Project Spotlight: Designing the future of derivatives trading

Since bitcoin exploded onto the trading scene nearly a decade ago, cryptocurrency trading has rapidly become a significant and growing part of the derivatives market. But while there are plenty of crypto exchanges, traders haven’t had a way to trade cryptocurrencies, equity and commodity futures contracts in single marketplace — until now.

As a fintech startup backed by leaders with decades of top-tier experience, EMX recognized the limitations of current trading platforms. The company sought to build a secure, institutional-grade exchange where traders could access traditional futures products instantly with digital coins. With transaction volume increasing 1,000 percent year-over-year on some crypto exchanges, EMX knew it needed to move fast to capitalize on an ever-expanding market.

To bring its vision to life, EMX looked for a partner with a strong grasp of fintech and emerging technologies and the ability to deliver business value quickly. As EMX’s development partner, Creatix worked closely with EMX’s internal team to realize an audacious vision: EverMarkets Exchange.

Leveraging our fintech development experience and collaborative approach, Creatix is helping EMX deliver a true next-gen platform that provides an unparalleled experience to the crypto trading community. For others pursuing fintech projects, here are several key takeaways that contributed to the project’s success.

Bringing the best of both teams together

For a build as complex as EverMarkets Exchange, close collaboration across the entire project team is essential. From the start, Creatix and EMX established clear roles and responsibilities, with our team spearheading the front-end application development and EMX managing back-end functions.

Tight integration among the two teams has helped the project move swiftly, with Creatix and EMX creating a continuous feedback loop throughout the process. Tools like Invision allow Creatix and EMX to collaborate on the UX/UI design in real time, and regular standups among the development team provide a forum for discussing technical topics and solutions.

From concept to live market

As a live financial market, it was critical to get every detail right on EverMarkets Exchange. EMX came prepared with a vision based on traders’ needs and desires, and Creatix has helped translate that vision into a functional, beautiful product for a global audience. To move quickly while delivering a high-quality product, Creatix relied on:

• Product prototypes. Based on the platform requirements, Creatix has developed prototypes to test interactions between various trading components and solicited feedback from beta users. This process allowed the team to validate assumptions and iterate quickly while streamlining the overall timeline. Creatix also used a one-click continuous integration and build process, which allows the team to build quickly and easily, and to check and deploy new features in seconds.

A modular design library. Using the AntDesign library for the platform’s interface, Creatix was able to choose from a wide range of styles to implement designs quickly and minimize time-consuming customization.

• A solid, reliable core. To bring EverMarkets Exchange to life, Creatix used time-proven and sound libraries and frameworks, including React, Redux and Sagas for a high-performing and stable user interface; Selenium, Jest and Storybook for automated testing; and tools like Webpack, Gradle and Docker for building, deploying and running the application. As with all of our apps, we are ready to go i18n and release worldwide.
• A full-featured, rich charting experience. Thorough research and endless experimentation led to the adoption of the award-winning ChartIQ software, which Creatix customized and integrated within the application seamlessly.
• Maximizing reuse for mobile. Using React Native, Creatix has been able to streamline the creation of a mobile app by reusing large amounts of application logic between web and mobile. Those efficiencies range from authentication and user management and charting through real-time secure asynchronous communication, streaming and exchange, along with continuous integration, build and testing processes.
• Robust security and trading functionality. With thefts on the rise among cryptocurrency exchanges, security is a top concern for traders. Unlike other exchanges, EverMarkets Exchange stores settlement data on blockchain, protecting it from the reach of potential hackers. To ensure user security, Creatix selected Amazon Cognito, an authentication and authorization cloud solution that stores all user data, so that EMX isn’t responsible for storing sensitive details. Creatix also employed WebSockets to facilitate real-time financial data transactions.

The result is an intuitive, powerful platform, with an exciting roadmap of future releases. Traders no longer have to settle for shoddy security or go through the hassle of converting to fiat to buy traditional futures — EverMarkets Exchange puts the entire marketplace within reach with a few clicks.

A plan for growth

With the initial release fast approaching, EMX is now preparing to launch EverMarkets Exchange as a trading competition, then as a live market. Meanwhile, Creatix and EMX are continuing to develop a mobile app to provide even greater accessibility to traders.

EverMarkets Exchange is the latest example of Creatix’s fintech product development expertise, including tools for P2P transactions, 401(k) portfolio optimization and mobile-enabled derivatives trading platforms. Creatix combines deep knowledge of the fintech space with a commitment to collaboration, partnering with client teams to design, build and integrate with their proprietary technologies. Thanks to the close collaboration forged between Creatix and EMX, the fintech innovator is now poised to transform the crypto trading experience of today and tomorrow.