## Orderly Network: An Orderbook Exchange Protocol built on NEAR

Orderly Network is a permissionless, decentralized exchange protocol and modular ecosystem built on top of NEAR. It uses an on-chain order book to provide a platform complete with a risk engine, matching engine, and shared asset pools for dApps to build on top of. dApps built on the Orderly will allow for financial instruments such as:

- Spot Trading
- Margin Trading
- Perpetual Swaps
- Lending and Borrowing

Orderly Network aims to provide the most robust liquidity layer infrastructure for any dApp to utilize and build on. With the help of our incubators WOO Network and NEAR, we are able to leverage the knowledge and experience from both teams in order to achieve this vision.

There are more and more professional traders and market makers entering the DeFi space. AMMs are designed for retail traders and often don’t facilitate a more sophisticated trading strategy. Orderbook style DEXs are in high demand, however — very few of them are currently able to provide the trading experience required. Many fall short on liquidity, speed of transactions and cost of trading.

Orderly Network will offer CeFi level trading infrastructure by leveraging WOO Network’s experiences in building trading platforms and decentralized exchanges. Bootstrapping liquidity has always been a key challenge for any orderbook DEX which is why we are glad to have the support of market makers such as Kronos Research for liquidity from the very beginning. Kronos Research is one of the leading market makers in the crypto space and will be able to support our offering of deep liquidity.

To further enhance liquidity, Orderly Network will launch community lending pools where token holders are able to lend assets to market makers while enjoying single-sided liquidity provision with sustainable yields.

## Current Issues and Solutions

While the on-chain trading experience has improved drastically in the last couple of years, there are still some pretty obvious issues:

- DEX trading has high gas fees, commissions, and slippage
- Pro traders rarely trade on defi — they require fast and liquid markets
- There aren’t any whitelabeling solutions for derivative DEXs

Here are some of the solutions Orderly Network will offer:

- Orderly will be integrated with bridges that will allow for smooth deposits/withdrawals from any ‘layer one’ blockchain.
- Thanks to the combination of orderbook efficiency and on-chain settlement, Orderly will offer market-leading execution with low latency and minimal fees.
- Orderly will launch with immediate access to deep liquidity thanks to some of the largest market makers in the space.

## Key Features

There are many added features Orderly provides in comparison to Centralized exchanges and on-chain derivatives exchanges. Our infrastructure will provide:

![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0*Fp4MxbmhT_HLtzou)

## How Does it Work?

Orderly uses an on-chain order book built for composability. This provides a platform for modular dApps to utilize and build on. Professional market-makers ensure ample liquidity for the network at all times.

![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0*_GOAt3ckVO-DXIEF)

## Why NEAR?

NEAR is currently one of the most scalable, fast and user-friendly layer one blockchains in space. This sort of technology is a preferred and an ideal match for supporting an order book trading platform.

NEAR is one of the faster growing layer one blockchains. As you can see below, the chain has skyrocketed with the number of total transactions. They have also just crossed 12 million active wallets!

On top of users, it’s also increasingly gaining traction with developers. Part of this is because NEAR is Rust compatible, one of the reasons Solana has attracted its developer base. On top of that, the network is incredibly cheap. This is a prerequisite for any sort of on-chain derivatives platform.

## NEAR x WOO

WOO Network and NEAR can help push DEX spot and derivatives markets by combining centralized orderbook efficiency with on-chain settlement. The Orderly Network will offer market-leading order execution with low latency and minimal fees at scale.

On-chain perpetuals are quickly growing in the crypto space. However, it is still in its nascent stages compared to more well established, centralized financial platforms. As seen in the graph above, there has already proven to be a multitude of successful platforms in this sub-sector of DeFi. There have been a number of large firms who have looked to build trading platforms on Solana, utilizing protocols like Project Serum. There are specific reasons developers, traders, and investors were interested in that. A lot of those same specifics port over to building on the NEAR blockchain, including Rust compatibility, speed, low latency, and low transaction cost.

For the reasons stated above, NEAR will be a great host (in regards to layer ones) for this sort of platform. Along with a central order book model, and the deep liquidity from professional market makers, Orderly should provide a superb experience for on-chain trading.

Orderly is a permissionless, decentralized exchange protocol and modular ecosystem built on top of NEAR.

An introduction to Orderly Network

When project founders talk about building on the NEAR blockchain, they very often mention the supportive and enthusiastic community. Along with Guilds, the NEAR community is essential in helping to raise the profile of projects and provide feedback, giving a new product the best chance of success.

Having just completed a successful IDO on Skyward Finance, PembRock Finance is proud to distribute tokens to community investors through Meta Yield, a platform where staking rewards can be used to get access to tokens from up-and-coming projects.

Meta Yield, created by Meta Pool, gives the NEAR community another direct link to projects through kickstarter-like funding. Through an innovative fundraising model, participants can support new projects within the NEAR ecosystem with less risk than if investing through other channels.

## How Meta Yield fundraising works

1. Users stake NEAR tokens, which helps to both decentralize the network and lock up some of the supply. They will get the corresponding number of stNEAR tokens. 
2. With the initial NEAR investment untouched, staking rewards are used to fund new projects from the NEAR ecosystem.
3. In return for their support of a certain protocol, users are rewarded with an allocation of tokens at seed price.
4. Once the locking period is over, 100% of the NEAR that was initially staked is returned.

Simply holding stNEAR guarantees you a return, but with Meta Yield, you can use your stNEAR to support cool new Dapps. In this case, your stNEAR rewards buy $PEM, without your underlying investment being touched.

