Recently, pre-markets have been introduced into the world of cryptocurrencies, offering users the opportunity to trade complete packages or individual parts of tokens before their official launch (TGE). However, most people are still unaware and do not understand how this surprisingly simple mechanism actually works. Therefore, it is possible to consider various methods of managing tokens before their official appearance on exchanges. This includes selling, buying, or exchanging - in general, all aspects of trading. 

• What are pre-markets?
• The principle of decentralized pre-markets
• Hyperliquid: DEX with perpetual futures
• Futures pre-markets and strategies on AEVO
• How centralized pre-markets work
• Over-the-counter trading (OTC)
• Conclusion

What are pre-markets?

Pre-markets are platforms where qualified participants can trade conditional assets based on certain characteristics:

• Official information about the project, such as the total number of assets, preliminary valuation, declared initial price, etc. (if available).
• Established margin, including the initial rate and the maximum possible leverage for your contribution.
• Limitation on the maximum volume of a position per token.

Cryptocurrency pre-markets refer to the early stage of trading and investing in cryptocurrencies or tokens before they are officially listed on public cryptocurrency exchanges. This period provides unique opportunities for investors and market participants wishing to invest in new projects at the earliest stages.

The Principle of Decentralized Pre-markets

Whales.Market combines various OTC trading models in a single decentralized solution based on DeFi, especially relevant against the backdrop of the growth of Solana and the revival of many projects on the blockchain.

Whales.Market offers a unique pre-market for trading tokens before their official release, using smart contracts to automate and secure transactions. Among the tokens that have already passed through this service are $JUP, $AEVO, and others. Additionally, the platform expands its capabilities by trading various assets, including NFTs, and plans to introduce new features and expand to other blockchains, such as Ethereum, Cosmos, and Arbitrum.

The Points Market feature, where you can trade assets in the form of points from various projects, providing new opportunities for the community, is particularly attractive. Whales.Market is also developing mobile solutions and has its own token $WHALES, offering additional utilities for its holders.

Hyperliquid: DEX with Perpetual Futures

Hyperliquid is a decentralized exchange (DEX) specializing in perpetual futures, operating on its own first-level blockchain (L1). The developers focus on high-frequency algorithmic trading (HFT). Unlike traditional futures, pre-market contracts on Hyperliquid, named Hyperps, do not require price anchoring through oracles. Instead, an 8-hour moving average of the price is used, making them less susceptible to manipulation and more stable.

Here are a few examples of contracts on Hyperliquid:

• $ZRO: A contract for the future LayerZero token, where the base index is the fully diluted market value of $ZRO divided by the preliminary total issue of 2 billion.
• $FRIEND: A contract for the FriendTech token, tracking the total price of all the company's shares in circulation.

The choice of DEX for working with the pre-market depends on personal preferences, user experience, and the unique offerings of each exchange. For example, Hyperliquid may offer trading pairs not available on AEVO, and vice versa. From this, some advantages of Hyperliquid can be highlighted:

• Referral program: Offers a 4% savings on commissions.
• Launch of native token: The project announced the upcoming release of its own token $HLP, which will be used for fees and management functions.
• Incentive program: Participants in the program can earn points that can be converted into $HLP tokens in the future.

Hyperliquid represents an example of an innovative platform for futures trading with a pre-market, offering unique tools and opportunities for traders.

Futures Pre-markets and Strategies on AEVO

For futures pre-markets are characterized by having leverage of two times and require a deposit of about 50% of the value of one position. As a second (settlement) asset in a futures pair, a more stable asset tied to the US dollar, ETH, or BTC usually acts.

After the official release of the token and the start of its trading on external exchanges, futures pre-markets generally turn into standard perpetual futures contracts. Based on the above, it can be concluded that the pre-market largely reflects the potential of perpetual futures, although it has a number of significant differences, such as position limits, available leverages, commissions, and other fees, which helps to maintain the trading process in working condition with reduced risks.

