The only market more competitive than cryptocurrency is the cryptocurrency exchange market. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has called the crypto exchange market “a race to the bottom”. This is because trading fees will eventually be so low that it will no longer be profitable to operate an exchange. However, this pessimistic rhetoric has not stopped AAX from coming in to prove CZ wrong.
AAX is a cryptocurrency exchange that is building a bridge between traditional financial markets and crypto markets without aliening the average retail investor. AAX’s commitment to its values of integrity, performance, and security has seen the cryptocurrency exchange grow significantly since its release almost 1 year ago. Since then it has continued to add new features, such as its deflationary AAB token.
What Is AAX?
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AAX is a cryptocurrency exchange which describes itself as “an institutional grade platform for everyone”. It is the first digital currency exchange powered by London Stock Exchange Group technology. This is the same technology used for stock trading on the London Stock Exchange, the Singapore Stock Exchange, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and the Borsa Italiana.
AAX is short for ATOM Asset Exchange, which refers to ATOM International Technology, AAX’s parent company. In contrast to many other cryptocurrency exchanges, AAX is focused on building a secure, scalable, and future-proof trading platform that can accommodate the level of institutional participation AAX believes will inevitably come to the crypto market.
AAX Overview?
AAX is based in South East Asia and Thor Chan is the CEO. AAX’s licence is based in Seychelles.
AAX cryptocurrency exchange COO Michael Wong (left) and CEO Thor Chan (right). Image via South China Morning Post
Thor has held many high investment and management positions at various companies including HSBC and Nokia. Michael has over a decade of experience working at IBM as an IT architect and as their blockchain development lead. He has also worked for TedEx and various NGO organizations. AAX also boasts a solid advisory board which includes Paul Jackson, Mike Newell, and Jamie Khurshid.
AAX Regulation?
Yes. The AAX cryptocurrency exchange is registered in Malta as AAX Exchange (Malta) Limited. Operating a cryptocurrency exchange out of Malta is quite common, as Malta has more lenient regulations when it comes to cryptocurrency exchanges.
Registration details for Atom International Technology Limited.
AAX’s parent company ATOM International Technology is registered in Hong Kong as ATOM International Technology Limited. As such, they are regulated by the appropriate Hong Kong authorities.
Is The AAX Exchange Safe?
Yes. The AAX cryptocurrency exchange keeps most of its digital assets in cold storage wallets that require multiple parties to access (multi-sig wallets). AAX even offers insured custody of cryptocurrencies upon request. AAX also has Kroll as its security advisor, a company which assess structural risks for over 4000 companies around the world.
Security details for the AAX exchange.
AAX also works with various blockchain analysis firms to prevent laundered funds from being sent its exchange. In May this year, AAX partnered with Solidus Labs, a software company based in New-York that identifies any market manipulation taking place on cryptocurrency exchanges. This makes AAX one of the only exchanges to use a third-party company to prevent market manipulation on its platform.
AAX Exchange Restrictions
AAX states in its legal documentation that citizens and companies operating in a select number of countries are not allowed to use the platform. The full list of countries can be seen below.
Residents from the countries listed here are technically not allowed to use the AAX exchange.
That said, this can be easily bypassed using a VPN since AAX does not require any personal documentation (KYC) to make a trading account (more on this in the KYC section).
AAX Platfrom Review
The biggest difference between the AAX exchange and other cryptocurrency exchanges is its use of LSEG technology for trading. This allows it to process anywhere between 60-100 thousand transactions per second with very low latency. AAX COO Michael Wong has noted that even at 99% capacity, the exchange platform can execute trades at a speed of 850 microseconds (millionth of a second).
AAX Exchange KYC
Know Your Customer (KYC) documentation such as a passport or driver’s license is not required to create a trading account on the AAX cryptocurrency exchange. This is due to the lax regulations in Malta where the exchange is registered. However, some features on AAX cannot be accessed without KYC.
AAX exchange’s 3 KYC levels.
