Scalp Empire
While the Cryptocurrency sector and its sub-niche “NFT” space are undoubtedly unique, the platform BearLabs is covering today — Scalp Empire, has a story that we believe genuinely encapsulates and portrays the true essence of what crypto stands for.
It’s a story filled with heartaches, setbacks, roadblocks, more setbacks, passion, determination, perseverance, and inspiration. It’s one that our core team, who has over two decades of combined experience in the cryptocurrency sector, has never seen even remotely matched.
Core Team
Kind3r - Leader / Main Dev
Bibise — The “Real Boss” (And perhaps the most supportive wife ever)
Adurnam — Community lead
Socials:
Discord - https://www.discord.gg/uBVgnSWydc
Twitter — https://www.twitter.com/ScalpEmpireNFT
Website — https://www.scalp-empire.com/
History
Initial Release
Scalp Empire, founded in 2021, was created to support NFT swing traders and/or “scalpers” (those seeking to buy undervalued positions with the goal of a quick entry and exit for small yet consistent profits), gain an analytical edge over those who were manually trading.
At first, Scalp Empire launched as a free tool that strictly provided analytical data to its users. Shortly after, two weeks to be exact, it became a paid tool, and a “gold” native coin was released as the primary payment form.
Transition to Paid
With the move to a paid platform, Scalp Empire also began adding additional features to their platform, such as a mint bot. This allowed traders to take advantage of NFT mints or the day the collection hit the markets for public purchases and trading.
This was towards the end of 2021, and little did the team know at the time that come to the turning of the new year, the trajectory for the company would be completely altered.
January 2022
The Scalp Empire team had a new advantageous plan for the new year. They strategically planned to roll out a secondary coin, a silver coin, that, similarly to the gold coin, would grant access to the platform with certain restrictions (mainly access or lack thereof to the mint bot).
Although those holding the gold coins at the time were awarded whitelist privileges (guaranteed mint), it was a public mint. With that said, it turned out that the large majority (nearly all) of those who minted the silver coin were also the ones holding the gold coins — in short, not many from outside the community joined in on the silver coin mint.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned. As soon as the mint was complete, those holding the new silver coin rushed to list them for sale on the market. With each new listing came a lower FP or floor price (the price of the cheapest coin on the market).
The panic set in, and the race to offload the freshly minted silver coins intensified as the holders began competing for who could sell theirs for the lowest price. Eventually, the coins became near worthless.
They made it past this dreaded date, but as they would soon learn, they were not out of the woods yet, in fact, nowhere close to it.
Towards the end of January, the well-known decentralized NFT marketplace, Magic Eden, with whom the Scalp Empire tool connected directly with to receive their data feed via API (application programming interface), had enhanced their security measures.
This essentially blocked data from flowing back and forth to the platform and near instantly made the analytical side of Scalp Empire obsolete, as it was no longer functioning correctly (if at all).
The Developers (Devs) had a hard time keeping up and even stated, “It was like Magic Eden (ME) was trying to block us.”
Needless to say, January was a long and turbulent month.
February 2022
Not much after this event took place, a community member/holder (who also happened to be a Dev), going by the username Kind3r, stepped up to the plate and offered to provide a solution to the roadblock for the team to use.
While Kind3r’s proposed solution and efforts were indeed paying off, the main team (excluding 2) started losing momentum and faith in the project's future.
The team dev also quit responding — At this point, it seemed as if the two community moderators “Adurnam,” and “Ery”, along with Kind3r (a community member), were the only ones who were actually trying to save the project — because they were.
After providing consistent solutions for a week, Kind3r was left with an ultimatum presented by the rest of the team, who no longer wanted anything to do with Scalp Empire — they would either all step away and let the project die, or Kind3r could purchase the rights and take over.
A Change is Coming
At this point, Kind3r was caught between a rock and a hard place. He was passionate about Scalp Empire, but he also had a full-time job, and this would require him to step out and transition to a full-time business owner. A role that would be completely new to him — not to mention he had very limited (to no) capital.
But along with Adurnam and Ery, (the ultimate trio), the mission to push Scalp Empire forward had begun.
First, they started by:
· Revamping the old liquidity pool and swapping out the native coins for new ones
· Purchased the rights to the newest addition to the platform (an NFT collection), “Nestor”
Nestor is the “Pet” or collection (NFTs) of Beavers that grants full access to Scalp Empire’s platform. Nestors are traveling between the realms of “Midgar” and “Asgard,” and as they travel through universes, they change or evolve into different shapes and colors.
Each Nestor has its own unique traits, making them part of a larger NFT collection.
However, regardless of shape or color, each Nestor provides the same value and the same access to the platform.
Nestor’s Price:
· The Floor Price (FP) of one Nestor was 9.34 Solana (SOL)
· Reached an FP in the high 14 SOL range, nearly breaking 15 SOL around late May
You can also “Adopt” a Nestor for those looking for more cost-effective methods while testing the platform. For a portion of the price it takes to acquire a Nestor, a user can adopt a Nestor for a pre-determined duration.
