Digital assets: Bracket Labs’ new crypto products target low vol, side-ways markets

The new two products aim at ‘solving the market need a minority of the time, when volatility is high’.

‘Up until now, there haven't been any products designed for the default state of the market, low volatility,’ said Michael Wasyl (pictured), co-founder, Bracket Labs.  ‘We wanted to make products that were accessible and worked in all market conditions. DeFi can be inhospitable to new or even experienced users who are just delving into derivatives.’

The two new products remove a lot of the friction from setting up strategies and help users make profit in any market condition - Michael Wasyl, Bracket Labs

Channel is a product designed to profit in low volatility or sideways markets - it profits from the spot price of an asset staying within a fixed price range for a duration of time including 24-hours, three-day and 10-day, as well as fixed potential payoffs like 3x, 6x, and 10x.

Epoch is a periodic buying version of Channel that pits the ’stay in’ vs ‘break out’ investor, gamifying the experience. Epochs let traders make profit in sideways markets and run consecutively with pricing based on an exponential weighted moving average instead of dedicated market markers or funders.

‘The two new products remove a lot of the friction from setting up strategies and help users make profit in any market condition,’ said Wasyl.

Channel and Epoch add to Bracket’s existing lineup on BracketX.fi, which includes Bracket, a leveraged structured product for high volatility that launched on Arbitrum One Mainnet in November 2022.

Currently in Binance Lab's Season 5 incubator, Bracket Labs is a new startup that creates leveraged structured products for DeFi. Founded by crypto and fintech veterans from firms like Consensys, Bloomberg, Barclays, D.E. Shaw, the firm simplifies the buying experience for complex derivatives / options strategies into a one-click purchase and makes it available on-chain.

Spirit Blockchain takes stake on AI crypto structured products platform

Spirit Blockchain Capital has executed a subscription agreement with InvestDEFY Technologies to purchase 645,162 Class B voting shares of the full stack AI platform powering structured products for the digital asset space for a purchase price of US$0.62 per InvestDEFY Share for an aggregate subscription amount of US$400,000.

‘This partnership symbolizes InvestDEFY’s commitment to powering innovative structured products that deliver enhanced yield and exposure to digital assets for the Spirit community,’ said James Niosi (right), CEO of InvestDEFY.

Under the terms of the Subscription Agreement, the InvestDEFY Shares shall pay a variable dividend targeting 10% or more per annum with a floor of 7.5% per annum, payable semi-annually until conversion or repurchase. The Class B common shares will convert into Class A common shares after a two-year period subject to InvestDEFY’s right to repurchase 40% of the Class B shares at the end of the two-year period.

As consideration, Spirit will provide InvestDEFY with US$200,000 in cash and 5,400,000 common shares of Spirit, which represent US$200,000 worth of Spirit Shares at a price per share of US$0.05. In addition, InvestDEFY has granted Spirit with a board observation right under the Subscription Agreement and Mr. Bateman will work closely with InvestDEFY’s management.

OKX introduces all-weather ‘Shark Fin’

Singapore-based crypto exchange OKX has announced the latest addition to the exchange’s range of trading tools with the launch of a Shark Fin product offering investors ‘gains no matter which direction the market moves’.

The product is and offers traders an easy and innovative way to realize a variable return regardless of market movements.

The new OKX Shark Fin allows investors to choose the quantity of USDT and take a bullish or bearish position on a major crypto asset within a stated price range in a seven-day period.

Investors then gain the maximum yield if the asset ends the period within their chosen range or receive a basic APY if the asset ends the period outside of their chosen price range. The investor’s principal USDT investment is protected throughout the product’s lifespan and no service fees are charged. Current assets offered on the shark fin structure include bitcoin and ethereum.

‘Our goal is to offer a variety of structured products that let traders tailor their strategies accordingly while protecting themselves from downside risk,’ said Lennix Lai (right), managing director of global institutional, OKX.

The minimum investment amount required is 100 USDT and the calculation of the maximum yield will be determined at maturity.

SEBA Bank appoints Apac CEO

Swiss crypto bank SEBA Bank has appointed Amy Yu as chief executive officer (CEO) of its Apac division.

The appointment demonstrates SEBA group’s commitment to expand across the region and Yu will initially be in Singapore and reports to Franz Bergmueller, CEO of SEBA Bank. She will be responsible for group’s expansion in the Asia Pacific region – the bank also recently opened a Hong Kong office for its Hong Kong subsidiary.

Yu (right) has over 15 years of experience in financial services spanning capital markets, trading ecosystems and liquidity provision.

She previously played an instrumental role in regional and institutional growth strategies for market leaders in the crypto industry, a global derivatives exchange and prime broker, according to Bergmueller.

Prior to her move into the digital assets space, she supported the development of JP Morgan’s Prime Services in the Apac market.

SEBA Bank has also recently partnered with Hashkey, a regional asset management and blockchain solutions firm, to accelerate the institutional adoption of digital assets in Apac and globally.

Matrixport enters UK market

Matrixport has announced that its UK wholly-owned subsidiary, Matrixport Advisors, has been approved as an appointed representative (AR) of Varramore Partners, which is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The relationship allows Matrixport to conduct a range of investment-related activities in the UK with early-stage Web3 firms, to help them build and scale providing custody, spot OTC, fixed income, structured products, lending as well as asset management.

Headquartered in Singapore, Matrixport offers a one-stop financial services for digital asset. Varramore is a boutique financial service provider offering a range of bespoke services to investment firms.

Matrixport also announced a partnership with Chainalysis to use its transaction monitoring and AML tools. According to a Chainalysis report, the UK’s digital asset market is experiencing rapid growth, and is currently the largest digital asset sector in Western Europe by transaction volume, with US$233 billion in transactions between July 2021 and June 2022.

Matrixports’ UK operations will be under the responsibility of Toby Norfolk-Thompson, Matrixport’s chief investment officer US & UK.