When the House of Cards came tumbling down.

Over the last two weeks, we’ve all read and heard numerous versions of ‘I told you so’ with regards to the collapse of one of crypto’s behemoths. It’s got to the point where those of us that lost money, have retired into our cocoons to lick our wounds.

And yes, even after being in this industry for the last 5 years, we were caught in the fallacy of putting our faith in the illusion of a well-crafted public persona. If there was ever a lesson learnt, it is this — trust only in hard evidence.

However, this article is not about dissecting what went wrong — at least not entirely.

As part of Aquarius’ marketing launch, we had planned an entire series talking about our technology and our differentiators. In light of the scepticism, uncertainty and distrust prevalent in the crypto industry, we thought it best to first address the biggest question everyone will have for us.

What is Aquarius doing to ensure that we’re not another failed three-letter acronym?

There are 4 aspects to our approach:

1. Preventing a bank run

2. Regulation

3. Corporate governance

4. Aqex token governance

   
   

1. The BANK RUN

First and foremost, reserves on an exchange need to be 1:1 i.e. for every “dollar that a customer deposits, the exchange holds one dollar”. It is a simple formula. Bank runs are created by loss of confidence in a fractional banking environment. To sum it up, an exchange should never have a run.

Aquarius is NOT in the brokerage, custodian or banking business. Our role as an EXCHANGE, is to provide a platform whereby clients can deposit funds (in our case- crypto funds are held with one of the best crypto-custody service providers in the industry and NOT Aquarius’s own custody solution), trade, exchange and withdraw funds as required. Client funds are solely client funds — there is no grey area in this matter. Funds (whether Fiat or Crypto) deposited with us for trading are ‘segregated’, which means they’re NOT ours to handle as we please. We cannot “Lend” them out or attempt any fancy financial innovation with them. We only keep them safe with the help of our trusted third party custodians. (We’re working on providing transparency to our customers on this front.)

The goal of Aquarius is, and always will be, to provide a level playing field for trading. Aquarius Exchange is for the users, not for us. Our success will be the product of providing the best environment for people to trade — one that is reliable, safe, transparent and fair.

2. REGULATION

The juxtaposition of regulation and crypto appears to be counter-intuitive, but we cannot escape the fact that Aquarius is a centralised exchange. This means that a trusted third party is required to provide oversight and verify that we’re not mishandling customer and investor money. We have chosen to be a licensed entity- more so, in a region that does NOT have a reputation for being the wild west of financial governance.

We (Aquarius Global Exchange) are fully regulated under the Labuan Financial Services Authority, (Labuan, Malaysia). Our license with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), UK is in currently in process.

As Aquarius grows, we will ensure that we take appropriate registration and licensing as and when they become applicable to us in various geographies. Under our license, we adhere to stringent corporate and financial controls.

3. ETHICS, GOVERNANCE AND RISK MANAGEMENT

Our management has a high sense of ethical responsibility to one another and our clients, and this permeates our entire organisation.

As veterans in their respective fields, each person on the senior management team brings 20+ years of experience in areas ranging from professional forex trading, managing global financial companies, building and growing businesses in other sectors, auditing, and government and public administration.

Keeping in mind the importance of operating with fiscal responsibility, we adhere to the highest standards of risk management and internal policies, and hold each other accountable for decisions. We do not believe in short-cuts.

4. AQEX TOKEN GOVERNANCE

Similar to our exchange, the Aquarius token — AQEX is regulated and licensed under the LFSA. This token is NOT meant to be a speculative token — it is simply a utility token. The token should be purchased IF, and ONLY IF, you want to participate in the Aquarius Exchange. We do NOT accept staking deposits. We do NOT and will NEVER use or accept the token as collateral, in any shape or form.

How can we guarantee this? Because strict compliance with the licensing terms prevents us from doing anything else.

To reiterate: we are an exchange — not a bank, fund, or lender.

Being regulated (both the exchange and the token) brings an obligation to prove fiduciary responsibility through regular audits and regulatory filings. Internal governance is not a check-box exercise for us.

We are professionals in the business of building phenomenal trading technology. The road ahead may be difficult. But we’re here for the long haul.