In an eye-opening study, Solidus, a leading crypto market integrity platform, has uncovered signs of insider trading associated with more than half of all cryptocurrency token listings since 2021. The firm’s analysis indicates a persistent issue within the industry, yet one that can be effectively tackled with the right measures.
Solidus’ HALO platform has detected signs of insider trading on Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs) linked to 56% of all ERC-20 token listing announcements on numerous key crypto exchanges since January 2021. The platform has identified over 100 suspected insiders involved in more than 400 instances of insider trading.
Serial insider trading represents the most prevalent form of this activity, with specific entities repeatedly engaging in these transactions. Solidus’ data shows that 51 individual or linked cryptocurrency wallets have been flagged for utilizing decentralized exchanges to purchase upcoming tokens listed, often swapping Ether, Tether, or USD Coin to acquire these tokens on multiple occasions. Ten of these entities have displayed trading patterns that coincide closely with over 10 token listing announcements. Even more concerning, the three most active insiders have traded prior to over 25 listing announcements each.
Here is a summary of Solidus’ findings:
ERC-20 token listing announcements: 234
ERC-20 token listings with insider activity: 131
Percentage of listings with insider activity: 56%
Number of insider trading events: 411
Number of distinct insiders: 105
Number of distinct one-time insiders: 54
Number of distinct serial insiders (≥2 listings): 51
Number of distinct serial insiders (>10 listings): 10
Number of distinct serial insiders (>25 listings): 3
Average number of insiders per listing with insider activity: 3.14
The findings paint a concerning picture of the current state of the cryptocurrency market, pointing to the need for increased scrutiny and regulation. The revelations call for an industry-wide commitment to transparency and ethical trading practices to ensure the continued growth and trust in cryptocurrency markets.
In a Tweet posted by user @cryptotutor Friday, a screenshot appears to show a 27% spread between stablecoin Magic Internet Money (MIM) and USD Coin (USDC) trading pair on decentralized exchange, or DEX, Uniswap (UNI). Both have a theoretical peg of 1:1 against the U.S. Dollar.
“Magic Internet Money,” joked cryptotutor, as he attempted to swap approximately $1 million in MIM but received a quote for only 728.6k USDC. Others quickly took to social media to complain as well. In another screenshot, user @DeFiDownsin allegedly received a quote to swap $984k worth of MIM for just 4,173 in USDT on SushiSwap (SUSHI).
Swapping $1M in $MIM gives $730K in $USDC on Uniswap
‘Magic Internet Money’ pic.twitter.com/CKowe6dwJR
— Tutor (@cryptotutor) January 27, 2022
Curve, a popular platform for stablecoin trading, offered their insight on the matter. “Uniswap actually now works much better than what the screenshot shows. Sushiswap is just unsuitable for stablecoin-to-stablecoin swaps always,” said the Curve team via a Tweet.
During bear markets, investors typically flee from holding volatile cryptocurrencies and instead pile into stable assets that generate fixed income. For example, the amount of deposits in Terra Luna’s flagship stablecoin savings protocol, Anchor, which promises yields of up to 20%, has increased from $2.3 billion to $6.1 billion in the past 60 days.
However, the capital flight has also resulted in issues, such as stablecoin liquidity disappearing from exchanges, causing their spread to widen to excruciating levels. In addition, the flock of stablecoins into the Anchor protocol has caused its yield to become unstainable as there are not enough borrowers to pay depositors’ interest.
But despite large fluctuations in the market, Curve appears to be doing better than ever. According to its developers, the platform saw a record trading daily volume of $3.6 billion, with total deposits surpassing $16.7 billion. Investors typically seek to take advantage of the occasional difference between stablecoins’ theoretical peg to fiat money or other stablecoins to make a profit.
A new Chainalysis report shows that the number of decentralized exchanges (DEXs) is growing faster than all other types of crypto exchanges. But Similar Web data shows centralized exchanges are far from unpopular, with Binance seeing 171 million visitors in October.
Chainalysis published a report on crypto exchanges on Nov. 11 and provided an analysis by breaking the exchanges down by their business models including DEXs, CEXs, over-the-counter (OTC) brokers, derivatives platforms and high-risk exchanges with minimal know your customer (KYC) requirements.
