation is 0. The last known price of FLEX is $0.19987863, down -42.90 in the past 24 hours. It is currently trading on 6 active markets with a trading volume of $1,205.86 in the past 24 hours. More information can be found at https://coinflex.com/. See more Convert OX and more.
OPNX (Open Exchange) is a crypto debt trading platform co-founded by Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, founders of Three Arrows Capital, and the bankrupt exchange CoinFLEX. CoinFLEX is home to crypto yields, flexUSD, AMM+ and note tokens, physical delivery crypto futures exchanges, and crypto repo markets. It tokenizes the debts in bankrupt crypto projects for users to trade or use their debt assets as collateral to release trapped crypto asset liquidity. The platform debuted in February this year and announced in early March that it had acquired all assets of the exchange CoinFLEX, including personnel, technology, and tokens, and continued to use FLEX as the platform token, reorganizing it and renaming it Open Exchange.
Since the launch of the OPNX platform, its trading volume has attracted much attention from users. According to FLEX Statistics data, since June 23, the OPNX platform's 24-hour trading volume has exceeded 50 million US dollars, with a peak of 57 million US dollars, and the current 24-hour trading volume is 47.72 million US dollars.
However, the authenticity of the transaction data of the OPNX platform has been questioned. On June 22, crypto trading user @Loris tweeted that by analyzing the daily trading volume data of OPNX's BTC perpetual contract and comparing it with the top trading platforms, it was found that OPNX may have "fake transactions."
Loris pointed out that the normal volume and price data displayed by the head trading platform has the characteristics of consistent volume and price fluctuations (such as higher trading volume should be accompanied by large price fluctuations) and the existence of a stable baseline. However, the volume and price data of OPNX show that the price fluctuations in the range of its increased trading volume are extremely small, while the price fluctuations in the range of reduced trading volume are large.
In addition, OPNX daily trading volume has an independent and obvious pattern relative to price fluctuations, which indicates that OPNX may have "false transactions".
Another crypto user then commented that OPNX’s fake volume was so obvious.
The BTC contract price trend chart data on the OPNX official website is consistent with what Loris said. Since June, the trading volume has soared regularly (usually at 8:00, 12:00, 4:00, etc. every day), and the peaks in the trading volume column are mostly in a similar range. The trading volume is huge during low price fluctuations and extremely low during sharp price fluctuations. At the same time, OKX OKX is one of the world's famous digital asset trading platforms, mainly providing global users with digital assets such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and other currency and derivative trading services. View more The platform's BTC price chart data and trend are more in line with the law of quantity and price.
BTC/USDT contract icon on OPNX platform BTC/USDT contract chart on OKX platform
OPNX responded that these trading volumes were attributed to its introduction of a market maker program. However, OPNX's market maker incentive program was announced as early as April 8. But @Loris' tweet has also been deleted.
The reason why the trading volume is so concerned is that OPNX was reported to have a trading volume of less than $2 on the day it went online on April 4. According to CoinDesk CoinDesk CoinDesk is a news website focusing on Bitcoin and digital currencies. CoinDesk began operations in May 2013 and was founded by serial entrepreneur Shakir Khan, who is also one of the investors in BitPay (Bitcoin's payment processor). In September 2013, Joe Matonis, former executive director of the Bitcoin Foundation, joined CoinDesk as a contributing editor to CoinDesk. CoinDesk also provides Bitcoin-related guides for those who are new to digital currencies. In January 2016, CoinDesk was acquired by Digital Currency Group for approximately $500,000 to $600,000. In January 2017, the company acquired Lawnmower, a blockchain data and research platform. In January 2021, the company acquired TradeBlock, a cryptocurrency data analysis company. View more According to reports, OPNX only executed two transactions within 24 hours of its launch, with a total value of $1.26. Later, OPNX officials clarified that CoinDesk's $1.26 transaction data only came from contracts and did not include spot. In fact, the total transaction volume on that day was $13.64.
In just three months, OPNX's daily trading volume increased from around US$10 to US$50 million. The official explanation for this data change is the result of the combined effect of multiple factors, such as the market maker plan, platform currency OX, Launchpad new projects, etc., but this cannot dispel users' doubts.
OPNX debt trading becomes a gimmick, contracts become the main force
In addition to the authenticity of the trading volume data, the debt trading that OPNX originally focused on has also become a gimmick product, and the trading volume of claim assets (also known as debt tokens) has been almost zero for many days.
