Staking Terms
PLEASE READ THESE TERMS OF USE CAREFULLY AS THEY CONTAIN RISK NOTICE, ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND ACCEPTANCE, NO WAIVER AND NO CLASS ACTION CLAUSE, WHICH AFFECT YOUR RIGHTS. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS OF USE IMPORTANT NOTICE PRIOR TO ACCESSING OR USING THE SERVICES, YOU (THE CLIENT) MUST INFORM YOURSELF OF AND OBSERVE ANY REGULATIONS APPLICABLE TO YOU. ACCESSING OR USING THE SERVICES MAY BE RESTRICTED BY LAW IN CERTAIN JURISDICTIONS AND ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN THROUGH THE SERVICES MAY BE SUBJECT TO SPECIFIC REGULATIONS OR REVIEW BY CERTAIN AUTHORITIES. A FAILURE TO COMPLY THEREWITH MAY RESULT IN SANCTIONS AS PROVIDED FOR IN THE CONCERNED REGULATIONS. These Terms of Use are considered to be fully and unconditionally accepted by the User (as defined below) once he/she registers and/or enters the Staking (as defined below) and/or while using of the Services (as defined below).
Staking cryptocurrencies, including by accessing or using this Platform and the Services, as defined below, has potential rewards and risks involved. Transacting in cryptocurrencies, digital assets and DeFi assets, in general and including in Applicable Digital Assets, as well as Staking carries high level of risk and is not suitable for all people. Anyone wishing to access and use the Services, as defined below, should seek their own independent professional legal, financial and tax advice.
Preamble
1. Definitions
"Applicable Digital Assets" shall mean digital assets issued and operated on the Networks, advertisement of which is shown on the Platform;
Staking or to Stake means committing Cryptocurrency holdings via the Staking Accounts to third-parties’ programs of decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms and/or centralized (CeFi) platforms where Cryptocurrency Staking takes place on behalf of the User through Staking Accounts Services and under these Terms of Use;
Staking Rewards means rewards received as a result of Staking;
Staking Protocols are used to generate Staking Rewards and operated by separate third-party decentralized (DeFi) and centralized (CeFi) finance platforms;
"Personal Address" or, collectively, "Personal Addresses" shall mean the address or, collectively, addresses on the Networks; "Third-Party" or, collectively,
"Third-Parties" shall mean any other natural person who is not a User;
“User” shall mean a natural person who has already signed up for Staking Accounts on the Platform. A User is allowed to use all the Services of the Platform.
2. Acceptance and modifications of the terms of use
Modifications of the Terms of Use. We may revise and update the Terms of Use without notice from time to time in our sole discretion with all changes being effective immediately when we post them. Should any change be made to the Terms of Use, by continuing to use the Platform and/or the Services after such change is made, with or without having explicitly accepted the revised or otherwise changed Terms of Use, you are agreeing to be bound by the current version of the Terms of Use.
3. General
Staking Protocols are operated by separate third-party decentralized (DeFi) and centralized (CeFi) finance platforms and Margex has no control over such platforms.
Any instructions in relation to Your use of the Staking Accounts are transmitted by Margex to one of the Staking Protocols by virtue of its position as a technology provider.
Margex only acts as a platform allowing access to a variety of third-party Staking Protocols and provide Users with related Services, such as accessing funds on behalf of such Users, providing information about Staking Rewards, and distributing earnings.
While using the Services, the Users receive a corresponding portion of the Staking Rewards generated by the relevant Staking Protocol, provided however that Margex receives another portion of such Staking Rewards for providing the Services (to be determined by Margex at its sole discretion). You agree and understand that Margex does not guarantee that You will receive the Staking Rewards and that the applicable percentage of the Staking Rewards (i) is an estimate only and not guaranteed, (ii) may change at any time in Margex’s sole discretion, and (iii) may be more or less than the actual Staking Rewards Margex receives from the Staking Protocols.
The User hereby grants Us the right to the fullest extent that We may choose any Staking Protocol at Our own discretion in order to generate Staking Rewards.
