Exclusive launch of Seagull, a comparison of OKX's four major structured products

Different people mock finance in different ways.

There are smoke-free currency wars, elite games of strategy, speculative markets that reap without labor, and tests of human nature filled with deceit. However, in the words of William G. Zinsser, the millennia-long history of finance has driven and shaped the progress of human civilization. From the emergence of cuneiform writing in ancient Mesopotamia, the transition of classical culture in Greece and Rome into empires, to Europe's trade expansion into the world, finance has played a crucial role.

As an important tool for the cross-temporal and spatial allocation of resources, asset appreciation, fundraising, and risk avoidance, finance has not been fully popularized. However, the product matrix, including stocks, bonds, funds, futures, and options, has become quite rich. The advent of Bitcoin in 2008 opened a new chapter in the history of financial development. The crypto industry, as an innovative emerging financial format, has reformed many shortcomings of traditional finance through innovations such as lending and liquidity mining under decentralized finance (DeFi), while also facilitating the development of inclusive finance by migrating traditional financial tools and using crypto assets as carriers.

Currently, the crypto industry has accumulated a good variety of assets under standards like ERC20, ERC-721, and ERC-1155. Whether through the migration of traditional financial tools or innovation, it has provided an opportunity for the 1.7 billion people worldwide who still do not have bank accounts to enjoy equal financial services. As a global leading crypto asset exchange and Web3 technology company, OKX integrates centralized exchanges and decentralized wallets into the same app, building powerful financial tools for the future.

If the OKX Web3 wallet is responsible for financial tool innovation, then the OKX exchange is responsible for the migration and popularization of financial tools. Recently, OKX announced the official launch of Seagull, becoming the first exchange in the industry to offer this structured product and also the exchange providing the most comprehensive financial products in the industry. This article will explore the financial product landscape of the OKX exchange through the lens of the Seagull product.

1. OKX Exclusively Launches Seagull

Structured products are innovative financial tools that generate returns from the derivatives market, such as futures and options, and are already very mature in traditional financial markets. However, due to the highly customized nature of structured products, it is necessary to balance different asset combinations and risk controls. Currently, there are not many exchanges in the crypto industry offering structured products, but OKX has previously launched Shark Fin, Dual Currency Win, and Snowball diversified structured products, which have advantages such as zero fees, high annualized returns, and the freedom to choose risk levels, gaining widespread popularity.

Users can select products based on current market conditions and risk preferences, capturing potential returns while avoiding risks.

For example, if the current price of wheat is 100 yuan, it can be easily affected by various factors such as seasons and demand. Farmer Wang is worried about a future drop in wheat prices and buys a put option, while bakery owner Zhang is concerned about rising wheat prices and buys a call option. If, at expiration, the wheat price falls below 100 yuan, farmer Wang can exercise the put option to sell wheat at 100 yuan, thus avoiding risk. Bakery owner Zhang can choose not to exercise the call option; although he loses the option premium, he can now buy wheat at a lower price, and vice versa.

Seagull is the first structured product launched by OKX in the industry, and it is essentially similar to traditional financial Seagull options, composed of three ordinary option strategies with the same expiration date. The OKX Seagull product is divided into Bull Seagull and Bear Seagull. The Bull Seagull supports users to invest in USDT, while the Bear Seagull supports users to invest in BTC and ETH. Next, using the Bull Seagull - BTC product as an example, we will briefly analyze the potential returns and risks of this product.

There are mainly 4 scenarios: When A < BTC price < B, the user will receive the principal plus low APY USDT rewards; when B ≤ BTC price ≤ C, the user will receive the principal and low APY to high APY USDT rewards; when BTC price ≥ C, the user will receive the principal and high APY USDT rewards; if BTC price ≤ A, the user will receive the corresponding BTC.

In summary, the OKX Seagull product has low costs and risks, but the maximum returns are also limited, making it mainly suitable for scenarios where a slight increase or a fluctuating decrease in the market is expected. This helps investors hedge at low or even zero cost without needing to understand complex derivatives; they only need to invest USDT or BTC with one click based on their market judgment and risk preferences.

2. Comparison of OKX Structured Products

As mentioned earlier, OKX has a rich array of structured products, including Shark Fin, Dual Currency Win, Snowball, and the newly launched Seagull.

All structured products offered by OKX have no transaction fees and provide good potential returns along with a relatively sound risk control system. However, with the increasingly detailed structured product matrix, many users still have a relatively fragmented understanding of the products. Therefore, we will conduct a simple comparison of OKX structured products from multiple dimensions, such as applicable market conditions and reference annualized returns, hoping to provide a basic reference, but variables should be adjusted according to actual situations:

As the exchange providing the most comprehensive financial products in the industry, here is a simple overview of the OKX financial sector, allowing users to choose and participate based on their needs. The OKX financial sector currently offers three core areas: Earn Crypto, Lending, and Jumpstart. Among them, Earn Crypto includes three categories: Simple Earn, Structured Products, and On-chain Earn, with Seagull being one of the structured products.

Additionally, the OKX lending sector aims to meet users' investment and consumption needs, allowing users to borrow by pledging digital assets. The Jumpstart sector is designed for early discovery of high-quality new projects globally, allowing users holding OKB to participate easily.

3. Building Powerful Financial Tools for the Future

In the era of globalization, finance is a vast web, and everyone is an economic animal within this web, where a single action can affect the whole system. Exchange rates, interest rate hikes, CPI, GDP, annualized returns, P/E ratios, PMI… these complex and profound terms frequently mentioned by financial experts are essentially data statistics, quantifications, and abstract summaries behind people's daily lives and pleasures. High inflation pressures have put the financial systems of the U.S. and the world at systemic risk, and what we can do is to make good use of financial tools and strategies to seek alpha while ensuring risk defense.

The crypto industry is an extension and innovation of the millennia-long history of financial development. As a leading crypto exchange and Web3 technology company, OKX is building powerful financial tools for the future, with opportunities at our fingertips.

In addition to structured financial products evolved from traditional finance, its centralized exchange and decentralized Web3 wallet have also maintained a leading position in the industry through continuous innovation. According to the latest ecological overview released by the OKX Web3 wallet, the wallet section has integrated over 70 public chains, supports more than 120 DeFi protocols, and aggregates over 30 NFT marketplace platforms, while also supporting various ecosystems such as Game, Social, MEME, and Tool, totaling over 300 supported platforms and protocols. Furthermore, it boasts the strongest DEX and cross-chain aggregator, as well as a flexible and comprehensive Discovery section.

Western civilization has demonstrated immense wealth creation during the rapid development of finance, yet currently, 1.7 billion users globally still lack bank accounts and cannot enjoy the opportunities that finance brings. The emergence of crypto assets and OKX tools will provide them and global users with new and fair opportunities for financial participation. Although economic cycles continue to rotate and change, as long as one finds the right crypto financial tools and makes appropriate asset allocations, they can face all challenges calmly and wait for favorable winds.