According to the data, the number of DEX’s between Q1 2019 and Q3 2021 increased more than 100% to sit at around 205 as of June this year. In comparison, the number of CEX’s temporarily increased from around 100 to 120, before dipping back to the 100 region within that time frame.
The amount of OTC brokers also increased significantly, gaining around 50% to sit at the 150 mark in Q3 2021. The number of derivatives exchanges got a slight bump to around 125 in 2019, and has essentially held at the region since, while high-risk exchanges broke out during the middle of 2020 to around the 150 mark, before sharply dropping below 100 in Q3 2021.
Growth of active crypto exchanges: Chainalysis
“Of course, the number of active exchanges in each category isn’t the only way to judge the health of those categories. After all, cryptocurrency businesses aren’t simply trying to survive — they need to grow their userbases and transaction volumes in order to thrive,” the report said.
Across all categories however, the number of small exchanges has dropped, suggesting the exchange market can no longer support niche players. The lesson? Exchanges need to reach a mass audience, or a small audience of large-scale traders, in order to stay in business.
— Chainalysis (@chainalysis) November 10, 2021
Chainalysis emphasized that the growing popularity of DEXs over the past two years has coincided with the “explosive growth of the DeFi category in general.” The firm highlighted that the total value received by DEX’s grew from around $10 billion in July 2020 to a peak of $368 million in May 2021, marking an increase of roughly 3579%.
Binance is still the top dog
Despite facing intense scrutiny and pushback from regulators across the globe in recent months, data shows that the centralized exchange Binance still towers over its competitors.
According to data from Similar Web compiled by Finbold, Binance had the most web traffic out of all crypto exchanges in October with a total of 171 million visitors. The figure represents a 12% increase compared to the month before. Coinbase ranks second with 91 million visitors last month, and had a 31% surge in traffic compared to the month before.
Notably the third most popular exchange is PancakeSwap, a DEX that operates on the Binance Smart Chain, with 25 million visitors and a 14% month-over-month increase. While Bybit sits at fourth with 24 million (down 8% from September).
Coingecko data shows that Binance is well ahead of its competitors in terms of volume, with the platform seeing more than $33.3 billion over the past 24 hours. That figure is more than five times larger than the total of second-ranked Coinbase, which generated $6.6 billion worth of 24-volume.
Related:Binance to spend $115M in France to develop European crypto ecosystem
On Thursday the Wall Street Journal reported that former Binance executives estimated that the firm could be worth up to $300 billion as a publicly-traded company. It is unclear when or how Binance will go public, considering its lack of a formal headquarters. However, CEO Changpeng Zhao said in September the Binance’s U.S. branch was looking at an initial public offering (IPO) in 2024.
A Chainalysis report has found that trading volumes on DeFi protocols are outpacing centralized exchanges in North America.
Uniswap was the protocol with the highest transaction volume, beating leading centralized exchange Coinbase.
While DeFi adoption has exploded, U.S. regulators are watching the industry closely.
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A report from the blockchain data platform Chainalysis has revealed an explosion in DeFi usage among North American investors. DeFi protocols are now beating centralized exchanges in transaction volume.
North America Leads DeFi Adoption
New Chainalysis data suggests that DeFi protocols have flipped centralized exchanges in North America.
The blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis released its Geography of Cryptocurrency report Thursday, outlining trends and developments in the crypto space over the 12 months commencing July 2020.
Most prominently, the report revealed an explosion of crypto activity in North America, with transactions rising from $14.4 billion in July 2020 to a high of $164 billion in May 2021. Within those ten months, DeFi protocols accounted for more and more of the total crypto transaction volume.
By June, crypto transactions conducted through DeFi protocols exceeded that of centralized exchanges by a wide margin.
Source: Chainalysis
Compared to other regions measured in the report, North America also had the second-highest total value sent to DeFi protocols, trailing only Europe.
