Discussion with Krunal Amin, Founder, UNIDEX Exchange: PART-1
UNIDEX is a microcap project which seeks to be an advanced trading terminal with an aggregation of multiple DeFi tracks like swaps, yield farming, options-perps etc across chains. It had done its IFO on Bounce Finance in November and had since then grown its community organically. I sought to speak with the founder of UNIDEX, Krunal Amin and in PART — 1 of the interview, we touched up on a wide variety of areas concerning his background, benefits of using UNIDEX and a synopsis of how their liquidity engine works and future cross chain plans:
CryptoSicario: I happened to come across your interview on the ChainLink channel as well as your AMAs on TheSelectiveApe. You mentioned that you are a trader who transitioned straight into building UNIDEX. I would love to know more about your background, your experience in the crypto markets and why you felt the need to build UNIDEX.
Krunal Amin: So I’m a programmer, trader, and a person who loves to tinker around with things I don’t know and try to make something out of it. That’s really what started my whole journey to where I am now. I first started trading cryptocurrency early 2016 but I was aware of the technology before that, I only truly appreciated it in 2016 where I also had a way to monetize my interest. I would easily say I’m more of a trader than a programmer given its never really been my interest but I love the idea that I can create something tailored to my needs.
I built UNIDEX because I felt like when I was trading the crypto markets I lacked any real sense of being a trader outside of the rush you get from volatility. I started in crypto, moved to forex, then the stock market, tried exotic methods, and danced in between crypto. It was more so just an opportunity cost thing rather than losing interest since I truly appreciated the tech before I moved onto another market.
It just felt icky trying to trade crypto while knowing software staples like ThinkorSwim for stock trading and then looking at current “pro” level UI for crypto like Kattana terminal. It’s a laughable difference and if you showed that to stock traders they would probably never take you seriously. I decided to take it upon myself to lead this project and vision to create an actual trading interface and set of utilities for traders in the crypto markets.
Sicario: So you identify yourself more as a trader at heart who loved trading various instruments. You didn’t like how amateurish the trading experience was in DeFi compared to the tools in legacy markets. You loved the idea of building what you needed, so you took the leap on building UNIDEX. Did you have any experience tackling other projects as a dev prior to UNIDEX ?
Krunal: That’s an accurate summation, but no although I’ve always believed in work your strengths. I’m not a talented dev but I do have an amazing frontend dev Gor who exceeds my expectations everyday, I have a backend specialist who knows exactly what I’m thinking and how to build it when I give a round table meeting, and I play my role as the jack of all trades where if help is needed I can help my exceptional team. I would rather be the orchestrator than the musician either way.
Sicario: I’ve seen the latest UI updates for UNIDEX over your last stream (check it out for more insights about their update) and they look really great, your search bar looks way more appealing with the suggestions for multiple instruments, options trading with XVIX also looks great. So I agree about the work your front end dev’s putting in .. not to mention the way the product’s working so far for me.. however you didn’t answer the question about your past experience though.
Krunal: It was at the start very short. I don’t have past experience working professionally.
Sicario: I dont put any weight behind past experience as long as you have a clear vision and you know what you’re doing. I’m a fan of what you have built and that outweighs the past for me. I bring it up because it’s a necessity sometimes for investors to judge the man who’s at the helm of a project like UNIDEX.
Moving on, UNIDEX ideally is a one stop terminal for all traders to access every possible instrument in crypto be it trading, options, perps etc. It aggregates liquidity from the orderbooks of protocols like UNI, SUSHI. So as a user, what benefits should a user expect from UNIDEX over other protocols like Uniswap
Krunal: I understand the value of a strong CEO after all I was a trader myself and that’s just another area in fundamental analysis. I do my best to stay true to my beliefs and step in a strong impression given it’s a new experience for myself.
When it comes to benefits our target is information and data a trader does not have on Uniswap with a superior backbone such as aggregation. In simpler terms, right away the user has an advantage if the traded token exists quite literally anywhere else given if enough slippage is caused, we scan every aggregator, every protocol, and any other method to fill your order. As a trader that wants more data you’ll already be able to notice a more familiar environment and more smarter trading decisions like an actual price chart, possible liquidity events on lending markets, and so forth.
Sicario: Right now you aggregate a lot of other protocols like UNI and that fuels your order book for tokens through UNIDEX. I would like a deeper dive into how your Mirai Liquidity Engine makes it happen. I would also like the roadmap about which chains you plan to support and layers 2 in the immediate time frame.
Krunal: Right so we have a backend system we built similar to 0x but more focused on a no-bias approach. We are not directly competing with 1inch, in fact we’re using their contract directly if it means cheaper gas. Because of that we can support ETH and BSC given the wide amount of options available. But when it comes to other networks, We’re focused on total value locked and activity. If there isn’t much liquidity on lets say FTM then it wouldn’t make sense to allocate time. Our 2 biggest options right now are Solana and Polygon while leaning towards polygon given its really rapid rise recently.
As for the process itself on a deeper level we don’t reinvent the wheel. We use existing solutions like Connext network and routers to get liquidity from other chains and we’re specially talking about Connext (which is able to bridge multiple EVM networks together) and this is done through channels. We’ve been in touch for about 2 months to make this happen more geared towards a trading platform rather than simply being used as a method of payment transfer.
Things that don’t play nicely can involve larger contracts like Furucombo or other capable protocols like AnySwap to take care of that (such as SOL to ETH). The cost is pushed to the user but we don’t see it as a concern given its a problem that will fix itself given ETH2 and its sharding update with phase 1.
— End —
Click on PART-2 for more discussion on future CEX integration plans, liquidity generation steps, questions on marketing and tokenomics as well.
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Disclaimer: This is me, just exploring and going headlong into various projects that I find interesting. This is not investment advice. I will not be held liable for any losses that you make by taking a bet off my articles on these projects.
