mStable – a rising stablecoin aggregator – has unveiled their plans for their MTA governance token distribution starting with mUSD liquidity incentives.
1/ Today we are excited to detail mStable’s protocol token Meta ($MTA), along with our ecosystem reward program — which begins today on @BalancerLabs
Get started: https://t.co/Z4nJlBYYiC
Learn more: https://t.co/rCM2YKQFjT
— mStable 🧮 (@mstable_) June 26, 2020
With a focus on making stablecoins easy, safe and profitable, mStable aggregates leading stablecoins to collateralize a native token mUSD. Now, while there’s a lot of different stablecoins being touted here, what you need to know is that mStable addresses the following:
- Fragmentation in same-peg assets
- Lack of native yield as demand spikes
- Protection against permanent capital loss
With mStable, users can trade between top stablecoins like DAI and USDC with minimal slippage while also collateralizing mUSD. The protocol is designed in such a way that should one stablecoin shit the bed, the rest of the pool (and those providing capital to it) do not go down with the ship. Now, with the recent surge around stablecoin volume thanks to the yield farming saga, mStable’s APY has skyrocketed in just under a month since launch.
In times of stablecoin price fluctuation, larger swap volumes feed into our APY for mUSD savers, boosting return.
With over $850k in swaps done in the last 24hrs, we’ve had a bumper day today! pic.twitter.com/QhrG3CguRF
— mStable 🧮 (@mstable_) June 20, 2020
Introducing MTA
As if double-digit APYs on a stable asset wasn’t enough to get you excited, today’s release of the Meta protocol token – MTA – is sure to do the trick. As a native governance token, MTA will be used to influence parameters like supported assets, protocol fees, and swap rates thanks to key actors called Meta Governers. In addition to the typical governance spiel, MTA also acts as a line of defense against capital loss. In exchange for these services, MTA stakers earn protocol fees.
The distribution of MTA will be skewed in favor of those providing asset liquidity and utility as follows:
Today – this distribution begins through the introduction of MTA liquidity mining.
MTA Ecosystem Rewards
Those who contribute liquidity to the mUSD/USDC Balancer pool will be eligible to share a monthly distribution of 200,000 MTA for the first month. Now, less than 24 hours after launch the pool has nearly $3M worth of liquidity.
The neat thing about the MTA reward model is that the size of the monthly allocation is set to change with time. Similarly, the issuance of these rewards will happen randomly with onchain snapshots as to encourage liquidity honesty.
This varying model of MTA rewards should better align incentives as the protocol continues to grow, just as we’ve seen with COMP and BAL spiking the AUM for the leading DeFi primitives. On top of MTA issuance, LPs also benefit from BAL rewards and protocol fees from mStable volume.
Please note that MTA has yet to be minted and that rewards are set to be locked until the staking contract is created at some point in the next three months.
Curve v mStable
In DeFi farming circles, the competition regarding where to deploy your capital has become more and more intense. As Curve, mStable, and Ampleforth all roll out various forms of stablcoins incentives, the liquidity wars are only set to get more and more intense.
If one thing is for certain, the fact that mStable is taking a strong stance on purely stablecoins may be one key differentiator from something like Curve which has recenly expanding to a wider range of assets with the introduction of their BTC pools.
If nothing else, DeFi yield farmers have never had more of a prime opportunity to harvest the season’s most bountiful crops. While many are rushing to Curve in preparation for the upcoming CRV distribution, we’d like to say anyone reading this article now has a glimpse into the latest plantation which has yet to be saturated with first-timers.
To stay up with mStable, follow them on Twitter or join the conversation on Discord.
Cooper is the Editor of DeFi Rate and an active contributor to leading DeFi media outlets like The Defiant, DeFi Pulse, and Bankless. He works with early-stage teams through Fire Eyes DAO to incubate governance models and grassroots community development. He is an ambassador to Set Protocol and an author of a weekly publication called Token Tuesdays. To stay up with Cooper, follow him on Twitter.