Within North America, the cryptocurrency service with the highest transaction volume was Uniswap. The leading decentralized exchange handled over $100 million worth of transactions over the 12-month period, claiming the top spot from the U.S crypto exchange Coinbase. DeFi protocols dYdX and Compound also topped $50 million in value transacted, beating out centralized exchanges such as Binance and Kraken.
Discussing the report’s findings, dYdX growth lead David Gogel helped contextualize the upswing in DeFi adoption, stating:
“Right now, DeFi is targeted towards crypto insiders. It’s people who have been in the industry for a while and have enough funds to experiment with new assets.”
He also pointed out that large numbers of institutional investors in North America are taking their first steps into investing in cryptocurrency. Within this class of investors, many are drawn to the attractive investment opportunities provided by DeFi protocols such as dYdX and Compound.
As cryptocurrencies gain more mainstream adoption, it’s likely that more retail investors will also start using DeFi protocols. While centralized exchanges have more brand recognition and easier onboarding for new investors, they are slowed down by unpredictable regulatory decisions. For example, Coinbasefell foulof the SEC when attempting to create a USDC lending product in September, resulting in the exchange opting to cancel the launch.
While DeFi is proving popular with North American crypto investors, the industry is starting to face increased regulatory scrutiny. SEC chair Gary Gensler has repeatedly stated that DeFi protocols risk regulatory trouble if they do not cooperate with regulators. Gensler has also implied that many DeFi tokens should be classed as securities, urging the teams behind the protocols to “come in and talk” with the SEC.
Disclaimer: At the time of writing this feature, the author owned BTC, ETH, and several other cryptocurrencies.
This news was brought to you by ANKR, our preferred DeFi Partner.
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The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information.
You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities.
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The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information.
You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities.
IDEX is introducing “hybrid liquidity” pools with hopes of tackling slippage and front-running in DeFi.
IDEX Hybrid Liquidity will combine an order book and trading engine with liquidity pools.
As DeFi has grown, many traders have suffered from value extraction known as Miner Extractable Value (MEV).
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One of DeFi’s top exchanges is aiming to target the industry’s pitfalls with its latest update.
IDEX Targets DeFi’s Issues
IDEX, regarded by many as one of crypto’s premier decentralized exchanges (DEXes), has unveiled an innovation to solve some of DeFi’s biggest problems.
The update is called IDEX Hybrid Liquidity, or IDEX HL. It merges an order book and trading engine with liquidity pools. Popular automated market makers (AMMs) like Uniswap and SushiSwap use liquidity pools and exchanges like dYdX feature order books. Still, it’s rare to find a combination of the two on one platform.
IDEX HL has been designed to protect traders by targeting the key problems associated with automated market makers, including slippage issues and front-running. Slippage issues are often the cause of failed Ethereum transactions alongside insufficient gas prices. Failed transactions are a problem for traders as they must still pay a gas fee even if the trade doesn’t go through.
According todata from Dune Analytics, roughly 2-5% of transactions on Ethereum-based decentralized exchanges fail.
Ethereum’s MEV Problem
Another problem IDEX HL is hoping to solve is that of Miner Extractable Value (MEV). Currently one of the most widely-discussed topics in DeFi, MEV refers to the amount of value miners can draw from a trade by reordering or excluding transactions. Some miners choose to exclude transactions and front-run the trade if there’s an opportunity to profit for themselves, for example, by taking advantage of an arbitrage trade.
MEV has led to gas price bidding wars between bots, and it’s widely considered a negative force on Ethereum. MEV threatens consensus as it leads to miners manipulating transactions.
In a press release Alex Wearn, CEO of IDEX, noted that MEV is a key problem in DeFi today. He said:
“Despite the shortcomings limiting the scalability of the DeFi ecosystem, little has been done to mitigate front-running, sandwich attacks, and trade failures. With IDEX Hybrid Liquidity, we’ve finally eliminated these issues that have persisted in the DEX landscape.”
A “sandwich attack” is a form of front-running in which an attacker spots a trader buying an asset and purchases the same asset first to increase its price. Sandwich attacks lead to higher slippage, meaning the trader pays a higher price than expected. The attacker finally trades back the amount received at a higher price and to make a profit. Vitalik Buterin hasdiscussed sandwich attacksat length in the past.