Currently, more than 99% of the trading volume of the OPNX platform is actually contributed by perpetual contracts. Take the trading volume on July 3 as an example. The 24-hour trading volume of the OPNX platform was US$68.12 million, of which the contract trading volume was US$67.99 million and the spot trading volume was only US$137,000. The debt tokens were included in the spot trading volume and can be ignored.
This seems to be contrary to the original positioning. At the beginning of the platform, OPNX was a platform featuring debt trading, and planned to support claims trading of multiple bankrupt companies, including Celsius Celsius Celsius is a centralized lending platform. It allows users to borrow crypto assets and earn returns. The lending process is all completed on the Celsius App. Up to 33 different cryptocurrencies are supported on the Celsius App. When using Celsius to deposit, you can further use its native cryptocurrency CEL, and CEL holders can also get a share of the profits earned by the company. In addition, Celsius also has a Bitcoin mining business. In July 2022, it filed for bankruptcy protection due to severe insolvency. View more, FTX FTX FTX.com is a cryptocurrency exchange built by traders for traders. Due to the run caused by the liquidity crisis, FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022. See more 、 Genesis Genesis Genesis is the only full-service prime broker in the crypto space and the flagship of DCG (Digital Currency Group). Its role is to enable large institutions to access and manage risk. Due to the FTX incident, it filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2023. See more 、 BlockFi BlockFi is a secured non-bank lender that provides crypto-backed USD loans to crypto asset owners See more 、 Voyager Voyager is the first decentralized application that provides full-service travellers. See more 、 Three Arrows Captical, etc.
The first debt token to go live is rvUSD (Recovery Value USD+ USD+ is a yield-generating stablecoin that generates 8-12% annual yields via daily rebases. It is fully backed by a portfolio of liquid, yield-generating, low-risk DeFi assets (primarily lending protocols and stable-to-stable liquidity pools) to allow (1) hedging against losses and generating profits daily (2) instant minting and redemption of USD+ against USDC on demand. USD+ is used for (1) liquidity management - temporarily storing idle stablecoin cash (2) AMM trading and (3) leveraged yield farming. USD+ brings the benefits of capital efficiency to stablecoin usage, i.e., extra yield on idle stablecoins and/or use in major protocols USD+ is currently on Polygon and expanding to other chains. We will enter the market by establishing USD+ trading pairs on leading AMMs: (1) Stablecoin Boosting Pools on Balancer/Beethoven (2) ETH-USD+, Matic-USD+ on Quickswap/Uni V2, and (3) potentially, Curve. USD+ The advantage is that we are able to maintain the peg without deploying our own funds - because USD+ can be minted/redeemed with USDC instantly, we are able to arbitrage our mining pools using flashloans, without our own capital, thereby maintaining the peg. See more ++++++++ Tokens), are debt tokens issued by CoinFLEX, representing Roger Ver Roger Ver See more $84 million in personal debt owed to CoinFLEX. After CoinFLEX was acquired by OPNX, CoinFLEX users' KYC information and account balances were seamlessly migrated to OPNX as its first customers, and the debt token rvUSD was also listed on OPNX.
However, the price of rvUSD has been falling since it was listed on OPNX in April, from a high of $0.62 to the current $0.15, and the trading volume has been zero for many days, with almost no liquidity.
rvUSD chart
The Celsius debt token CELSIUS, which was launched on June 1, supports Celsius creditors to tokenize their debts and release the liquidity of their trapped funds. However, as of July 4, there has been no transaction on the CELSIUS/USDT trading pair since its launch, the trading volume has always been zero, the token price has always been a straight line, and there are only 8 sell orders on the order book.
Debt Token CELSIUS Trend Chart
From this point of view, OPNX has not developed into a preset debt trading platform. Now its business has shifted to be similar to traditional cryptocurrency exchanges, and contracts have become the main force of the platform.
In fact, this has long been traced. On April 4, OPNX, a platform known for its debt claims trading, was officially launched for the first time. The first function launched was to support cryptocurrency spot and derivatives trading services, not debt-based tokens. Transaction functions. This was also described by community users as "under the guise of supporting crypto claim transactions, the real business is actually a contract casino." This also shows that OPNX’s business focus is on encrypted asset trading, rather than debt trading. After all, the types of claim trading assets and user groups are limited.
In addition, the Dubai Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority issued a written reprimand to OPNX and its founders and CEO on April 18, stating that it operated and promoted its digital asset trading platform OPNX without the necessary local licenses. This exposed OPNX's compliance problems.
