Cryptocurrency Exchange ShapeShift Reveals Gas Fee Mitigation Functionality With FOX Token Rewards

Non-custodial exchange ShapeShift has announced new functionality to help decentralized finance (DeFi) users on its platform cut costs.

FOX Holders To Be Rewarded

According to a blog post on its website, ShapeShift says that users will now reduce their gas fee trades by holding their native token FOX.

This new functionality called “superpowers” of its FOX tokens will see users reimbursed for amounts spent trading on the ShapeShift platform.

ShapeShift will cover the gas fees, and users will get their rewards relative to the number of FOX tokens held within a 30-day window.

Users would be paid 10% in the relative market value of FOX, according to ShapeShift.

ShapeShift, founded in 2014 and headquartered in Switzerland, has reoriented its business model in the last few years. In Sept. 2018, the blockchain platform added a know-your-customer (KYC) protocol citing growing pressures from regulators. Speaking on the measure years later, CEO Erik Voorhees said that this step saw over 95% of its customer base leaving.

In 2020, the centralized crypto exchange integrated with multiple DEX platforms like Uniswap, Balancer, Curve, Bancor, and several others. Following the transition, the exchange dropped its trading desks along with the KYC rules. BAL 1.63% Balancer / USD BALUSD $ 6.66
$0.111.63% Volume 8.56 m Change $0.11 Open $6.66 Circulating 48.53 m Market Cap 323.2 m 1 y November Was the 2nd Best Performing Month for Decentralized Crypto Exchanges (DEX), After May 1 y Tron founder Justin Sun Removes $4.2 Bln from the Lending Protocol Following Yearn & Aave’s Online Dispute 1 y Indexed Finance's NDX Is Down 92% from ATH After $16 Million Hack Sends it Crashing CRV 1.49% Curve DAO Token / USD CRVUSD $ 0.92
$0.011.49% Volume 42.21 m Change $0.01 Open $0.92 Circulating 749.09 m Market Cap 691.91 m 1 y Bitcoin Aims for $50k Ahead of Low-Liquidity Holiday Season as Girls Who Code Refuse to “Miss Out” on Crypto 1 y Crypto Outliers: Terra (LUNA) Amasses $16.9 Bln & Surpass BSC, Avalanche (AVAX) Aims for 1 Million Daily Transactions 1 y Crypto Market Tanks: Bitcoin Correlation with S&P 500 Reaches 2021 High & USD Longs at Highest Level since June 2019 BNT -1.55% Bancor / USD BNTUSD $ 0.55
-$0.01-1.55% Volume 5.11 m Change -$0.01 Open $0.55 Circulating 160.29 m Market Cap 88.89 m 1 y November Was the 2nd Best Performing Month for Decentralized Crypto Exchanges (DEX), After May 1 y Grayscale Makes Solana (SOL) the 4th Biggest Holding in its Digital Large Cap Fund, Adds Uniswap (UNI) too 1 y Jack Dorsey is Building a KYC-Complaint DEX for Bitcoin with a Decentralized Identity Solution

From KYC Fiasco to DeFi Trendsetter

Moving on to the booming DeFi space, ShapeShift enabled cross-chain swaps via THORChain and Ethereum-based DEX trading on their web trading platform. This made it possible for users to store Ether and ERC-20 tokens on a range of hardware wallets like Trezor, KeepKey, and Ledger.

This upgrade made ShapeShift the first crypto exchange to enable BTC and ETH trades on a hardware wallet. BTC -0.18% Bitcoin / USD BTCUSD $ 27,576.00
-$49.64-0.18% Volume 13.23 b Change -$49.64 Open $27,576.00 Circulating 19.33 m Market Cap 533 b 1 y SEC Commissioner says NFTs Might Fall Within Their Jurisdiction, Gensler Hires Senate Aid for Crypto Policy 1 y A Possible Crypto Recovery Moving Into New Year, Risk-on Sentiments Send The Stock Market to Another Record High 1 y Bitcoin and Ether Dump More Going Into Year-End, ETH Killers Showing Great Momentum ETH -0.35% Ethereum / USD ETHUSD $ 1,752.33
-$6.13-0.35% Volume 6.57 b Change -$6.13 Open $1,752.33 Circulating 122.37 m Market Cap 214.44 b 1 y Coinbase Predicts Substantial Growth of Newer L1 Chains & Institutionalization of Regulated DeFi 1 y A Possible Crypto Recovery Moving Into New Year, Risk-on Sentiments Send The Stock Market to Another Record High 1 y The Sandbox Game Is Migrating to Ethereum Sidechain Polygon and Launching A DAO in 2022

