EUCX
The European Cryptocurrency Exchange (EUCX) is a new cryptocurrency exchange with a global focus, based in the Netherlands, filling the European gap in secure and regulated exchanges aimed at the professional retail trader and boutique firms. The EUCX platform is focused on the demanding and professional trader. Including the upper segment of retail trader (the semi-professional trader) and the small boutique firms that handle assets on behalf of third parties. These types of traders have higher demands when it comes to customer support, trading costs, automation, security and reliability of not only the trading platform, but the organization itself.
Contents
Review
Throughout the last few years, cryptocurrencies have exploded into a true digital financial ecosystem. At the time of writing, over $14 billion (USD) in volume is exchanged on a daily basis, on the various cryptocurrency exchanges throughout the world today. The target audience of EUCX is as follows, in order of importance:
- Boutique firms
- Professional traders
- Retail traders
While retail traders form the biggest portion of the market demographic, it is to be noted that when a business can properly serve the more demanding trader – such as boutique firms and other professional traders – the retail trader is automatically being served, as well. For this reason, EUCX focuses on the upper segment of non-institutional traders. Institutional traders are initially not part of the target audience, due to the closed nature of that market segment.
Decentralized exchanges still have a long way to go in terms of comparison of ease of use, speed, reliability and fees paid for individual trades. At the same time they do not have a central authority that would be prone to hacks or committing fraud with their money. They are themselves, responsible for their own private keys and would have only themselves to blame in case of loss of funds. Currently a decentralized exchange would not fit well into a regulated framework, due to the lack of a central responsible entity. When looking at user preference of exchanges we can see that around 1 in 3 traders trade on decentralized exchanges, but a majority still trades on centralized exchanges. Whereas an overwhelmingly majority trades on multiple exchanges at the same time. This mainly happens because of mutually exclusive trading pairs, scarcity and low liquidity. Therefore, traders have to sign up on several exchanges. The challenge of having 3 – 5 usernames and their passwords to remember while switching constantly between the different accounts in order to trade the favourite cryptocurrency can be truly infuriating. This does not indicate that EUCX lists all possible trading pairs and/or attempt to list as many as possible. EUCX wishes to maintain a certain level of quality. Listing too many assets will dilute the perceived quality of the assets on the exchange, and with that the exchange itself.
More than 45% of the surveyed traders consider all of the listed factors while choosing to trade on a particular exchange. With exchanges being prime target for hackers, due to the volume of funds they possess, it is not surprising that security is the factor that is of most importance when choosing an exchange. High volume traders also consider trading fees since high fees eat up their profit margins. An exchange derives its liquidity from its traders, and the traders only come to trade on the exchange if they are satisfied with the services it can provide. So high liquidity is the byproduct of a successful exchange. Almost half of the traders prefer to trade on the website via their laptop/desktop due to the larger screen and easier access to charts and tools for analyzing trades and judging the market scenario before committing to a trade. At the same time, a huge section of traders prefers trading on their mobile apps due to the sheer convenience a mobile app provides and the fast moving nature of the crypto space, where one needs to be always connected to make use of every opportunity that presents itself. With a hardline approach towards security, zero to negligible trading fees, a web and mobile client and close attention to customer support EUCX ticks in all the right places and would be the exchange of choice for traders.
Value Proposition
Exchanges are oddly opaque for an industry that is supposedly built on open source and the notion of complete transparency. One of the best examples is that of listing a token or coin on an exchange. Teams applying to list their coin or token on an exchange are guessing as to how much they have to pay, how long the team has to wait for a decision to be made, what the fundamental requirements are, etc. Most of the time there are no quantifiable requirements for a listing, and if there are, the requirements are not easily obtainable for smaller teams. Then, to find out who the ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) of an exchange is, one has to jump through hoops. Sometimes the UBO is not clear at all. Should something go awry, the customer is going to have a hard time finding a clear point of contact within the exchange’s organization to have their issues resolved. EUCX has the following policies regarding openness and transparency:
- Publication of annual financial reports
- Transparent listing procedure (costs, requirements, etc.)
- EUCX fund wallet addresses are published on website
- Contact information must always be easily obtainable
- Company’s leadership clearly listed on website
- Each separate donation publicly announced
- Results of external audits are published
EUCX will additionally tackle many other problems current exchanges are facing, such as:
- Fiat on-ramp
- Customer service
- Information security & site reliability
- Regulatory compliance
- EUCX indices
- Contracts for Difference
Accounts
While all accounts are free (regular) to begin with, users can opt in to pay an extra monthly fee to receive premium features. Individual users pay a monthly subscription fee of € 49,95 while business accounts pay a monthly subscription fee of € 149,95. Subscription fees can be paid either in fiat or with EUCX Tokens. Before a free account can be upgraded to a premium account, the user must first have successfully verified their identity through a standard KYC-procedure. Business accounts must go through an extended KYC-procedure where information such as extracts from the chamber of commerce, an utility bill, etc. are required to be verified.
Note: withdrawal fees are still in place, regardless of subscription status
Individual
Individual premium users receive the following benefits:
- 0% trading fees
- 1 (one) zero-fee API key (consequent API keys pay the regular trading fees)
- Instant withdrawals (instead of batched every X minutes)
Business
Business premium users receive the following benefits:
- 0% trading fees
- 1 (one) zero-fee API key (consequent API keys pay the regular trading fees)
- Instant withdrawals (instead of batched every X minutes)
- 24/7 telephone support
- Account manager assigned
- Ability to create team accounts
Team Accounts
Business account owners have the ability to create team accounts for their employees and/or team members and receive the necessary real-time analytical tools for them to gain insight into the performance of their team members. Business account team members each receive 1 (one) zero-fee API key and any subsequent API key created for said team member pays the regular trading fees. The business account owner is charged € 99,95 a month for each team account.
Fees and Limits
Trading Fees
The trading fees at EUCX can be divided up into three categories: Regular, Discount and Premium. All users with free accounts pay the full rate of 0.08% of maker and taker fees. If the user has enough EUCX Tokens a reduction of 50% is applied, as is the industry standard these days. Users with premium accounts do not pay trading fees, instead these users pay a monthly subscription fee.
Withdrawal Fees
Exact fees are to be determined before or during the public launch of the platform. Currently a flat fee is under consideration, however, customers can expect similar fees as those of colleague exchanges.
Deposit & Withdrawing Limits
Exact limits withdrawals are to be determined. Customers can expect similar limits as those of colleague exchanges.
Listing fees
For the listing of an asset EUCX asks 5 BTC, or the equivalent in the to-be-listed asset. The listing fee is used for the implementation and integration of the asset’s blockchain interface and/or smart contract(s) into the EUCX systems. This includes development, testing, penetration testing and management of the implementation. The listing fee is to be paid only after approval of the team’s listing application. EUCX does not ask for fees if an application is not yet approved.
Utility
The EUCX tokens are considered utility tokens that users can hold in a personal wallet or on the European Cryptocurrency Exchange self. The tokens are not intended for speculation and do not represent company shares or any claim in decision making of the company. EUCX tokens cannot and should not be considered as securities and are thus not associated with future revenue streams or values other than derived from platform usage. The EUCX Utility token’s function is similar to that of existing exchanges. In addition to that it can be used to pay for premium subscription fees. A discount of 10% is given to users who pay using the EUCX token.
The EUCX token can be used for:
- Withdrawal fees
- Transaction & Trading fees
- Listing fees
- Subscription fees (1 month at a time)
The EUCX token is a basic Ethereum ERC-20 token. EUCX has no intention of running a separate blockchain in the near or distant future