The two models
| Loan + call option | Monthly fee | |
|---|---|---|
| How it works | You lend the desk tokens to quote with. It gets an option to buy them later at a set price (the strike). | You fund your own subaccount and pay a fixed fee. The desk trades through a restricted key. |
| Cash cost | Often none up front | A known amount each month |
| Who holds your tokens | The desk, for the term | You, in your own exchange account |
| How the desk profits | The option, plus trading | The fee |
| Your exposure | Supply out of your control; the option is worth most when your token rises | Inventory stays yours; the fee is the cost |
Loan-and-option deals are legal and common, and for a well-capitalised project with a large float they can be a reasonable trade. The problem is that many teams sign one believing it is free.
What "free" actually costs
Say you lend 2,000,000 tokens with a strike at $0.06, and the token is at $0.043 when you sign. If it reaches $0.12, the desk can buy 2,000,000 tokens at $0.06 and sell them at the market price. That difference is its compensation, and it is far larger than any monthly fee you avoided. You also had no say over what happened to those tokens during the term.
The reverse is worse in a different way. If the token falls, the option expires worthless, the desk earns nothing, and its interest in quoting your book carefully goes with it.
Questions worth asking either desk
- Who holds the tokens, and where can I see them? A subaccount in your own name answers this in one screenshot.
- What exactly is committed, in numbers? Spread, depth on the weaker side, uptime, measured how and over what period.
- What happens if you miss? "We'll fix it" is not a remedy. A service credit or a right to exit is.
- What can I check myself, without asking you? A monthly volume figure is not a report; a live view of the agreed numbers is.
- If you have an option, at what strike, and what do you do with the tokens meanwhile?
- Do you wash trade, ever? The answer should be an immediate no. Exchanges detect it and the project pays.
Where we stand
Vanchain MM only does the second model: a fixed fee, your tokens in your own subaccount, a trade-only API key with withdrawals switched off, and targets written into the contract with a service credit if we miss. No token loan, no call option, no performance fee and no share of trading profit.
That is not a claim that loan deals are illegitimate. It is a statement about which incentives we want: ours should depend on the book we keep, not on where your token's price ends up.
Common questions
Is a token loan to a market maker risky?
It puts part of your supply in someone else's hands for the term and gives them an interest in the price. That is a real risk to weigh, not a reason to refuse outright. Ask where the tokens sit, what they may be used for and what happens at the strike.
Which model is cheaper?
Over a flat or falling market, a loan and option can cost less than fees. Over a rising one, it usually costs far more. A fixed fee is the one you can budget for and explain to a board.
Can we switch from a loan deal to a fee-based desk?
Yes, and it is a common reason projects call us. The practical work is unwinding the loan on schedule and making sure two desks are not quoting the same pair at once.
Start with a liquidity check on your market.
Tell us the token and the exchange. We run our quotes against your live market without placing a single order, and come back with the targets we would commit to and the package that fits. No key, no funds, no obligation.