Speakers:
CryptoChefs
Valentina — Business Development Manager, ApolloX
Introducing ApolloX & CryptoChefs
CryptoChefs: ApolloX was born in 2021, and the mission of ApolloX is to make crypto accessible to everyone, not just professional traders. In 2022, ApolloX announced its plan to transition to DAO governance. I just want to say that I’ve been watching the project for a while, and I’m really impressed by how fast-growing the ecosystem is, and this includes the in-built DeFi wallet, NFTs and everything. Valentina is Business Development Manager at ApolloX. Thank you Valentina for being here.
For the people who don’t know CryptoChefs, CryptoChefs is a decentralised educational ecosystem. Our goal is to build a platform where you can learn about crypto, earn from crypto in a fun, gamified way. If you’re excited to learn more, go ahead and follow us.
AMA Questions
Let’s start with your story: ApolloX is the first CEX-DEX hybrid exchange. But when reading about you in different places, we noticed that it’s always described as a decentralized platform. Are you guys trying to hide the centralized appeal?
- Great question! At the beginning, we did have a CEX-DEX hybrid model. However, in January this year, we decided to shut down our CEX platform.
- The reason is simple. After the whole FTX saga last year, a lot of traders realised the importance of self-custody. They want control over their own funds. Many moved from CEX to DEX, and got their own non-custodial wallets.
- While DEX trading is still smaller than CEX trading, we do think DeFi and DEX are the future. DEX market share is projected to continue eating into CEX market share.
- Actually, this is why we are launching V2 trading on ApolloX soon. In V2, all transactions will be fully on the blockchain.
- Currently in V1, Classic Mode, the match engine is off-chain. But we hear from many users that they want all transactions to be on-chain, so we will do that for V2. Decentralization is a direction we are always choosing.
Awesome, and when can we expect V2?
- V2 is under testing already, and many of our early adopters have the chance to test the new version. After receiving feedback from partners and early users, we will launch it soon.
Can you share about your token? What are some advantages people holding your token can have?
- For our native token APX, it can be used as trading fees on ApolloX.
- Not just that, we currently also have another token called ALP. ALP is the platform’s liquidity provider token representing a pool of assets (BUSD, USDT, USDC & ETH)
- The ALP Pool supplies liquidity for ALP-PERP markets. It acts as the counterparty for BUSD trading pairs in Lite Mode. This is an on-chain product.
- ALP-PERP refers to ALP perpetual contracts. Currently there are more than 10 ALP contracts in Lite Mode with up to 25x leverage. Not just crypto perps, we also launched token index perpetual contracts and we’ll launch more contracts in future.
- The first 3 ALP-PERP contracts have 0 spreads, thus 0 slippage (BTC, ETH, BNB).
- Users can stake ALP to earn high APY in APX rewards. A major source of ALP yield comes from market making. The PnL of traders will be credited to the net asset value of ALP. There will be another factor - the price movement of non-stable assets in the pool. Currently, this would be ETH.
There are 4 ALP coins that I see. Which is yours?
- ALP is our liquidity provider token. Once you go to our official website, there is a trading section called ALP, under Lite Mode. Actually ALP is a pool of assets. It’s not a specific token.
- Users can transfer BUSD, USDT, USDC and ETH into the ALP pool and use these assets to mint ALP. ALP is like a certificate, a LP token, for users who provide liquidity.
On a side note, I love the colours of your website and how beautiful and clean it is. Anyway, so we have a lot of DEXs these days. Most DEXs have problems when it comes to liquidity and huge spreads between prices. How does ApolloX affront these issues?
- Currently, we have two trading modes. The first is Classic Mode which is an order book model. For the order book model, we currently partner with several market makers. They will be responsible for providing liquidity for the order book. However, as I introduced previously, we also have Lite Mode which offers ALP perpetuals.
- ALP is a liquidity pool. It is the direct counterparty of ALP-PERP. The value of ALP is related to the liquidity for ALP-PERP. For example, if user longs a contract in ALP-PERP, the ALP pool will passively open a short position.
What makes ApolloX more special than other DEXs? Why would our listeners go to ApolloX?
