Speakers:
CaptainX - Founder of ApolloX
Veronica - CEO & Co-Founder of SafePal
SafePal Community Manager (CM)
Introduction of ApolloX
ApolloX is a futures DEX platform. We have more than 60 contracts and you just need your wallet. We are working together with SafePal and you can find us in-app in the SafePal DApp. We started from BSC Chain and now we also support Ethereum and Arbitrum. We are probably the largest futures DEX on BSC Chain, both in terms of volume and active addresses.
Part I: Community Questions & ALP
SafePal CM: This question is from @Alex555223.
a. Security audits are extremely important for any project, especially DeFi protocols that deal with user funds. Can you explain if your project has been audited to convey confidence and security to the crypto community who is interested in investing in your project?
Captain: Thanks. Sure, our contract is audited by Certik. We do notice that there have been many hacking incidents recently and we’ve made another round of security reviews with our tech team. The most severe disaster for DeFi projects would be if the project’s treasury got hacked. What we’ve done is to put a hard limit there. I can’t remember the exact numbers but I believe it’s 1 million. As long as 1 million is transferred from that contract in 1 hour, it will suspend all the transfers and it needs a multisig to cancel this. So 1 million will be the maximum loss if we experience a hacking event. This is to protect user and project funds.
b. Can you share details on recent major achievements and future roadmap and targets?
Captain: One of the major products we just launched is ALP, which stands for ApolloX Liquidity Provider. The token represents assets in a pool consisting of BUSD and USDT right now. This is a new trading model. The pool acts as a central counterparty that trades against some traders in Lite Mode - we introduced new perpetual pairs in Lite Mode which we call ALP markets, and they are denominated by BUSD right now. For users that stake in ALP pool, you earn rewards in two ways. One is the token reward of our own token APX, and the other source is from market making.
SafePal CM: That is really interesting and thanks for sharing, Captain. For ALP launch, how has it been doing so far and what are the strengths of the model?
Captain: It is doing pretty well especially on the staking side. We launched about 2 weeks ago and the TVL right now is $6M. Actually we did an AMA with BNB Chain a few days ago and it was $3M then, but after 3-4 days, the pool size doubled. And I think the reason is because the risk-return profile is quite good now.
As I mentioned, there are 2 sources of returns. The token reward is risk-free given that the pool size is still relatively small, so the yield from this source is quite high. The total yield right now is around 50%. From market making, the yield is not big. This means [the pool] holds small positions, so the risk is also small. That’s probably why we attracted a relatively large TVL in a short time.
SafePal CM: Thanks for sharing, Captain. That really does sound attractive. On that note, one of our users posted a question. @gnslscan1 says: Staking ALP in ApolloX results in great yield over time. How do you manage to create such yields and can new users put their trust in this model?
Captain: Yeah, as I said, there are two sources. The token rewards are diverted from one of our previous reward programs - Trading Rewards Program. It is not an additional distribution of our own token so there won’t be additional selling pressure for the token itself. Besides diverting the rewards to ALP, we also reduced the total distribution of ALP tokens which means the inflation rate of APX tokens has reduced a lot to low single-digits. We expect this to be a supportive factor for APX.
SafePal CM: I’m sure we all know about DeFi summer. Farming project tokens was a popular way to get rewards. So it’s nice to see ApolloX has diverted actual, real yield and revenue generation to the ALP model and it won’t devalue APX and affect the token holders.
SafePal CM: @LinhNguy1369 said, For ApolloX DEX product, currently it only supports 3 wallets. Any plans to integrate more chains and wallets, for example Solana? I believe you have upcoming plans for centralized exchange. Will there be a minimum withdrawal without KYC?
Captain: We actually support many wallets. For blockchains, we support 3 at this stage. There’s a chance we’ll support more, but if you look at active addresses, it is concentrated among the top chains so that’s why we’re not too rushed to extend to other chains. If there’s a chain that gets popular, we’ll definitely consider expanding to that.
As for trading, we do not have any withdrawal limit. You can just start trading with your wallet. No other processes required. It’s simple and easy.
[Note: ApolloX CEX shut down in January 2023. There are no plans for a CEX.]
SafePal CM: @thiengia196 says, Are you planning to promote your project in countries/regions where English is not good? Do you have a local community for them to better understand your project. @romjen1300 also says, The success of your project depends on how large your community is. Do you have a plan to spread awareness to both crypto and non-crypto users in the world, especially for non-EN speaking countries?
Captain: Sure. We support 10 languages on our website. Besides English, we support German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and more. For communities, as we are a relatively small team we don’t have team members speaking all these languages. This depends on our Champs, our ambassador program. As long as we have active Champs in that region who speak the language well, and strong demand from that region, we will create a local community. Currently we have an active Korean community, and it is one of our largest and most active markets.
If someone is interested in becoming a Champ and thinks that futures trading demand is high in your region, you’re welcome to reach out to us. We do have the Champ or Affiliate application links on our website.
SafePal CM: What would be the best way for them to join ApolloX Champs?
Captain: We have an application entrance on our website and you can also shout out on Twitter, Telegram or Discord. We do have people there ready for you too!
SafePal CM: Next question by @alex555223, What do you think about Asia’s market? Is your team planning to reach other countries with potential crypto markets, big teams and investors? By @tanngyy543, Collabs and partnerships are one of the cornerstones of making DeFi more widespread, can you share some of the partnerships you have formed with existing blockchain foundations recently, or any future ones?
