In this article we delve into the Merkle Trade decentralized trading platform and see how to get the MKL crypto airdrop that will be launched in Q1 2024.
Merkle Trade is a perpetual DEX omnichain gamified and built on top of Layer Zero technology, which takes the noncustodial trading experience to the next level.
Interacting with this protocol, competing with other traders on the platform, and participating in the various “missions” will make you eligible to receive the airdrop of a token that could reach its full potential in the coming year.
Let’s take a look at all the steps together.
Summary
Crypto Airdrop: what is it and how does Merkle Trade work?
Among the various web3 platforms that will be releasing an airdrop to their communities we see today Merkle Trade: it is a perpetual DEX omnichain gamified that allows trading up to 1000x leverage in different trading pairs on the crypto, forex and commodities sectors.
The protocol is designed to make the noncustodial trading experience enjoyable, so as to take advantage of the benefits of decentralization but enjoying the same conveniences as CEX.
Merkle Trade was built on top of the LayerZero on-chain messaging protocol stack, which allows it to easily connect to a wide range of cryptographic networks.
Key benefits offered by the platform include:
- fast order execution and minimal price slippage: transactions take place solely on Aptos, the blockchain with the lowest latency on the market.Â
- minimum fees among the lowest on the market: 0.05% for crypto pairs and at 0.0075% for Forex pairsÂ
- leverage of up to 150x for crypto and up to 1000x for Forex
- absence of counterparty risk: the decentralized unguarded trading experience eliminates the risk of financial intermediation. All trades and settlements are executed by the smart contract; there is no custody of users’ funds at any time
Merkle Trade, which will soon be integrated with its native MKL crypto as soon as the airdrop date is announced, uses no order book to process the various buy and sell orders.
The platform uses a passive market making approach, in which traders trade against the liquidity pool (“Merkle LP”) that acts as the counterparty for each trade on the protocol. This setup implies less waiting time.
It should also be noted that trading on Merkle Trade is exclusively synthetic: all trades are conducted in stablecoin, more specifically by zUSDC (LayerZero bridged USDC) which serves as the ‘asset used by users as collateral on the platform.Â
This ensures a reliable price feed that is competitive with other centralized platforms.
The protocol is still very young and still needs to be broken in before it can get to the same numbers as the top DEX perpetuals in the crypto industry.Â
In any case, the results are coming very quickly.
How to deposit USDC on the platform
The first step to participate in Merkle Trade’s airdrop and earn a share of the MKL token airdrop is to deposit USDC on the platform.
First you need to go to the project’s official website and connect your decentralized non-custodial wallet.
You can use various providers such as Metamask, Rainbow, Coinbase Wallet, Wallet Connect, Petra, Pontem, Martian, Rise, and Blocto
The connection first requires approval of a free digital signature that will enable the user to trade on Merkle Trade.
Once this is done we will need to click on the “Deposit” item in the upper right corner and select the network from which we want to initiate the transaction.
Thanks to the feature with Layer Zero, users are able to deposit their funds from multiple chains, more specifically from Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, Avalanche,BNB Smart Chain and Optimism.
The advice is to go through Arbitrum, Optimism or Avalanche because they present very low waiting times for transfers.
Having performed this step we can get in touch with the various features of the platform.
In the “trade” section we can initiate various trades by choosing from 20 trading pairs in the crypto, forex and commodities markets.
In the “dashboard” section, on the other hand, we can take a look at various protocol data such as total volume, number of trades, leaderboards, recent trades, etc.
Finally by clicking on “earn” we can stake our USDC and receive a portion of the fees collected in the Merkle LP pool. 50% of the fees collected by the platform go to the USDC stakers, who help provide liquidity for other traders’ trades.
At this point we have understood the structure of Merkle Trade and can move on to airdrop farming.
Gamified Incentivized Trading: how to receive MKL token airdrop by participating in Merkle Trade missions
Merkle Trade recently announced the launch of the “Gamified Incentivized Trading” initiative, which is an incentive campaign where users can complete missions and perform various activities while indirectly earning a share of the MKL token airdrop.
All trading actions are rewarded with XP points, which are used to unlock loot and receive future rewards.
For every dollar of fees paid to the protocol, you get 100 XP points.
On the other hand, you get MP points by completing disparate weekly tasks such as, open more than 5 trades, open 2 trades on different exchange pairs, reach a volume of $3000 in the crypto compartment, etc.
Missions are reset weekly at noon UTC on Tuesdays; all unused MPs are burned and you can start over.
You can take a look at all the real-time missions by going to the “profile” section and clicking on “missions.”
XP points and MP are used to level up and obtain “loot boxes,” which are nothing more than trunks where MKL airdrop credits (in the form of pKML tokens) can be found.
These loot booxes can be opened between late November and early December, following an official communication from the decentralized project team.
Basically, the higher the level we go and the more missions we complete, the higher airdrop we will get.
The crypto MKL will be a central resource in Merkle Trade’s infrastructure and will be unveiled indicatively in the first quarter of 2024, at the Token Generation Event where pMKLs will be converted into the currency in question.
The gamified aspect of Merkle Trade and the ability to monetize with airdrop take the platform to a higher level than other decentralized perpetual trading protocols.
The missions to be performed are very engaging and require you to prove your skill in order to reach the top of the leaderboard.
The user experience is very smooth, with fast order execution and low slippage.
Merkle Trade, airdrop aside, has all the makings of one of the leading crypto trading platforms, to the point where it could overtake the well-known GMX in a few months.
