HMX

HMX, which has rebranded to desk.exchange (DESK), operates as a decentralized perpetual exchange on the Arbitrum network. The company was co-founded by Shu Wei, who has a background in various decentralized finance projects, and Matt Cross, whose expertise lies in financial systems and trading platforms. Initially launched as Perp88 on Polygon, the platform underwent a significant rebranding to HMX and subsequently to DESK, expanding its offerings and moving to Arbitrum to enhance transaction speed and reduce costs. This strategic move has contributed to its rapid growth in a competitive market.

The business provides a platform for leveraged trading with up to 1,000x leverage on a wide range of asset classes, including cryptocurrencies, forex, equities, and commodities. It serves traders and liquidity providers in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. A key feature is its cross-margin and multi-asset collateral support, which allows users to utilize various crypto assets as collateral for flexible position and risk management. This improves capital efficiency compared to platforms that only support isolated margins. The platform generates revenue through trading fees, which are noted to be below market rates due to leveraging re-hypothecated liquidity from GMX's GLP. Revenue is also generated from liquidation fees and withdrawal fees that fund its Stability and Insurance Funds, which are designed to protect the protocol from unexpected losses.

The platform's product, a decentralized perpetual contract trading platform, is built upon the GMX protocol. It introduced its own liquidity pool, the HLP Vault, which was initially composed of GLP and USDC. A significant aspect of the platform, now called DESK, is its integration of AI capabilities. It offers an AI Co-Pilot for real-time market insights and strategy optimization, with plans to allow users to bring their own AI agents to execute trades. The infrastructure is designed to be AI agent-ready from day one. The platform also features a CEX-grade order book for near-instant confirmations, deep liquidity, and low fees, capable of handling up to 10,000 transactions per second. To ensure reliable pricing, it aggregates data from multiple oracle networks like Pyth, Redstone, and Stork.

Keywords: decentralized exchange, perpetual contracts, leveraged trading, cross-margin, multi-asset collateral, Arbitrum, DeFi, AI trading, crypto derivatives, liquidity providing