The AAX cryptocurrency exchange has 3 levels of KYC. At Level 0 (email only) there is a daily withdrawal limit of 2 BTC, which will suffice for most traders. All features are available except for OTC Trading and AAX Savings.
These are unlocked with Level 1 KYC verification, which requires a passport, national ID, or driver’s license to complete. Level 2 KYC verification requires you to provide biometric data (face authentication). The only difference between Levels 1 and 2 is the internal transfer limit (5 BTC vs. 10 BTC).
AAX Exchange Trading Fees
Unlike most cryptocurrency exchanges, AAX has a very transparent and easily accessible fee schedule for trading and withdrawal. Spot Trading fees on AAX are some of the lowest of any exchange and can be further reduced with greater trading volume and/or by using the AAB token to pay for trading fees.
The Spot Trading fee schedule for the AAX exchange.
Futures Trading fees on AAX are the same regardless of the trading pair, but again be reduced using the AAB token. AAX also provides a full list of minimum withdrawal limits and costs for all of the cryptocurrencies it supports. Deposits and internal transfers are free.
AAX Exchange Fiat Withdrawals And Deposits
Cryptocurrency can be easily bought on the AAX exchange using a debit card, credit card, or bank transfer using one of AAX’s 4 fiat-crypto payment providers. Note that all four require the completion of Level 1 KYC on AAX except for Itez, which lets you buy up to 300$USD of cryptocurrency without KYC.
AAX’s four fiat payment gateways.
The AAX cryptocurrency exchange does not support fiat withdrawals (e.g. wire to a bank account). This is also likely due to the increased regulation the exchange would be subject to if it began allowing fiat withdrawals.
AAX Exchange Cryptocurrencies
The AAX cryptocurrency exchange supports over 40 cryptocurrencies. This list includes the obvious choices like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP, and also includes almost every major DeFi token such as YFI, CRV, UNI, and UMA.
While all 40+ cryptocurrencies are available for Spot Trading, only 5 are available on AAX’s Futures market. These are BTC, ETH, COMP, LINK, and BCH. Former AAX CEO Peter Lin noted in an early interview that the exchange only lists cryptocurrencies which align with the exchange’s values (Integrity, Performance, Security).
AAX Exchange Rewards And Promotions
The AAX cryptocurrency exchange offers a slew of rewards and promotions to its users. Completing all the activities noted on the Rewards Hub rewards a user with 45 AAB tokens (roughly 7.25$USD).
The different activities which yield AAB token rewards on the AAX exchange.
Completing each task also gives you a ticket you can use to spin on the AAB slot machine to win a “random” amount of AAB tokens. You can also earn extra tickets by inviting friends to join the platform.
AAX also offers a weekly event called the AAB Flash Sale, wherein 1000 users can buy up to 1000 AAB tokens at a discount, and another 500 random users will get AAB tokens for free. KYC Level 1 is required to participate in the AAB Flash Sale and giveaway.
The AAX Tribe is AAX’s affiliate program. Here users can earn a cut of the trading fees of the people they referred to the platform. There are multiple tiers and conditions, and the most notable is that if you refer someone to the platform and they subsequently refer another person, you also get a cut of that other person’s trading fees.
AAX Exchange Spot Trading
There are over 50 market pairs available for Spot Trading on AAX. However, it is worth noting that the liquidity for these trading pairs varies significantly.
The Spot Trading dashboard on the AAX exchange.
Most trading activity is taking place on the ETH/USDT, BTC/USDT, AAB/USDT, and LINK/USDT trading pairs. Some trading pairs have near 0$ 24-hour trading volume.
AAX Exchange Futures Trading
In contrast to its Spot Trading market, AAX’s Futures Trading market is incredibly active. It offers both BTC settled trades and USDT settled trades with up to 100x leverage.
The Futures Trading dashboard on AAX.
Unfortunately, there are only 7 trading pairs: BTC/USDT, BTC/USD, ETH/USDT, ETH/USD, BCH/USDT, COMP/USDT, and LINK/USDT.
