• The existing copy trading model suffered from pain points including misaligned incentives and unsustainable returns.
• Woo X wants to reduce the pressure on lead traders to always outperform the market with the introduction of a countertrade feature.

Cryptocurrency exchange Woo X has introduced what it says is an enhanced and fairer version of copy trading, a way of emulating the expertise of seasoned traders by mimicking their market activities, the firm said on Monday.

Copy trading, or “social trading,” as Woo X calls it, is not new in either crypto or traditional finance. The practice of easily availing customers of the returns made by the most successful traders was made popular by fintech platform eToro and is also offered by several large crypto exchanges like Binance and OKX.

However, the existing model required recalibration, according to Woo X COO Willy Chuang, such that lead traders don’t just profit from exchange fees or other misaligned incentives. Another improvement was finding a way to reduce the consistent pressure on lead traders to always outperform, which prompted Woo X to add the flexibility of a countertrade option.

“We conducted extensive research and identified clear pain points for users,” Chuang said in an interview. “Many of the reported returns are misleading or unsustainable, and in some cases, users were being shilled by lead traders. We’ve introduced a higher profit threshold that protects users, ensuring that profits are only shared with lead traders when the portfolios are genuinely profitable.”