Plutus DEX PAUSED! How To Swap PLU Now? (2023)
Plutus DEX paused? Plutus recently announced they are switching to a new banking partner, Modulr. As a consequence, they are pausing the Plutus DEX for 3 months, between March 1st and Jun 1st. This means that you can no longer swap PLU for EUR or top-up your Plutus card using PLU through their website or app. Yikes!
When you open the app, you get the following prompt and notice that the “Trading” tab is paused.
Now what?
Direct swaps through the Plutus DEX were slow but convenient: no GAS fees were involved, and you could top up the Plutus card directly. However, there’s still a workaround using external wallets, for example, Metamask.
Ongoing Offer
How To Swap PLU? (Until Jun 1st)
- Sign-up for Metamask
- Install the Metamask extension in your browser
- Log in to the Plutus website.
- Connect your Metamask wallet.
- Withdraw PLU to your external wallet.
- Swap your PLU for other currencies using Metamask.
Some disadvantages of using this method are that you must pay GAS fees, and it is not straightforward to top-up your Plutus card once you have withdrawn those funds. Plutus will take the GAS fees from the amount you want to withdraw.
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 PLU can still be withdrawn to any self-custodial ERC-20 wallet, such as Metamask, TrustWallet, or Ledger.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 every week.
Plutus DEX paused
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
Plutus DEX Upcoming Improvements
The PlutusDEX will be enhanced during the transition so customers can experience a faster, more intuitive, flexible, and robust service. Plutus also wants to educate mainstream users on self-custody wallets, and we aim to do that by adding in-app guides and improving the overall UI/UX.
Some of the improvements 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.
Impact on Plutus and Plutus card customers
Since the upgrade is focused on 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 swapping earned PLU for card balance. 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.
Customers can still top-up their Plutus Cards with fiat, spend it, earn rewards, and withdraw them to external wallets.
Changes To PLU withdrawals
Starting from 1st March 2023, Plutus will change when PLU withdrawals are processed. Instead of processing withdrawals at midnight on Wednesdays, Plutus will begin processing them at 10:00 am on Wednesdays to help ensure all withdrawal requests are processed in time with minimum delays.
pending trades on 1 March 2023
Any unsettled trades will be canceled, and the funds or crypto will be returned.
Changes in DEX Fees
Plutus will likely increase DEX fees. They are “building a much faster and better experience that is suitable not only for crypto enthusiasts but also for the growing number of mainstream customers.” Such improvements “add to the cost of business.”
Why pause the Plutus DEX?
Plutus will partially rebuild 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; pausing entirely and returning with flawless service was cleaner. The current DEX is not up to the desired standard.
- It takes up a lot of team resources (CS/Tech) to run it in parallel, and it reduces our capacity to continue accelerating the account and card migration.
- It reduces the number of tickets for customer service so we can provide faster customer support for 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 a more robust experience. Strengthening the base-layer technology coupled with higher liquidity will improve the customer experience and reduce support tickets, enabling the Plutus support team to return to less than 24hr response times.
What happens to Your earned PLU?
There’s no change. If you have the Plutus card, you can continue earning PLU and have complete control over any existing earned PLU. The only difference is the ability to swap earned PLU within the app. To swap PLU, withdraw it to an external wallet and use a third-party service.
