Merkle Trade is a perpetual decentralized exchange that gamifies the trading of cryptocurrencies, forex, and commodities. Designed to be user-friendly to both novice and seasoned traders, it introduces the element of competition that makes trading more engaging and allows users to pit their skills against the rest of the community. For beginner traders, especially, it boosts their sense of accomplishment with every trade executed.

Backed by leading investors such as Hashed, Arrington Capital, and Aptos Labs, Merkle Trade has quickly captured the market's attention since its launch. As of 2024, it has attracted over 115,000 traders and generated over $7 billion in trading volume.

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How Does Merkle Trade Work?

Merkle Trade's technological architecture is built on the Aptos blockchain. Known for its high transaction speed, exceptional performance, and scalability, Aptos provides the infrastructure that empowers Merkle Trade to manage a high volume of transactions simultaneously without any compromise on speed or reliability. This is crucial for a trading platform where precise timing and execution can make or break the results of a trade.

Merkle Trade also integrates the advanced omnichain interoperability protocol, LayerZero. This allows users to easily transfer assets, data, and messages across different blockchains.

To address the need for verifiable, real-time market data and price feeds, Merkle Trade utilizes Pyth Network, a highly reliable decentralized price oracle network. Pyth provides verifiable, real-time market data and price feeds that are crucial for traders who rely on timely information to minimize the risks associated with price inaccuracies or delays. This ensures that Merkle Trade users have access to the most accurate and up-to-date market information available for better decision-making.

Unlike traditional exchanges that use complex order books, Merkle Trade uses a passive market-making system to make trading more convenient. It simplifies transactions by having the Merkle Liquidity Provider (LP) act as the counterparty to all trades. This reduces the learning curve for new traders, who get to execute trades without the risks and complexity of using an order book. For increased stability and predictability, all transactions on Merkle Trade are denominated and settled in USDC.

As traders engage with the platform, they complete daily trading missions which cater to different levels of expertise, from beginners to veteran traders. As they earn points, they level-up and unlock exclusive NFTs, trading benefits, and other in-game items. Traders can also join trading competitions with other users to earn rewards.

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Benefits of Merkle Trade

Accessibility: Merkle Trade’s intuitive interface is designed with the end-users in mind—regardless if they’re seasoned traders or novices. It also offers zero gas fees and one-click trading for better accessibility.

Security: State-of-the-art security protocols safeguard all transactions against potential threats. Encryption, secure storage solutions, and continuous monitoring of operations ensure that users’ assets and information are protected at all times.

Community and Social Interaction: Unlike many traditional trading platforms that may isolate traders, Merkle Trade allows users to connect with each other and learn from each other’s trading strategies. The platform even hosts trading competitions to make trading more community-driven and fun.

Speed: Merkle Trade makes the on-chain trading experience as fast and smooth as possible. Traders benefit from less price slippage thanks to minimal execution delays.

High Leverage Opportunities: For those looking for high-reward strategies, Merkle Trade offers up to 1000x leverage on foreign exchange (forex) and up to 150x on cryptocurrencies. Traders can maximize their potential returns on small price movements, although on the flip side, the greater the leverage, the greater the risk.

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Use Cases in the Philippines

The Philippines is currently seeing a surge in interest in cryptocurrencies for portfolio diversification. Merkle Trade's user-friendly interface and educational resources, such as guided trading missions and tutorials, are ideal for newbies to the crypto market.

Through Merkle Trade’s low trading fees and high leverage options, the forex and commodities markets, which have been traditionally dominated by rich investors or those with foreign brokerage accounts, are now more accessible to the average Filipino trader.

Furthermore, Merkle Trade's forex trading capabilities offer a potentially more efficient and cost-effective method for currency exchange and transfer compared to traditional banking solutions. This could mean lower costs and faster transaction times for OFWs remitting money back to the Philippines.

For Filipino traders, Merkle Trade offers a unique platform to access global markets in a secure, engaging, and potentially profitable way. Still, it is important to keep in mind that the regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies and DEX platforms in the Philippines is ever-evolving. It is crucial for traders to stay informed about changes in regulations to ensure compliance and safeguard their investments.

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