Dear PointPay Family,
PointPay CEO Vladimir Kardapoltsev participated in a traditional AMA session on October 31st, 2024. He shared the latest news about PointPay, made several announcements, and discussed a lot of events within the platform!
Below is a summary of the AMA held on October 31st, 2024.
AMA Transcript
Vladimir (CEO): Hello, PointPay family! Welcome back to our traditional AMA session. I'm thrilled to have Diana with me once again.
As always, with me is Diana. Hello, Diana!
Diana (Host): Hello, everyone! Let's dive right in and hear the latest news and announcements from Vlad.
Vladimir (CEO): Thank you, Diana, for joining me today. I'm very excited about this AMA session. To start, it feels like the market has finally rebounded, and next week’s U.S. Election will likely impact crypto dynamics for at least the next year, possibly even longer. Personally, I’m betting on Trump winning, not necessarily because I support all of his policies, but I do find some of his crypto initiatives interesting. Either way, it’s going to be an exciting week ahead. I'll also be in New York from November 5th to 16th, so if you're in the city, feel free to reach out – we might arrange a meeting!
Let’s dive into recent market developments and key happenings in the PointPay community. Today is October 31st – not only Halloween but also the anniversary of the Bitcoin white paper’s publication. You might have seen some posts marking this milestone in our news feeds. Sixteen years ago today, the Bitcoin white paper was published, catalyzing the entire crypto industry we’re now part of. While we celebrate events like Bitcoin Pizza Day, the white paper’s publication stands as one of the most pivotal moments in crypto history. If you haven’t read it, I highly encourage you to—it’s fascinating to see how much the industry has evolved.
For Halloween, we held a PointPay Halloween meme contest and a trading competition. Here’s a quick breakdown: Participants traded USDT pairs on our exchange, competing to accumulate the highest trading volume. The results will be published tomorrow, on November 1st, so there’s still time to participate if you’re interested. With a prize pool of $100,000, there’s a real opportunity to win. The prize will be divided among the top five traders. Check our trading competitions webpage to view the leaderboard and track the top five winners!
As I mentioned, our current trading competition will conclude tomorrow, along with the meme competition results. Looking ahead, November has a busy line-up of trading competitions: next week, we’re launching the US Election Special, followed by a Thanksgiving competition, and finally, a Christmas competition—last year’s most popular event. We’re also considering an animal-themed “Zoo” trading competition, given the current interest in animal-based coins like DOGE. Stay tuned—these events will kick off as soon as the current USDT competition ends tomorrow, November 1st, with the next one starting Monday.
Winners of the meme competition will be revealed during our weekly update tomorrow. The results will be published on our website, and email notifications should follow soon after. Delivery times vary, so some of you might receive the update on Friday, while others could see it as late as Sunday or even Monday. For instant access, check our blog page. The top prize pool is set at 500 PXP, with the highest reward around 250 PXPs—plenty of incentive to join if you haven’t already! To participate, simply create a meme, add the hashtag #PointPayHalloween2024, and post it on X. If you haven’t followed our X or Telegram accounts, please do!
Platform Updates and New Staking Options: Moving on to some exciting platform updates! During our last AMA, many of you requested more staking options, and I’m pleased to announce that this month, we’ve delivered. We’ve added several new assets available for staking with APYs across 30- to 90-day terms. This range aligns well with current market volatility. So, if you’re holding tokens and looking to earn returns, consider staking with us.
The new assets include NOT, OM, AXS, ALT, ATOM, LISTA, and INJ. APYs start at 3% for 30-day stakes, with the highest offering at 28% for a 90-day NOT token stake. Our staking options are insured, offering peace of mind as you earn returns even over shorter periods. Next month, we may add more staking assets, but for now, these new options are available and ready for you to explore.
In October, we expanded our trading portfolio with several new listings, including Linear Finance (LINA), Catizen (CATI), First Neiro on Ethereum (NEIRO), and Hamster Kombat (HMSTR) — the popular game that many of you have likely tried. These additions have enhanced our platform’s offerings, and we anticipate adding even more prominent tokens in November. Currently, at least four new coins are planned for listing. For a complete overview, stay tuned for our monthly listing digest, expected to be published within the first few days of November. The digest will detail each new token and its unique advantages for our traders.
