Intro
The previous Newsletter was centered around all things liquid, but wait until you see how liquid this one gets! Alchemix liquidity pools continue springing up left, right and center.
We are also happy to report, that not one, but two long-awaited collateral types have finally arrived to the Alchemix ecosystem in the form of FRAX and frxETH!
And just making it into this Newsletter edition before it was released, Alchemix introduces: Self-Repaying ENS!
Protocol Statistics
We also have an additional fun fact - since the inception of gALCX, over 28,800 ALCX have been automatically compounded for gALCX holders!
News & Announcements
New collateral: FRAX & frxETH
AIP-72B enabled the addition of FRAX as a fourth collateral type for alUSD and AIP-86A enabled the addition of frxETH as a fourth collateral type for alETH. Depositors can now deposit FRAX into the Alchemist to mint alUSD or frxETH to mint alETH. The available strategies are Vesper and Aave for FRAX and sfrxETH for frxETH.
Self-Repaying ENS!
Growing out of the Gitcoin Hackathon and then funded by an Alchemix grant, the Self-Repaying ENS service (SRENS) has been released!
People can now use Alchemix to automatically renew their ENS domains before expiry, with their Alchemix position repaying the ENS service fee over time. Check out the awesome announcement video in this tweet, or head over to Medium to learn how to use the service yourself.
Our special thank you goes to @wary__wary who actually built the tool!
Stable APRs have gone through the roof!
Okay, okay, not quite, but the Vesper USDC vault has consistently produced a 7-8% APR for some time now. This is a nice surprise in the middle of the current bear market, where for a long time anything above 3-4% for single-staking stablecoin vaults had been quite the treat.
The dev team had a few technical difficulties to overcome, but the Vesper USDC vault is now open for deposits!
Alchemix turns two!
Time in the crypto world is akin to dog years. It has only been two real-world years since Alchemix launched, but it feels like the protocol has been around forever, and is considered by many a long-standing DeFi incumbent.
Here is to many more self-repaying loans!
Adventure awaits
Fancy completing some quests, Adventurer? Alchemix has got you! Our introductory Discord quests help newcomers get acquainted with the base mechanics of Alchemix. This will also give you a special role in the Discord server. You cannot use this role for anything, but who does not like a free achievement marker?
Alchemix brings Balance to the Aurce
With this awkward and forced Star Wars reference, we are happy to announce that Alchemix has entered the Balancer Wars by acquiring an initial stake in Aura.
The treasury will use its voting power to direct BAL and AURA emissions to the 80/20 ALCX/ETH liquidity pool, which will serve as the basis of the upcoming veALCX system.
The treasury also moved its protocol-owned ALCX/ETH liquidity to the new pool, that will provide a large boost in protocol income.
Coming to a Velodrome near you
Velodrome has been a great home for alAsset liquidity on Optimism, so it is only natural that the new OP pairings got spun up on Velodrome.
And if there is any way for this Newsletter to be even more Frax-themed, alUSD-FRAX and alETH-frxETH pools have also been established on Velodrome in collaboration with Frax.
LP away, racers!
New DeFiLlama price feeds
The Llamas now carry the price feed API load for the Alchemix frontend, which can provide a more seamless user experience.
Harvests in broad daylight
No more harvesting in the dead of night, away from prying eyes. Now anyone can easily track harvests in real-time and feel their debt dissipate through the new #harvests Discord channel.
The first-ever vault harvest has also taken place on Optimism! The dev team had some difficulties with OP rewards from Aave wanting to route through lands and places that no OP should ever route through. A path has been cleared, and all OPs have safely arrived to the proper contracts.
Zunami and the alUSD FRAX Base Pool
The alUSD-FRAXBP Curve pool is now part of the stablecoin yield strategy of Zunami, currently making up 20% of their allocation.
L2D4 rises like a phoenix
The L2D4 Saddle pool on Arbitrum has suffered multiple setbacks, but is now finally ready to accept bribes and LPs. Head over to the Twitter thread below to learn about how you can become a pool depositor.
Hurry up, the wstETH gates are closing!
Given the elevated interest and the re-opening of the wstETH vaults, the stETH deposit caps were raised by 1200 ETH. The vaults filled up in a total of 2 hours! Additional cap raises will follow with much closer coordination with existing depositors that want to migrate their funds. All will be announced in Discord well ahead of time, so keep your eyes peeled!
