Digitex Futures is a highly-anticipated cryptocurrency exchange that planned to offer futures contracts on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, commodities, and more asset types. The platform’s most enticing proposition was that the platform would allow zero-fee trading by relying on the native DGTX token.
The platform was being positioned by both the company as well as the crypto community to be the “BitMEX killer,” in relation to its similarities to the current crypto market leader. The project’s community had over 1.5 million on its waitlist, and over 70K in its Telegram. All seemed to be going well for the startup, which had strong support from crypto market participants.
Digitex Futures: Failure to Deliver on Promises
Ahead of the platform’s launch, Digitex held an ICO for the platform’s supporting DGTX tokens in early 2018. A grand total of $5.2 million worth of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and USD was raised toward the funding goal, resulting in 700,000,000 DGTX sold in anticipation of the platform’s launch in Q4 2018.
The launch was later delayed to April 30, 2019, but investor’s enthusiasm remained high and so did hopes for the new futures-based crypto exchange. But as launch drew closer, the lack of information had some investors wary.
Digitex CEO Meltdown: Rants and Raves Over Delayed Platform Launch
Investor’s worst fears quickly became a reality when Digitex Futures CEO Adam Todd released a YouTube video update on the company’s upcoming launch, which it was forced to delay. In the video, the once unshakeable leader appeared to be nervous, and visibly upset given his body language and tone
The CEO walked through the platform, highlighting a variety of missing features, bugs, and in general, a platform that wasn’t ready for its debut. In fact, Todd himself called the platform “virtually unusable,” adding “what the f**k do I do with this? We’ve been delivered this piece of garbage that doesn’t even work. It doesn’t work.”
The outspoken CEO continued his rant, explaining that “what they’ve delivered here is not the Digitex Futures exchange. This is not the BitMEX killer. The only way this would be the BitMEX killer is if Arthur looks at this and f**king dies laughing.”
Throughout the video, Todd was visibly angry and frustrated, lacking any remorse or sense of responsibility toward investors and the community that supported his faltering venture. On the surface, the CEO appears to be providing transparency into his operation and explain the reasoning behind yet another delay in the launch of his much-anticipated platform.
Digitex CEO: Look In the Mirror For Someone to Blame
However, digging deeper, the reality of the situation is that Digitex is led by a CEO who is so disconnected with his project, he didn’t realize it wasn’t up to snuff until just a few days out from its launch. His anger and blame toward developers should be directed within, due to his gross mishandling of the development process and project roadmap.
A good leader is someone who leads by example, and rises and falls with his team. With the case of Adam Todd, CEO of Digitex, he angrily blamed his developers for his shortcomings as a leader and manager of people, money, and resources.
The price of the DGTX token fell over 70% following the delay, however, many believe that the price plummet had more to do with Todd’s fuming, rant-filled response and fury-filled video. The Digitex Futures CEO took a bad situation, and made it significantly worse.
Marketing Hype: Be Wary of The BitMEX Killer
In all businesses, marketing is a way to drum up additional excitement and interest in a product. Marketing can appear overly enthusiastic in its verbiage, as it is designed to catch eyes and pique interest. Using a marketing term like “BitMEX killer” – taking down the current leader – is sure to capture the attention of many.
However, oftentimes when a company is led by marketing hype only, such was the case with Digitex Futures, the product or company itself can be lacking.
Another example of the BitMEX killer moniker backfiring is with Deribit, another crypto exchange offering margin trading on crypto assets. The exchange came on strong, making waves and calling themselves the “BitMEX killer.” They generated significant buzz following chocolate bars adorned with “order submission error” screenshots were send to BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes in response to a tweet he had made.
In the end, the exchange has failed to grow its trading volumes and user base despite grabbing the market’s attention with tough talk and marketing speak. What’s strange with Deribit, is that they didn’t have a disaster like Digitex to prevent them from growing market share, yet have struggled regardless.
One other Bitcoin-based margin trading platform, PrimeXBT, is an example of a BitMEX competitor that didn’t bother dubbing itself a “BitMEX killer” yet has done the best job yet of giving the market leader a run for their coins. PrimeXBT offers 100x leverage across long and short positions on all crypto assets, and recently added Forex, Commodities, and Stock Indices. The platform also brings traders advanced trading tools, requires no personal information, and has no minimum deposit.
These examples are polar opposites. With Digitex Futures, the startup had a year head-start, tons of support, and yet, still failed miserably in the end and is now acting as if it wasn’t their fault. Yet with PrimeXBT, it’s only been on the market a few months, doesn’t make any false claims via marketing hype, and it has already grown to have larger trading volumes that CME Bitcoin Futures and is on track to reach $2.5 billion in trading volume in six months according to expert research. By offering 30+ assets types, PrimeXBT also provides traders with unmatched portfolio diversification and exposure to a variety of asset types.
Conclusion
Operating a cryptocurrency exchange in an unregulated market is challenging, but running a crypto margin trading platform is even more difficult. Platforms will need to have an advanced trading engine designed to handle extreme loads, many orders at once, and execute ultra-fast without a hiccup or “order submission error.”
As the market clearly desires someone to come and unseat BitMEX, the exchange that can really provide a stable trading experience with leverage, and has strong leadership that can drive the business forward, will have the first real shot at becoming a “BitMEX killer.”