I’m pleased to share that we’ve regained our position in CoinGecko's Top 30, thanks to our recent security score accreditation. Although we saw a slight dip in rating due to changes in their scoring algorithm, we’re committed to optimizing our rankings further. As part of this process, we’ll be delisting certain pairs in the coming weeks, part of our regular “fall cleanup” to remove less popular trading pairs. Historically, these adjustments can cause temporary rating shifts, so don’t be alarmed if you notice minor fluctuations. We are confident, however, that we’ll return to the Top 50 shortly as we streamline our pairs and enhance liquidity.
Our current ranking of around 60 on both platforms is quite solid, considering the challenge of maintaining liquidity spreads to balance user demand and deter arbitrage activity. Striking this balance is essential for consistent performance, and we’re making every effort to manage it effectively.
If you have accounts on CoinMarketCap or CoinGecko, we encourage you to post a positive review about PointPay. Your feedback contributes significantly to our community reputation and helps us improve.
Thanks to your continued support and positive reviews, our Trustpilot rating recently rose to 4.6. After a long period holding steady at 4.5, we’ve been able to break through with the help of our active community. This improvement reflects the positive experiences users are having on our platform, and we’re incredibly grateful for the feedback.
We have several exciting trading competitions planned for the coming months. In addition to the US Election-themed competition, we’ll host a Thanksgiving competition with a confirmed prize pool of $100,000. Our Christmas competition will also offer the same prize amount. As for the US Election competition, we’re aiming for a $50,000 prize pool split across five winners, though this will be finalized next week after running a few financial models to ensure feasibility.
During our previous AMA, I mentioned the launch of our "Learn and Earn" functionality, which is now live on the platform. This interactive feature is part of our broader campaign to provide users with more ways to earn rewards on PointPay. Here’s how it works: by correctly answering a series of ten questions related to our platform, users can earn PXP tokens. The questions are straightforward and cover general knowledge about PointPay—for example, if you’re asked whether PointPay currently offers crypto cards, you would answer "no," as we currently don't due to licensing requirements.
This quiz-style format, similar to platforms like Zealy, allows participants to earn free PXP while expanding their knowledge of the PointPay ecosystem. Budget allocations for rewards are still under discussion, but we anticipate launching this campaign in the next couple of weeks, depending on the final development timeline.
Excitingly, we’re also collaborating with one of the largest crypto companies for a Learn and Earn campaign on our platform. While I can’t disclose the partner’s name just yet, we expect this collaboration to launch soon. This partnership has been in the works for several months, with our development team customizing features to meet their requirements. Their legal and content review has been extensive, which is expected at this scale, but we’re in the final stages of approval.
Alos, let's cover our future plans for Learn and Earn. This initial campaign will focus on a ten-question quiz, designed to take about ten minutes to complete. Looking ahead, we plan to incorporate more engaging features, including video-based content and additional educational tools. These enhancements are an evolution of our original "Crypto School" initiative, which was designed to educate users through video content and quizzes, rewarding them with PXP tokens for successful completion. This platform will eventually offer broader educational resources, introducing users to crypto fundamentals and different companies through interactive, reward-based learning.
We’re thrilled to roll out this first iteration and aim to keep expanding as PointPay grows, adding more resources and opportunities for you to learn and earn. We hope this program becomes a trusted guide to crypto, combining valuable knowledge with tangible rewards.
Continuing with the Learn and Earn initiative, we’re preparing additional campaigns in collaboration with other projects. Our sales team is actively promoting this functionality, which, interestingly, has gained even more popularity than listings. It turns out that many partners see value in these co-marketing opportunities, especially as they offer substantial budgets for users to answer questions about their projects on our platform. This approach creates a win-win for everyone involved.
