This episode unpacks Desk's (formerly HMX) strategic pivot to Base, detailing its competitive edge in the Perp DEX arena through ultra-low fees, AI integrations, and a significant upcoming 38.7% token airdrop.
Introduction to Desk (Formerly HMX)
The discussion begins by introducing Desk, the rebranded version of the perpetual decentralized exchange (Perp DEX) formerly known as HMX. The speaker highlights its significant traction, having facilitated over $60 billion in trading volume and distributed more than $20 million in fees. Despite competing with established players like GMX on Arbitrum, Desk has now deployed on the Base network and maintains a clean security record, audited by Cantina (known for auditing Uniswap and Coinbase).
The Shifting Landscape: CEX vs. DEX & The Perp DEX Opportunity
The conversation shifts to the broader market context, noting a potential return to fundamentals and product-market fit, where Perp DEXs represent prime crypto real estate. Using Hyperliquid's success against Binance as an example, the speaker illustrates how on-chain platforms are increasingly capturing market share from centralized exchanges (CEXs). This trend signifies a changing status quo, opening doors for platforms like Desk.
- Key Insight: The data suggests a clear migration of trading volume from CEXs to DEXs, presenting a significant growth opportunity for well-positioned Perp DEXs.
Drivers of On-Chain Perp Growth
- Improved User Experience (UX/UI): On-chain DEX interfaces now rival the usability of CEXs, making them almost indistinguishable for traders.
- Enhanced Liquidity: Better liquidity on DEXs allows traders to execute larger orders efficiently, attracting more volume.
- Comparable Feature Sets: DEXs increasingly offer features previously exclusive to CEXs.
- Direct On-Chain Onboarding: New users, aided by user-friendly wallets like Phantom, are bypassing CEXs and entering the ecosystem directly on-chain.
Profiting from the Trend: The Airdrop Angle
The speaker connects this market trend to investment opportunities, pointing out that leading Perp DEXs like Hyperliquid and Jupiter utilized large airdrops as a launch mechanic. Desk is presented as a similar opportunity, planning to airdrop nearly 40% of its token supply. This is framed as a low-risk way for users to gain exposure.
- Actionable Insight: "You don't actually have to buy the token here. You can just use the application, put volume through it... and off the back of that, earn points, and thus earn tokens." This presents a clear, low-capital path to potentially acquiring Desk tokens.
Desk's Core Offering and Technical Features
Desk aims to be the "go-to trading desk," strategically deploying on Base to leverage its growing "agentic economy" (an ecosystem focused on AI agents). Key features highlighted include:
- Performance: Claims of "CEX grade infra" enabling up to 10,000 Transactions Per Second (TPS) for low-latency trading.
- Fees: Industry-leading fees with a -1 Basis Point (BIP) maker rebate (users get paid to provide liquidity via limit orders) and a 1.75 BIP taker fee. A Basis Point (BIP) is 1/100th of a percent, used to denote small changes in rates or fees.
- Passive Income: Users can deposit settlement tokens (like USDC, ETH) into Desk's embedded money market to earn yield from traders borrowing funds.
- Deferred Loss Settlement: Allows traders to temporarily carry a negative balance, settled later via the money market.
- Cross Margin: Enhances capital efficiency by allowing users to use unsettled balances or holdings of major tokens as margin for new positions. Cross Margin uses the entire account balance as collateral for all open positions, potentially increasing leverage but also risk.
- UPNL Withdrawal: Permits withdrawing unrealized profits (UPNL) without closing the underlying position.
- AI Integration Ready: A full Software Development Kit (SDK) is available for integrating AI trading agents. An SDK provides tools and libraries for developers to build applications on a specific platform.
Strategic Focus: AI Integration and the Agentic Economy
Desk's move to Base is explicitly linked to positioning itself at the forefront of AI in crypto. The platform anticipates a future where AI agents actively trade on-chain.
- Partnerships: Integrations with Eliza OS (formerly AI6Z), Base's agent kits, and the GME framework from Virtuals are established.
- SDK for Agents: The SDK simplifies plugging AI agents into Desk for direct trading control.
- Upcoming AI Co-Pilot: This tool will offer real-time market insights, strategy optimization tools (via API), sentiment signals, whale tracking, and trend detection.
- Tokkonomist Partnership: Integration aims to provide data insights, such as upcoming token unlocks, to inform trading decisions.
- Strategic Implication for Researchers: Desk's SDK and partnerships signal a focus on becoming foundational infrastructure for the on-chain AI agent economy. Monitoring the adoption and effectiveness of these integrations is crucial.
Competitive Edge: Fee Structure Analysis
A direct comparison positions Desk favorably against competitors Hyperliquid and Jupiter regarding trading fees:
- Maker Fees: Desk (-1 BIPs) vs. Hyperliquid (1.5 BIPs) vs. Jupiter (6 BIPs).
- Taker Fees: Desk (1.75 BIPs) vs. Hyperliquid (4.5 BIPs) vs. Jupiter (6 BIPs).
- Desk's low fees and rebates are offered without requiring token staking, unlike Hyperliquid's planned tiered system.