Once you pay the adoption fee
· A Nestor is temporarily deposited into your wallet
· Once in that wallet, he cannot be transferred to another wallet
· You must use that wallet to connect and trade with
· Nestor cannot be placed for sale during this adoption period
This method mainly benefits those looking to become more familiar with Scalp Empire and to experience its platform before deciding to purchase a Nestor outright.
Although the fee to rent a Nestor is significantly lower than the overall FP, the user should not plan on renting a Nestor for long durations as it would be more advantageous to purchase it outright. This is because over a month’s time, for instance, the adoption fees would surpass the total cost of a Nestor.
The newly established team kept things moving, and next:
· Moved away from using the back-end API to grab information directly from Magic Eden (ME) and instead pivoted to grabbing information straight from the on-chain data itself.
· Disabled the mint bots, which turned out to be a good thing as many projects didn’t want to do business with them due to the stigma of a project having a Mint bot.
This move came also turned out to be a double positive as Metaplex had changed their contract making it less advantageous for mint bots. (If the transaction failed due to too many attempts, the trader would be charged even if the trade wasn’t placed — cost traders money with no results)
Team Expansion
In May of 2022, Kinb3r’s wife “Bibise” — perhaps the most supportive wife ever — joined the trio to help assist with documentation creation/review and social media support (Twitter and Discord).
As the community grew, so did the questions and need for support, so this was truly a “healthy” sign that the team and company as a whole were headed in the right direction.
A New Focus
A transformation was in process ever since the new team took over. They, slowly but surely, were evolving into a true trader’s platform. They honed their focus on improving and streamlining data and tools so that traders would be able to capitalize on each trade.
The team shared the vision of scaling (adding features) while maintaining platform integrity (not jeopardizing security and/or speed.)
They Soon:
· Listed on https://www.yawww.io/
· Listed on https://solanart.io/
They made these strategic moves to help gain momentum at such a “renewed” early stage.
Months passed as they continued investing their money, energy, and nearly every waking hour into Scalp Empire.
But traction was being made, and the proof was in their:
· Announcement of their first collaboration with “Trading Apes Gang”
· Begin implementing notifications into their platform
· Continually worked on increasing the sniping performance of their tools
· Broadened their customer base by offering a subscription-based model — however, these customers have restricted access to the full features offered on the platform.
Not Out of the Weeds “Yet”
While things were definitely headed in the right direction for Scalp Empire, they were by no means clear of turbulence.
In fact, the company itself was rugged twice during this growth period! The first rug was not as bad, a learning lesson indeed, yet one that was a “minor” blow.
Unfortunately, the second rug wiped them completely out. Their company wallet was imported into Slope Finance, which in early August of 2022, endured a multi-day, multi-million-dollar exploit. It is estimated that over $4 Million in funds were stolen from over 9,231 Solana wallets — sadly, Scalp Empires' entire funds were one of those compromised wallets.
At this point, the company was completely drained of funds, and if weren’t for one move, then this would be an entirely different story. Thankfully, they had paid their infrastructure invoice right before their wallet got drained.
The true meaning of building from the ground up (again).
Platform Features
Security
First and foremost, Scalp Empire is a big advocate of security and protecting your assets — and their “Main Wallet” feature proves that.
This feature allows a trader to safely store a Nestor in their main wallet (cold storage if preferred) while using another wallet to trade out of, almost like a mirrored wallet. It’s a great safety measure that adds another layer of protection.
· Custom RPC, or Remote Procedure Call — Used to collect on-chain data as well as sends transactions directly to the blockchain.
· Privacy Mode — This allows one to temporarily hide their total wallet balance and the balance of individual NFT items. A perfect option for those streaming or screen sharing
· Clear Cache — A useful feature that allows one to clear their cache without clearing their other in platform settings such as their main wallet settings and watchlist items.
· Clear App Data — This feature will clear all of your custom settings and inputs back to the default settings.
Trading Features
As time progresses, Scalp Empire continues to add, refine, and re-refine its trading tools and features provided to its customers. The following is just a brief overview of a few features offered; in the next section, we will elaborate a bit more on them.
· Load NFT Images — We shop with our eyes, it’s a known fact, and this feature allows you to do just that by loading the images of each NFT into the Scalp Empire Analytics or Sniping screen.
· Chart Display — This option, on the sniping tab, allows you to see the chart and candle formations for said NFT.
Filters
Everyone has different preferences when it comes to making the “perfect” snipe, and the following metrics are used to help each user identify those opportunities.
· High Royalties Threshold — This filter allows the trader to set the royalty limit or ceiling for said trade. If a trader set’s this limit to 8%, the Snipe feature will automatically dismiss all NFTs that have a royalty of greater than 8% and instead focus on NFTs with royalties sub 8%.
