You run a maker desk: you answer requests for quote with firm prices, stand on the other side of the non-deliverable forward (NDF), and earn the spread. To curate is to decide which pairs you price, how wide you quote, and how much collateral each client posts. You are the sell side. The taker is the buy side. CRX is the venue between you, and it never prices the trade itself.
The closest analogue is a vault curator on a lending protocol — except here you do not pool deposits. You quote bilaterally, and your collateral stays in your own segregated accounts.
What is a maker, exactly?
A maker is an operator-approved firm that takes one side of a Master Agreement.
One side of a bilateral agreement. Each Master Agreement (a beacon-proxy clone) pairs exactly one maker with one taker. You face the taker directly, firm to firm. There is no central counterparty.
A quoting desk. You poll the relayer's inbox for directed RFQs, price the ones you want, sign Terms, and bind the position on-chain.
A collateral setter. You write the initial-margin rate into each quote — a percentage of notional, one rate per side. That rate is your edge.
What do I actually have to do?
Three things, repeating:
Quote. Poll GET /rfq/inbox, price the RFQs you want, decline the rest. You are never obliged to quote everything.
Margin. Post your own side's initial margin to the agreement's segregated collateral account (SCA). Keep your general balance funded so variation margin and the daily IM re-true never leave you short.
Watch. Track your open exposure and the pairs whose FX session is closing. Step in if a position needs attention. See Act as a Sentinel (~6 min).
What do I earn, and what does it cost?
You earn the spread on every trade, minus the funding cost of the margin you post.
Revenue. The bid-ask spread you quote. You set it RFQ by RFQ.
Cost. The opportunity cost of locked margin. Post in sUSDS — a yield-bearing token — and the margin earns roughly 5% a year while it sits, cutting that cost.
Risk. A taker that runs out of collateral. CRX removes it at the margin line and pays you in full from its own estate, before the loss reaches you. See Security Considerations (~6 min).
What value does a desk give takers?
A standing, on-demand price on pairs a taker cannot easily hedge.
A taker arrives already inside your Master Agreement — one ISDA adherence covers the whole venue, so there is no per-client paper to negotiate. The taker sends an RFQ; you quote; the position binds in seconds. The taker gets a firm price on an emerging-market currency without opening a bilateral credit line, and you get the spread without a credit check.
The maker is a firm, not a customer — a small, named, reachable set. Sign the hedge anchor first; it makes every other book hedgeable.
Next: Roles & Capabilities (~4 min) — who holds the keys, and what each key can do.