Whether you’re launching a GPT-wrapper SaaS company, opening an overpriced coffee shop in the trendiest district in town, or coding an obscure Internet application built on a chain of blocks, achieving product-market-fit (PMF) is the ultimate goal.
But when a project does achieve PMF, what inevitably happens is the market quickly turns from a clear blue ocean into a bloody red one.
This is certainly true for the perpetual decentralized exchange (perp DEX) space, which boasts a seemingly infinite number of them on every chain.
However, a product that offers exceptional quality and a distinctive feature set can still differentiate itself enough to thrive. A prime example is Hyperliquid.
But what more can you possibly do to attract users to trade on your platform?
DESK, formerly known as HMX, had the brilliant idea of spicing up the perp DEX space by leaning into what will undoubtedly remain a hot topic throughout the 21st century: AI.
With DESK, you essentially receive a blend of the premier PMF product in crypto, perpetuals, along with the most thrilling sector in technology — AI.
The best part? Their points program began less than two weeks ago, and nearly 40% of the total supply was allocated to it.
Yes, you read that right, 40%, so pay attention.
Building on solid foundations
In our previous article, we delved into why HMX is a silent assassin in the perp DEX space and how undervalued the project is compared to its competitors with similar performance metrics.
To recap, HMX consistently competes with GMX for the top position on Arbitrum based on volume. Furthermore, throughout 2024, HMX remained a top 10 perp DEX in terms of revenue.
Despite the token's sluggish performance, attributed to factors like the ongoing supply surplus and limited interest in Arbitrum, we believe this creates a promising opportunity. Why?
At present, the protocol’s revenue significantly exceeds its token market cap, with a price-to-fee (P/F) ratio below 1x. For context, its nearest competitors — GMX, Vertex, and Synthetix — boast P/F ratios of 4x, 13x, and 47x, respectively.
And we are not the only ones who noticed that.
While fundamentals certainly matter, in crypto, price is the one fundamental that’s valued above all.
Alas, with the upcoming pivot to an AI-focused product, a new shiny token, and a lucrative airdrop, we expect this to not remain a hidden gem for long.
Instead, it will be a big, shining diamond staring everyone in the face.
What is DESK?
DESK is a perpetual trading platform on the Base layer-2 [L2] that empowers both human traders and AI agents with cutting-edge tools and seamless automation.
Formerly known as HMX on Arbitrum, DESK has facilitated over $60 billion in total trading volume, with the average daily volume revolving in the $100 million to $400 million bracket. Additionally, it has distributed over $20 million in fees to its community.
In terms of trading, the platform comes with all the bells and whistles a trader would want and then some.
First and foremost, DESK currently provides the lowest rates for traders among perpetual exchanges, featuring a -1 basis point maker fee aimed at boosting liquidity and a 1.75 basis point taker fee.
DESK distinguishes itself from other products by providing the most capital-efficient solution, which includes the following features:
- Cross-margin functionality: Traders can utilize unsettled balances as margin and leverage unrealized gains to open new positions without waiting for full settlement.
- Deferred loss settlement: Traders can hold a temporary negative balance and settle losses later, reducing unnecessary liquidations — especially useful in bullish markets.
- Withdrawal of unrealized PnL: Traders can withdraw unrealized profits (uPnL) without closing positions, providing liquidity while still benefiting from potential future gains.
- Sophisticated liquidation flow: A more stable and efficient liquidation mechanism minimizes market disruptions.
- Yield generation for lenders (embedded money market): Users can deposit settlement tokens to earn passive income, as these funds cover borrowing fees for traders.
Now that you’re familiar with the features DESK brings to the table, let’s take a closer look at what the sausage is made of.
How does DESK work?
At the core of DESK's trading system lies the CEX-Grade order book, which offers near-instant confirmations, substantial trading liquidity, and minimal fees. This makes it perfectly tailored for high-frequency trading with capabilities of up to 10,000 transactions per second (TPS).
Every trade executed on DESK is promptly settled on-chain using smart contracts that have undergone auditing by Cantina, a leading auditor utilized by Coinbase, Uniswap, and Optimism.