As for the ongoing marketing campaign preparations, we’d held back, waiting for the market to pick up, and now, with recent market momentum, it seems like the right time to move forward. If Donald Trump wins the election, with Elon Musk’s support and their stated policies, I genuinely believe we may see another bull run in the crypto market. Our team is well-positioned for this potential upswing; we’re actively renewing our campaign, reaching out to key opinion leaders (KOLs) to get ready.
Throughout the summer, we engaged several KOLs, some of whom have chosen not to continue with us, while new applicants have expressed interest in joining our program. This week, we’re reopening negotiations with both past and potential partners, aligning our strategies for the upcoming campaign. Our goal is to ensure that if the market surges, we’ll be fully prepared to leverage it.
Vladimir (CEO): That’s everything I wanted to share for now. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the chat. Oh, and I recently got new glasses — hope you like them!
Let’s move on with the questions.
Diana (Host): Are the asset price charts on the exchange updated in real time? It seems like my data refreshes quite slowly.
Vladimir (CEO): Our exchange is a vital part of our platform, and we’ve invested significant resources into ensuring it functions effectively. To address your question directly: yes, exchange data updates in real time.
However, our trading volume is smaller compared to major platforms with millions of active traders at any given moment. PointPay currently has around half a million users, with fewer trading actively each day, which may contribute to perceived delays in data refresh rates.
If you’re noticing specific issues, please reach out to our support team with a video or feedback regarding any challenges in the trading terminal, which we recently updated. If our product manager approves and relevant references are provided, we’ll work to refine the experience further.
You might see rapid updates on top-tier platforms due to the widespread use of bots and increased liquidity there. Since PointPay attracts fewer high-volume bot users, this leads to fewer rapid data flashes on our order book. Nonetheless, the data on our platform is updated in real time and should meet the needs of most users.
Diana (Host): Why does the withdrawal process sometimes take days? Shouldn't it only take a few minutes?
Vladimir (CEO): For 99% of users, withdrawals don’t take days. For transactions below a certain threshold, typically $1,000, withdrawals are processed automatically, especially for users in regions like the European Union and the US. However, for larger amounts, we may require additional verification due to compliance and licensing obligations.
Withdrawal times can also vary based on account age. Newer accounts tend to have quicker transactions, while older accounts may require additional verification because past migrations may have left gaps in user data. In such cases, we might ask for details or transaction hashes to ensure accuracy.
It’s also worth noting that larger transactions involve compliance checks similar to traditional banks, where deposits over $10,000 often require extra documentation. This helps us meet regulatory requirements across regions, including the US and Europe. We handle these checks during withdrawals for efficiency, and while we aim to minimize delays, reviews of larger withdrawals may take up to 48 hours.
Our average transaction speed is improving monthly, though it may not yet match the fastest platforms. We are actively working to enhance automation and streamline the process to ensure faster withdrawals.
Diana (Host): Are there plans to buy back and burn PXP to support the price?
Vladimir (CEO): I’m somewhat limited in what I can share regarding any potential PXP buyback and burn plans, as specific statements could risk being perceived as market manipulation. We are carefully evaluating various options, especially given recent market events and actions by other platforms.
We’ve conducted several burns in the past, but currently, a burn isn’t part of our immediate strategy. That said, we aren’t ruling it out entirely, though we won’t announce any specific plans or timelines to avoid influencing the market inappropriately.
While we’re not planning a burn in the near term, we may consider it when we launch a future marketing campaign to potentially boost demand for the token. Overall, we believe our current strategy places us in a strong position.
Diana (Host): Why is the ranking so low on CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap?
Vladimir (CEO): As I mentioned before, our lower ranking initially stemmed from missing requirements. CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap introduced a more stringent security audit standard, which took us a few months to complete. Although we achieved this, they then updated their ranking algorithms to factor in spread sizes, a criterion that wasn’t previously considered.
To improve our ranking, we’re making several changes. First, we’ll be removing pairs with low liquidity, which may cause a temporary drop in our ranking, but this cleanup will ultimately help stabilize it. We’re also working to reduce spreads and optimize the number of tokens in our order book. Additionally, we’re in the process of pursuing proof of reserves accreditation, although this is a lengthy procedure.
