OPNX Shutting Down; Mysterious Exchange Takes Over

The Open Exchange (OPNX), founded by Kyle Davies and Su Zhu, will be shutting down on February 14, as stated in an email sent to users on February 1. Trading on OPNX will cease on February 7, but users will still be able to make withdrawals until the final day. In the meantime, a new exchange called OX.Fun has emerged, using OPNX’s native token, Open Exchange Token (OX), for derivatives trading. OX.Fun has been heavily promoted within the official OPNX Telegram channel, but details regarding its ownership and relationship with OPNX are scarce.

OPNX was launched in April 2023 by Davies and Zhu, who were also co-founders of the failed cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC). Mark Lamb and Sudhu Arumugam, co-founders of bankrupt crypto exchange CoinFLEX, were involved in creating OPNX as well. Initially, OPNX was marketed as a reboot of CoinFLEX, but when the founders became embroiled in a legal dispute with CoinFLEX creditors, they claimed that the two exchanges were completely separate entities. Zhu was arrested for violating a committal order in relation to 3AC’s bankruptcy proceedings, but has since been released. A similar order was also issued against Davies.

OPNX experienced some success throughout 2023, with a daily spot trading volume of $32,000 and derivatives trading volume of $82 million in November. By the time the decision to close OPNX was announced, these numbers had dropped significantly to just $23 for spot trading and $1.2 million for derivatives.

Despite the closure of OPNX, its token, OX, is still being traded on various decentralized and centralized exchanges. OX.Fun appears to be targeting the existing OPNX community, as it has been promoted within the official OPNX group. Many users are unsure about the relationship between OPNX and OX.Fun.

OX.Fun has shown some level of success, with derivatives volume reaching nearly $39 million on January 30. Its user interface is similar to other decentralized derivatives protocols, and it allows users to connect their wallets to the platform. The deposit page behaves differently from decentralized protocols, as users are asked to manually send funds to an external deposit address, indicating that OX.Fun operates as a centralized, custodial futures trading platform.

One concern for OX.Fun users is the high slippage for OX tokens when making purchases. Since OX is the only accepted collateral, users who don’t already own OX need to buy it on platforms like Uniswap, where liquidity is low and slippage can exceed 50%.

There is limited information available about the executives and incorporation of OX.Fun. Attempts to contact the team through the official Telegram channel and customer support went unanswered. Users have expressed frustration over the lack of transparency regarding the founders, directors, and investors of the project, as well as the company’s registration information. Despite these uncertainties, the OX.Fun app appears to be functioning normally for deposits and withdrawals.