That’s a milestone: on August 19, 2021, we successfully updated our Testnet. In this dev update, we’ll explore new markets and features, share our improvement plans, and reveal the latest changes in Digitex tokenomics. Let’s go!
Stablecoin-denominated Futures Markets
Firstly, we’ve added two perpetual Futures Markets to the Testnet: BTC/USD and ETH/USD, both denominated in USDC. At the moment, you can’t navigate to these markets from our trading UI, but we’ll enable access soon – probably within 2 weeks. In the meantime, you can access new markets via the direct links above.
The reason we decided to add stablecoin markets was that the DGTX price fluctuations posed a problem for traders. For one, sudden drops in rate could turn a successful trade into a money loss, creating a negative user experience. We’ve also assumed that stability provided by USDC may attract traders with medium capital, increasing liquidity and traded volume.
Revised Trading Fees
What about DGTX-denominated perpetual Futures Markets? They are still here, and you can trade with DGTX at no fees should you wish to. However, trading on USDC Futures Markets and non-DGTX Spot Markets will be subject to fees.
For now, we’ve set the Taker fee rate to 0.05% and the Maker fee rate to 0.01%. The fees are not currently reflected in your trading UI or trading history, but we plan to add this feature within 2 weeks, too. No worries: the fee system is in place, working like a clock. You can check your fees on the Testnet by calculating trading balances delta before and after trades.
Future Improvements & Planned Mainnet Launch
At the next stage, we will focus on stable coin futures markets and fee system testing, adding proper information about fees to the trading history and the trading UI, as well as applying changes to the exchange UI: we’ll need to make sure that both DGTX and USDC-denominated futures can be traded without making a mess or creating conflicts.
We plan to release the new fee system and Stablecoin Futures to the Mainnet in September 2021 – but the exact date will depend on how testing progresses. After all, we want to make sure the new features fit seamlessly with the old ones.
Fee Reduction System
After that, we are going to introduce a new feature: the Fee Reduction System, which will allow you to reduce trading fees up to zero. For the moment, we are choosing from the following implementation options:
- Paid subscription – subscribed users will pay lower fees (up to zero fees), probably according to their traded volume and other stats;
- Paying reduced fees on any market in DGTX – we know that the same feature works well for some of our competitors; besides that, it will bring additional value to DGTX;
- DGTX staking – by staking their DGTX, users will be able to trade at no fees. This staking system will be different from the one used at Blockfarm: for example, there will be a lock period for stakers.
All these options are perfectly valid; we will publish a poll in our social networks later on to see which one you prefer – however, the final decision will be on us.
Market Expansion And Other Plans
After releasing the above-mentioned features on our Mainnet, we plan to add more Spot Markets to our exchange: we know there are many coins our traders and investors are interested in. We will also expand the count of futures markets, denominated both in DGTX and USDC, and deliver some great derivatives tools: we’ll tell you more in the upcoming dev updates.
As usual, there is no predefined list of markets we are going to add this autumn. We’ll be considering such factors as coin demand, market activity, and trader interest.
And lastly, by the start of 2022, we will introduce some social features. Right now we are prototyping those, checking hypotheses, and choosing which features will be delivered as MVP at the first release, and which ones may be released later.
New Business Model & Roadmap
To sum all the above, we are working on changing the Digitex Exchange business model and DGTX tokenomics. We are going to split Digitex income into two flows: one for DGTX token price, and one for direct profits. Some new services will be built around Digitex and DGTX, which will bring more liquidity and interest for traders, and ensure higher profits.
We’ll disclose all the details in our new roadmap: there’s no exact ETA yet, but we hope to deliver it before the end of this year.
Hummingbot Connector News
We’ll close with a small update about Hummingbot: it’s already being tested on the Mainnet Spot Markets. So far, basic trading strategies, history, order placing & canceling all work fine. Our next step is Futures Markets adoption, followed by more tests.
Feels like we’re on the home stretch – and that’s an awesome feeling.
Bye for now! See you next Friday, when we are back with Dev update # 7.
