OPNX – the crypto bankruptcy claims exchange launched by Su Zhu and Kyle Davies – released a whitepaper for its new ‘OX’ governance token on Wednesday.

Details around the coin’s tokenomics caused the price of FLEX – the platform’s existing native token – to spike on the day.

OPNX, FLEX, and OX

Following the reveal, FLEX trades for $1.14 at writing time, up 19% from $0.96 24 hours ago, and from $0.75 a week ago, according to CoinMarketCap.

By contrast, CoinGecko reflects a current price of just $1.09  for FLEX, which still represents a 7.9% daily bump and a clear indication of rising demand. 

FLEX will be convertible at a ratio of 1:100 for new OX tokens, which will provide fee discounts, staking opportunities, and governance rights at OPNX exchange. 

Alternatively, If FLEX buyers choose to voluntarily lock up their OX for 3 months, they’ll earn 25% more tokens. 

According to the exchange, OX will solve “major problems with traditional exchange token models.”

“Fixed discount models only incentivize short term holding for fees— while high minimum volume/holding bands are only accessible to whales & require constant adjustment, causing confusion,” explained the firm. 

By contrast, OX will use a “Stake To Trade For Free” rebate model allowing anybody that locks up OX tokens to trade freely on the platform. Specifically, users must lockup a proportion of the total OX supply that is greater than their total proportion of OPNX trading volume for fee-free trading.

The exchange will begin trading with a temporary bonus staking multiplier, letting users trade with a volume much greater than their relative stake size for free. “The earlier you are, the more you can capitalize on this bonus,” wrote the company. 

OPNX’s Disatorous Beginnings

OPNX was opened to provide a liquid market for bankruptcy claims on numerous crypto companies that collapsed in 2022. Zhu and Davies themselves were behind the defunct crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), which imploded last June following Terra’s meltdown the previous month. 

The exchange’s existing FLEX tokens are a remnant of co-founder Mark Lamb’s former crypto exchange CoinFLEX, which froze withdrawals and filed for restructuring last year after a loan deal with Roger Ver went south. 

Crypto exchange tokens as a concept came under fire in November during the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, which was in part spurred by the unraveling of its native FTT token. OPNX supports claims trading for FTX.