Arbitrum SZN
Hello Lefties! In this post we are going to cover the Arbitrum ecosystem in light of recent events, clear catalysts are developing on Arbitrum signaling it is becoming the main Optimistic rollup for Ethereum.
Look at the top native Ethereum L2s, Arbitrum now sits at the top with 53% market share:
Source: https://l2beat.com/
Exchanges are now enabling support for Arbitrum:
Crypto.com -
Leftie side note: Guide on how to bridge to Arbitrum
Although this article lists the official Arbitrum bridge, using an alternative bridge is perfectly fine and skips the 7 day withdrawal period for optimistic rollups… a common misconception you can bridge to and from chains within minutes using an alternative bridge. Hop protocol, synapse, xpollinate, Celer CBridge are all great choices.
What does this mean?...
The top projects on Arbitrum are likely to get listed on exchanges in the future.
With the “crypto bowl” coming up, we would expect to see an increase in TVL in the entire ecosystem as well.
Below is a list of the most liquid tokens on Arbitrum along with some notable projects to keep an eye on. Most of LCC is already familiar with these projects however, we will provide a quick overview below of each project to get everyone up to speed:
1) $Magic - https://www.treasure.lol/
Treasure is building an NFT/Metaverse ecosystem that is currently native to Arbitrum. $Magic is the native currency used in the treasure ecosystem. Many of treasure’s nfts can be “staked” to turn these NFTs into income generating assets.
$Magic can also be mined and harvested through Treasure’s premier metaverse P2E game - Bridgeworld. Treasure is partnered with many different NFT/metaverse projects and is a clear leader in the space.
The treasure team is also building its own app-specific cosmos chain(s) for gaming.
Notable developments:
Treasure marketplace
Bridgeworld
Farms: Sushiswap, Atlas Mine (Bridgeworld)
LP magic/eth on sushiswap currently yields ~150% apr
Staking 12 months in the Bridgeworld Atlas Mine ~31% apr (with no boosts)
2) $DPX, $rDPX - https://www.dopex.io/
Dopex stands for ‘Decentralized Options Exchange’. Dopex aims to deliver an options protocol with Defi composability that maximizes liquidity, minimizes losses for option writers, and maximizes gains for option buyers. Dopex’s premier product currently is SSOV (single staking option vaults) which will feature most tokens on Arbitrum as native partners and is multi-chain ($AVAX and $BNB) as well.
Dopex protocol has two tokens: $DPX and $rDPX. $DPX is a vanilla governance token with platform fee revenue from staking veDPX. $rDPX is used to rebate options writers on losses incurred in the future on options pools. $rDPX also will be used to bond and mint DPXUSD (Dopex’s planned stable-coin).
Dopex is a favorite of the notorious ‘Frogs and Orcas; (Defigod, TzTokChad, Tetranode) and has growing ecosystem building with it (Mithical NFTs, DAOJones, PlutusDAO).
Notable developments:
Farms: Dopex Farm
Single stake DPX: ~17% apr
Single Stake RDPX: ~31% apr
LP dpx/eth for ~125% apr
LP rdpx/eth for ~150% apr
3) $GMX, $GLP - https://gmx.io/
GMX is a decentralized perpetuals trading platform with the functionality to trade crypto assets with up to 30x leverage and little slippage. This functionality is enabled through a shared liquidity index basket of tradable assets called GLP.
The platform has a two token system: GMX - the governance token that can be staked for a portion of platform fees and GLP - the platform liquidity token that is staked to LP GMX’s tradable assets and also earns platform fees. Staking both tokens on the platform rewards in $ETH/$AVAX and $esGMX (escrowed GMX).
The GMX platform is multichain (avax and arbitrum) and each chain has a separate basket of crypto assets in its GLP. Staking GLP is not without risk (based on the net profit and loss of platform traders… if traders are in huge profit GLP holders can lose money, however, most traders are not profitable). Protocol revenue is split 70% to GLP stakers and 30% to GMX stakers.
Fee revenue and volume have been trending up and to the right.