In addition, the company added USDT and SUSHI tokens to the THORChain-enabled trades, which allow users to hold, send, and receive native RUNE tokens on their ShapeShift wallets. USDT -0.03% Tether / USD USDTUSD $ 1.00
$0.00-0.03% Volume 22.07 b Change $0.00 Open $1.00 Circulating 79.02 b Market Cap 79.09 b 1 y UST Grows 55x to Become the 4th Largest Stablecoin, Terra DeFi Ecosystem Amasses $18B in Assets 1 y Is This The Beginning of the Santa Rally? Markets Jump in Asia Session 1 y Senate Banking Committee Split on How to Regulate Stablecoins SUSHI -0.27% SushiSwap / USD SUSHIUSD $ 1.03
$0.00-0.27% Volume 58.99 m Change $0.00 Open $1.03 Circulating 222.26 m Market Cap 228.25 m 1 y Bitcoin Is Back Above $51k and Ether $4,100 as The Cryptocurrency Market Goes Green 1 y Is This The Beginning of the Santa Rally? Markets Jump in Asia Session 1 y Polygon Rolls Out EIP 1559 Implementation to Burn MATIC Token RUNE 0.13% THORChain / USD RUNEUSD $ 1.38
$0.000.13% Volume 20.21 m Change $0.00 Open $1.38 Circulating 327.06 m Market Cap 452.8 m 1 y Cryptocurrencies Sees Fresh Signs of Green, But Will It Last This Time? 1 y Over 160 Projects Are Launching on Terra by Early Next Year to 'Amplify Demand for UST' and Send it to $10 Bln, says Founder 1 y New Non-Custodial, Cross-Chain Browser Wallet to Compete with MetaMask by Focusing on DeFi and NFTs

Gas Fees Hurting DeFi

Rising gas fees, which are transaction costs for trading on the Ethereum network, have become a major issue for DeFi users in the past couple of months. The DeFi space has boomed, recording a 15% stake in the entire crypto market this year alone.

But the nascent crypto sub-sector has not overcome its challenges, or the Ethereum network has not been able to. Ethereum has become the official home of most decentralized applications (Dapps) built with blockchain technology.

The platform, which has since boomed following the rise of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), has suffered from continued rising gas fees and network congestion.

This has seen many developers and builders search elsewhere for alternatives.

Some rival protocols like Cardano (ADA) and Solana (SOL) are currently working on addressing this issue. Cardano, joined by other “Ethereum killers,” uses a proof-of-stake (PoS) mining protocol that is energy-efficient and cost-effective. ADA -1.52% Cardano / USD ADAUSD $ 0.35
-$0.01-1.52% Volume 219.35 m Change -$0.01 Open $0.35 Circulating 34.73 b Market Cap 12.32 b 1 y Bitcoin Is Back Above $51k and Ether $4,100 as The Cryptocurrency Market Goes Green 1 y Bitcoin and Ether Breaks Trend With Outflows While Altcoins Continue to See Inflows 1 y Solana (SOL) Bucks the Trend, Along With Tron (TRX), by Recording Highest Inflows After Bitcoin (BTC): Report SOL -0.32% Solana / USD SOLUSD $ 20.68
-$0.07-0.32% Volume 264.95 m Change -$0.07 Open $20.68 Circulating 383.9 m Market Cap 7.94 b 1 y Coinbase Predicts Substantial Growth of Newer L1 Chains & Institutionalization of Regulated DeFi 1 y Bitcoin and Ether Dump More Going Into Year-End, ETH Killers Showing Great Momentum 1 y Bitcoin and Ether Breaks Trend With Outflows While Altcoins Continue to See Inflows

This has seen the protocol grow as Etherum plans to migrate to a PoS in the coming months.