Multi-exchange trading platform provider BTX Trader has officially launched Celery, a new product that aims to position the company to expand its market beyond institutional traders to everyday US consumers.
Celery will offer bitcoin and dogecoin buying, boasting what the company says is a more carefully calibrated user experience than what has been provided by other digital currency exchanges and brokerages to date.
BTX Trader CTO Divya Thakur and COO Ilya Subkhankulov expanded on this idea of user experience in an interview with CoinDesk, saying:
“We tested [Celery] with users and watched them use the product. So, we feel that our onboarding and our user experience is superior to any other solutions out there, when it comes to a first time buyer of bitcoin or dogecoin.”
Thakur explained that many of the consumers BTX Trader worked with were unaware that they could buy fractions of a bitcoin, an insight that lead the service to include preset buying options.
Consumers can elect to purchase ‘Packages’ to buy $19.99, $49.99 and $99.99 worth of bitcoin or dogecoin, or use the ‘Custom’ version of the interface, which may be more familiar to existing traders. Celery does not support credit card buying.
Further, Celery includes social features, allowing those who purchase bitcoin or dogecoin to share the message to others. To encourage customer confidence, these messages are then aggregated on the main page.
BTX Trader is a subsidiary of WPCS International, a public company that specializes in product integration, speciality construction and electrical power.
Opening a Celery account
To begin, Celery requests basic user information including the user’s first name, last name, email and country of residence.
Next, it asks that users add their mobile phone number, address and bank account information. At each stage, the company provides a short explanation of why such information is needed, another feature clearly aimed at novice buyers.
The ‘Add a phone’ option, for instance, reads:
“Please provide your mobile phone number to enable Two-Factor Authentication, a security feature that sends SMS codes to your phone to better protect your account. We will not contact you by phone unless absolutely necessary.”
Elsewhere, Celery builds in basic definitions for its services. When users seek to deposit digital currency, they are greeted with an introductory explanation of how an address works.
Support for altcoins
Thakur also told CoinDesk that Celery aims to be digital currency inclusive, a stance that it has first presented in its support for dogecoin.
He added that he believes dogecoin’s strong community was its most attractive feature:
“We think dogecoin is a great community. It’s used in sites like reddit, it’s much higher volume than bitcoin tipping and there’s really no good hosted wallet for dogecoin.”
With the move, Celery joins expresscoin to become the latest novice digital currency service to also court dogecoin buyers.
The perks of being public
Thakur and Subkhankulov also talked about their relationship with WPCS, which funded BTX Trader with a $1m investment earlier this year.
Thakur indicated that while they do seek insight from the company’s CEO Sebastian Giordano, they are free to innovate as they see fit, saying:
“The way that really works is that we were on a call with them talking about our direction. They really keep us as a domain expert when it comes to digital currency.”
To learn more about Celery, visit its newly launched website. More information on BTX Trader and its offerings for institutional traders can be viewed here.
Computer image via Shutterstock