OPNX will be shut down to be replaced by a new crypto exchange.

According to an email sent to users on February 1 and seen by Cointelegraph, Kyle Davis and Suzu's Open Exchange (OPNX) will close on February 14. The company's trading will cease on February 7, but withdrawals will remain open until February 14.

Meanwhile, a mysterious new exchange called OX.Fun appears to have been created to replace OPNX. OX.Fun uses OPNX's native open exchange token (OX) as collateral for derivatives trading and is heavily promoted in the official OPNX Telegram channel. However, details on who manages the exchange and their relationship with OPNX are still scarce.

OPNX was launched in April 2023 by Davis and Zhu, co-founders of successful cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC). Mark Lam and Sudu Arumugam, co-founders of the failed crypto exchange CoinFLEX, were also among the founders of OPNX. It was initially marketed as a reboot of CoinFLEX. However, after OPNX's founders got into a legal dispute with CoinFLEX's creditors, the OPNX team said the two exchanges are completely separate entities.

Meanwhile, Zhou was arrested for violating a committee order as part of 3AC's bankruptcy proceedings, and a similar order was issued against Davis. Zhou was released after three months in prison.

OPNX was launched in 2011. 2023 achieved some success. In the year In November 2023, it posted $32,000 a day in spot trading and $82 million in derivatives trading. However, when OPNX Group announced its closure, this amount dropped to $23 million for spot trading and $1.2 million for derivatives.

OX.Fun takes over.

Meanwhile, OPNX token OX is still being traded on various decentralized and centralized exchanges, including Uniswap, Gate.io, BingX, Bitget, MEXC, Poloniex and others. The exchange still boasts a Telegram community of over 3,000 members.

It seems that OX.Fun is trying to market itself in the existing OPNX community, because Cointelegraph has found many messages on the new OPNX group promoting the new exchange. However, many users seem to be confused about the relationship between the two companies.

OX.Fun seems to have reached a certain level of success. As of Jan. 30, his derivatives totaled nearly $39 million, according to his official analytics page. The next day, it fell modestly to $8 million, but was still significantly higher than the volume at OPNX at the time.

The user interface of the OX.Fun app is similar to other decentralized derivatives protocols such as GMX, dYdX, Level Finance and others. As with such platforms, it has a well-known “wallet link” button in the upper right corner.

In decentralized protocols, the linking wallet key connects the user's self-sustaining wallet and the JavaScript application running in the user's browsers. This allows the application to push transactions such as deposits and withdrawals to the user's wallet for the user to verify.

Scientelegraph reporters connected a test wallet account to the app and it worked as expected, displaying balances and other data tied to our Web3 wallet. However, on its deposit page, Cointelegraph found that it doesn't work as a decentralized protocol.

The OX.Fun deposit page does not contain any button to initiate wallet transactions. Instead, the user will be asked to send the funds to an external depository address. This address appears to be generated the moment the user goes to the deposit page.

Given this fact, OX.Fun looks like a centralized, custodial trading platform of the future. When the user deposits the Ox with a deposit address, it will probably be sent to a variable wallet account. A depository address is generated with no previous transactions, which is consistent with the nature of a centralized entity.

Cointelegraph attempted to reach OX.Fun for comments but did not receive a response by press time.

High slippage for Ox Tokens

One concern for OX.Fun users is that the container consists entirely of OX tokens. There is no way to deposit any other cryptocurrency or token. This means that users who don't own Ox will have to purchase it if they want to use the platform. OX has the highest volume on Uniswap v3, but with low liquidity. Cointelegraph has confirmed that slippage for even small purchases is often more than 50%.

Cointelegraph has not independently verified whether there is better liquidity on other platforms such as Gate.io or BingX. However, users should be aware that volatility for the OX token on Uniswap is high and switching from a stable coin to OX can result in a significant loss of value for the deposit.

Who manages OX.Fun?

At the time of publication, there was not enough information about the platform's executives or the company's founding. Cointelegraph tried to contact the team through the app's official Telegram channel and the customer support tool on the OX.Fun website. In both cases we did not receive a response.

Cointelegraph contacted one user who said he tried to get an answer from Telegram administrators. “OPNX OX.FUN WHAT IS THE CONNECTION?” It is reported that he wanted to know who the founders, directors and investors of the project were. “I couldn't even find the minimum information in the terms of service,” he said. In their response, the administrator said there was “no connection” between OPNX and OX.Fun, but “we respect their work to help bankrupt claimants.”

Continuing to press for answers, this user asked where the company behind OX.Fun was registered. No response received. While it is not clear who runs OX.Fun, the application appears to be performing deposits and withdrawals as expected.

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