MadLads creator Backpack to offer native crypto exchange in Dubai

Backpack Exchange will be publicly available sometime in early 2024

October 31, 2023 11:44 am

Melnikov Dmitriy/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

MadLads creator Backpack has launched a crypto exchange now that it has secured a VASP license from Dubai.

Backpack Exchange will first be made available as a private beta for existing Backpack and MadLads community members sometime in November. The exchange, which will only offer spot trading for the time being, will publicly launch in the first quarter of 2024.

Developers will be working to add derivatives and margin trading to the exchange after its launch, according to a press release.

Backpack founder and CEO Armani Ferrante announced the news early Tuesday morning on X, formerly Twitter, saying that creating this exchange was “the hardest yet most important project” his team has worked on “by far.”

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The floor price of Solana-based NFT collection MadLads pumped as much as 19 solana (SOL) (about $690) in the hours after Ferrante’s post about the new exchange, according to CoinGecko.

Ferrante also wrote that since the MadLads mint in April 2023, Backpack has “tripled” the size of its team and “worked with global regulators.”

The Backpack Exchange plans to employ zero-knowledge proofs to verify its reserves, as well as use multi-party computation (MPC) technology to custody user assets, according to a statement shared with Blockworks.

Backpack is also behind the concept of xNFTs, or executable NFTs. They double as digital assets and apps that run code. Essentially, these xNFTs can live in your Backpack wallet as games, DeFi protocols and even music platforms.

It’s unclear if these digital assets will play a specific role in the upcoming exchange.

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