Hi everyone, friends of AAX,
If you’ve been following us since the early days, you may recall that it was just one year ago that AAX went live and we celebrated our launch at London Stock Exchange’s impressive venue.
Fifteen of us, plus a group composed mainly of journalists, travelled to the UK, where we spent 5 days in bliss.
Prior to this, for about 18 months we had been working diligently to build the critical infrastructure, which in the crypto industry is like building a sand castle during a typhoon. Every time, the tech stack seems to be in order, regulation changes, some fork is implemented or a new trend takes over that requires fast adaptation.
“…we had been working diligently to build the critical infrastructure, which in the crypto industry is like building a sand castle during a typhoon.”
Gathering with so many industry professionals, journalists, colleagues and early supporters felt like an achievement in and of itself. Not just for us as an exchange, but also for our industry. It was a moment where we saw our mission ‘to connect crypto to global finance’ come into reality.
Growing a new business in a highly competitive market, in an industry that is not yet universally acknowledged, amidst regulatory volatility, and – not to forget – in the midst of a global health crisis and in the shadow of that notorious Black Swan that shook the world economy in its core, well, it’s not easy.
But whenever the tide seemed to turn against us, we reminded ourselves that we are part of a larger movement that really offers some very important solutions as we continue to move forward into that elusive digital future.
“…we are part of a larger movement that really offers some very important solutions as we continue to move forward into that elusive digital future.”
But it’s not just about compelling ideas. It’s also about driving real-world growth and delivering an attractive product.
So what does growth look like? Is it organic, with no set formulas? Is it like fishing, where you kind of just hope you catch something? Is it like the growth of an avalanche, where conditions need to be just right to catch momentum and it all just unfolds before you? Is it like social change, where you educate each other into growth? Or is it like bodybuilding, where discipline, commitment and consistency are key?
All of them probably.
Over the past year, we’ve expanded our product offerings to include more spot and futures pairs, as well as high-interest savings products, more fiat on and off ramps, and we’ve grown our user base which now exceeds half a million registered users.
We like to think as well that we have grown in our thinking and have learned from our conversations with regulators, fellow industry participants and, most importantly, our users.
We’ve also seen spikes in growth in terms of volume. From a few thousand US dollars to an average of $10 million to a billion US dollars daily trade volume. Especially on our futures markets.
To attract more growth, however, we’ve been laser-focused on creating the right conditions for optimal liquidity, and after implementing some critical mechanisms, we are now ready for the next stage in our growth.
We want to thank all of you for your support, participation, criticism, compliments, questions and suggestions. We may be trading digital assets on a virtual exchange platform, but we are keenly aware that every user that comes to our platform is a person, with reasons, dreams, doubts and skills, and we try our best to treat you accordingly.
Together with the entire AAX team, we hope that you continue to support us as we continue to develop and play our part in growing this billion dollar industry into a trillion dollar one.
Thank you,
Thor Chan
