What started as a slapdash collection of retail crypto exchanges seems to have ballooned to epidemic proportions—the entire trading world apparently fixed to heave asset-class after class onto the blockchain. Veteran trader, now Digitex founder and lead architect Adam Todd, for one, told CryptoSlate in an exclusive interview about how his fee-less, non-custodial crypto exchange plans to open up the relatively untapped futures market to the small fry.

Despite the Digitex token (DGTX) wrangling a scorching 2800 percent increase in Q3’s unforgiving market conditions, Todd would come off less the self-assured executive so much as a decidedly straight-shooting pit trader that doesn’t mince his words.

Yet speaking to CryptoSlate at Malta Blockchain Summit, Todd quietly connected the dots between the defiant rise of Digitex and his decades-long journey as a London floor trader, exchange software architect for Betfair, and digital marketer—the latter skill he proffered helped his new venture “hit the marketing out of the park”.

One thing seemed to stick out like a sore thumb during Todd’s stint in the futures markets that would provide the impetus for his dormant “zero-fee” futures exchange. Likely reflecting on his time at the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE), Todd noted:

“I’ve always wanted to trade commission free. As a short-term trader I’ve always been killed by commissions. It’s just ruined everything.”

But after some time scratching his head over how to build a revenue model without transaction fees, Ethereum rolled in with its token issuance model and it “really kicked in” that Todd had been handed his long-awaited blueprints for a commission-free futures exchange.

In January Digitex’s 17-minute, $5.5-million Initial Coin Offering did a rip-roaring trade according to Todd, which he chuckled could have been closer to $50 million “back in the good old days” of generous green candlesticks and equally charitable investors.

Such a raise would likely be considered a pipsqueak even now as Ether flirts with the $200-mark, and yet Todd explained taking the time to scope out a more expensive in-house development team was the only option for Digitex, which he added makes a “night and day difference” when it comes to the quality of software development, and the added bonus of “not having to go on f**cking UpWork”.

An eight-member team smack-bang in the center of Dublin has been working on the exchange since March, all of whom Todd said had been “blown away” at the recent eruption of interest in Digitex. But even with 470,000 signed up and a net million anticipated for the platform’s beta launch in Q4 this year, Todd wouldn’t raise his eyebrows. He added:

“It’s not really surprising; it’s commission-free, and we don’t keep hold of your money. Obviously people like that idea, and, you know, as long as you can deliver on that idea—which people now realize we can—it’s going to be a monster.”

Whatever dealings he had in the players-only club of old-school finance, Todd now seems resoundingly bent on going in to bat for the underdogs.

He explained that high fees and accreditation restrictions had for too long locked smaller traders out of the futures markets and that Digitex would change all of this with zero fees and no minimum deposits. He noted:

“For all the people that aren’t making 2 million dollars a year—we’re here for those guys, and there’s a lot of those guys. We’re not going for the professionals, the institutions—we’re going for the smaller retail traders.”

And while he maintained the newfangled exchange will be a “cheap, frictionless way in” for shallow-pocketed traders, Todd also believes institutions won’t be able to resist the pull of what will likely become a highly liquid exchange—especially one that eventually adds gold, oil, stocks, or “anything that brings over the traditional futures traders that aren’t necessarily interested in crypto”.

But as if to once more pledge allegiance to the small fish, he took the opportunity to slip in a quick jab at his former cohort:

“The thing I like about crypto is that the suits aren’t here yet.”

If the “suits” and regulators are planning on lashing Digitex with red tape, Todd says he won’t be rolling over—especially when it comes to Know-Your-Customer (KYC), which he described as “pointless”, “expensive” and “of no use whatsoever”. He added:

“We’re going to do it if we’re forced to do it. Whatever KYC we have to do we’re going to do under duress, reluctantly.”

Todd wouldn’t look to throw out the rulebook, however.

As an ex-Malta resident, the former trader has been eyeing “blockchain island” as a handsome base for the currently Seychelles-registered Digitex. Setting up shop in Malta would likely turn the entire EU into a stomping ground for Todd’s project, which he envisaged as “incredible, next-level stuff”.

When it comes to market predictions, Todd seems to think we’ve heard the thunder and that lightning is nigh.

With the first wave of ICOs having cleared out the “garbage”, the brain behind Digitex said, the next wave that can fulfill on promises will be “going to the sky”.

Indeed, air traffic control will have their work cut out for them if Todd’s lofty predictions come to fruition.

The self-declared “raging bull” called a mind-bending $50,000 Ether within his lifetime, disclaiming: “how it’s going to get there, I don’t know.”

The post “Raging Bull” Adam Todd Has Big Plans for Digitex in the Futures Market [INTERVIEW] appeared first on CryptoSlate.

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