Source: https://stats.gmx.io/
Farms: GMX Earn, Uni V3, Trader Joe
GMX Earn staking GMX ~26% apr
GMX Earn staking GLP ~68% apr
Trader Joe LP GMX/AVAX ~ 46% apr
4) $VSTA - https://vestafinance.xyz/
Vesta is Liquity fork, a collateralized debt protocol that allows for interest free borrowing (0% interest). Borrowers can lock up collateral (eth, renBTC, gOHM) to mint $VST (vesta’s stablecoin). On this collateral, the borrower must choose the collateralization ratio (CR) that fits borrower’s risk profile.
Minimum ratios are 110% for ETH (90%LTV), 110% for renBTC (90% LTV) and 175% for gOHM (57% LTV). Borrowers pay a one-time fee as low as 0.5% of the borrowed amount. No interest is charged later and the borrower can pay back the loan at any time.
The $VSTA token is a governance token for the protocol that can govern parameters in the system, such as minting fees, liquidation fees, and liquidation incentives. Additional utility is still being determined by the team.
Vesta is a protocol within the Olympus ecosystem and part of the Tetranode stack. Other notable backers are 0xMaki and DCFGOD.
Notable developments:
Farms: Vesta Staking
VST-FRAX Curve Factory pool ~32% apr
LP VSTA-ETH on balancer pool ~ 200% apr
Vesta stability pools ~ BTC ~46% apr, Eth 9% apr
5) $HND - https://hundred.finance/
Hundred Finance is a Compound fork that allows for a multi-chain lending/borrowing market. Hundred has implemented a cure-style vote escrowed (ve) gauge system for the $HND governance token.
Users can deposit into a stable-coin lending pool such as $USDC and earn $HND tokens. The APR for this $USDC pool is determined by the amount of votes from veHND lockers for the pool. The longer veHND is locked, the larger the voting power to vote on pools (maximum 4 years). Users can also borrow against these stablecoin pools as collateral.
The hundred platform is accessible on multiple chains, arbitrum, fantom, harmony, moonriver, with aprs on each chain varying dependent on veHND voting weights.
The protocol team is led by the infamous VFAT (behind vfat.tools).
Notable developments:
Top 25 list of veNFT holders (will receive emissions from Solidly)
Farms: (Arbitrum network) - Hundred, DODO
Pools on Hundred: Mim 16%-39%, Frax 9% - 22%, USDT 8%- 19%, USDC 8%-19%
DODO LP HND/ETH - ~31% APR
Leftie side note: We’ve already seen a few crypto and venture funds (1kx, Blockwater) allocate to some of these tokens (namely $GMX and $Magic). With Arbitrum TVL increasing this will likely become a more common occurrence.
Top Arbitrum NFTs:
Dopex Halloween NFT: Floor price - 30 ETH
Genesis Legion: Floor price - 9250 Magic
Smol Brains: Floor price - 1750 Magic
GMX Blueberry Club: Floor price - 0.21 ETH
Mithical: Floor price - 1.5 ETH
In the near future, the large centralized exchanges such as Coinbase and FTX will open up NFTs on their platforms as well. The NFTs with growing communities such as Treasure NFTs (Genisis Legion, Smol Brains, etc) and Gmx Blueberry club could be listed as well. While $ETH price has surged, many NFTs have traded down in volume/$Eth terms since they are being valued in $USD. If these get cheap, it may be worth picking up one or two (moonshots).
Ending thoughts:
If our fellow Lefties have not tried Arbitrum yet, we think it should not be ignored. Arbitrum is far cheaper to use than Ethereum (~2$ per tx) and although the network has gone down at times, the assets are still secured by Eth L1 and users can push assets to L1 through the emergency exit mechanism.
Arbitrum has raised significant funds from large investors to scale Ethereum and there is speculation that a token may be released sometime in the next few months. Better to get some transactions done now on-chain in case there is a future airdrop.
Disclaimer: This should not be deemed financial or investment advice of any kind. This is simply the opinion of three left curve cartoon anons.