Trading Track Program

The BSX Trading Track Program system quantitatively evaluates traders based across their liquidity taking activities, liquidity making activities and 7 day MA Open Interest

The Trading Track Program has 1M points up for grab on a weekly basis. Traders can earn points through the three different tracks:

• Maker Track

• Taker Track

• Open Interest Track

Each of these tracks is incentivized differently with the most points going toward the taker track. The following is the points split between Maker, Taker and Open Interest:

• Taker Track: ~47% of the points will go towards the taker track

• Maker Track: ~47% of the points will go towards the maker track

• OI Track: ~6% of the points will go towards the OI track. OI track will also have boosts throughout the season

We've also allocated points by market with the following split:

Maker Track

Definitions

• Maker Score: A quantitative measure based on liquidity quality, influenced by depth and spread metrics.

• Liquidity Score: Evaluates the minimum quality between bids and asks, considering order depth and spread.

• Uptime: The total minutes within an epoch a maker's offers meet specified market requirements.

• Depth: The aggregated product of order size and price, indicating liquidity volume.

• Spread: Measures pricing competitiveness relative to the market's mid-price.

• Epoch: A fixed period of 7 days (10,080 minutes), used as the scoring interval.

• Maker Fee: A credit to the market maker or traders, tallying the total fees that takers have paid in transactions involving the maker's orders. It's not a fee charged to the maker but a way to gauge the value they've provided to the market through their liquidity.

Scoring Process

Liquidity Evaluation:

• Frequency: Evaluated every minute within an epoch.

• Metrics: Depth and spread are calculated for bids and asks.

• Score Determination: The lesser of the bid or ask scores for each minute is recorded.

Uptime Calculation:

• Measurement: Counts all minutes where market depth and spread criteria are met. Snapshots of the book are taken at random times at each minute during an epoch

• Score Impact: Directly influences the Maker Score by reflecting reliability and consistency.

Maker Score Calculation:

• Integration of Scores: Combines Liquidity Score and Uptime to derive the overall Maker Score.

• Adjustment for Market Conditions: Weightings may change based on market dynamics and new trading pairs.

Points Allocation:

• Maker Point Ratio: Calculated as the individual's Maker Score divided by the total Maker Score of all participants.

• Distribution: Points are allocated proportionally based on the Maker Point Ratio.

Maker Fee Inclusion:

• Economic Contribution: Integrates the accumulated taker fees generated by the maker's orders.

Detailed Formulas

• Liquidity Score:

The Liquidity Score (LS) is a metric designed to evaluate the quality of liquidity provided on the BSX platform. It quantitatively measures the liquidity of both sides of the market—the bid side and the ask side—and ensures that traders can execute orders efficiently.

$$LS_{\text{Epoch}} = \sum_{N=1}^{10,080} \min(LS_{N_{\text{bid}}}, LS_{N_{\text{ask}}})$$

The score is the summation of the minimum values between the liquidity scores for the bid (LS_bid) and ask (LS_ask) at each minute over the epoch, which consists of 10,080 minutes.

The liquidity score for the bid and ask sides is determined using this formula:

$$LS_{N_{\text{bid}}} = \frac{\text{BidDepth}_1}{\text{Spread}_1} + \frac{\text{BidDepth}_2}{\text{Spread}_2} + \ldots + \frac{\text{BidDepth}_i}{\text{Spread}_i}$$

A liquidity score for bid-side liquidity is calculated every minute, then the minimum between the bid and ask scores is taken to represent the Liquidity Score for that epoch.

To be included in the Liquidity Score, the bid and ask depths and spreads must meet the criteria set for the market:

Minimum Depth(Total Notional) and Maximum Spreads

• Depth (calculated as size * price):

  • 1,000 for BTC, ETH and SOL

  • 500 for WIF, TON, kPEPE, BRETT

• Spreads (measured from the mid-point):

  • 20 basis points (bps) for BTC & ETH

  • 50 bps for SOL

  • 75 bps for WIF, TON, kPEPE, BRETT

Note: Spread is calculated from the mid-price.

Uptime Score:

• US=Total Count of Compliant Minutes within the Epoch

Maker Score:

The Q_Final score is the measure of a trader's activity throughout an epoch, consisting of minute-by-minute evaluations of uptime, liquidity depth-to-spread ratios across bids and asks, adjusted for frequency and quality of market contribution. This formula emphasizes the importance of not only providing consistent liquidity but also attracting significant trading volume.

Requirements

For liquidity to be considered into the maker program we have the following max spreads and min notional amounts based on the pair.

Example: Calculating Alice's Maker Score

Alice is a trader on the BSX platform, actively trading BTC-USD, ETH-USD, and SOL-USD pairs. For a specific epoch in Season 1, her activity is assessed to determine her share of the weekly 1 million BSX points.

Season 1 Details

• Duration: 8 epochs, 7 days each

• Weekly Distribution: 1 million points

• Total Reward: 8 million points for the season

• Bonuses: Up to 1 million bonus points available

Trading Activity

• Bid/Ask Depth: $500,000 for BTC-USD with a 0.01 spread

• Uptime: Orders meet the market criteria for the entirety of the epoch (10,080 minutes)

• Maker Fees: Generated $2,000 in taker fees

Calculation

Liquidity Score:

• For BTC-USD:

• $LS_{\text{minute}} = \left( \frac{500,000}{\text{Spread}_{\text{BTC-USD}}} \right)^{0.2}$

• Where SpreadBTC-USD denotes the bid-ask spread for the BTC-USD pair at that particular minute.

• The cumulative Liquidity Score over an epoch is the sum of all the individual minute scores within that epoch:

• $LS_{\text{minute}} = \sum \text{each minute}(LS_{\text{minute}})$

• Each LSminute is calculated as shown above and then summed to provide the total Liquidity Score for the BTC-USD pair during the epoch.

Uptime Score:

• $US = 10,080^5$

Maker Fees Contribution:

• $US = 2,000^{0.8}$

Final Score:

• QFinal=(Sum LS)×(US)×(MF)

Alice’s Maker Score is then used to determine her proportional share of the weekly 1 million point distribution, in accordance with the Maker Point Ratio and her relative performance compared to other market participants.

~25% of the points every epoch goes towards maker rewards.

Taker Track

Traders can earn points by taking liquidity in the market. Each week traders generate points based on the amount of pro-rata taker fees the trader generate across the different markets which BSX lists:

$$TakerPointRatio_{\text{trader}} = TakerFees_{\text{trader}}/Total TakerFees$$

$$TakerPoints_{\text{trader}} = TakerPointRatio_{\text{trader}}*TotalTakerPoints_{\text{epoch}}$$

The taker track is the most incentivized track in the BSX Trading Points program. ~70% of the points every epoch goes towards the taker track.

Open Interest Track

Traders will earn points based on their 7 day moving average OI across the different markets traded on BSX. BSX snapshots a traders position in each market every 15 minutes and then takes the relative average of a traders OI vs other traders. This presents two strategies for traders who are trying to earn points through OI:

• Hold positions in markets where there is low open interest. These are usually new markets that we are listing

• Hold large directional positions in the majors over the epoch (7 days). If you continue to hold and build your high conviction positions on BSX you will be rewarded

~5% of the points every epoch goes towards the OI track.