The shadow of failure is hard to dispel, can the plan of opening an exchange to repay debts be realized?
OPNX attracted users' attention through a short-term increase in trading volume and a short-term surge in the platform token OX, but the shadow of failure caused by the founder's breach of trust and CoinFLEX's suspension of user withdrawals could never be dispelled.
On June 27, Three Arrows Capital liquidators were also trying to recover $1.3 billion from its founders Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, according to business management company Teneo Teneo Teneo allows long-term holders to benefit from market fluctuations without having to trade through token pairs tied to transaction fees. View more According to previous reports, Three Arrows Capital now owes about $3.5 billion in claims to 27 companies. However, the trading platform CoinFLEX has suspended all user withdrawals due to a funding gap, and forced its creditors, investors, etc. to hold shares in the company.
The combination of "dishonest founder + failed platform" really makes it difficult for users to fully trust it, and OPNX has received a lot of opposition since its inception. When Su Zhu first announced the launch of the crypto debt trading platform on Twitter, one of the crypto community users commented below, "You should focus on talking to your lawyers instead of launching a new scam." In addition, market maker Wintermute Wintermute View more CEO Evgeny Gaevoy Evgeny Gaevoy View more has stated that it will not invest in the new exchange established by the founder of Three Arrows Capital; crypto venture capital Castle Castle Castle (CSTL) is a cryptocurrency. View more Island Ventures partner Nic Carter Nic Carter View more later stated that the discredited fraudsters worked with other discredited fraudsters to trade the claims of a defunct fraudulent exchange. This actually sounds quite reasonable.
After OPNX went online in April this year, it tweeted to announce its major investors, including AppWorks, Susquehanna (SIG SIG View more ), DRW, MIAX Group, China Merchant Merchant supports the tokens of the MTO DeFi payment protocol, enabling point-of-sale terminals to run on the blockchain and bring consumer protection to crypto payments. View more Bank International (China Merchants Bank Hong Kong Branch), Token Bay Capital Token Bay Capital Token Bay Capital is an early-stage venture fund headquartered in Hong Kong, focusing on identifying niche investment opportunities in the digital assets and blockchain fields in the Asia-Pacific region. View more , Nascent Nascent View more , Tuwaiq Limited, etc. And said that these institutions not only provided funds, but also provided a lot of opinions and assistance in its vision, token economics, legal framework and decision to relocate to Hong Kong.
However, the list of investors announced by OPNX was quickly refuted soon after, with DRW, Nascent, MIAX, Susquehanna (SIG) and others denying their investment in OPNX. Among them, Nascent, DRW and other institutions stated that they did not participate in OPNX's financing, but only invested in FLEX tokens in early 2021.
Subsequently, OPNX-related personnel stated that Su Zhu and Kyle Davies are no longer involved in the daily affairs of OPNX. However, the two still use @OPNX in their Twitter profiles, and share data and progress related to the OPNX platform every day. Just yesterday, Kyle Davies was still on Twitter Twitter Twitter is a social networking service platform originating from the United States. On October 27, 2022, Musk completed the acquisition of Twitter and incorporated it into the newly established "X" company. According to Musk's previous Twitter information, he will create an all-inclusive application and mentioned that buying Twitter can accelerate this wish. View more Space stated that the two founders of Three Arrows Capital will donate the "future earnings" of the OPNX platform to creditors who suffered losses due to the bankruptcy of the fund last year.
This coincides with the user's speculation that "OPNX is an important plan for Su Zhu and others to open an exchange to pay off debts." Exchanges have always been considered cash cows and good businesses in the crypto industry. Someone once said that if the trading platform has a daily trading volume of 500BTC, it can have a net income of half to one bitcoin a day. So, can the desire to pay off debts with the OPNX platform be realized?
After some calculation, based on OPNX's daily trading volume of 50 million US dollars, the current order placing fee of 0.02% and the order taking fee of 0.07%, OPNX's daily fee income is 45,000 US dollars. Three Arrows Capital currently owes about 3.5 billion US dollars in debt, and it will take about 77,777 days, or about 213 years, to pay off the debt. If the rise of the platform token OX, the growth of trading volume, and the future listing fees are taken into account, the repayment speed may be accelerated.
However, it is worth noting that the current OPNX official Telegram group has only 2,060 users, while the Chinese Telegram group has 2,690 people (Su Zhu's Twitter name has also been changed to "朱愫" in Chinese). The number of community users is in sharp contrast to Su Zhu and Kyle Davies' 568,000 and 517,000 followers respectively.
