Trader Joe is a trading platform that runs on the Avalanche network. Per Messari, it "combines DEX services with DeFi lending to offer leveraged trading."

The platform allows users to trade via its AMM exchange, as well as to participate in yield farming and staking. It emphasizes an intuitive interface and fast, low-cost trading.

JOE is the platform's governance token, and also rewards holders, allocating exchange fee revenue (whether from swaps or liquidated positions) back to JOE holders, Messari explained.

The platform has pushed into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) via the Joepegs launchpad. Another relatively new feature called Banker Joe lets users lend or borrow tokens. Rocket Joe, launched early in 2022, allows users to participate in exclusive new token launches.

Some other new arrivals to the Trader Joe ecosystem, per Cointelegraph, include Dragon Crypto Gaming and Domi Online, a pair of play-to-earn (P2E) gaming projects; there were also integrations with Cook Finance, the Open DeFi Notification Protocol and with the cross-chain trading terminal Kattana.

All in all, as of earlier this year, the Trader Joe platform had attracted more $1.5 billion in locked-in assets. And, its creators say, the platform has gained backing from “some of the most widely recognized investors in the industry." Among them is AAVE founder Stani Kulechov.

When was JOE created and how much was it worth?

Created by a pair of pseudonymous developers, the Trader Joe DEX was launched in late June of 2021.

One of the developers goes by Cryptofish and is said to be a smart contract engineer; another, 0xMurloc, is described as a full-stack developer.

The pair co-authored an article describing the project’s origins, saying that it was born of "a blended desire to create a truly innovative trading platform that would resonate with the emerging superiority of the Avalanche blockchain, while at the same time serving burgeoning audience at the frontier of the DeFi industry."

In July of 2021, the first batch of JOE tokens emitted; no pre-sale, nor any private sales, were held.

Within a few months of its launch, JOE went from being worth merely a few pennies per token all the way to well above $1 by September of 2021. At that time, Trader Joe raised $5 million in strategic sale led by Defiance Capital, GBV and Mechanism Capital.

Then it shot even higher toward the end of 2021. The all-time high for JOE came on Nov. 21 when it reached above $5. It has been subjected to downside volatility ever since then.

How is the price of JOE determined?

The total supply of JOE is capped at 500 million, CoinGecko said.

There are an estimated 300 million coins currently circulating. JOE coins are being emitted over a 30-month period through the start of January 2024, according to the platform's website. The emission rates of JOE steadily decrease over time.

The distribution of JOE is as follows: 50% to liquidity providers; 20% treasury; 20% team; 10% future investors.

JOE stakers earn 0.05% of all trades.

JOE also pays a share of fees from lending interest and liquidations into the staking pool.

Why does JOE have value?

JOE is Trader Joe's governance token, allowing holders to vote on community proposals, such as improvements to the protocol. It is also used to reward its holders with trading revenue.

The exchange is an AMM facilitating users who swap between two tokens, using JOE.

Trader Joe also helps users earn JOE tokens. To do this, users stake liquidity provider (LP) tokens. Staking JOE tokens, as Messari explains, will help in earning more JOE via protocol fees

JOE value also ties to rewards: some 0.05% of all trades are paid to the xJOE staking pool. A share of fees from lending interest and liquidations is also paid to this staking pool.

JOE token holders can stake their JOE to xJOE and receive a share of the revenues, according Messari.

Is JOE secure?

Trader Joe is built upon Avalanche, which maintains its own proprietary consensus mechanism.

All nodes process and validate transactions using a directed acyclic graph (DAG) protocol.

Trader Joe is fully audited by HashEx and Paladin, the project said.

What are the main benefits of JOE?

According to Messari, the unique feature of the JOE token is that it combines DEX trading, lending and trading, promoting liquidity by attracting inflows into the project.

The Trader Joe platform is geared toward providing users with a "one-stop-shop DeFi experience," its cofounders said.

"Trader Joe is built differently with new features that people want to see," Coincu said. "These include simple things, like a new user interface, candlestick charts and better farming incentives."

The fees on Trader Joe, built on Avalanche, are said to be significantly lower than those of exchanges built on Ethereum.

What do critics say about JOE?

Zap is a new feature that helps users to instantly grab LP tokens for the pool they wish to farm without having to do it manually (that is, go through the Pool page). However, as BuyBitcoinBank noted, "there is a high slippage tolerance when using this feature, so we recommend doing it manually."

Meanwhile, as far as the JOE price outlook, Wallet Investor recently pegged it as “a bad long-term (one year) investment.”