For redundancy, price feeds are provided by three separate oracle networks: Pyth, Redstone, and Stork. A mean average is sourced from these to ensure greater reliability and accuracy.
On-chain settlement is especially crucial during liquidation events as the immediate execution reduces the risk of counterparty risk and improves transparency, allowing traders to verify the legitimacy of the liquidation.
Another key aspect of DESK that ties into liquidations is the Stability and Insurance funds. DESK utilizes both a Stability Fund and an Insurance Fund as its defense against unexpected losses.
The Stability Fund uses protocol revenue and liquidation fees to take over traders' positions when market liquidity is thin or to manage collateral when traders have a negative balance.
The Insurance Fund is funded by protocol revenue and withdrawal fees. It absorbs bad debt from outstanding negative balances and tracks withdrawal fees to impose when socialized loss is inevitable.
The DESK team has truly refined the formula, having facilitated over $60 billion in total volume and almost 600,000 individual trades.
Yet, remaining stagnant in today’s world equates to moving backward.
This is why the team decided to undertake a comprehensive rebrand while also establishing a framework where AI agents can provide valuable market insights and manage trades on behalf of the user.
Infrastructure for AI agents
When considering the future of crypto, no other sector generates as much excitement as AI-Finance (AIFi).
While most are still grasping the true extent of this sector's potential, DESK is already well on its way to becoming the go-to place for AI-powered trading solutions.
DESK is already available as a plug-in and natively supports ElizaOS, with plans to soon include other major AI frameworks.
These integrations enable AI agents built on these frameworks to trade and execute their complex strategies seamlessly on DESK.
To achieve that, DESK provides AI-specific tools and developer resources. This includes:
- Public sandbox environments for AI agents to test strategies
- AI-readable documentation for seamless integration
- Continuous UI/UX improvements based on feedback from AI research partners
As developers begin to understand DESK’s distinctive features, the team is dedicated to building an AI Co-Pilot that offers traders complimentary access to real-time market insights, tools for strategy optimization, and connections with DESK’s data APIs.
The exact date of this product release is unknown, but expect to hear more information about it soon.
After taking in all this alpha, how convenient that the product just launched and unveiled a massive airdrop campaign, which could, dare I say, be even more rewarding than Hyperliquid's.
DESK points: Everything you need to know
- Points program start date: February 18, 2025
- 1,000,000 DESK points distributed weekly
- Weekly activity cutoff: Tuesdays at 10:00 UTC
- Distributions: Every Friday
- Token allocation to the airdrop: 38.7% of the total supply
Traders earn DESK points based on order type, market conditions, trading volume, and open interest.
There are two ways to increase your DESK points:
- 7-Day volume-based multipliers – Earn up to 2x points based on your weekly trading volume. Multipliers update weekly.
- Community Collaboration Boosts – Traders from HMX, Jumper Exchange, Pendle, Aerodrom, and AIXBT get up to a 1.3x boost.
In addition, you can invite friends to DESK and earn 10% of their DESK points every week.
Concluding thoughts
Over the past year, memecoins have dominated the market, leading many to develop a grim outlook on the future of the crypto industry.
Nonetheless, in light of the recent developments involving Argentina’s president and various other value extraction tactics, the environment has transformed dramatically.
As a result, individuals are increasingly recognizing projects that provide genuine utility and generate tangible revenue.
At the same time, while the initial wave of AI hype has subsided, this lull presents an opportunity for serious developers to refine their products. As these improved solutions emerge, they are poised to reclaim attention and recognition in the market.
DESK, positioned at the intersection of two powerful trends — perpetual trading (one of crypto’s most profitable niches) and artificial intelligence (a transformative technology) — is well-placed to make a significant impact.
Building on the team’s proven success with their previous platform, DESK is poised to thrive in this evolving environment.
Once people learn about the lucrative airdrop campaign, you can expect to see this project featured more frequently on your timeline in the upcoming months.
Now is your chance to front-run everyone, anon.