- Currently, we have 2 modes. If you take a look at Classic Mode, I’d like to say it’s similar to dYdX, an order book DEX. The whole trading experience is similar to a CEX. For Lite Mode, it’s also similar to GMX. Users can choose which mode they would like to use. This is freedom of choice.
- Secondly, we are launching V2. Users can start trading on the platform without registration or depositing funds. All transactions are executed on-chain and some trading pairs have zero slippage. This trading model has a low barrier to entry and those who hold or stake ALP can earn trading fee income and staking rewards.
- There are 3 key advantages I would like to mention too.
- More Security: We are utilizing price feeds from both BNB Oracle and Chainlink which will help avoid abnormal price behavior in the event of manipulation or lack of liquidity from the source platforms of either oracle. This mitigates the risk of unexpected liquidations on ApolloX.
- Non-Custodial Platform: Basically, users don’t need to deposit or withdraw on the platform to trade. ApolloX DEX also does not have the ability to manage, increase or reduce users’ trading positions unless they are being liquidated due to market volatility.
- Higher Liquidity: Trading pairs on the platform share liquidity via the ALP pool. Hence, it is not required to separately add liquidity for each newly listed trading pair. Capital efficiency is maximized and users can open even bigger position sizes.
I love the utility that the ALP token brings and I think it solves a lot of challenges that other DEXs are facing. Who would you say is your biggest competitor?
- Personally, I think GMX and dYdX may be the biggest competitors. But as we all know, DEXs are still small, and perpetuals/derivatives DEX is also a very young sector. We are all trying to grow this pie currently. There is not really direct competition because we are growing this sector together.
What is the maximum leverage you offer your traders? And how do you suggest the traders manage the risks of leverage trading? Any plans to increase these options?
- For Classic Mode, we have up to 200x leverage. This is special for a DEX, but the choice of leverage levels was decided by our risk team. They have a comprehensive risk assessment to decide which trading pair can have higher leverage.
- For Lite Mode, we have up to 25x leverage.
- When users choose to open higher leveraged positions, there will be a warning on the screen. I do believe our users who choose to trade with leverage do take the risks into consideration.
- Currently, we do not have specific plans to increase leverage, but every leverage we decide for a trading pair undergoes a strict risk assessment.
So not every asset has the option to trade 200x?
- Yes, not all. Just BTC. If it’s an altcoin, it’s only 50x or even 25x.
Can you guys share a bit about your affiliate program? I took a look at it and it is very attractive. You offer 50% profit sharing with users?
- We have a tiered structure. We're always excited to partner with like-minded and creative individuals to spread ApolloX's vision of anonymity and freedom of choice.
- ApolloX is constantly looking for KOLs, content creators, community leaders and organisations who align with our mission and values to help us promote our DEX.
- Affiliates can earn up to 60% commission rebate from referees. We have 3 tiers: 40%, 50% and 60% based on the following size and other criteria. If you are an affiliate, we also have exclusive campaigns or airdrops and other trading activities for your community.
Besides the affiliate program, you guys also have a Champs Program. Can you tell us how it supports the growth of the ApolloX_Finance community?
- Sure. For Affiliates Program, most eligible participants are KOLs. However, for Champs Program, it is a voluntary initiative aimed at fostering collaboration with our community members to build the ApolloX Community together.
- This program is designed to benefit both users and the project, offering an opportunity for community members who are not KOL-level influencers to grow their community and create organic social media content that benefits everyone involved.
- We do encourage Champs to actively engage with the community, and in return, we offer special incentives such as sneak peaks to early products, like V2 testnet (currently), and rewards in APX.
- If you guys are interested, join our Telegram group and there will be an application link.
Let’s talk about your governance model: Your latest proposal on snapshot (proposal 12) was about removing the Market Maker trading volume contributions reward and passed by 99%. Who suggested this proposal and what was the incentive for the community to accept to remove these rewards?
- This proposal was suggested by the ApolloX team. We saw the community’s concerns on the huge release of APX. For market makers, they receive a certain amount of APX based on their volumes. However, the community worried about the concentration of APX allocation. We are also paying attention to the circulating value of APX to make sure we don’t get into a situation where people get APX rewards and sell directly. We would like to have organic circulation of APX. That’s why we drafted this proposal after seeing concern from the community, and the proposal was passed.