The time frame for withdrawing your cryptocurrencies from your Stakings Accounts is dependent on third party providers. Margex reserves the right to make such withdrawals within 3 business days of receiving a withdrawal request from the User.
4. Risk notice, acknowledgement and acceptance
You hereby acknowledge that you have carefully assessed your financial situation and risk tolerance, and as a consequence, you have conducted any additional research, or asked advice, as you may have deemed necessary after reading the foregoing Disclaimer. You agree to assume responsibility for any of the risks listed in this Section 4 and any other risks, assumptions and decisions involved in using Staking Protocols and Cryptocurrency. You warrant and accept that you understand these risks.
Market risk of digital assets. Market risk is a very pronounced risk factor in digital assets. You hereby agree that you understand, assume, acknowledge and accept your exposure to all of the below listed Market risks of digital assets, including Applicable Digital Assets;
High volatility. The market value of digital assets is often volatile. Some of the reasons for the volatility are the small market capitalisation compared to traditional capital markets, the risk of sudden regulatory changes, trend-cycles or the performance of the market for traditional investments.
Emerging market. The market for digital assets, including markets for DeFi and Staking, is still in an emerging and maturing phase. Investment in these markets are often deemed riskier than in long standing and more mature markets. The market for certain Applicable Digital Assets may be yet to exist. Hence you may find it difficult or impossible to liquidate or redeem your Applicable Digital Assets.
Regulatory risks. The legal framework surrounding digital assets is still uncertain in many countries and so far, digital assets have seen to be regulated differently across countries. This non-uniform treatment and new, potential legal measures exposes Applicable Digital Assets and our Users to the risks of non-compliance with law, risks of change in the methodology of Applicable Digital Assets and transactions with such assets being classified differently leading to delisting of an Applicable Digital asset by an exchange, DeFi or Staking, and restricted trade- and transferability which ultimately affect the value of the Applicable Digital Assets and can lead to penalties or fines.
Enforceability of Smart contracts. A smart contract is an interactive blockchain-native agreement based on code (the "Smart contract"). The interaction of Users with the Services is mostly performed via Smart contracts.
Market abuse. As outlined above, the market for digital assets is still emerging and subject to a varying or non-existing regulation. As such, not all market participants, including the Issue offer the safeguards of traditional markets to prevent market abuse (i.e. fraud, market manipulation or insider trading). Such market abuse may lead to depreciation of the market value of Applicable Digital Assets and cryptocurrencies resulting in partial or total loss of your cryptocurrency funds and Applicable Digital Assets.
Market risk is constant. Digital asset exchanges, whether centralised or decentralised, are often open around the clock seven days a week. This means that the digital assets, including Applicable Digital Assets, are subject to a constant market risk as trading never halts. Credit and Liquidity risks.
Credit and Liquidity risks are often connected to difficulties with the determination of, and assigning the liabilities to the Issuer of an Applicable Digital asset (the "Issuer"), including for purposes of an Applicable Digital asset redemption, either by redeeming it directly for cash with the Issuer or by selling it to a Third-Party, and including with the determination of, and assigning the liabilities to the Issuer by Staking Accounts, hence making it illiquid and lack of legal supervision of the Issuers. You hereby agree that you understand, assume, acknowledge and accept your exposure to all of the above mentioned Credit and Liquidity risks.
Counterparty risk. Your Staking Account is not a checking or savings account, and it is not covered by insurance against losses. We will pledge, repledge, hypothecate, rehypothecate, sell, lend, or otherwise transfer or use the digital assets in your Staking Account to counterparties, and such digital assets will be exposed to various risks as a result of such transactions. In certain jurisdictions, digital assets are not legal tender, and are not backed by the government or any regulatory authority. Your Staking Account is not registered with any federal or state securities regulatory authority. Legislative and regulatory changes or actions at the state, federal, or international level may adversely affect the use, transfer, exchange, and value of digital assets. You acknowledge that by utilizing the Staking Account service, your digital assets are not custodied by Margex and may be subject to total loss if an event occurs at the protocol level, which is outside of Margex’ control. You understand and agree that notwithstanding Margex will not be responsible for any such loss (whether total or otherwise) of your digital assets and will not replace them or otherwise compensate you. You hereby agree that you understand, assume, acknowledge and accept your exposure to all of the above mentioned Counterparty risks.
