Introduction
The Market Quality Program ("MQP") incentivizes all participants who make meaningful contributions to market quality on Thalex through USDt rewards allocated based on Market Quality Score ("MQS") via frequent orderbook snapshots.
This version of the program will start on 1 April 2025 and run until 19 May 2025 subject to the Terms specified herein.
Rewards
Every day ~8K orderbook snapshots are taken, where each snapshot has an equal weight of the daily Reward Pool, and a participant’s share of the snapshot reward is the MQS of ones orders.
For each snapshot, and each eligible instrument, market quality is scored per orderbook (see Market Quality Score). Bids and asks are equally weighted.
All product groups have N different eligible instruments at any given time, and the rewards per instrument are 1 / N of the product group.
| Product Group | BTC | ETH |
|---|---|---|
| Perpetual | Up to $62,500 | Up to $62,500 |
| Options - Tier A* | Up to $44,000 | Up to $44,000 |
| Options - Tier B* | Up to $18,500 | Up to $18,500 |
*Tier A: weeklies, monthlies and quarterlies with a delta between 25 and first ITM (inclusive)
*Tier B: any option not in Tier A and a delta between 5 and 90 (inclusive)
The total reward paid scales proportionately to the total level of market quality above a minimum threshold (See MSR% Rewards). Below this threshold, no rewards are paid for that orderbook snapshot.
If an orderbook snapshot meets the target level of market quality or surpasses it, the Maximum Snapshot Reward ("MSR") is
The Snapshot Reward ("SR") of an orderbook is calculated as a percentage ("MSR%") of the maximum reward
The Market Quality Rewards ("MQR") for each order is the Market Quality Score of the order multiplied by the orderbook Snapshot Reward
Scoring
Price levels are discounted in function of distance to the Mid Price ("Price Distance Discounting"), and are used to calculate price scores. These scores are multipled with order size to get a Top of Book Equivalent ("TOBE") score, which are then used to calculate the MQS by dividing the TOBE of an order and the sum total TOBE of all orders in an order book.
i.e. MQS is the share of rewards received for the orderbook snapshot.
Price Distance Discounting
Price scores use Normalized Distance ("ND") as the input to a non-linear discounting function. For example, the price scoring is 0.5ND for perpetuals and 0.1ND for options. ND is calculated as
where Typical Distance varies by product group, is instrument-specific, and Price Distance is the absolute difference between Mid Price Pmid= Pbest bid + Pbest ask / 2 and the order price Porder of an orderbook.
The below graph visualizes this discounting
Top of Book Equivalent (TOBE)
The TOBE of an orderbook is a proxy for the quality of visible liquidity of a snapshot and is compared to target values to determine the snapshot reward. The TOBE score of an order is calculated as the product of the Price Score ("PS") and its size ("Q"), and is capped for perpetuals at 0.5 for BTC and 15.0 for ETH
Market Quality Score (MQS)
The MQS for each order is its TOBE score relative to the sum of TOBE scores in the orderbook for the instrument
A participant's MQS for an orderbook snapshot is the sum of the total MQS of his/her orders
Example
Let's assume for product group BTC - Perpetual that on a given day, the index price is $60.0K. Hence, the Typical Distance for BTC Perpetuals is $6 (T&C's - Price Discounting) and based on the following orderbook, we get the respective MQS for each order
| Ask | Price (USD) | Size (BTC) | PD (USD) | ND (bps) | PS (Score) | TOBE (Score) | MQS (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E | 60038 | 30 | 34.0 | 5.67 | 0.02 | 0.5 | 14.6% |
| D | 60028 | 2.5 | 24.0 | 4.00 | 0.06 | 0.16 | 4.6% |
| C | 60019 | 8 | 15.0 | 2.50 | 0.18 | 0.5 | 14.6% |
| B | 60014 | 1 | 10.0 | 1.67 | 0.31 | 0.31 | 9.2% |
| A | 60008 | 0.5 | 4.0 | 0.67 | 0.63 | 0.31 | 9.2% |
Mid Price | 60004 | TOBEbid | 1.63 | TOBEask | 1.79 | TOBEsum | 3.42 |
| Bid | Price (USD) | Size (BTC) | PD (USD) | ND (bps) | PS (Score) | TOBE (Score) | MQS (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 60000 | 0.8 | 4.0 | 0.67 | 0.63 | 0.5 | 14.6% |
| B | 59994 | 0.5 | 10.0 | 1.67 | 0.31 | 0.16 | 4.6% |
| C | 59988 | 3 | 16.0 | 2.67 | 0.16 | 0.47 | 13.8% |
| D | 59982 | 25 | 22.0 | 3.67 | 0.08 | 0.5 | 14.6% |
Terms & Conditions
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Eligibility | All Participants are eligible, provided that their account, or subaccount, individually, must have a margin balance greater than or equal to $1000, and they comply with the Terms of Use and Rulebook at all times. |
| Eligible Instruments (BTC & ETH) | All perpetuals and option tiers as specified in the Reward Pool table |
| Price Discounting (BTC & ETH) | Perpetuals: Price Score = 0.5ND, Options: Price Score = 0.1ND, |
| TOBEmin - max | Perpetuals BTC: TOBEmin = 0.1, TOBEmax = 7.0 Perpetuals ETH: TOBEmin = 3.0, TOBEmax = 210.0 Options BTC Tier A & Tier B: TOBEmin = 0.5, TOBEmax = 3.5 Options ETH Tier A & Tier B: TOBEmin = 15.0, TOBEmax = 105.0 |
| Rewards | All rewards granted under the MQP on a continuous (per snapshot) basis and paid in USDt (or any other stablecoin as determined by Thalex in its sole discretion from time to time) on a monthly basis. |
| MSR% Rewards | Bids and asks need to exceed half of the minimum TOBE threshold, TOBEmin, to receive rewards, otherwise the orderbook snapshot is 0. If aggregate TOBE meets or exeeds the target TOBEmax, the MSR% is 100%. Between TOBEmin and TOBEmax, the MSR% is linearly interpolated. |
| Maximum Reward | The maximum daily reward a customer can earn per instrument is 1 / N of the product group. |
| Reward Calculation Period | Daily, from 8 AM UTC to 8 AM UTC the following day. |
| Reward Settlement | Thalex strives to make reward payment(s) within 4 weeks following the end of the relevant month or date of termination of the MQP by crediting the applicable sum in stablecoin to your Account |
| Exclusions | Thalex reserves the right to disqualify any participant from receiving rewards if it determines, at its sole discretion, that the participant has gained unfair advantages or engaged in abusive trading behavior, as per the Rulebook and Terms of use. Self-trades or trades suspected of violating our market abuse policy are excluded. Thalex reserves the right to make exclusions accordingly in its sole discretion. |
| Term | The program is scheduled to run until May 19, 2025, but can be terminated earlier at Thalex's discretion without additional compensation. You agree and acknowledge that our calculations and decisions associated with the MQP, such as (but not limited to) the assessment of market quality scoring and the calculation of rewards, are binding and final (except in the case of an obvious and manifest error) and that we may change the methodologies of such calculations at any time in so far as such change is not applied retroactively. |
| Disputes | Any disputes arising from the rewards program will be resolved in accordance with these Terms, together with the Terms of Use and the Rulebook. Thalex is the sole interpreter of the terms of this Program. |
Documentation about the currently active MQP until 31st March 2025 can be found here.