Vision & Roadmap
Vision
Our aspiration is simple - to offer the most enjoyable and inclusive trading experience for everyone. We're on a mission to turn Merkle Trade into the biggest decentralized hub for leveraged trading.
In crafting Merkle Trade, we're focusing on five key cornerstones:
User-Friendliness and Accessibility: We're committed to creating the most intuitive and inclusive trading experience. Whether you're a trading rookie or a seasoned expert, and whether you have funds on Aptos or an EVM chain, Merkle Trade aims to be your go-to platform.
Social and Gamified Trading Experience: We believe trading doesn't have to be a solitary activity. Through our platform, we're incorporating elements of community and competition, making trading social and gamified.
Advanced Trading Features: To ensure you're always ahead of the curve, we offer the fastest order execution with fair pricing. This allows you to harness the full potential of leveraged trading.
Security: The Merkle Trade protocol is built with safety as our top priority. We employ stringent security measures to protect users’ assets and data, allowing you to trade with peace of mind.
Decentralization: True to the ethos of blockchain, we keep the Merkle Trade protocol decentralized. This gives you full control over your assets and guarantees transparency and fairness in all transactions.
Roadmap
Please note the roadmap is subject to change. Significant features that hold strategic importance might not be explicitly stated in the later quarters' plans.
Q3 2023
[DONE] Private Beta (Mainnet) Launch: All the early supporters and adopters will be whitelisted to engage in trading on Merkle trade. Private mainnet beta will have certain limitations such as collateral size, max PnL possible, etc. and will be run to test the robustness of the protocol in production and also gain valuable feedback from our community.
[DONE] Trading Contest v1: There will be a series of trading contests and they’re going to be something special. These competitions are set to redefine the game, offering an exciting blend of fierce competition, high entertainment, and generous rewards. Prepare to be amazed!
[DONE] Smart Contract Audits: The smart contracts get audited by two reputable auditors that have experience working with the Move language and Aptos projects. On top of that, a considerable bug bounty is planned to be announced after the audits.
Q4 2023
[DONE] Public Beta (Mainnet) Launch: The day X for the whole Merkle Trade community. Mainnet will be rolled out in several stages to ensure the security of our users and that everything works as expected.
[DONE] Social Trading Features - leaderboard, profile, etc: The first set of social trading features will be incorporated to make leverage trading even more engaging.
[DONE] One-click Trading (EVM wallets): Forget about spending time adjusting the trade, go long or short with max leverage if you want with just one-click. One of the most requested features by our community.
[DONE] In-app EVM Deposit / Withdraw: We will refine the overall onboarding process so users can effortlessly transfer their funds to the exchange and carry out seamless trading.
[DONE] Referral Program Launch: A referral/affiliate program will be released soon after the mainnet launch to foster the growth of the platform.
[DONE] New Trading Pairs: Mid-cap crypto pairs and indices will be added for trading on Merkle Trade.
[DONE] Gamification V2: Allowing people to open their loot boxes and utilise the items to boost trading experience.
Q1 2024
[DONE] One-click Trading (Aptos wallets): One-click and gasless trading experience are coming to Aptos wallet users.
[DONE] Trading Seasons and Incentives: There will be epoch-based trading incentives for the traders on Merkle Trade.
[DONE] Blazing-fast Order Executions: We will reduce the end-to-end order execution delay by half with improvements in execution transaction scheduling. (announcement)
[DONE] Merkle Gear Item Forging: Combining Merkle gear items together for improved attributes and enhanced trading performance. The further step into the gamifying experience on Merkle Trade. (announcement)
[DONE] New Trading Pairs: A variety of crypto pairs will be added for trading on a regular basis.
Q2 2024
[DONE] EVM Swap & Deposit: Deposit improvements that will offer significantly easier onboarding experience.
[DONE] Notifications: Receive real-time trading notifications via Telegram, Email and your browser - limit order executions, liquidations and more.
[DONE] Themed Trading Seasons: hosting unique trading seasons every two weeks, featuring unique events, benefits, and rewards with varying themes. These seasons may include collaborations with other projects, making the trading experience on Merkle Trade more enjoyable and distinctive.
[DONE] Referrals Program Improvements: Enhanced referral rebates. New traders now receive a "Starter Loot Box" that contains starter gear items that boost their trade benefits.
[DONE] Share PnL: Easily share PnL of your trades on X and other platforms.
Q3 2024
[DONE] Trading Season Competitions: trading seasons now feature novel trading competitions with clear, fair, and achievable goals, along with those that encouraged strategic trading over sheer volume.
[DONE] Token Generation Event (TGE): The launch of the MKL token through the sequenced token launch (Genesis Staking & LBA) with exclusive benefits to the early users. Learn More
[DONE] Staking & MKL-USDC LP: MKL Staking is launched - a portion of the protocol revenue is now distributed to the stakers of MKL every epoch (week).
Q4 2024
Walletless Accounts: ZK-based non-custodial Google/Apple sign in that eliminates the need for a crypto wallet or any other web3-native tooling from users to interact with the protocol.
Direct Deposits: Direct deposit through any compatible EVM chains will become available, streamlining the deposit process, without the need to create a EVM wallet.
Infrastructure Improvements: Improvements in on-chain data indexing facilities and infrastructure deployments that will result in lower latency, improved responsiveness and faster overall loading speed.
Dual Oracle (Stork): Stork oracle is integrated as a secondary price feed to provide more reliable pricing data, mitigating risks related to price feed availability.
Risk Management Enhancements: Working with new protocol liquidity partners that will deploy hedging strategies to mitigate significant price directionality, enhancing trading liquidity while preserving the robustness of the platform’s liquidity pool.
H1 2025
Social Trading Profiles: Trading profiles through which we’ll allow traders to learn from each other and engage in friendly competition.
LP Collateral Expansion: Ability to use the Aptos native USDT stablecoin or low-risk yield-bearing tokens (tokenized treasury bonds) as collateral, and the risk management for those is currently being considered.
Native Mobile Apps: Native mobile app to provide seamless, on-the-go trading experiences with full functionality and real-time market access.
Q2 2025 and beyond
Constantly improve the product to offer the most entertaining and accessible trading experience in the market (competitive to centralized counterparts).
Introduce novel social and gamified trading features to enhance user engagement and foster a vibrant trading community.
Strengthen the risk management framework to offer safety for liquidity providers while providing the best experience for traders.
Launch of the Merkle Trade DAO as a decentralized entity overseeing the decision making of the platform.
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