We reached the top 30 once our security ranking was recognized, but shortly after, the ranking criteria shifted again, affecting our position. Unfortunately, the top 50 on these platforms still includes projects with suspiciously flat or spiked volumes—often signs of artificial trading activity. At PointPay, however, you can be confident that our trading volume is genuine.
With the recent market slump, our monthly visitors dropped from around 2.6 million to 1.7 million, which affects our ranking. We expect this to improve as market activity resumes and with the upcoming marketing campaign. Increased traffic, reduced spreads, enhanced liquidity, and clearing low-liquidity pairs should positively impact our ranking.
In summary, we’re actively addressing these factors, and with continued efforts, we expect to see positive ranking developments in the near future.
Diana (Host): Will PointPay improve the withdrawal speed to match blockchain transactions?
Vladimir (CEO): This question relates closely to a previous one. In short, we’re constantly working to accelerate withdrawal speeds across the platform. Small transactions are generally processed very quickly. However, for larger amounts and certain jurisdictions, withdrawals sometimes require manual review for compliance, adding a bit of time. This manual review helps us ensure account security and verify the required documents to prevent fraud.
While some platforms offer faster withdrawals, centralized exchanges like ours must follow stringent regulatory requirements worldwide. If you prefer entirely instant transactions, blockchain peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers are an option. However, using a centralized exchange means accepting slightly longer processing times due to necessary compliance checks.
We are actively enhancing transaction speeds, but compliance remains essential to maintain our platform’s reliability and integrity.
Diana (Host): Could you share how many have migrated to V3 and how many remain unmigrated?
Vladimir (CEO): Approximately 98% of holders have migrated to V3, so the process is nearly complete. The swap remains open, with a few requests each week, and we’re handling these on a case-by-case basis for now. Most remaining holders with unexchanged tokens appear to be inactive, holding small amounts—often just $10, $20, or $100 in PXP. The bulk of large holders have already migrated.
While the swap began nearly a year ago, those who missed it can still complete it by contacting our support team. Simply reach out by email or message, and they’ll guide you through the process.
For users on certain exchanges like BeTrue and Whitebit, the swap was handled automatically due to differing compliance requirements. We’re continuing to assist remaining holders with small balances and will complete swaps promptly upon request.
Diana (Host): What will happen to those who don't migrate to the new PXP? Will they be burned or converted somehow?
Vladimir (CEO): The remaining unexchanged tokens won’t be burned. With the new tokenomics, the old tokens will stay as they are, but holders who don’t migrate by a future, announced deadline will effectively lose their tokens. The older version of PXP isn’t tradeable anywhere, so those still holding it—often in external wallets rather than on the PointPay platform—won’t have access to it unless they complete the swap.
Nearly all PointPay users have migrated, but a few individuals hold small amounts externally. Some might have opted out of the swap due to our referral program restrictions, where fraud prevention measures require identity verification. For example, we’ve seen cases where users accumulated tokens across multiple accounts to take advantage of referral bonuses, then moved them to wallets or other platforms. However, with KYC requirements in place, such attempts at bypassing restrictions were unsuccessful.
For those still holding old tokens, we’ll continue the swap for now and give a month’s notice before closing it. If they wish to complete the swap, they can simply transfer their tokens back to PointPay and follow the migration process.
Diana (Host): So yeah, there were also a few questions about disappearing PXP tokens. Could you explain the token swap again?
Vladimir (CEO): Certainly. Earlier this year—specifically around spring—we conducted a swap to replace the old PXP tokens with a new version on an updated blockchain. We migrated to the Avalanche network to eventually support multi-currency features, though this functionality is still in progress. If you’re holding old PXP tokens, they need to be exchanged for the new tokens at a rate of 8.28:1. Detailed tokenomics and our new white paper are available on our website.
The swap process was streamlined based on where users held their tokens:
- External Platforms (BeTrue and Bittrex): The swap was automatic, with no action needed.
- PointPay Platform: Users needed to complete KYC, after which the swap was done automatically.
Currently, swaps are handled on a case-by-case basis, so if you still have old PXP tokens, you can initiate the swap by contacting our support.
