August's AMA Recap: Nexo Pro

August has been another special month at Nexo with the first look at Nexo Pro – our latest product, which brings professional trading infrastructure and capabilities to retail clients, who wish to explore markets further.

Nexo Co-Founder and Managing Partner Antoni Trenchev lifts the curtain on Nexo Pro, accompanied by Yasen Yankov, VP of Product Development, in this edition of the Nexo AMA session, as they both answer the most pressing questions from our community. Read the recap of the main questions Antoni and Yasen discussed or watch the full video below to see why we and our community are so thrilled with the latest addition to the diverse Nexo ecosystem!

When will be the official release date of Nexo Pro? (05:15)

Antoni: It is around the corner! We are launching it, it is ready. Some of our most active community members have had the chance to already experience Nexo Pro in the beta testing phase. The results and the feedback have been phenomenal and informative for us, so we could clear out any lasting items that needed improvement. The important thing to note is that Nexo Pro will be a global product – there might be some restrictions geographically, due to the prevailing regulatory framework, but that is expected. It’s a super-efficient product! It’s professional-like trading for retail.

Is Nexo Pro aggregating liquidity like with the amazing institutional Prime product? (07:11)

Yasen: We will be using the same underlying mechanisms for aggregation of liquidity to Nexo Pro as has been tested and battle-prone with Nexo Prime. Aggregation is a big deal for us, because it’s solving a huge problem for the end-customer – that’s the problem of missing an opportunity to trade whenever an exchange is illiquid or is non-functional.

This cannot happen with our aggregator. With just a single click you can very easily move funds from your Nexo account to Nexo Pro and use the liquidity of the 10 of the biggest exchanges simultaneously through a single platform, so you can execute trades, whenever you like.

Antoni: The aspect and the ramifications of this cannot be overstated. There are exchanges claiming to do something like this, but not quite, because there is an inherent conflict of interest for the exchange. Exchanges usually want everything settled within their order books. Nexo came out as a crypto lender, meaning that the wonderful suite of exchange services came in second, so we don’t necessarily view ourselves as an exchange per se.

We always wanted to be more inclusive in terms of products and services, but that gives us the flexibility of the business model, given the fact that we have various different revenue streams within the Nexo enterprise, so that we are more agnostic to the execution and on which exchange it happens. We don’t have a problem to source liquidity on the different exchanges and give you the best prices, because this is not what we depend on.

Yasen: To add to that and distinguish Nexo Prime from what we’re launching now with Nexo Pro – Nexo Prime is a trading platform specifically designed and built for the institutions who wish to trade. Most of the time those institutions will be having specific requirements and specific ways of using the product. This will include programmatical trading and specific margin requirement. Nexo Pro is for the retail – semi-pro and pro customers, so every single client will be able to use Nexo Pro and trade with the platform.

Is Nexo pro going to be a separate app/platform than the current Nexo app, or will it be integrated? (11:37)

Antoni: Nexo Pro is going to be a different app on your device. That’s usually the case with all types of offerings, that have a wallet and a pro exchange. Single sign-in credentials, one-click balances transfers and going forward we will make this an even smoother process – it is very user-friendly and efficient, so that you can manage your digital assets from the comfort of your mobile or desktop devices.

Will trading fees be based on reward tiers? (13:14)

Yasen: Our vision for Nexo Pro includes the capability to enable the customer to trade with almost zero cost. We will be focused on providing a competitive fee structure – it will be built based on tiers. Tiers will be defined on a 30-day trading volume basis and will be recalculated every 24 hours, so we can update tiers and fee structures. We’re looking to start with a very competitive structure and in the near future we’ll be interested to add perks and rewards from our loyalty platform. We’re looking to integrate Nexo Pro very closely in the Nexo ecosystem.

In an environment with low public trust for crypto lenders (at least until Celsius customers are saved by bailout or M&A), how does this impact Nexo Pro growth? (15:05)

Antoni: It goes beyond Nexo Pro. Our hearts go out to all those people who have lost funds in Celsius or Voyager or some of the companies that are having difficulties. At the same time this has been another stress-test for the enterprise and not to be gloating, but Nexo passed the test with flying colors. This is the harshest thing that could have happened to the crypto-lending sector.

We did not have to resort to any sort of augmentation of limits, withdrawals and tiers. We did not need a credit line, we had all the right tools in place – the attestation, prudent management, the fact that we’re not on any creditors’ list. This aggregates to a compelling picture for the client, for the investor, for the community. They appreciate the fact that we have been stress-tested like no other. In terms of growth prospects, we are in for the long run. We are in a very good position – we don’t care that much in the short term about growth prospects, but rather delivering the products and services.

Will you be adding smarter trade options to Futures? (like Limit, OCO, maybe even trailing TP/SL. It's very basic at the moment.) (19:26)

Yasen: Currently, our trading engine isn’t that basic – we’ve already added market orders and limit orders, stop-loss/take-profit orders, as well as TWAP orders, which you rarely see in a trading product. This is a specific type of trade, designed for trading a big amount, by splitting the amount, so that customers take the best possible price on execution. We will be adding trailing, stop-loss, take-profit, so customers will be able to trade those and those are very high in the priorities.

The volatility emails are great. Are you considering custom price alerts that we can set for when an asset, or your overall balance reaches a certain price? (22:45)

Antoni: The honest reason for less push notifications on the Nexo platform had to do with our rescaling of the platform.

Yasen: We’re reorganizing our infrastructure, so we can put more notifications both to nexo.com and Nexo Pro, where we’ll be putting price and trading signals. Once we’re ready, we’ll definitely push those out, starting with retail notifications and adding more professional trade signals.

What role will the NEXO token play on Nexo Pro? (24:45)

Yasen: This is one of the most frequently asked questions. We will definitely be adding utility for the token holders within Nexo Pro, an additional product within the great Nexo ecosystem. So for Nexo Pro, holding NEXO in the Pro balances will reduce trading fees. Customers will also be able to pay those trading fees with NEXO tokens, which will reduce fees additionally. We will be integrating our loyalty tiers too.

Antoni: The NEXO token is now getting the value that some of the exchange-related tokens have, all the while having all the reasons and benefits of holding, that you had until this point without Nexo Pro – our wallet, lending and earning products. So we’re now merging two concepts into something that we’ll talk about soon again – the Nexonomics 3.0.

When will we get the Nexo Pro app? (30:49)

Yasen: This is very high on our priority list. Our observation shows that the usage of the mobile app is growing rapidly month-on-month. We’re focusing on pushing the mobile app to the market in the next couple of months. For the mobile app, we will be providing all the professional trading functionalities, while at the same time tailor the experience for the customer, so they execute trades very quickly when there’s severe volatility in the market, so they don’t miss opportunities. The ability to quickly swap, but at the same time set up more advanced traders and orders, is pretty much the main focus for the Nexo Pro app.