Captain: Some of our most important partners are our DEX partners. We have a 2B business arm which we call DEX Engine. We help platforms - whether wallets, or DEX etc - build their own futures trading platform in just a few days. Actually it’s similar to our partnership with SafePal. Most of our partners are DEXes, like PancakeSwap, which brings us the most volume among all partners. We have about 30 partners, including BabySwap, ApeSwap and several others.
As we launch ALP, we are actively seeking another type of partners - those that can build on ALP. We currently only support stablecoins in the pool but we will add BNB and other non-stablecoins soon. This type of partners can then build on the pool, whether it’s a hatched product, or more complicated strategies.
SafePal CM: Next, we can touch on UI and UX. @JungSooRi says, How is ApolloX’s interface to new users? Is your platform user-friendly and do you have informative material for newbies? And maybe you can share more about Lite Mode trading.
Captain: We have two modes for users to choose from. One is an advanced mode (Classic Mode), similar to leading futures trading platforms. If you are a veteran and transfer from other platforms, that’s probably more suited for you. But if you’re new to futures trading, you can choose Lite Mode. It is easy and has fewer buttons. If you think the price will go up, you just go long, and vice versa.
As mentioned, the ALP perpetual markets are only available in Lite Mode right now. The trading experience will be similar to our original markets, but one advantage of ALP markets is that it has zero slippage currently. This is meaningful for traders with sizable orders with tens or hundreds of thousands in dollars. Zero slippage can save you quite a bit of money.
Part II: Live Q&A Segment
1. @Immelike31: On your website I see that by locking APX tokens, we will be eligible to get veNFT. What is the utility of veNFT? What is the fee structure difference between CEXes in the market and ApolloX DEX?
Captain: You’ll have to lock APX tokens to get staking rewards in DAO. I think the fee structure is quite similar. We charge 0.02% maker and 0.07% taker. We are probably the cheapest for futures DEX, but compared to centralized exchanges we are basically at the same level.
[Note: Users obtain veNFT when they lock APX tokens in DAO. veNFT (vote-escrow NFT) is the vesting and revenue model of ApolloX DAO. More details here.]
2. @usuf_ib: Hello. On DEXes I always care about fees. How does ApolloX DEX compare to other DEXes?
Captain: We mentioned this in the last question but I can probably add on. If you care about fees, there are several ways you can lower your fees. Firstly, we still have a trading rewards program. The more volume you trade, you get more APX token rewards to cover part of your fees. The other way is to get referrals from friends or apply for our affiliate program, where for every trade you make, we’ll give you an affiliate rebate. This will lower your trading fees.
@usuf_ib: And last year was terrible for crypto. Are there any challenges that ApolloX is currently facing? If so, how do you plan to overcome them?
Captain: Well, financially we’re quite strong. I like to say futures trading is one of the most profitable businesses in crypto. Hopefully the bear market will be gone soon. Actually futures businesses are affected less in the bear market compared to spot businesses because on futures, users can go long or short. For spot, you only lose money in a bear market.
Veronica: Oh my god, Captain, I envy you so much!
Captain: Haha, the bear market still affects everyone. Although futures markets can go short, the active users still decreased a lot. Veronica, we’re also envious that your service is a fundamental one and that you have such a large user base. What we’re glad about launching ALP is that futures is very niche - only a small fraction of users are active futures traders. ALP is a staking product, and it’s relatively low-risk, and we do see very strong demand on the staking side compared to trading. We do believe this is a more fundamental function and with ALP, that we can serve a larger user base.
3. @DefiOGD: My question is for both SafePal Wallet and ApolloX. Do you guys have any tutorials to help newbies navigate your platforms and basic features?
Captain: I’d like to say our situation is similar [to SafePal’s]. We do have many step-by-step guides in English and we support 10 languages on the product side, but many contents are not localized. We do need to improve on that side. But well, I’d like to recommend giving AI a try. ChatGPT can do quite a good translation job based on my own experience.
Veronica: Agree! We’re thinking of building that into our customer support engine. That’s a great suggestion. Next time I can ask about some efficient and effective futures trading strategies.
Captain: Haha, don’t do that!
SafePal CM: NFA!
4. @Glamer_0: Partnerships are important. How do you integrate partnerships into your project and how can you individually benefit from it?
Captain: I’d like to say that when seeking cooperation, it is important that there is mutual benefit. As long as it’s mutually beneficial, it should go smoothly.
Closing Thoughts
Captain: Very glad to be here and nice talking to everyone. As I mentioned, the risk and return profile for ALP is quite good right now, so it’s still early, good time to join in. Definitely check us out, thank you.
This AMA recap is focused on ApolloX’s answers and has been edited for length and clarity. Listen to the full AMA here: https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1LyGBqOXZdMKN
CN: https://apollox.zendesk.com/hc/zh-cn/articles/15504759186841
KR: https://apollox.zendesk.com/hc/ko-kr/articles/15504759186841
RU: https://apollox.zendesk.com/hc/ru/articles/15504759186841
Risk Reminder: Crypto trading carries a risk. All trading activities are done at your discretion and at your own risk. The information here should not be regarded as financial or investment advice from ApolloX. ApolloX will not be liable for any loss that might arise from your use of any financial product.
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