As for the “disappearing” tokens, this might be due to how they’re displayed in your wallet. The old PXP tokens aren’t tradable and thus hold no market value, showing a balance of zero in your wallet. This doesn’t mean they’re missing, but rather that their market value won’t be displayed until they’re swapped for the new PXP tokens, which are tradable and visible on your account. I hope this clarifies any confusion.
Diana (Host): What is the status of a marketing campaign right now? Still not the right environment?
Vladimir (CEO): Actually, it is the right time. As the broader market shows signs of recovery, we’re optimistic about launching our campaign. Bitcoin has been climbing, and we’re hoping for a sustained upward trend. We anticipate even more momentum if certain political developments—like Trump’s potential re-election—come through, given his pro-crypto stance and intentions to reform crypto regulations. His possible influence on the SEC's approach to crypto, his talk of creating a Bitcoin reserve, and even the potential for international stability could all create a positive backdrop for the crypto market.
On our end, we’re re-establishing connections with key opinion leaders (KOLs) to boost our campaign. Some partners have left the market or changed, but we’re actively exploring new partnerships. As the market is projected to enter a new positive cycle, our goal is to be well-positioned to capitalize on these developments and ride the next wave of growth.
Diana (Host): Will PointPay provide tax forms for Global CSV or Excel files for US tax purposes?
Vladimir (CEO): Currently, PointPay doesn't automatically generate tax forms or downloadable CSV/Excel files for US tax purposes. However, if you need this information, particularly if you're in the US, you can contact our support team. Our internal system maintains this data, and support can prepare an Excel file with your transaction history upon request.
To ensure a smooth process, please specify the exact time frame you need. Requests like these can take a few days, so it's best to request early, especially ahead of tax deadlines. Additionally, if you need any official confirmation or supporting letters for tax purposes, we can provide those as well. This service aligns with our commitment to compliance and user support.
Diana (Host): Are there plans to publish PointPay proof of reserves?
Vladimir (CEO): Yes, we are actively working on establishing a proof of reserves (PoR) for PointPay. This initiative is certainly on our roadmap, as we understand the importance of transparency for our users. However, due to the complexities and costs associated with maintaining a verified PoR certification, we’re taking a phased approach to ensure it’s implemented effectively and sustainably.
Once our current marketing campaigns are underway, we believe we can allocate more resources toward completing this task. I encourage you to bring this question up again in the next AMA for a more detailed update, as we should have further developments to share by then.
Diana (Host): I've noticed quite poor localization quality, at least in French. Do you plan to fix this and improve the localization quality?
Vladimir (CEO): Yes, we’re aware that maintaining high localization standards can be challenging, especially with the extensive language support we aim to provide. Our translations span around 20–25 languages, including key languages like English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French. While we strive for accuracy, ensuring consistency across so many languages can sometimes be hit or miss, as you’ve observed.
To address this, we have a dedicated localization manager, and we’re committed to improving any issues that arise. If you encounter specific translation errors, we encourage you to reach out to Artemis in the chat, or you’re welcome to message me directly. We can usually make updates quickly once an issue is flagged.
Additionally, if you’re open to auditing or providing feedback on translations, especially for French, we would greatly appreciate your insights. Improving our localization is important to us, and user feedback plays a big role in helping us achieve that.
Diana (Host): That’s all! Thank you for the answers!
Vladimir (CEO): Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. It’s been an insightful AMA session, and I appreciate your engagement. By our next AMA, I hope to announce the launch of our marketing campaign — though that depends on developments next week.
Currently, we are revitalizing our connections with KOLs and managers and updating our marketing plans. Overall, we’re in a strong position: significant improvements have been made to the website and mobile app, enhancing both UX and UI. We’ve added new listings, and the platform continues to grow, thanks to our community’s support.
We’ll also be closely watching the US election results, as outcomes there may influence the market. Thank you again for your time, and I wish you all a wonderful weekend and a fun, safe Halloween!
For further questions, please reach out to me on Telegram (@ceopointpay) or through Twitter, where messages will be forwarded to me. I check Telegram regularly, though there may be slight delays in response.
Thank you once again, and take care!
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