A new decentralized exchange has emerged in the already-crowded DeFi space. The platform is being offered by the Ethereum rival Polkadot network.
Dec. 15 marks the official launch date of the Polkastarter DEX. The platform has been designed for cross-chain token pools and auctions, with the purpose of enabling projects to raise capital on the Polkadot network.
Polkastarter was officially announced in September when the project listed its native POLS token on Uniswap. It has now gone live with the first liquidity pool offering rewards for swapping ETH for POLS.
There are two other pools that are still in the testing phase that are slated to offer swaps with SpiderDAO, an online privacy-based project.
Polkadot DEX Different from the Rest?
Although Polkastarter is entering an already crowded DEX ecosystem, it will offer new features such as cross-chain pools, support for any asset, fixed swap pools, and a safe listed pool.
It also allows projects to list tokens at a fixed price. This should help to ensure lower volatility at launch, as prices will be maintained for as long as the original supply of tokens remains.
The DEX already has a growing list of partners which includes secure data transfer platform Shyft Network, the Moonbeam Network that deals with the Solidity programming language, automated liquidity provider Orion Protocol, API service provider Covalent, and open-source oracle platform Decentralized Information Asset (DIA).
Institutional investor Digital Finance Group has also pledged financial support for the platform.
Polkadot, which powers the new DEX, has openly stated that it has targeted Ethereum and aims to ‘go way beyond the current ERC-20 standard.’
POLS and DOT Price Reaction
Polkastarter’s native POLS token spiked to top $0.85 when it was launched at the end of September. But like most new DeFi tokens, it spent the following month in decline.
Now that the DEX is finally going live, POLS prices are heading upwards again and have more than doubled in price since the beginning of December. Although POLS is down more than 12% on the day, its monthly momentum is bullish.
Polkadot’s native DOT token has been relatively flat since its peak over $6.30 in early September. It is trading at just below $5 today, down 17% since its recent local highof $6.10 on Nov. 24.