0x is emerging as the leading trading protocol for digital assets and is forging a path for decentralized finance.

It enables the peer-to-peer exchange of assets on Ethereum, using the native ZRX token for trading fees and governance.

The protocol is essentially the engine powering popular decentralized exchanges such as Radar Relay, Paradex and Bamboo Relay, allowing them to pool their liquidity. The 0x team has launched a number of open source tools including 0x Instant, 0x Launch Kit and Asset Swapper to make the trading of digital assets as easy as possible.

The newest version of 0x's decentralized finance trading protocol went live on Ethereum Monday. The transition will help create a more cohesive decentralized finance system by introducing a new set of bridge contracts that aggregate liquidity across several decentralized exchange networks, including Uniswap, Kyber, and MakerDAO's Oasis.

The new version, known by crypto-techies as the 0x Improvement Proposal 56 or ZEIP-56, also allows staking to the 0x protocol, which give incentives to market makers to manage staking pools on the network. Market makers get rewards in Ethereum's currency, Ether or ETH, for their efforts and are granted additional governance voting power. The team will also be releasing a live interface that enables "delegators" to easily stake their tokens with market makers of their choice.

0x Proves in Good Health

Over the last 3 weeks 0x has seen its FCAS (Fundamental Crypto Asset Score) up 1-point (0.11%)

Developer Behavior went up 14-points (1.56%)

User Activity went down 9-points (-0.99%)

Market Maturity fell 25-points (-3.13%)

ZRX project's health remains strong as the asset's performance has been resilient in unfavorable market conditions. The release of ZEIP-56, which should increase liquidity and demand for ZRX through staking pools, should bode well for its long-term outlook.

Our Hot Take

On Nov. 27, South Korean crypto exchange Upbit released news that 342,000 ETH, worth $49 million at press time, had been stolen from one of its wallets. The incident was a glowing endorsement for decentralized exchanges everywhere, as the single-point of failure exploited through Upbit's centralized exchange is nonexistent in the decentralized world 0x is helping create.

As for decentralized finance as a whole, the space continues to gain momentum with the release of MakerDAO's Multi-Collateral Dai, investments by Coinbase, and the overall amount of ETH locked up in decentralized finance products approaching $1 billion. While the ecosystem remains relatively small, the infrastructure is developing at a rapid pace, and this autonomous, empowering alternative financial system is poised for continued growth through 2020.

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