“Proof of Trading”
The world’s 1st token model based on trading volume and liquidity.
Last updated
The world’s 1st token model based on trading volume and liquidity.
Last updated
The conventional approach of the “private token vesting model” is not ideal broken.
The precursors; BTC “proof of work” and “options token” by Andre Cronje
Maiga’s $MAIGA “Proof of Trade” token model
The traditional approaches to token distribution are becoming obsolete. Investors, including KOLs and VCs, aim to maximise their return on investment (ROI) during Token Generation Events (TGEs), while retail investors are increasingly skeptical of this narrative; low float high FDV.
“Time-based vesting” is often perceived as arbitrary, serving primarily to deter investors from dumping tokens immediately after receiving them.
The secondary market, encompassing public markets, liquid secondary funds, and retail investors, is exhibiting reduced enthusiasm for tokens characterised by "low float, high FDV" tokenomics compared to previous periods.
The absence of buying power, coupled with consistent selling pressure from early buyers and private investors, leads to downward price trends, which can be detrimental to the industry and project. This negative cycle perpetuates fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD), creating an unsustainable loop.
💡 What if token vesting is replaced by “Proof of Trading” as a token vesting mechanism?
The Maiga.ai "Proof of Trading" (PoT) token model is designed to create a sustainable and speculation-driven ecosystem for the MAIGA token by incentivising active trading volume while mitigating risks of market manipulation.
This model introduces the oMAIGA token, a derivative option token of MAIGA, which unlocks based on a combination of 7d trading volume and buy/sell ratio metrics. The model integrates real-time decentralised (DEX) and centralised (CEX) trading data, employs anti-manipulation safeguards, and uses Monte Carlo simulations to optimise incentives while ensuring long-term liquidity and fair price discovery.
Bitcoin’s $BTC proof of work vs MAIGA’s proof of trading
Requires significant computational power, leading to high energy consumption (cost of energy). PoW consensus mechanism limits the transaction throughput, higher number of transactions, higher the network faces congestion and higher transaction fees.
Miners receive BTC as a reward for solving the SHA256 hashing algorithm. This incentive motivates miners to continuously participate in the Bitcoin network, thus, securing its network.
MAIGA’s proof of trading (PoT) uses “cost of capital” as a mechanism for token model, therefore, ensuring token volume performance and network participants receives the benefits from this novel approach.
Sustainable options token model with game theory 3,3
Championed by Andre Cronje for Bond Protocol and further implemented by Tapioca DAO protocol for yield farming.
Option tokens are more fair, equitable for stakeholders; team, early supporters and community, while contributing to the healthier token price performance post listings.
To solve the trilemma of token distribution with the right incentives, "to get value, you must give value.", while not destroying token price and maintaining token performance via trading, volume and liquidity.
Improvements over OHM’s pOhms options token
One of OHM's challenges was its complexity for new users, as the expansion of the token supply led to price depreciation aka price down, which was considered unfavorable.
However, early users who staked OHM benefited from rebases, maintaining the same percentage of the token supply due to the elastic supply.
“Price down = fud. Price up = good” remains a classic example of how web3 speculators view the crypto market. Therefore, changing the broken token model, creating new demand and the right narrative plays an important role for the success of protocol and token performance.
💡 Maiga’s MAIGA “proof of trading” brings this to the next stage via novel approach to focuses on trading volume and liquidity.
The MAIGA protocol incentivises trading volume of the MAIGA token through oMAIGA, a derivative option token that converts to MAIGA at a 1:1 ratio based on the 7d rolling average trading volume recorded on a smart contract using trading data from both CEXes and DEXes.
However, unrestricted conversions can lead to constant selling pressure on MAIGA, especially under extreme market conditions such as whale trading, sniping bots, wash trading, extreme bear markets, and FOMO-driven pumps.
This selling pressure could destabilise the token’s price and undermine the protocol’s goals. The challenge is to design a simple, non-restrictive solution that prevents excessive conversions while maintaining trading incentives across diverse real-world exchange environments.
Traditional liquidity incentives (staking, airdrops, and liquidity mining) often lead to short-term farming strategies, followed by mass sell-offs. The PoT token model solves this problem by:
Encouraging sustained trading volume instead of passive holding.
Aligning trader incentives with organic market activity.
Preventing wash trading, flash loan exploits, whale manipulation and liquidity sniping.
Ensuring long-term price action sustainability for MAIGA token holders.
oMAIGA as a derivative option token: Traders earn oMAIGA when they trade MAIGA, but it only unlocks based on market-driven activity as KPI; trading volume, buy/sell ratio.
Team, advisors, airdrop farmers, community, seed investors, KOLs, foundation, marketing, all gets 100% oMAIGA option token. 0% chance of dumping.
Unlock Mechanism: oMAIGA unlocks at different rates depending on:
7d Average Trading Volume (higher volume = more unlocks).
Buy/Sell Ratio (more buying pressure = higher unlock rate).
Anti-Manipulation Multipliers (penalties for flash loan attacks, wash trading, liquidity sniping).
Hybrid Data Model: Pulls on-chain DEX data and CEX API data, ensuring accurate, non-manipulated volume metrics.
Monte Carlo Simulation Validation: The unlock model is tested across 100+ market scenarios to ensure fairness under extreme trading conditions.
No token dumping on TGE by insiders, KOLs, and seed investors. Fair for secondary market.
Token mechanics based on trading volume and liquidity. Everyone is incentivised to trade.
Trading incentives for traders, bots, arbitrageurs and speculators. Traders risk the cost of capital to exchange incentives for sustainable trading volume.
Game theory 3,3. Everyone is incentivised to trade. “You trade, I trade, everyone wins”.
Because team, advisors, investors, marketing, foundation, pre-sale are allocated with oMAIGA option token, and the only way for these option token to convert actual MAIGA token is through actual trading volume, there is no way for any insider to dump the token to the secondary market.
