🔲Introduction

With the global DeFi markets picking up steam again after a turbulent 2022, the demand for value-add trading tools has grown exponentially this year. At the same time, dealing with volatile cryptocurrencies with small Liquidity Pools and large price swings can be scary and is regarded as the main reason a large part of the investor community stays away from micro- and small-cap tokens. Trading 'over-the-counter' is a form of peer-to-peer (P2P) trading in which investors deal directly with other investors while buying or selling a token. Instead of selling your tokens into a small Liquidity Pool, you effectively transfer your tokens to another investors' wallet directly, in return for an agreed amount of other tokens. OTC trading has several benefits over traditional trading on Decentralized Exchanges, which are summarized below. 1. Avoid Paying Taxes OTC trades involve the transfer of assets directly between the wallets of the buyer and seller. This can help traders avoid transfer fees associated with buying or selling tokens in the open market. For example, $OTCBOT has 5% tax on buys and sells through decentralized exchanges, but no taxes on transfers. As such, one can avoid paying taxes by trading over-the-counter. It is important to note that some tokens also charge taxes for transfers, in which case this benefit disappears. 2. Maximizing Returns Large trades on traditional exchanges can sometimes cause price slippage due to the impact of the trade on the market. For example, when you sell 100,000 $OTCBOT at a price of $1, normally, you would receive $100,000. However, as the Liquidity Pool can be small, you will get a reduced price for your holdings, as the price falls as you sell. OTC trades, being off-exchange, can be executed with virtually no market impact, minimizing the overall cost of the trade and thus maximizing your profits. 3. Avoiding Panic Large sells in low liquidity micro, small and medium-cap cryptocurrencies can often create negative chain reactions, referred to as 'panic' selling. If a big whale exits or partially sells his or her holdings, others may feel inclined to sell as well. This risk is mitigated with OTC trading, which does not impact the price of a token.

4. Protecting Privacy Influencers and other known backers of cryptocurrencies often do not want to highlight the fact that they are taking profits. This problem can be solved by OTC trading, in which investors simply transfer tokens from one wallet to another, without selling on the open market. While OTC trading thus has several benefits over traditional trading, the options for investors in the DeFi market are scarce. The team behind OTCBot identified this gap in the market and decided to create and develop a fully working OTC platform. To create a unique selling point, the OTCBot ecosystem is fully and solely operating through Telegram. The choice for a Telegram-based platform was derived from the growing popularity of trading tools on the platform and the fact that this makes it the easiest to use OTC option. Through just a few clicks, users can create and accept OTC listings using the OTCBot platform. The next chapter of this whitepaper explains the platform and how to use it.