[DigitalToday reporter Chi-gyu Hwang (황치규)] AFX, a layer1 blockchain specialised in decentralised derivatives trading, has officially opened its mainnet.

Cointelegraph reported on May 18 (local time) that AFX introduced a "Sovereign Trading Layer" that it said combines the non-custodial transparency of a perpetual futures decentralised exchange (Perp DEX) with the speed and liquidity of an institutional-grade centralised exchange.

From launch, the AFX mainnet supports perpetual futures markets for digital and traditional macro assets including bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), gold (XAU) and crude oil (CL). It offers up to 40 times leverage.

The AFX architecture operates on a custom execution layer powered by a DAG-based consensus mechanism and an ABCI modular architecture. It separates trade execution from the consensus process, providing a dedicated mempool optimised for high-frequency order flow and protocol-level MEV protection. It can achieve a median latency of 100 milliseconds and process more than 100,000 transactions per second.

The AFX mainnet also applies a "zero gas" execution model. The company said it removed network fees so that data-driven strategies, not gas costs, determine market success or failure.