Bitrue, a top 50 cryptocurrency exchange by CoinMarketCap, launched an investment management project combining the three vehicles of staking, yield farming and quantitative trading. The project is launched in conjunction with a new asset management token, BMAX. This will be separate from Bitrue Coin (BTR), with the initial distribution of BMAX done via airdrop to BTR holders. There will be buybacks at least three times per quarter, with other distributions only taking place through Yield Farming pools. The token is fully owned by the community, with the team or investors not receiving any allocations. If BTR is the governance token, then BMAX can be seen as the rewards token. Though separate, therefore, both are still intertwined. The BTR will define, for example, the governance of the BMAX token. It’s a cool bag project, and I was curious to find out more. I interviewed Adam O’Neill, director of marketing, to get answers to some things I was thinking.
CoinJournal: As part of your announcement, you say that “by utilizing BMAX as a reward token, we will be eliminating the issues currently present in DeFi staking and rewards programs, such as theft risks” – can you elaborate on that?
Adam O’Neill, Director of Marketing : Existing DeFi protocols often rely on synthetic assets that investors will have to manually reinvest on their own. Most of the time, this involves users having to move funds from one platform to another, which can be dangerous as it leaves a lot of windows open for potential scammers and hijackers. In the past, there have been many cases involving fake websites and rug pullers. This cannot happen with BMAX as investments are fully automated on the Bitrue platform.
CJ: Why did you feel the need to release BMAX; Have you considered trying to offer the same benefits, such as rewards, through the existing BTR token?
AON : In fact, BTR used to be the reward token for most yield farms on our platform – and yes, we are considering bringing this asset management mechanism to BTR. However, after some careful consideration, we decided that we wanted the BTR to be deflationary in nature, so we would like to limit its circulation.
CJ: A consequence of the launch of the BMAX token is that BTR will no longer be distributed frequently in yield farming pools. This will likely affect current supply, but do you foresee any other effects?
AON : Yes, with less BTR in circulation, the price will gradually increase as it is still Bitrue’s governance token. The BTR token does not lose any utility with the emergence of BMAX, as users will still use it to vote and trade, while its newly designed deflationary mechanism will make it much more valuable.
CJ: The cryptocurrency market has struggled this year, but BTR has fared better than most. In fact, BTR is close to 50% YTD – what are the reasons for this?
AON : BTR is an undervalued CEX token compared to its peers. You see, Bitrue is an exchange that is constantly undergoing innovations to make it the best place to trade and invest. Given the number of newly listed trading pairs on our exchange daily and new feature updates every now and then, we believe that the critp community is finally starting to open their eyes to the long-term potential we offer here at Bitrue.
CJ: What would you say are the main reasons people use Bitrue over competitors?
AON : For starters, although Bitrue is considered one of the biggest players in the industry, our exchange still has a lot of room to grow compared to other exchanges. Bitrue’s team is relatively small compared to our competitors, but at the same time, each of our employees feels a sense of belonging here. Unlike many other companies where employees are driven by their payslips, the people at Bitrue are willing to put more effort into contributing to the crypto society. This also shows up in our actions as we look forward to hearing community feedback and using it to improve our products. Core values aside, Bitrue currently provides one of the highest APYs for our yield farms, with many of them exceeding 100%. We also have one of the largest collections of supported tokens, from meme tokens to blue chip altcoins.
CJ: How do you think Bitrue would fare in a prolonged crypto bear market?
AON : In fact, Bitrue was first launched during a bear market in 2018. When it comes to strategy and business expansion, we are careful, which allows us to mitigate the risks of a bear market. We know very well that a bear market can happen from time to time, so we have been very strict in our accounting. In fact, we would like to identify ourselves as being cautious of our competitors.
CJ: Recent US inflation data are stark. Do you think Bitcoin (or cryptocurrency) can be used as a hedge against this, or are you skeptical of the inflation hedge narrative?
AON : Bitcoin has always been designed to be the best hedge against inflation: unlike fiat currencies, it is really limited in supply. Despite this, BTC can only exist as part of a larger cryptocurrency ecosystem, where other altcoins act as utility coins. As the market is so new, speculation is rampant, which makes cryptocurrencies behave similarly to risky assets such as stocks. It will take some time before the cryptocurrency can truly reflect its intrinsic value. Given the current geopolitical situation, I believe the time will come very soon. At the moment, refugees from war-torn countries are already preferring cryptocurrency as a store of value to local currencies.
CJ: Litepaper says that automatic reinvestments will naturally cover the opportunity cost that most investors are worried about, so the risk of temporary loss is minimized. Can you explain in a little more detail how this risk was reduced?
AON : It is undeniable that providing liquidity can cause temporary losses to users. In the event that such losses occur at our agricultural production center, profits from other investment vehicles will act as a hedge to cover these losses. Essentially, BMAX is offering investors the opportunity to have a fully covered portfolio that can withstand losses from a single investment vehicle.