AAX Exchange OTC Trading
AAX’s OTC Trading feature allows users to directly trade USDT, BTC, and AAB tokens for fiat off the order books.
AAX exchange OTC Trading dashboard. Image via Cryptoninjas
The AAX exchange mediates the transactions between the two parties, escrowing the cryptocurrency being traded and releasing it only once the seller of the cryptocurrency confirms they have received fiat payment. KYC Level 1 is required to access the OTC Trading feature on AAX.
Exchange Savings
The AAX cryptocurrency exchange offers multiple no-lockup cryptocurrency savings accounts with up to over 6% APY.
The Savings dashboard on the AAX exchange.
Supported assets include BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH, EOS, and AAB. Note that you must complete KYC Level 1 to access the Savings feature on AAX.
AAX Mobile App
The AAX cryptocurrency exchange offers a full-service mobile app for both Android and iOS devices.
An initial visualization of the AAX mobile all. The real mobile app actually looks way better than this.
It contains all the features found on the desktop version of the exchange along with push notifications and a feed containing the latest updates and blog posts from AAX.
Exchange Academy
The AAX Academy offers a treasure trove of useful resources to for all cryptocurrency enthusiasts. This does not just include AAX exchange guides, but cryptocurrency explainers, trading tutorials, and general explainers for those who are still learning.
The AAX cryptocurrency exchange is also very active on YouTube where they post in-depth, easy to follow guides on how to use the various products on their platform. They also offer market insights and technical analysis for some of the most popular cryptocurrencies.
AAX Exchange Customer Support
The AAX cryptocurrency exchange offers 24/7 customer support via its built-in chat and Telegram channels. While their built-in chat is not very responsive, their customer support agents answer almost immediately to requests in most of their localized Telegram channels.
The AAX Help Center.
AAX also has an elaborate and user-friendly Help Center where the answers to most general questions about the exchange can be easily found.
AAB Token
AAB is an ERC-20 token that gives special perks to AAX cryptocurrency exchange users including fee discounts, optional trading signals, and even access to trading bots. AAB has a fixed supply of 50 million which will be released over 5 years.
Burn details for the AAB token.
On October 23rd, AAX finished buying and burning 25 million AAB (50% of the total supply) using trading fees from its futures market as per AAB’s tokenomics.
AAX Cryptocurrency ICO
AAX held 3 back to back IEO rounds for its AAB token in mid-April 2020. This IEO was accessible to all users on the platform with a KYC level of 1 or higher. In the first two rounds, a total of 1 million AAB tokens were sold at a price of 0.50$USD per token. In the third IEO round, a total of 9 million AAB tokens were sold at a price of 1$USD per token. This generated a total of 9.5 million USD.
Of AAB’s total supply of 50 million tokens, 10 million were allocated to the three IEO rounds. 5 million AAB tokens were set aside as risk reserves to compensate users in the event of an exchange hack or glitch. 5 million AAB tokens were allocated to fund business development activities. 10 million AAB tokens are being used to provide liquidity for AAB market pairs on the AAX exchange.
5 million AAB tokens have been allocated to fund brand ambassadors and affiliates of the AAX exchange. 10 million AAB tokens went to the founders of the AAX exchange as well as the development team. The final 5 million AAB tokens were allocated to funding marketing activities for the AAX exchange.
Wallets with the most AAB tokens.
It is worth noting that 86% of the remaining 25 million AAB tokens appears to be held by the AAX exchange according to Etherescan. All tokens except for the 10 million sold during the IEO rounds are subject to a 5 year unlock schedule.
AAB Cryptocurrency Price Analysis
The AAB token has been on a visible downward trend since its IEO in April. It started trading at a price of just over a dollar before rising to a high of around 1.60$USD.
Price history for the AAB token. Image via CoinMarketCap
Since then the price has dropped to nearly 0.14$USD, well below its IEO price of 1$USD. This may be due to the absence of buying pressure after the AAX exchange finished buying and burning 50% to the token’s total supply in late October.