Other than governance, what are the utilities of your token APX?
- Another major utility is users can pay trading fees using APX itself. If you get APX from an activity for example, you can use it to pay trading fees on ApolloX. It’s like a positive cycle.
Can you pay with other tokens?
- On our own platform, the priority is APX. But we do have partnerships with several DEXs where we provide a perpetual trading solution. On those platforms, users can pay their native tokens as trading fees.
- For example, PancakeSwap perpetual markets are powered by us. Users there can pay using CAKE token.
Could you share more about ApolloX’s DAO governance? And what is DAO staking?
- Users can stake APX in DAO to earn voting power. We call this veNFT. Voting power is decided by no. of APX staked and the length of staking. Users can stake for 180 days to 4 years. The longer the staking period, the more staked, the more voting power.
- Based on power, users also earn staking rewards and enjoy trading fee discounts.
Tell us a bit about the latest partnership with Biswap and what should users look forward to in regards to this partnership. And maybe tell us something no one knows about ApolloX and this is the first place you are sharing it if you have anything.
- This partnership is under the ApolloX DEX Engine. It is a one-stop decentralized trading solution for any business looking to launch their own derivatives DEX. There are currently over 30 DEX Engine partners including PancakeSwap, SafePal, Biswap.
- Partners can launch their perpetual trading platforms just with our solution. This is our 2B business model.
Community & Listener Questions
@DefiOGD: I want to know how you plan to guarantee sufficient liquidity particularly for some cryptocurrencies that are not popular.
- Perpetual contracts are a bit different from spot contracts.
- Before we list a contract, the risk team does an assessment to make sure there is enough liquidity. That’s why you won’t be able to find smaller altcoins on our platform sometimes, because it’s currently not suitable for perpetual trading. However, our DEX has listed all major trading pairs and some index perpetuals as well.
@FrankPG823: What is ApolloX looking to achieve in the next 6-12 months from now?
- We will provide a fully on-chain trading experience to users. We’ll launch V2 soon, but launching V2 is just the start. We are always receiving feedback from users and we’ll make improvements.
Question: What are the next steps to make your digital currency better and increase the price?
- For our native token APX, we are always looking at the circulating supply in the market. We need to make sure the token has utility so that it can circulate in our ecosystem, not just as a token users buy and sell. With more utility alongside token burns, we believe the price will be stable and rise higher.
Question: Does ApolloX only support BNB Chain?
- Currently for Classic Mode, it supports 3 chains: Ethereum, Arbitrum, BNB Chain.
- For V2, it will officially launch on BNB Chain first but we do have the plan to expand to other chains.
Question: Is ApolloX exclusively for professional traders? What can you recommend for beginners like me?
- Definitely not. We want to make crypto trading accessible to everyone.
- That’s why we have Lite Mode. The UI in Lite Mode is simpler and the whole trading experience is easier as compared to Classic Mode.
- If you are a beginner, you need to understand the risks of perpetual trading. Since we are a DeFi platform, you need to learn more about DeFi wallets. I believe you can learn this from CryptoChefs, right? After this, you can try trading on Lite Mode as a beginner.
Question: Can you tell us the unique innovations and analytics tools ApolloX brings to make derivatives trading more flawless?
- Definitely ALP. If you take a look at the normal order book model, each trading pair needs its own liquidity. If it’s BTCUSDT trading pair, market makers have to specifically do market making for BTCUSDT.
- However, ALP pool provides liquidity for ALP. Once the user opens a trade, no matter the trading pair, the pool can always open a counterparty trade. This makes providing liquidity easier as trading pairs share liquidity. Users can be market makers by transferring assets into the pool.
Question: Do you have SL/TP for traders? Can you open 2 positions at the same time?
- Yes, we have such functions.
- We have a Hedge Mode. In this mode you can open both long and short positions.
This AMA recap has been edited for length and clarity. Listen to the full AMA here: https://twitter.com/cryptochefs_io/status/1643629439765426180
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.
The ApolloX app is available on Apple Store or Google Play here.
Stay up to date with ApolloX!
Telegram | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Discord | CMC Community