· Whale Threshold — Whale watching in this industry is truly a thing, and this feature makes that experience easier. The Whale Threshold is a setting that allows you to track wallets that are being used a specific number of times for trading activities (you determine the number of times). This will help the trader determine whether a project is being scalped by a whale or just regular users.
· Limit Live Chart Rang to FP — Since the price action often experiences spikes and surges, the range variance can greatly differ, making it hard to understand the true median price range for said NFT. This feature pegs the price action to the Floor Price (FP), giving a clearer representation of the true price.
· Staking Detection — Dedicated to Scalp Empire collab partners that leverage staking. This only applies to those using Scalp Empire through a collab and have their NFTs staked. This option can be found and activated under Settings.
Scalp Empire’s detailed White Paper can be found Here for a deeper understanding of these features.
Platform Views
Analytics Tab: On this tab, you will find, yes — analytics — on NFT collections.
To the far left of this page, you will find specific information on the NFT collection, such as the name, mint date, total items in the collection, number of holders, as well as the total listed percentage.
In the middle, information such as the total trade volume and listed and de-listed items can be found with various time intervals to choose from.
This column highlights the current FP and the 24H FP in a chart view.
The icons towards the very end of the page: A shopping cart that takes you to the sniping page, a bell that enables website notifications, a ME icon that, if clicked on, takes you directly to Magic Eden, and a Cube icon that takes you directly to Coral Cube.
FFF Tab —
This tab provides an overview of the FFF token market and all assets trading on it.
You will find the coin ticker symbol and full name to the far left.
The Address field displays the coin address to ensure the user is referencing the accurate one to help avoid scams (Scalp Empire is all about safety!).
The four columns following the address field display information such as volume, sales, and listed and delisted items
The last column displays the number of coins and the floor price or spot price.
Portfolio -
The Portfolio tab displays all the NFT’s in your connected wallet.
The “Show hidden” feature allows you to hide “defected” collections, such as ones that have been rugged, have a large number of items, or have had previous issues.
The “Show full stats” feature toggles between displaying information such as the collection / rank FP and your initial buy price versus your break-even price.
The far left column displays the NFT collection, the number of items, the percentage of collection items listed, as well as the number of holders.
The middle columns display information such as Volume, sales, and items listed and delisted in various time intervals. The FP is also listed towards the end.
In the last column, you can find information such as the total value of your items from this collection and your average buy-in.
Sniping View:
The sniping screen can be accessed by clicking the yellow “Sniping” icon with the shopping cart.
Per request, the Scalp Empire team added the “Unified Analytics & Sniper view” toggle option, which can be found in the settings tab. This option allows one to quickly access “Purchase Mode” as well as displays the image of each NFT from the snipe screen.
The far left section of the sniping screen shows information relative to the collection, such as the mint date, price, number of collection items/holders, total volume, 24h volume, royalty percentage, floor price, total PnL (profit and loss) as well as the 24h PnL.
The majority of the screen displays this information in a chart view, along with a color-coded bar graph showing the volume and number of ranked items.
The bottom left “Purchase Mode” section provides various modes or strategies to which you can place buys — this includes “Auto-Buy”, “Sweep”, and “Bid.”
The columns to the right give you a high-level overview of specific items within the collection and the ability to quickly purchase them buy clicking buy.
Auto-buy
Once drilled down on the Auto-buy option, you will see metrics to establish the type of items you want to purchase, such as the rank filter and your desired investment range (low to high).
Below this section are additional options or “Attributes Filters” dynamic to each collection. For example, if you are looking to buy Nestors with brown fur, you can set that here.
Sweep
Much like the Auto-buy tab, you will find similar options. However, they are limited to just the Rank filter and desired investment range.
Bid
The bid tab allows you to select the number of items to bid on, the price in SOL, as well as the rank filter and price range.
Takeaway
Scalp Empire’s current team represents the true meaning of a product of value backed by leaders who want to see their customers succeed.
They’ve been tried, tested, and pushed to their limits (multiple times), and sometimes past that point, yet they always seem to emerge from the fire stronger than before.
Unfortunately, the stigma from the past team and their rugged encounters still come back to haunt them from time to time, but to us, the team's “actions speak louder than past events.”
They are committed to improving their platform, tools, and services as time progresses.
A part of their vision for the future is to offer their services to multiple ecosystems, not just Solana.
Their biggest message to others is to be cautious, take your time and practice good safety habits.
Don’t be in a rush to sign transactions; take a second to review them before approving. Don’t store your private keys on the web, such as Google docs.
We here at BearLabs do believe that Scalp Empire will continue to do great things — continue to evolve with and perhaps even create their own industry-leading trends.
Made it all the way through to the end?
Here’s a treat for you; some Honey! A special invitation to BearLabs Private Discord: https://discord.gg/6AMYqEmAq2
