Open thoughts on how centralized exchanges like Catex are still important to the DeFi landscape
Over 5 years have passed since the launch of Catex Exchange. You may or may not have heard of us before, but we first entered the cryptocurrency landscape as a spot exchange with transaction-fee mining and profit-sharing features. The exchange was launched following the trend started by exchanges such as Fcoin and Coinex. Transaction-fee mining is a controversial topic in the industry, yet it has made many exchanges popular and what they are today. Many have converted to traditional spot exchanges, while others have vanished. Catex Exchange made the transition seamlessly, and it was only possible because of the advantages of being a first-mover in the market, its low cost, and the fact that its operations do not depend on market factors. Bull or bear, Catex will always be here.
Before DeFi, there was CeFi, and this is where features like transaction-fee mining, maker/taker markets, and staking programs really thrived and gave birth to the ideas of decentralized finance. There is no argument that decentralization is the proper vessel for the future of cryptocurrencies. Satoshi is still anonymous, and that is for a good reason. Having a sense of security over your own capital, the freedom to spend as you see fit, minimal government intervention, and the overall power of your domain is how civilizations thrive. Of course, with the right regulatory system. An oversight is needed to police the blockchain to go after scammers with real-world punishments.
Would you say legacy media will vanish into thin air because of the rise of social media platforms with free speech? They will definitely not because of the intertwinement of time and connection to governments and private companies. This is a fair comparison when analyzing CEX and DEX. There will always be a CEX because it must exist as the entrance point for capital to enter the decentralized realm. OTC markets exist to bypass exits, but users are still mostly using CEX to convert to fiat. This connection is unbreakable because of the government’s control over the people. At Catex Exchange, we are able to bypass this regulatory system because we simply do not offer these on/off fiat ramps in any country. Try to exist in a space in time that is hidden.
To focus more on Catex and how it is still important to decentralization, we must look at the statistics. 4.2% of the global population has adopted cryptocurrency, which is 420 million people, and out of this, only 7.5 million people are considered DeFi users. The rate of adoption for overall cryptocurrency users versus DeFi users is expected to grow at a faster rate. Therefore, in the forseeable future, more traditional ways of using cryptocurrencies will be prevalent. Most users will not even hear or understand what decentralized finance is or how to use it. CEX has used certain programs, such as education reward systems, to educate CEX users, but these mostly attract already decentralized users looking for easy rewards. There is some degree of difficulty when using decentralized wallets and DEX. Especially with the rise of Web 3. It is almost impossible to keep your funds safe if you don’t know what you are doing. The demand for exchanges like Catex that are simple to use and friendly, with a team that is available to help 24/7, is attractive. Another important aspect to consider is the cost of decentralization versus centralization. Right now, gas fees on networks like Ethereum are outrageous. Users are paying hundreds of dollars in fees. With a DEX, they use a liquidity pool to balance the price, and slippage is a major issue as well. Even before a person buys a project, they are potentially down hundreds of dollars, and they have to do it all again if they choose to exit via DEX. While a user at Catex could buy a project with zero fees and no slippage because we use an order book style.
Catex is centralized finance, but decentralized at heart. We do our best as decentralized characters running the exchange to build products for DeFi users, but with comfort, ease, and safety for traditional users. Those products include staking, farming, and faucets. Some other features that can be found on the exchange in the form of promotional events are trading competitions with a live leaderboard, buying competitions, and airdrops. In the near future, we may return to the transaction-fee mining and profit sharing system to gain popularity heading into 2024.
This is just our personal thoughts as a CEX, an exchange with a personality. There would be no decentralization without centralization. It will always coexist.
$CATT to the moon
