This Week in DeFi – April 23

This week, Balancer officially launched smart contracts for V2 of the token pooling and swap platform, allowing developers to take a closer look before the user-friendly front end application launch scheduled for April 28. The original Balancer architecture already offered some of the most advanced AMM capabilities in the DeFi ecosystem like dynamically adjusted weightings in smart pools, and Balancer V2 will introduce even more customizability into the protocol design, including flash loans and more granular asset management.

 

This is an important milestone for AMMs: now anyone can create new AMM logic without caring about low level token management. Balancer V2 does it all for you, with a lot of advantages.

Congrats to the whole @BalancerLabs team and Balancer community for making this possible! https://t.co/Oc8OxGpxsD

— Fernando | Balancer (@fcmartinelli) April 20, 2021

 

Ampleforth, one of the very first algorithmic stablecoins, doesn’t make the headlines much, but has quietly been proving itself as one of the few designs able to successfully maintain relatively stable value over time, pegged to the value of one USD in 2019. Last week, Amplforth deployed a retroactive airdrop to all wallets that have held AMPL at any point, along with additional rewards for liquidity providers interacting with the Ampleforth Geyser program. FORTH tokens will control Ampleforth governance, in another example of DeFi token distributions based on early interactions with experimental protocols that are becoming more mature.

 

Ampleforth launched its governance token $FORTH.

Anyone who has ever interacted with @AmpleforthOrg on-chain is eligible to claim some tokens. https://t.co/uHVbLShfDB

— DeFi Airdrops (@defi_airdrops) April 22, 2021

 

Decentralized asset management platform Enzyme Finance and stablecoin and like-token swap protocol Curve Finance are joining forces to bring additional strategies to Enzyme asset managers. Uncommitted assets like stablecoins can now earn yield in Curve pools through a simplified interface, and rewards can be claimed in a single click. It’s an encouraging step for market participants who struggle to participate in DeFi on Ethereum due to near constant high gas fees; combining funds in an Enzyme pool allows a controller to make larger trades, reducing the impact of fees and allowing groups to share in market success. 

 

A selection of @CurveFinance pools now available on Enzyme!
TLDR;
-Pool deposits possible
-LP tokens auto-staked
-Claim & Re-Deposit rewards in 1-click
-Claim & Swap rewards in 1-click
-Pool execution costs with Enzyme
Your strategies, your terms 🔐https://t.co/2VL2DNm4QU

— Enzyme Finance (@enzymefinance) April 19, 2021

 

UMA is taking a new approach to attracting developers in the extraordinarily competitive DeFi talent market, introducing UMA Talent Referral Options as a time-bound incentive tied to the success of UMA tokens. Talent Referral Options will reward 50 UMA tokens to referring users whose suggestion completes an initial interview, 150 tokens if the candidate is hired, and 1,000 tokens after the first year of employment. It’s a new spin on incentivized referral programs, with the potential to be lucrative if great candidates help push UMA to new heights.

 

1/ UMA only hires top-tier candidates and it is hard to find them.

The people who could make the best referrals are probably not headhunters.

In an effort to address both of these issues, UMA announces Talent Referral Options.https://t.co/xvxfIRLP0h

— UMA (@UMAprotocol) April 21, 2021

 

In case you had any doubts, Ethereum is still a hotbed of DeFi activity, with a laundry list of well known projects heads down working on partnerships, integrations, and creative new features and products to get the most out of the new world of financial legos. 

 

BSC and other competing DeFi platforms are eager to claim the title of ‘Home of DeFi’, but it’s worth noting that DeFi on Ethereum is hamstrung precisely because it’s so popular, with temporary relief like Polygon and Optimism L2s gaining more volume and users every week. 

 

In the eternal words of the iconic American baseball star Yogi Berra, “Nobody goes to that spot anymore, it’s too crowded…”

Highest Yields: Nexo Lend at 10% APY, Bitfinex at 7.13% APY

Cheapest Loans: Aave at 7.24% APY, Compound at 7.56% APY

MakerDAO Updates

DAI Savings Rate: 0.00%

Base Fee: 0.00%

ETH Stability Fee: 4.50%

USDC Stability Fee: 0.00%

WBTC Stability Fee: 4.50%

Highest Yields: Fulcrum at 12.26% APY, Celsius at 10.51% APY

Cheapest Loans: Compound at 8.53% APY,  Celsius at 9.35% APY

Kyberswap announced Krystal, a new AMM aggregator, with band Protocol price feed integration

Hegic began decentralized governance launch with rewards for the most active users

KeeperDAO debuted a new way to prevent liquidations on Compound

Pendle Finance raised from a swathe of DeFi investors for simplified yield farming

mStable tapped HAL for greater transparency and automation

Total Value Locked: $57.83B (down -3.25% since last week)

DeFi Market Cap: $111.65B (down -11.04%)

DEX Weekly Volume: $19.2B (up 41.7%)

DAI Supply: 3.45B (up 7.48%)

Total DeFi Users: 1,903,000 (up 2.5%)

[Chris Powers – Dose of DeFi] – Coinbase and DeFi

[Anthony Sassano – The Daily Gwei] – Credible Neutrality – The Daily Gwei #229

[Ryan Adams – Bankless] – The wild future of synthetic assets

[The Tie – Treyce Dahlem] – The TIE Weekly Insights

[Anthony Sassano – The Daily Gwei] – Fun with Fundamentals – The Daily Gwei #231

[Defiant Team – The Defiant] – Injective Protocol Raises $10M at $1B Valuation From Investors Including Pantera