Technical risks. The technological design of the Networks, Applicable Digital Assets, DeFi and Staking comes with a variety of different risks, including, without limitation those listed below. You hereby agree that you understand, assume, acknowledge and accept your exposure to all of the below listed Technical risks:
Hardfork. A Hardfork describes an event which splits a new blockchain from the original one by modifying the source code. Usually a modification or update of the source code is accepted by all participants. Where there is a disagreement between such participants of a single network, the network infrastructure can be divided into two groups using two different blockchains. Particularly, in case of Hardfork of any of the Networks, Applicable Digital Assets registered on the Network may be both credited on both the original Network and new network. In the event of a Hardfork, there may be significant price fluctuations resulting in a temporary suspension of Trading of Cryptocurrencies by Staking Accounts and loss of access to digital assets, including Applicable Digital Assets.
Storage of digital assets. Access to the blockchain networks is generally maintained through a public and a private key to an address (the "Keys"). Access to the blockchain network and therefore to the digital asset is impossible if the Keys are lost. Theft, loss, or destruction of the Keys, as well as hacking of underlying software and technology infrastructure, or other reasons for the private keys stored by Margex to become not recognisable any more can result in you not being able to access and/or use the Applicable Digital Assets on your Personal address.
Transactional risk. Transactions on any of the Networks available on the Platform are sent to an address determined by the public key and Network choice. If a wrong public key and/or Network is used, it will be impossible to identify the recipient and to reverse the transaction made to an address with a wrong public key or using wrong Network leading to the total loss of control over transacted cryptocurrency and/or Applicable Digital Assets used in such transaction. There may also be delays in the execution of transactions as the transfer of Applicable Digital Assets may become subject to verification, legal suits, actions and proceedings, as well as other processes involving Third-Parties.
Open source software. Digital Assets are based on open-source software (i.e. Networks) that is freely accessible and may be copied, used or modified at any time. There is thus an increased risk of bugs and vulnerabilities, and also deliberately embedded malfunctions. The discontinuation of such open-source software is always possible and might expose digital assets, including Applicable Digital Assets, to vulnerabilities, programming errors and threats from fraud, theft and attacks, as well as lead to inaccessibility of Personal Addresses and digital assets, including Applicable Digital Assets stored on such Personal Addresses.
Bugs in smart contracts. Smart contracts, including without limitation those created by Margex and those created by our licensors and service providers can be faulty, vulnerable and/or bugged. For example, in a Swap feature, funds can be exchanged without the need of a middleman/intermediary other than the autonomous smart contract. However, since the smart contract relies solely on the underlying code, the interaction with the smart contract cannot be ensured to be bug-free until we, our licensors or service providers have them audited by a Third-Party professional technical audit company. For the User, this means that the Counterparty risk is the risk of the underlying code of the smart contract which can be difficult to assess. Furthermore, transactions to the smart contract cannot be reversed or rectified even if proven to be faulty.
Hacking. A decentralised consensus is necessary to validate transactions and the validation requires computing capacity. Therefore, it is possible for a participant with significant computing capacity to effectively centralise the consensus and hence manipulate it. For example, making it possible to verify or process a false transaction for its own benefit at the loss of others. The risk of such a majority attack decreases with the increased computing capacity dedicated to validating. Due to the mathematical foundation of the crypto technology, there are also various other forms of attacks, like collision attacks, dusting attacks, Sybil attacks, denial-of-service attacks and distributed denial-of-service attacks, or censorship attacks.
