Before we get started, this is not a recommendation or endorsement to buy any token(s) mentioned.
This week I discovered one of the most unique DeFi tools–a p2p, trustless OTC DEX for trading airdrop allocations, points, and tokens called Whales Market.
During this bull run, we’ve covered countless points programs expected to yield airdrops once new tokens are generated. But what if you could trustlessly sell your newly earned points or instead, buy points for protocols you’re bullish on? Now it’s possible with Whales Market.
The idea behind Whales Market is to address the inherent risks of peer-to-peer OTC trading in crypto vs having to swap in the open market on a DEX.
In crypto, all the adjacent communications tools such as Discord and Telegram have led to less formal p2p transactions, which often results in a less secure interaction requiring trust, which none of us can afford in the wild world of crypto.
What makes DeFi so powerful is being able to engage in familiar financial activities, without trusting anyone other than smart contracts and the blockchain to confirm those transactions.
In crypto, there is a vibrant market of OTC brokers.
Maybe an investor wanted to get into EigenLayer but couldn’t? A broker might be able to facilitate such a transaction. But what if you prefer to avoid middlemen such as an OTC broker? Instead, what if you could buy tokens pre-launch or buy points (ie Parcl Points or EigenLayer Points or ether.fi Points)?
One of the challenges to such p2p transactions is we often run into scams and fraud, where sellers may fail to deliver promised tokens. In many cases, such trading doesn’t require any commitment amongst the parties involved.
Until now!
Whales Market allows buyers and sellers to facilitate mutually agreed upon on-chain transactions. Capital gets locked up in smart contracts and is only released to the parties upon successful transaction settlement.
This advancement not only streamlines the trading process but also significantly reduces the risk of financial losses due to deceptive practices.
With Whales Market, you can buy and sell in 3 types of markets:
- Pre-Market: p2p trading of pre-TGE token allocations
- OTC Market: p2p trading of any token or NFT
- Points Market: p2p trading of protocol points which translate to tokens upon TGE
For me, the 2 most interesting parts of Whales Market are the insights we can gather from Pre-Market and Points Markets.
First, let me paint an example with the Points Market given the hype around points programs since the JITO and JUP airdrops on Solana. Thanks to growing interest among buyers and sellers in points, we can check out the activity for the Points Markets such as EigenLayer, ether.fi, Ethena, Parcl and more.
Parcl recently announced a future PRCL token with an airdrop coming in April 2024. As a result, we have key tokenomics information to evaluate the pricing of Parcl Points on Whales Market.
In the Parcl post, they indicate there will be a 7-8% airdrop with a 1B PRCL token supply. Currently, Parcl Points are listed here on average around $0.0025 per point. We don’t know the total of Parcl Points awarded or how many will be rewarded by the April TGE so let’s estimate 30B Parcl Points based on some digging I did. Aevo, a derivatives and options perps trading platform is…
DeFi Dad is one of the earliest power users of DeFi, having worked with early Ethereum startups going back to 2018, including Zapper.