IDEX HL will allow anyone to become a market maker by depositing assets, while the trading engine will provide real-time execution. This design helps eliminate front-running while reducing slippage and trading failures.
Wearn described the new liquidity pool as a decentralized exchange that offers a similar experience to centralized exchanges. He said:
“IDEX delivers the best of decentralized exchanges and centralized exchanges with the non-custodial elements and the ease of market making through automated market makers. By combining a high-performance trading engine with smart-contract-based custody and settlement, users get the best of both worlds.”
IDEX isn’t the only exchange working on solutions to target MEV: last month, Ethereum mainstays Balancer and Gnosis announced that they were linking up to launch the Balancer-Gnosis-Protocol with hopes of protecting traders. The full integration is scheduled to go live in mid-June.
The IDEX HL launch follows IDEX’s move to support trading on Binance Smart Chain in February. IDEX launched on the Binance-owned chain amid rising gas fees on Ethereum. The exchange also has its own token, IDEX. It has a market cap of around $74 million.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this feature owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.
This news was brought to you by ANKR, our preferred DeFi Partner.
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The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information.
You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities.
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Gauntlet is bringing dynamic-fee pools to Balancer.
Dynamic-Fee Pools Coming to Balancer
Balancer is introducing dynamic-fee pools.
The DeFi keystone is partnering with Gauntlet, a simulation platform for on-chain risk management. Using techniques developed in algorithmic trading, Gauntlet’s involvement in the automated market maker will optimize returns for Balancer V2 liquidity providers.
Making adjustments to trading fees means that liquidity providers can be paid fairly according to the current market conditions, rather than earning a fixed price. Fernando Martinelli, CEO at Balancer, said of the update:
“It’s a privilege for Balancer Protocol and its liquidity providers to be able to tap on the galaxy brains of the Gauntlet team to maximize pool returns. The idea of dynamic-fee pools has been top of mind for Balancer for a long time. It is better for all stakeholders for fees to constantly adapt to the market conditions.“
He also suggested that fixed-fee pools may one day be a dated format for automated marker makers, drawing a comparison to taxis and ride-sharing apps. Gauntlet’s COO John Morrow also shared his enthusiasm for working with the Balancer team. He said:
“Balancer’s vision for their V2 pools is perfectly suited for our simulation platform. We’re looking forward to launch, but we’re even more excited for what comes after – our optimization platform gets smarter as we incorporate more live data.”
Optimizations are a key point of focus for automated market makers due to the competitive nature of the market. Attracting sufficient liquidity to run a successful protocol can be challenging when liquidity providers can so easily move to another protocol. As such, it makes sense for automated market makers like Balancer to ensure that the rewards for each pool are sufficient.
Research has shown that the price volatility of assets in a pool can help liquidity providers profit when there’s an appropriate trading fee. Gauntlet will look at volatility and other inputs leveraging off-chain automation to optimize the trading fees in Balancer’s pools. Gauntlet has built an optimization model that will provide parameter recommendations and integrate data fees.
Balancer recently announced its V2 update, placing focus on capital efficiency and gas efficiency. The Gauntlet partnership shows a commitment to improving the protocol, where liquidity providers will be the first to benefit. According to the press release announcing the collaboration, there could be further improvements in the pipeline. “Updating trading fees is only just the beginning,” it read.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this feature had exposure to BAL in a cryptocurrency index.
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The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information.
You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities.
Vega, a blockchain agnostic derivatives trading protocol, has raised $5 million in a funding round.
Arrington Capital and Cumberland DRW led the round. Coinbase Ventures, ParaFi Capital, and others also participated.
Vega is preparing for a mainnet launch and has plans to expand to other Layer 1 networks.
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Vega has closed a $5 million funding round, with contributions from a host of big players.
Vega Secures Funding
Vega has raised $5 million in a funding round. Investments came from a host of leading venture capital firms and traditional trading companies, with Arrington Capital and Cumberland DRW leading.
