Maladex rebrands to Axo

Maladex has rebranded to Axo, an aspiration world brand. Maladex's new Twitter handle is @axotrade, under the username Axo. This rebranding takes effect immediately i.e from September 28th. In an announcement to its community, the upcoming Cardano DEX protocol outlined the reasons why it is going for a different name.

In their view, Axo represents a timeless, clean, and accessible brand. Free from the 'mal' prefix which in some languages like Spanish means 'evil' or 'wrong'. It's, therefore, understandable that the protocol would like to distance itself from such connotations. A vibe that would contradict its core values and mission.

In its whitepaper, Axo (then Maladex), indicated that it wants to democratize and decentralize financial tools the world over.

The Maladex platform is going to decentralize and democratize access to bespoke trading tools and investments for the entire world. ~ Maladex v1 whitepaper paragraph 4.

The axo platform is set to decentralize and democratize access to bespoke trading tools and investments for the entire world. ~ Axo whitepaper paragraph 5

This statement underlines Axo's values and commitment to creating a fair, transparent, and efficient financial protocol that would benefit all and not wrong anyone.

By dropping the 'Maladex' brand, the platform also drops the 'DEX' name from its brand. This step frees the protocol, from the assumption that it's merely decentralized exchange only. From the beginning, Axo has promised to be a trading platform that would offer DEX functionality, synthetic assets, indexes, futures e.t.c.

This approach is similar to ErgoDEX's which also recently rebranded to Spectrum.

The new brand Axo also comes with a logo rebrand which also is carefully crafted to convey the platform's core values 👇.

The Axo logo contains both the lambda symbol and a mathematical arrow, called a lollipop arrow from linear logic. Together they form the iconic ‘X,’ a nod to the mathematical fundamentals of category theory and linear logic, on which the protocol design is based.

Axo tokenomics

Axo has also dropped the MAL token, Maladex utility token to AXO. There is a slight adjustment in its tokenomics allocation. For example, the new team token allocation will vest linearly over a period of 4 years instead of 5 years under Maladex. The diluted supply remains 42 million AXO tokens just as before.

The new token distribution is divided into 3 main categories:

1. Development fund - 25%

   20% will be the team's allocation, to vest over 4 years as previously stated. 5% will be distributed via a private sale; subject to a discretionary vesting period.

2. Treasury reserves - 25%. Will vest gradually.

3. Incentivization rewards - 50%

   This allocation will be split between platform rewards and airdrops in a 4:1 ratio, i.e 40% and 10% respectively. Platform rewards will fund yield farming incentives, DeFi educational content creation. Airdrops will fund incentives not covered under the platform rewards category.

   10% reserved directlyfor the airdrops to incentivize and reward actions outside of the mentioned ones (e.g., reward for moving liquidity from different exchange, reward for having used the platform before date X, staking to certain pools, promotion, etc.).

   This probably includes ISPO rewards which were listed separately in Maladex whitepaper.

Will MAL branding disappear completely?

The team admits that the MAL branding will linger on in some ways.

We could never truly say goodbye to Mal, he will forever be a part of Axo’s history. Mal will be stepping down as our brand ambassador, but you will still find him causing mischief in our Discord.

Maladex vs Axo changes comparison

Aspect	Maladex	Axo
Logo
Utility token	MAL	AXO
Whitepaper	Maladex whitepaper	Axo whitepaper