5. Limitation of liability
The Terms of Use set out the full extent of our obligations and liabilities with respect to the Platform and the Services. To the maximum extent possible by law, Staking Accounts excludes all and any warranty, guaranty and responsibility in relation to or subsequent to the Platform, Platform Content, the Services, Personal addresses and Applicable Digital Assets. Staking Accounts shall in particular not be liable for any damages of any kind, including loss of income or data, suffered by the Visitor, the User or any other person, by act of Staking Accounts, its licensors, service providers or of a Third-Party. This includes any misuse that would be made of the User’s data, any virus or other forms of malware transmitted through the Platform or the server, as well as any non-compliance of the Users and/or the Visitors with the Terms of Use. Staking Accounts shall have no liability for any personal injury, lost profits or other consequential, special, punitive, indirect, or incidental damages, arising from or related to your use or inability to use or access the Platform. notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the Terms of Use, nothing in the Terms of Use excludes or limits our liability for fraud, or for death, or personal injury caused by our gross negligence. The foregoing disclaimer of certain damages and limitation of liability will apply to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. The laws of some jurisdictions or states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages, so some or all of the exclusions and limitations set forth above may not apply to you. In no event shall the aggregate liability of Staking Accounts arising out of or relating to the use of or inability to use the Platform and/or the Services exceed one hundred United States Dollars (USD100). You agree that any claim filed more than one (1) month after the discovery of the alleged liability of Staking Accounts shall be time-barred.
6. Indemnification
You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Staking Accounts, its licensors and service providers, and its and their respective officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents, licensors, suppliers, successors and assigns from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, awards, losses, costs, expenses or fees including reasonable attorneys' fees arising out of or relating to your breach of the Terms of Use or your use of the Platform and the Services, including, but not limited to, any use of the Platform Content, services and products other than as expressly authorised in the Terms of Use or your use of any information obtained from the Platform and/or Services and always subject to your acceptance of the risks mentioned in Section 4.
7. Electronic communications
When you use the Personal Addresses, and/or the Services, or send emails to Margex, you are communicating with us electronically. When sending us emails, you need to use your correct email address. Margex is not responsible or liable for any wrong or misspelled email address or inaccurate or wrong Personal data submitted to the Company.
By using the Staking Accounts, Personal Addresses, and/or the Services, you agree to receive electronically any communications related to your use of the Staking Account, Personal Addresses, and/or the Services. We will communicate with you by email, in particular, sending emails to the email derived from the information provided by you signing up to the Platform. You agree that all agreements, notices, disclosures, and other communications that are provided to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing. All notices from us intended for receipt by You shall be deemed delivered and effective when sent.
8. Network fees
You may be charged by your Network provider for data services, gas to perform the transaction or any other Third-Party charges as may arise while using the Platform, Personal Addresses, and any of the Services, and you accept responsibility for such charges.
9. Taxes
Trading of Cryptocurrencies may be subject to various taxes, including, without limitation, Capital Gain tax and Income tax. You are solely responsible for any taxes arising from Trading of Cryptocurrencies and/or using the Services. It is your responsibility to correctly collect and report taxes to your tax authorities in your country of residence. Margex is not responsible for taxes arising from Trading of Cryptocurrencies and/or using the Services.
10. Waiver and Severability
Waiver. Margex’ failure to enforce a provision of the Terms of Use does not constitute a waiver of its right to do so in the future with respect to that provision, any other provision, or the Terms of Use as a whole. User irrevocably waives any right User may have to serve as a representative or as a private attorney general, or to participate as a member of a class of claimants, in any suit, action, arbitration or other proceeding against Margex, its licensors and service providers, arising from, related to or connected with the Terms of Use or any policies available on the Platform.
Severability. If any provision of the Terms of Use is held by a court or other tribunal of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable for any reason, only such provision shall be eliminated or limited to the minimum extent such that the remaining provisions of the Terms of Use will continue in full force and effect.
11. Entire Agreement
The Terms of Use constitute the sole and entire agreement between you and Margex with respect to the Platform and the Services, and supersede all prior and contemporaneous understandings, agreements, representations and warranties, both written and oral, with respect to the Platform.
12. Any notice, demand or request required or permitted to be given under this Agreement shall be in writing and shall be deemed sufficient when sent by email to support@margex.com. Notice will be effective on receipt.
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