In a press release, Ninos Manosor, Arrington Capital Partner, spoke of his belief in Vega’s future potential. He said:
“Vega will be to derivatives as Uniswap was to the spot markets. Any derivative can be launched on-chain in a highly performant and capital efficient environment. Just as the AMM primitive gave birth to an entirely new world of trading, we believe that Vega will unlock nascent collateral and reimagine crypto derivatives from the ground up.”
Aside from Arrington Capital and Cumberland DRW, other investors included Coinbase Ventures, ParaFi Capital, Signum Capital, CMT Digital, CMS Holdings, Three Commas, GSR, SevenX Ventures, ZeePrime Capital, and the DeFi Alliance. Stani Kulechov (Aave), Mona El Isa (Enzyme Finance), Do Kwon (Terraform Labs), and Loi Luu (Kyber Network) all also participated in the raise. Vega previously held a seed funding round in October 2019; Pantera Capital led.
Vega is a blockchain agnostic decentralized derivatives protocol. It runs its own chain secured through a proof-of-stake mechanism and adds liquidity incentives to match traders and market makers. It currently integrates Ethereum, though it can also run on other blockchains that support smart contracts or multisig wallets.
It’s aiming to make the markets more open by creating a trading platform that opts for decentralized governance in favor of centralized gatekeepers while overcoming some of DeFi’s major problems. Vega’s proof-of-stake system allows for high-speed transactions; it has a full network dedicated to hosting derivatives and trading primitives. It also achieves low cost by scheduling transactions in a block rather than ordering them by the fee paid, which is a different approach to blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. To date, high-speed, low-cost transactions have been fairly elusive in DeFi.
On itswebsite, Vega states that it will “facilitate fully automated, end-to-end margin trading and execution of complex financial products.” It also outlines its plans to “build tools that guarantee the freedom to trade and make that freedom accessible to anyone on earth.”Unlike the traditional finance world, anyone can create products and participate in markets through Vega.
Derivatives trading is also relatively uncommon in DeFi today. While other protocols such as dYdX have helped cater to the market, most decentralized trading currently happens on automated market makers like Uniswap.Vega founder Barney Mannerings told Crypto Briefing that the project would launch with cash-settled futures, with the “aim to add perpetuals and other products” later this year. It will also launch a “smart product” system in 2022, allowing traders to code their own products.
Brian Melville, Head of Strategy at Cumberland DRW, said that the protocol is well placed to improve efficiency in the markets:
“We are excited to support novel solutions like those offered by Vega. We strongly believe technology has the ability to make markets more efficient, more democratic, and more transparent—all issues that have been at the front of many of today’s conversations, and something that is rightly getting a lot of attention.”
Mannerings said that the team was “very appreciative” of the funding round participants. He also explained how the protocol aims to “give people the tools they need to hedge risks” while achieving the capital efficiency and necessary throughput for decentralized derivatives trading. Derivatives are a staple of the traditional finance system, but today they’re inaccessible to many people. DeFi protocols like Vega could be hugely disruptive as they allow anyone to participate without getting blocked by gatekeepers.
Vega in its current iteration is the result of two years of engineering and research into on-chain derivatives. The team’s research areas include on-chain anti-frontrunning, liquidity incentives, active and passive market making, the division between centralized limit order books and automated market makers, on-chain circuit breakers, and decentralized risk management.
The protocol will soon launch on mainnet, enabling self-custodied cross-chain collateral with a seamless bridge into the Ethereum network. The team is also looking at other Layer 1 chains, including Bitcoin, Polkadot, and Cosmos. “I expect some more integrations this year,” Melville said.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this feature owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies. They also had exposure to UNI in a cryptocurrency index.
This news was brought to you by ANKR, our preferred DeFi Partner.
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The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information.
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0x Labs, the firm behind a decentralized exchange (DEX) protocol and the ZRX token, has closed a $15 million Series A equity round led by Pantera Capital.
“We view 0x Labs as a holistic investment in the DEX space,” 0x’s Clay Robbins told CoinDesk in a phone call.
Additional participants in the round included Jump Capital, Blockchain Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and others.