- Key Takeaway for Investors: Desk's aggressive fee structure, particularly the maker rebate, is a significant differentiator designed to attract high-frequency traders and liquidity, potentially driving substantial volume if sustained.
Platform Walkthrough and User Experience
- Getting Started: Account Setup and Deposits
- The speaker demonstrates logging in via wallet (MetaMask shown) and depositing funds.
- Deposits are supported from multiple chains (Base, Arbitrum, BNB Chain) using assets like USDC, WBTC, and ETH. The process involves simple approval and deposit transactions.
- The user's account balance updates quickly upon deposit confirmation.
- Trading Interface and Features
- The interface resembles familiar CEX/DEX layouts with market selection (BTC, ETH, SOL, etc.), TradingView charts, order books, and recent trades.
- Order types include limit, market, stop-limit, and stop-market.
- Placing a market order is shown to be fast ("Click the button, it just works nicely").
- Post-trade, users see position details (entry price, leverage, margin).
- Setting Take Profit (TP) and Stop Loss (SL) is integrated directly from the position view with a single confirmation step.
- A notable feature is the ability to adjust TP/SL levels directly on the chart via drag-and-drop functionality, offering intuitive dynamic order management.
- Points, Referrals, and Customization
- The "Points" tab tracks trading volume (taker volume shown) and accrued points for the airdrop, updating based on weekly epochs (Tuesday cutoff).
- Community collaboration multipliers are available (e.g., for HMX holders, Aerodrome traders, Blockmates community members).
- A referral system allows users to generate a code and earn 10% of their referees' points.
- Settings allow UI customization (e.g., switching layout elements).
- Sub-account creation is possible for isolating trading strategies or assets.
The Desk Airdrop: Mechanics and Tokenomics
The upcoming airdrop is detailed:
- Allocation: 38.7% of the total 1 billion Desk token supply (387 million tokens) is allocated to the airdrop. This is compared favorably to Hyperliquid's 31% airdrop.
- Timeline: The points program started Feb 18th, 2025 (likely a typo in transcript, should probably be 2024, but reported as stated), with the token launch expected in Q2.
- Points Distribution: 1 million Desk points are distributed weekly (Friday distribution, Tuesday cutoff).
- Earning Points: Based on order type, market traded, volume, and open interest.
- Boosters: Volume-based multipliers (up to 2x) and community multipliers enhance point accrual.
- Referrals: Earn 10% of referred users' points weekly.
- Actionable Insight: Active trading, particularly with higher volume and potentially utilizing maker orders, alongside leveraging community multipliers and referrals, maximizes point accumulation for the substantial airdrop.
HMX to Desk Token Transition and Supply Details
- Redenomination: A 100-to-1 split will occur (10 million HMX becomes 1 billion Desk tokens).
- Rationale: Addresses issues with the old HMX tokenomics, such as low circulating supply, token overhangs, and complexity (multiple tokens). Desk aims for simplicity with a single token.
- Post-TGE State: After the Token Generation Event (TGE) and airdrop, all 1 billion Desk tokens are planned to be circulating, resulting in a fully diluted protocol from the start. TGE marks the official creation and release of a cryptocurrency token.
Market Positioning and Potential Upside
A brief "moon math" comparison highlights the significant market cap difference between HMX (soon Desk) and the leading Perp DEX, Hyperliquid (cited as a 1,469x gap). This suggests substantial room for growth if Desk gains traction post-launch.
- Investor Consideration: While the market cap gap indicates potential upside, it also underscores the competitive challenge Desk faces. Its success hinges on execution, user adoption, and sustaining its value proposition.
Desk's 2025 Roadmap and Future Developments
Key plans for Desk in 2025 include:
- HLP-Style Vault: Launching a vault similar to Hyperliquid's HLP, allowing community members to participate in market making and liquidations, earning yield while providing liquidity. HLP (Hyperliquid Liquidity Provider) vaults allow users to deposit assets that act as the counterparty to traders, earning fees but also bearing potential losses.
- AI Co-Pilot Launch: Rolling out the previously mentioned AI tool with sentiment, whale tracking, and trend features.
- Expanded Trading Pairs: Adding more assets for trading.
- Desk Token Launch: The core event for Q2, including the airdrop distribution.
Final Analysis and Strategic Considerations
- The speaker concludes with strong positive sentiment:
- The airdrop presents a lucrative, low-risk opportunity ("no-brainer").
- The platform's user experience feels comparable to CEXs due to low latency.
- AI integrations position Desk for future trends in the agentic economy.
- Despite the competitive landscape, the overall shift from CEX to DEX volume favors platforms like Desk.
- The ultra-low fee structure is a key magnet for attracting traders and liquidity, potentially creating a virtuous cycle.
- Researcher Note: The planned HLP-style vault introduces both yield opportunities and risks (impermanent loss, counterparty risk), mirroring challenges seen elsewhere. Its design and risk management will be critical areas to analyze upon launch.
Conclusion
Desk's strategy hinges on aggressive fees, Base deployment for AI synergy, and a massive user-acquisition airdrop. Crypto AI investors and researchers should evaluate the platform via the airdrop campaign, monitor its AI integrations' traction, and assess its ability to capture sustainable market share in the competitive Perp DEX space.