PancakeSwap pools
With AIP-88 passing, new PancakeSwap pools have been spun up. You might find some maple syrup flavored juicy APRs on the new pools. They utilize concentrated liquidity, so they are a good choice for DeFi veterans and expert cooks.
Head over to pancakeswap.finance to get a share of the action!
The 4626 Alliance
Alchemix is proud to announce that it is now part of the 4626 Alliance that aims to create a new vault standard to make DeFi more composable.
If you would like to know what this standard is all about, Alchemix contributor IMIMIM has written an article that outlines the importance in layman’s terms below.
Trezor, Ledger and Keystone
It is time to whip out your hardware(wallets)! Trezor, Ledger and Keystone wallets are now supported. There is no reason left not to use Alchemix!
We are all gonna maid it!
Alchemix hosted its own maid-themed event during ETH Tokyo. We are happy that it was a success and would like to thank everyone that showed up and made it memorable!
ICYMI
Catch up on all the governance updates and new articles since the last edition.
AIP-85 Discretionary spending for new Liquidity Pools
Results of AIP-78 Deploy funds in Blueberry
Results of AIP-82-A Approve Migration of ALCX Liquidity to Balancer
Results of AIP-82-B Execute Strategic Acquisition of AURA
Results of AIP-83 Alpha Vaults Update
Results of AIP-84 Pre-authorize grant funding to create Alchemix Leveraged Vaults
AIP-87 Launch Alchemix-Premia options pools
AIP-88 PancakeSwap trial and emissions allocation update
Results of AIP-85 Discretionary spending for new Liquidity Pools
Results of AIP-86-A Add frxETH Strategy for alETH Alchemist
Results of AIP-86-B Expanding ETH2 LSD Caps
Community & Media
CoinDesk article
CoinDesk has published an article about the allocation change of the Elixir AMO rewards. AIP-80 uses part of the protocol revenue to buy back ALCX from the market and re-use that as additional bribes for alAsset liquidity pools. This is expected to bolster alAsset prices by attracting more liquidity.
Introduction to the Binancians
Alchemix took part in the regular educational series that is run by Binance. This introduced the protocol to a large audience and helped people understand the base mechanics that make Alchemix function. Anyone could participate in the event and had a chance at winning a share of the prize pool.
How Solid(ity) is your understanding?
Linum Labs hosted their regular #SolidityFridays event on their Twitch stream where they dissected the Alchemix smart contracts. Only their live stream is accessible on Twitch, but you can watch the recording of the event on their YouTube channel.
Align your Chakra
Alchemix was mentioned in the latest edition of the Aura Newsletter alongside other notable protocols to mark the entrance of Alchemix to the Balancer ecosystem.
Flipping a house
It is worth reminding ourselves that Alchemix and DeFi exist to enable financial services and create additional opportunities for people in the real world. It is not just some obscure playground for people that take risky bets with their money.
For example, RandCorp uses Alchemix loans to buy and refurbish houses, which is exactly the type of use-case the service was designed for!
Tide AMA
Scoopy and Ov3rkoalafied appeared on an AMA with Tide. They talked about governance challenges and features currently being developed among others. You can listen to it on the link below.
https://twitter.com/Tide_web3/status/1641061707421212673
It’s a Scoopy triple y’all!
Scoopy has gone on a podcast rampage last month. Outside of the Tide AMA above, he has spoken to three additional audiences, educating people about Alchemix, discussing general DeFi topics and dropping info bombs all around. Listen in if your time allows it!
Snapshot calendar
For those of you that might need some help with keeping up with the governance votes, community contributor IMIMIM has created a calendar feed that updates with Alchemix Snapshot votes. It can be accessed and added using this google calendar or this google .ics feed link. IMIMIM’s fine print: The feed uses Snapshot’s API and attempts to update once per day, so there may be a lag of up to one day before new votes show up in the feed, but that should still provide for ample time for the average user. Additionally, this should work for as long as Snapshot’s API doesn’t break.
Resources
Stay safe online! When using Alchemix, always be sure that you are interacting with the official resources:
Website: https://alchemix.fi
Twitter: @AlchemixFi
Discord: https://discord.gg/alchemix
Medium: https://alchemixfi.medium.com
Disclaimer
This Newsletter is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute any kind of advice. Use cryptocurrencies and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) at your own risk.
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