Introduction
DeXter (formerly ProjectX) is a community-driven, decentralised order-book exchange on the Radix network. Built on the AlphaDEX Scrypto package developed by Fred Liebenberg, DeXter aimed to bring traditional exchange features — limit and market orders, live price charts, order history — to the Radix DeFi ecosystem in a fully decentralised manner.
The project was initiated following a Medium post by Fred Liebenberg exploring whether a community could build a complete exchange application on Radix. The post attracted contributors including Faraz Abulhawa (founder of Radstakes), who became a key figure in the project's governance and operations.
AlphaDEX Backend
DeXter's exchange functionality was powered by AlphaDEX, a decentralised order-book package written in Scrypto by Fred Liebenberg as part of the Radix Grants Programme Cohort 1. AlphaDEX provided a three-layer architecture:
- On-ledger Scrypto components — direct interaction with the order-book smart contract
- REST API and WebSocket server — off-chain services routing requests from the front end
- JavaScript SDK — enabling third-party integrations
The platform offered non-custodial trading with a maximum fee of 0.5% that automatically decreased with higher volume. Up to 90% of fees were returned to liquidity providers whose orders were matched.
Tokenomics & Staking Rewards
DeXter issued the DEXTR token to incentivise contributors and participants. The token represented a share in the exchange's earnings, with periodic distributions to those who contributed to the project.
The project also operated a Validator Staking Rewards programme, where users who staked XRD on the DeXter validator node earned DEXTR tokens. Rewards were uploaded fortnightly to a claims component where stakers could connect their wallets to claim.
Proposed Closure (February 2026)
On 18 February 2026, Faraz (Radstakes) proposed formally retiring DeXter, citing three factors:
- Lack of exchange activity — trading volume had declined significantly
- Validator subsidy tapering — the tapering schedule made continued validator operation unsustainable beyond March 2026
- Foundation transition uncertainty — the broader Radix Foundation decentralisation created an uncertain environment for funded ecosystem projects
The proposal included immediately ceasing the Validator Staking Rewards programme (with final rewards already deposited), making remaining circulating DEXTR tokens available via a limit order on a DEX, and burning all remaining DeXter tokens in the treasury.
Fred Liebenberg (AlphaDEX developer) agreed the project should be put on hold, noting that Radix's capabilities had evolved significantly since AlphaDEX was built — particularly with the introduction of sub-intents — and that any future version would require a complete rebuild. He described this as a hibernation rather than a death, expressing hope the community aspect could take on other projects in the future.
Running costs were described as negligible (annual domain fee, free hosting for the backend, ~$8/month API server). A community poll was opened with options to support closure, oppose it, or suggest alternatives.