The Starknet ecosystem is witnessing positive changes recently. The Paradex DEX within the ecosystem is also attracting community attention thanks to its user-friendly interface and airdrop points program.
What is Paradex?
Paradex is a perpetual DEX within the Starknet ecosystem, allowing users to long/short cryptocurrencies with up to 50x leverage. The platform prioritizes providing a trading experience with low fees, high speed, and a user-friendly interface.
Furthermore, Paradex is built on ZK Rollup technology, combined with the Starknet Stack toolkit. Utilizing the Starknet Stack for development also makes Paradex the first appchain in the Starknet ecosystem.
This appchain approach allows Paradex to leverage the high security of the underlying platform while maintaining a high degree of customization. As a result, Paradex can adjust parameters such as trading fees, order sizes, and other security mechanisms to optimize performance and meet all user needs.
Currently, Paradex has not disclosed its tokenomics information. This article will be updated as soon as an announcement is made.
Read more: What are Appchains? The Benefits of Appchains
Paradex’s Products
The core product of Paradex is its “Trade” feature, where users can participate in futures trading of cryptocurrency pairs such as SOL-USD, BNB-USD, WIF-USD, and XRP-USD. Here, users can choose between two basic order types: market and limit. For professional investors, Paradex also supports advanced order types such as Stop Market and Stop Limit.
The exchange’s architecture combines off-chain processing with on-chain settlement to optimize the user trading experience. Specifically:
- On-chain: Used to process, confirm, and record transactions on the Paradex appchain. Although the main activity takes place on Layer 2, Paradex still connects to the Ethereum Layer 1 to perform actions such as deposits and withdrawals.
- Off-chain: Used to handle order matching, preliminary risk assessment, and temporary storage. Performing these actions off-chain helps increase transaction speed and reduce the load on the main network.
Besides “Trade,” Paradex also offers two other features to enhance the user experience:
- Vault: The platform provides asset pools managed by protocols, investment funds, or users. These pools employ various trading strategies to maximize profits. Users can experience the vault through two roles:
- Pool Operator: Create and manage their own pool, choosing a suitable investment strategy. Pool operators earn profits from successful trades.
- Investor: Deposit cryptocurrency assets into existing pools to participate in investments; currently, the platform supports USDC. Upon deposit, investors receive tokens representing their ownership share in the pool (called LP tokens). These tokens not only represent the share of profits in the pool but also allow investors to participate in the pool’s governance. Profits from successful trades are automatically reinvested into the pool, increasing the value of LP tokens over time.
With this operating model, the vault supports investors, especially newcomers, in accessing complex investment strategies to earn profits. Of course, investing in a vault also comes with risks such as ineffective strategies, low returns, and dependence on the pool operator.
Earn: Where users participate in activities provided by the protocol to accumulate XP points. These points can be redeemed when the project undergoes a token generation event (TGE) in the future.
Guide to Hunting the Paradex Airdrop
Paradex is running the XP Warzone Season 1 program, which allows users to earn XP points. Program details are as follows:
- Duration: November 8, 2024 – January 31, 2025
- Rewards: 4,000,000 XP/week
Here are some activities users can do to participate in the Paradex airdrop:
- Trade on the platform
- Deposit into vaults
- Invite friends
- Complete tasks
Here’s the detailed process:
Step 1: Access the Paradex application [here – insert link to Paradex application] and connect your wallet. The platform supports a variety of cryptocurrency wallets, such as Coin98 Super Wallet, MetaMask, and Phantom.
Step 2: On the toolbar, select “Portfolio” to deposit USDC from other networks into Paradex. Users can choose a bridge that suits their needs; there are three types of bridges currently supported: rhino.fi, StarkGate, and Layerswap.
Step 3: On the toolbar, select “Trade” to start trading and accumulate XP points.
Step 4: On the toolbar, select “Vaults” to deposit assets into project pools and earn profits. There are three types of vaults:
Step 2: On the toolbar, select “Portfolio” to deposit USDC from other networks into Paradex. Users can choose a bridge that suits their needs; there are three types of bridges currently supported: rhino.fi, StarkGate, and Layerswap.
Step 3: On the toolbar, select “Trade” to start trading and accumulate XP points.
Step 4: On the toolbar, select “Vaults” to deposit assets into project pools and earn profits. There are three types of vaults:
- Protocol vault: A vault issued and managed by the project itself. Typically, protocol vaults will have safe and stable investment strategies, suitable for beginners.
- Vaults Traded Funds: Vaults managed by professional investment funds. These funds often employ more complex trading strategies, which means that returns can also be higher, but of course, the risks are also higher compared to other vaults.
- User Vault: Created and managed by users. This type of vault offers high flexibility but also requires users to have a certain level of market knowledge.
Step 5: Go to the “Earn” feature on the toolbar and complete tasks such as connecting your X (formerly Twitter) and Discord accounts. You can also invite friends to join to accumulate more XP points.
Within the “Earn” feature, users can also track details of each type of point for different activities. Additionally, the platform provides a leaderboard for users to check their ranking.
Paradex Investors
According to the project, Paradex is backed by investment funds such as Dragonfly Capital, Amber, GSR, and Jump Capital. However, the amount raised and the funding round have not been disclosed. Additionally, the project is incubated by Paradigm.
Furthermore, Paradex has not yet announced specific information about its founding members.
Similar Projects
- Vooi: A perpetual DEX aggregator that primarily aggregates and connects liquidity from perpetual DEXs across various networks.
- Perpetual Protocol: A perpetual DEX on Optimism, allowing users to trade cryptocurrency futures with up to 10x leverage