Where To Get AAB Cryptocurrency
The only place to get the AAB cryptocurrency token is on the AAX exchange, and the only market pair is with USDT. That said, trading volume is decent given the AAB token’s small market cap. Whatever you do, do not go to Fatbtc as it is known to be an exchange with shady practices and fake volume.
AAB Cryptocurrency Wallets
Since AAB is an ERC-20 token, it can be stored on just about any cryptocurrency wallet that supports Ethereum-based assets. Hardware wallets for the AAB token include Trezor and Ledger devices. Software wallets for the AAB token include the Atomic Wallet and the Exodus Wallet – both are available on desktop and mobile.
The AAX exchange assets overview tab.
While it is generally not advised to keep your cryptocurrency on an exchange, when it comes to exchange tokens such as AAB, the token is essentially tied to the AAX exchange. If the AAX was to shut down tomorrow, the token would become worthless. This might be a scary thought, but it also means that there is not much point in keeping AAB on your own personal wallet, especially since it is not currently offered on any other exchanges.
AAX Roadmap
As part of its IEO, the AAX exchange issued a product roadmap for 2020. Unfortunately, many of these milestones do not seem to have been met such as creating tokenized commodities and introducing crypto lending. However, the exchange has nonetheless made incredible strides when it comes to adoption, partnerships, and the few features it has managed to roll out this past year.
Product roadmap for AAX.
In addition to partnering with Solidus Labs to monitor any possible market manipulation on the platform, AAX also partnered with Quadency and Itez. The former designs cryptocurrency trading bots and the latter is a fiat payment gateway that allows you to purchase up to 300$USD of crypto using a debit/credit card without KYC.
The AAX exchange’s blog.
As far as user adoption goes, in August AAX announced that it had doubled its user base from 100 000 to over 200 000 in less than a year since its launch. It also rolled out its lucrative cryptocurrency savings services. AAX has remained incredibly active on its blog where it provides in-depth market analyses of various cryptocurrencies along with useful articles and tutorials.
Why AAX Gets An A
The AAX cryptocurrency exchange offers a remarkably simple and streamlined cryptocurrency trading experienced compared to many of its competitors. Creating an account was, quite frankly, unbelievably easy. It took no longer than 20 seconds to do, and the absence of any hard KYC requirements meant trading was immediately available.
The mobile app is likewise very impressive. Most cryptocurrency exchange apps tend to be incredibly laggy and inefficient, but the AAX mobile app is somehow able to offer everything the desktop version does without experiencing any notable issues.
AAX’s AAB token is also an excellent addition despite its lackluster price performance. It has a tokenomics unlike any other exchange token and its price is likely only being held down by the relative lack of exchange use, which brings us to why AAX gets an A and not an A+.
Initial projections for trading volume on the AAX exchange.
While the AAX exchange has made incredible progress in its short lifespan, trading volume remains low – much lower than they had apparently projected according to their documentation. Around this time (Q4 2020) they were hoping to have a daily trading volume of over 500 million USD but have just 1/10th of that.
Bad practices such as wash trading are very common among cryptocurrency exchanges.
This is likely due to the relative lack of features the exchange has compared to top exchanges such as Binance. However, the features AAX does have are certainly much more robust, and AAX’s partnership with Solidus Labs almost guarantees that trading volume on the exchange is genuine. This simply cannot be said for most other cryptocurrency exchanges.
If AAX is able to continue introducing new features that offer genuinely attractive prospects to users (such as more lucrative savings accounts and staking), this could easily bring it closer to achieving its goal of being of the top exchanges in the crypto space. AAX certainly has the potential to claim that title, and its recent attention to the DeFi space also puts in the perfection position to do just that.
All it takes is one killer app…
Warning ⚡️: Trading leveraged futures products is incredibly risky. Make sure that you practice adequate risk management
Featured Image via AAX
AAX Ratings
Pros
- LSEG Technology
- Strong Security
- OTC Trading
- Education
Cons
- Full KYC
- Limited Asset Coverage
- No US Traders