The new round comes off the successful launching of 0x’s DEX router, Matcha, which came out in June and has processed $2.7 billion in orders. “The key thing we’re focused on is expansion of Matcha globally,” Robbins said.
Read more:DeFi’s ‘Agricultural Revolution’ Has Ethereum Users Turning to Decentralized Exchanges
The funds will also be used to further build out 0x Labs’ trading desk business, Periscope Trading; the professional-grade aggregation service, 0x API (which underlies offerings from companies such as ShapeShift, MetaMask and Zapper); and furthering its work on the underlying open-source protocol.
Which way did he go?
0x Labs offers its products without fees because they drive useage of the underlying 0x protocol and its ZRX token. Since version 3.0 of the 0x protocol, the ZRX token has become something market makers can stake in order to earn liquidity rewards. Overall, the protocol has seen $15 billion in trading volume, according to the company.
“In aggregate since the launch of these mechanics a little over a million dollars has been remitted to these holders. That currently represents about a 10% APY [annual percentage yield],” Robbins said.
As trading now drives value to the ZRX token, that remains 0x Labs core business model. As the creators of the 0x initial coin offering (ICO), the company remains a significant holder of ZRX.
ZRX was last noteworthy in decentralized finance (DeFi) circles in the early days of COMP liquidity mining, when it was a big gainer for staking and borrowing on Compound’s money market. So much so that governance moved to actually change the rules around how COMP returns were disbursed.
The token seems to be coming into its own, though. ZRX, like many other DeFi tokens, has seen outsize gains in recent weeks. Su Zhu of Three Arrows Capital has argued this is because the market is realizing that these tokens represent real value being added in the market:
Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match
Routing DeFi transactions is a tricky thing, like deciding which route to take through a busy city. You have to make a choice, but there’s no way to know you made the right one.
0x attempted to give users confidence that its proprietary routing software is worthy of their trust by running a lot of transactions across different routing protocols to compare results. A 0x Labs report from October contends that 0x’s routing architecture delivered the best overall price seven times out of 10.
Decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator 1inch has issued its own governance token.
Users of 1inch and the Mooniswap DEX, founded by the same execs, will get rewarded with a Christmas gift of sorts and have a say on matters like fees, referral rewards and other governance issues.
The token, named 1INCH and running on the Ethereum blockchain, will be distributed to all wallets that have previously interacted with 1inch (under certain trading conditions). The giveaway follows the approach taken by Uniswap, which made a surprise airdrop of UNI tokens to past users (worth well over $1,000 at the time) in September.
Again similar to Uniswap, 1inch is also announcing a liquidity mining program that will be launched Dec. 28 for 1INCH liquidity providers.
Mooniswap, in turn, has just been rebranded as 1inch Liquidity Protocol, so that the team has all its startups consolidated under one brand, 1inch spokesperson Sergey Maslennikov told CoinDesk.
Just as Uniswap’s UNI airdrop boosted activity on that site, CEO Sergej Kunz said the new token will help speed up the growth of 1inch.
“With the right community incentives, we see a chance to get a critical mass of liquidity to beat Uniswap,” Kunz told CoinDesk through a spokesperson.
Kunz estimates that around 50,000 wallets will get the 6% of 1INCH supply in the first round of distribution. The current supply of 1INCH is 1.5 billion tokens.
Among other things, 1INCH token holders will be able to vote on the settings of the so-called Spread Surplus pool, which accumulates the “leftovers” of swap transactions when the price of a swapped token changes during the time of transaction.
“Let’s say, a user swaps some ETH for DAI and sees the amount of DAI they should get. If while the transaction is processed the price changes and the user should get more DAI for their ETH, this is the spread surplus,” Maslennikov explained.
These “leftovers” will get accumulated in a special pool, the proceeds from which will be swapped for 1INCH and either claimed by the governance participants or distributed to the referrers.
1inch was launched in 2019 at the ETHGlobal hackathon by Kuntz, a former software engineer at Porsche, and CTO Anton Bukov, a former smart-contract developer at NEAR Protocol. The project raised $14.8 million in two rounds from Binance Labs, Pantera and others earlier this year.