SAN FRANCISCO — Aug. 27, 2020  — IDEX, a leading decentralized cryptocurrency exchange (DEX), today announced a code audit for its 2.0 mainnet conducted by Quantstamp, a trusted leader in blockchain security. The audit focused on an updated core custody contract, which houses the customer deposits, and exchange contract, which determines how funds are traded and settled among users. Following the successful audit, IDEX is on track to launch its new exchange as early as next month.

As of late, the cryptocurrency – and specifically the decentralized finance (DeFi) – environment has exploded with risky new projects and untested DEX deployments. DeFi has created a new ‘wild west’ of token issuance and exchange, and although many projects implement a ‘trade at your own risk’ policy, the lack of accountability continues to breed dangerous environments for traders.

“Cryptocurrency moves at breakneck speeds,” said Don Ho, managing director of Quantstamp. “However, it is important – especially while architecting new financial paradigms – that projects consider the impact of deploying unaudited code. It’s not just about preserving your own position of trust in the crypto ecosystem; security breaches and hasty deployments reflect poorly on the entire landscape. We can’t expect DeFi to attract new participants and capital if we can’t protect the majority from expensive blunders. IDEX is operating with the level of maturity necessary for the continued success and security of the blockchain space.”

Just within the past few months, unaudited code has resulted in numerous DeFi missteps. For Example:

• Yam.Finance, a yield farming protocol, deployed unaudited code which resulted in $750,000 in losses from a rebase issue.

• A sophisticated hacker drained a Balancer pool of $500,000 worth of tokens.

• LendF.Me, a cryptocurrency lending platform, experienced a re-entrancy attack which drained the platform of nearly $25M of funds.

As IDEX prepares for the next iteration of its exchange, the core team plans to enact strict security and testing to maintain its status as an industry leading DEX.

“When it comes to your safety and security, we don’t believe in moving fast and breaking things,” said Alex Wearn, IDEX co-founder and CEO. “We’re in this for the long term and that means creating products that can withstand real-world scenarios at every single layer. We’ve specifically designed IDEX 2.0’s launch to enable thorough testing and de-risking of each phase before roll-out.”

IDEX 2.0 combines the speed and features of a centralized exchange (CEX) with the security and self-custody functions of a DEX to create an uncompromising trading experience.

Presently, IDEX is encouraging market makers and algorithmic traders to access its API documentation and prepare for its full 2.0 rollout. The exchange API sandbox is now live on testnet and traders can deploy trading bots natively with significantly reduced friction (hours vs. weeks).

As part of the IDEX 2.0 launch, IDEX will be switching domains from IDEX.MARKET to IDEX.IO.

For more information, please visit the IDEX 2.0 homepage: https://idex.io/