Update: 21/06/23
To ensure our community remains in the loop, we want to share an eagerly awaited progress report on PlutusSwap!Firstly, we are excited to announce that PlutusSwap is the new official name for our peer-to-peer crypto-fiat swapping feature within the Plutus app. This rename aligns Plutus with the app’s long-term direction to provide non-custodial features and aims to appeal to a broader mass-market audience.
EEA Customers
Currently, PlutusSwap is temporarily disabled as we focus on optimising its performance and incorporating new features that will enhance your user experience. We want to ensure that when PlutusSwap returns, it does so with enhanced liquidity, a seamless user interface, robust infrastructure, and higher limits.
Plutus is prioritising the transition from our legacy card provider to our new and improved card programme before implementing PlutusSwap. The new service starting this month offers exciting benefits, including Virtual Cards, Apple/Google Pay support, higher card limits, and a unified card/account balance.
UK Customers
As for our UK customers, the return of PlutusSwap is contingent on obtaining our FCA license. While the approval process is time-consuming, we are pleased to report good progress with an FCA representative being assigned earlier this year to assist with advancing our application! We will continue to keep our community well-informed as we receive new information on this matter.
Over the last three years, research has shown that Pluton Rewards are the most demanded feature out of Plutus’ product family. As a result, we have prioritised delivering one of the most rewarding debit cards on the market, offering up to 8% in crypto rewards and access to 20+ in-demand Perks (household brands).
Plutus is now expanding and strengthening the robustness of its bank-like features, including a new partnership with the highly reputable and UK-regulated Payments-as-a-Service provider, Modulr — the details of which can be found here.
Part of this system enhancement also includes redefining our DEX base layer and upgrading our tech stack so that you can enjoy fault-tolerant crypto-to-fiat swaps with higher swap limits and efficient order matching.
Between 1 March 2023 and 30th June 2023, the PlutusDEX will be paused and the following two features will become unavailable:
- DEX Swaps between crypto/fiat
- Card top-ups with crypto
Edit: See updated timeframes at the top of this blog
What improvements will I see?
During the aforementioned dates, Plutus will enhance much of the PlutusDEX so that you can experience a faster, more intuitive, flexible, and robust service. This is a necessary step towards our goal of delivering the best-in-class Crypto-Fiat DEX on the market.
We’re also aware that there are steps we can take to educate mainstream users on self-custody wallets and we aim to do exactly that by adding in-app guides and improving the overall UI/UX.
To achieve this, Plutus will be:
- Improving the DEX architecture
- Refining swap and wallet connection UX
- Streamlining the order-matching process
- Adding in-app guides to educate mainstream customers
- Implementing a new API for third-party market makers to increase liquidity.
How does this impact me?
Since the upgrade is focused on the PlutusDEX’s infrastructure, only two features will be unavailable:
- DEX swaps between crypto/fiat
- Card top-ups with crypto
This refers to all crypto/fiat swaps including the swapping of earned PLU for card balance.
Customers can still top-up their Plutus Cards with fiat, spend it, earn rewards, and withdraw them to external wallets.
Note: DEX Swaps will remain disabled for UK customers beyond 30th June 2023 until Plutus has secured the necessary FCA license (AML/CTF Crypto Asset Registration applied for in May 2022) required to facilitate crypto trading in the UK.
FAQ
Will there be any changes to PLU withdrawals?
Plutus is an advocate for self-custody of crypto — customers can continue to earn PLU and withdraw it to their personal wallets.
Starting from 1st March 2023, we will change the time at which PLU withdrawals are processed. Instead of processing withdrawals at midnight on Wednesdays, Plutus will start processing them at 10:00 am on Wednesdays to help with ensuring all of the withdrawal requests are processed in time with minimum delays.
What happens to my pending trades on 1 March 2023?
Any unsettled trades will be cancelled and the funds or crypto returned.
How do I swap my earned PLU?
As an ERC-20 token, PLU is readily available on several third-party platforms. PLU can still be withdrawn to any self-custodial ERC-20 wallet such as Metamask, TrustWallet or Ledger. Withdrawals will continue to be processed on a weekly basis as usual.
Note: We recommend self-custody and the use of decentralised platforms rather than centralised custodians who carry various risks.
Will the DEX fees change?
Yes. We are building a much faster and better experience that is suitable not only for crypto enthusiasts, but also for our growing number of mainstream customers — such improvements add to the cost of business. More details will be shared in due course.
What will the new DEX limits be?
Plutus is currently in the process of developing its new Market Maker API which will be closed to approved third-party partners initially. This will enable Plutus to raise the swap limits so you can enjoy greater flexibility. More details will be shared in due course.
Why pause the DEX?
We will be partially rebuilding much of the PlutusDEX to provide a truly scalable and frictionless experience. Pausing the DEX is necessary for delivering a better user experience and accelerating the development timelines.
- A DEX with issues is not the ideal user experience for many customers, it was cleaner to pause entirely and return with a flawless service. We want to provide an exceptional service and the current DEX is not up to the desired standard.
- It takes up a lot of team resources (CS/Tech) running it in parallel and it reduces our capacity to continue accelerating the account and cards migration.
- It reduces the number of tickets for customer service so we can provide faster customer support to non-DEX-related issues
How will this benefit Plutus cardholders?
A scalable DEX combined with our new and improved bank-like feature set will provide an all-around more robust experience. Strengthening the base-layer technology coupled with higher liquidity will improve the customer experience and reduce support tickets, enabling our support team to return to <24hr response times.
What happens to my earned PLU?
No change. You can continue earning PLU, and you also have complete control over any existing earned PLU. The only change is the ability to swap earned PLU within the app between the aforementioned dates. To swap PLU, withdraw it to an external wallet and use a third-party service.