In other words, it's a kind of conditionally safe "promises" market, which resembles options, but is not them. There are also safer versions of pre-markets, which operate on completely different principles and are associated with different risks.

The merger of Ribbon Finance and AEVO under the single brand AEVO has transformed the project from a standard to a high-performance and decentralized platform for trading options and futures.

Using AEVO is justified in conditions of high volatility caused by news background, which creates trading fluctuations between FUD and FOMO due to various interpretations or misunderstandings.

The following strategies on AEVO can be highlighted:

1. Hedging the Drop of $EAZER Token

If you expect to receive 1000 $EAZER tokens, you can deposit $10,000 on AEVO and take a short position on the EAZER-USD futures with x1 leverage. If the price drops to $5, your income will be $15,000 after selling the token and closing the position. If the price increases to $15, the sale of the token and the closing of the position will bring you $20,000, despite a $5000 loss on the short.

2. Buying the Token in the Absence of Airdrop

If you missed the Airdrop of $EAZER token but found the price of $10 on the AEVO platform good enough, you can open a long position and wait for the token to appear on the exchange. When the token becomes available for trading, you can buy it on the exchange and close your position on AEVO, thereby locking in the price you considered advantageous according to your analysis.

Examples of tokens and their dynamics on AEVO

AEVO offers a simple and convenient interface for implementing strategies on futures pre-markets, allowing users to protect their investments and optimize profits through flexible hedging and trading strategies.

How Centralized Pre-markets Work

Centralized pre-markets, such as KuCoin, are platforms of the Hong Kong exchange for trading new tokens before their official release. This is one of the most popular solutions among centralized services, allowing participants to set prices in advance and ensure liquidity, acting as a centralized counterpart to the OTC market with KuCoin as a guarantor.

On KuCoin Pre-Market, users can both place and execute orders at their discretion. However, it's worth noting that participating in a transaction requires a deposit in the full amount of the transaction value, and in case the seller fails to execute the order, the deposit is transferred to the buyer as compensation.

Among the advantages of KuCoin Pre-Market are a wide user base, an intuitive interface, and accessible transaction history, which helps to better navigate current prices. However, there are disadvantages: the lack of regulation of the deposit size, the necessity of undergoing KYC procedures, and the potential influence of the exchange on the trading history.

Over-the-Counter Trading (OTC)

Over-the-counter trading, or OTC, represents a format of trading assets that occurs outside of official exchange platforms. It's a direct interaction between market participants, often carried out via chats, social media groups, or forums. With technological development, the OTC market has evolved and now includes three main segments:

1. Traditional OTC platforms like Telegram and Discord, where participants negotiate deals independently.
2. Centralized OTC platforms, for example, on crypto exchanges like Kucoin, offering a more formalized approach to deals.
3. Decentralized OTC platforms like Whales.Market, where deals occur automatically using blockchain technologies.

For safe over-the-counter trading (OTC), it is crucial to carefully choose the platform based on recommendations from reliable sources and to support deals through a verified guarantor, who ensures the safety of the exchange for a fee. Always carefully check information, including links and contacts, and organize your contacts so that you can easily recognize reliable guarantors, avoiding scams by fraudsters.

Speaking of advantages, OTC trading allows participants to flexibly set the terms of deals and ensures complete anonymity, which is especially valued in communities that prefer confidentiality. There are various platforms for OTC trading, each offering its unique services and approaches, from classical to more innovative, including the use of centralized and decentralized technologies.

Conclusion

The pre-market sector is just beginning to unveil its potential in the technological sphere. Today, it has become much easier to buy or sell assets before their official debut on the market, thanks to the growing interest in over-the-counter transactions (OTC), which are essentially the basis of all pre-market platforms.

In particular, Whales.Market attracts attention with its ability to adapt key niche aspects and consolidate them, using the popularity of Solana. Their task now is to actively work on marketing and continue expanding their presence in various blockchains, which they are doing.