Bankruptcy Claims Exchange OPNX Stumbles Out of the Gate

OPNX, which is short for Open Exchange, a bankruptcy claims exchange co-founded by failed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital co-founders Kyle Davies and Su Zhu, has posted minimal trading volume since it went live on Tuesday.

Across all spot and derivatives markets on the exchange, just two trades have been executed worth a total of $1.26 at press time.

OPNX CEO Leslie Lamb told CoinDesk that the lack of liquidity is because there are no internal market makers for the exchange and its not giving preference to external market makers. Lamb added that a public marketing program will be rolled out to spur liquidity.

It remains unclear whether the exchange has suffered issues with enlisting new customers or whether the issue is a lack of demand.

The exchange was co-founded by Davies and Zhu, alongside executives of troubled exchange CoinFLEX.

Zhu said in a tweet on Tuesday that liquidity will be built "brick by brick" and that the exchange was learning from the failure of crypto exchange FTX by avoiding having internal market makers.

It's worth noting that the tokenized bankruptcy claim feature, which will let users cash in a range of crypto-related claims, isn't live yet.

The FLEX token, which is OPNX's native token, was down 28% over the past 24 hours to $2.01, giving back all its gains it made during a rally earlier this week.

UPDATE (April 5, 2023, 15:30 UTC): Adds quote from OPNX CEO Leslie Lamb.