## Get involved with PembRock

PembRock is the first leveraged yield farming protocol built on the NEAR blockchain. There are opportunities to earn through lending, farming with up to 3x leverage, and staking the native $PEM token, which is also used for governance voting to decide the future direction of the platform.

With an experienced development team that is supported by the INC4 Guild,  PembRock will continue to expand its integrations and list of partners after launch. Currently, the project is supported by:

- Ref Finance
- Jumbo
- INC4
- Alameda Research
- MetaWeb
- Move Capital
- Big Brain Holdings
- Block 0
- Columbus Holdings

With a few days left, it’s not too late to start staking your stNEAR tokens for $PEM rewards.

[Earn new tokens on NEAR staking yours stNEAR with MetaYield](https://metayield.app/project/0)


PembRock Finance is proud to distribute tokens to community investors through Meta Yield.

Meta Yield Funding Provides a Launchpad for PembRock Finance

Today, ConsenSys announced a partnership between Infura, its leading blockchain development platform, and the NEAR Protocol, an infinitely scalable proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain that is also carbon neutral. The integration, which has been in private beta for two months – and is now widely available – marks Infura’s expansion beyond Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible chains. It also marks a strategic shift toward being a key connector in a multi-chain ecosystem, while improving the overall developer experience. The partnership also gives the NEAR Protocol community access to the more than 430,000 Infura developers already building and scaling the next generation of software in Web3. 

By integrating with NEAR Network, Infura developers will have greater access to a carbon-neutral ecosystem with minimal environmental footprint. Because NEAR operates on a unique sharded blockchain called Nightshade, it has limitless scaling capabilities allowing transaction-heavy decentralized applications to function effortlessly with low fees. Transactions are processed at 14 tps on Ethereum and 7 tps on Bitcoin. As it stands, NEAR embodies similar characteristics as the Ethereum 2.0 roadmap, including PoS and shard chains. Additionally, the partnership allows developers to build decentralized applications using popular programming languages such as Rust and AssemblyScript as well as provides developers access to superior learning resources. By integrating with the NEAR Protocol, Infura provides developers building on its platform greater access to a carbon-neutral ecosystem with minimal environmental footprint.

“The NEAR team has created a protocol that has resonated with our developer audience and we are excited to be supporting their protocol. The Web3 ecosystem continues to grow and innovate, and that innovation isn’t limited to the Ethereum world,” said E.G. Galano, co-founder of Infura. 

Galano continued, “A few years ago, Ethereum was the only platform people considered when deploying new NFTs, DeFi apps, and tokens. Today, developers have many choices and each Layer 1 or Layer 2 protocol approaches scalability problems and usability problems in different ways, which is why we will continue to be an active participant in the NEAR community.”

Developers using Infura’s infrastructure-as-a-service platform have access to networks such as Ethereum, IPFS, and Polygon. The integration with NEAR will be Infura’s second with a non-EVM compatible chain, following the 2020 integration with Filecoin, a peer-to-peer network that facilitates open markets for storing and retrieving files. Furthermore, NEAR’s Rainbow Bridge, in which developers can transfer assets between Ethereum, NEAR, and Aurora, provides optimal security in a fraud-proof, permissionless protocol that puts the trust into technology and removes the need to trust any one person or organization. 

“We’re very proud that NEAR is becoming the first non-ETH layer-one network supported on Infura and are excited to introduce NEAR to their sizable developer community,” said Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol. “Offering broader access to building on NEAR gives devs more options for scaling their decentralized applications easily and securely. NEAR and Infura are aligned in our vision of creating the best possible developer experience to make Web3 easier for all.”

Infura developers can access the NEAR Network now, and continue to advance the multi-chain ecosystem, while onboarding more users to Web3. The move also comes two months after ConsenSys announced the close of its $450 million Series D financing round, bringing the company’s total valuation to $7 billion. 

Integration Paves Way for Web3 Developers to Access More Non-EVM Compatible Blockchains.

Leading Ethereum Development Platform, Infura, Partners with NEAR Protocol, Marking Expansion as a Multi-Chain Connector 

ConsenSys, the Ethereum incubator and enterprise company, has announced a partnership between the NEAR Protocol and [Infura](https://awesomenear.com/infura), the leading Ethereum development platform. This agreement paves the way for over 430,000 Infura developers to access a non-Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible that is super simple to use, incredibly secure and infinitely scalable for the very first time.

Integrating Infura and bringing Ethereum developers into the NEAR ecosystem is a significant step in fulfilling NEAR’s mission of creating an inclusive, self-sustainable, fully decentralized ecosystem with billions of users. It also illustrates the importance of the role that a multi-chain future will play in fulfilling that vision.

Here’s everything you need to know about Infura’s partnership and integration with NEAR, and why developers expanding beyond non-EVM compatible chains will benefit everyone.

## Driving climate neutrality and scalability

The Infura and NEAR integration has been in private beta for two months. Expanding beyond EVM compatible chains also marks a strategic shift by Infura, as it seeks to become a key connector in tomorrow’s multi-chain world. By integrating with NEAR, Infura also makes strides towards better sustainability and scalability for developers.

The integration of Infura with NEAR will provide developers with one of the best options in terms of sustainability. The NEAR network and ecosystem are carbon-neutral with a minimal environmental footprint. Last year, South Pole, a leading climate advocay group,awarded NEAR the Climate Neutral Product Label.

As for scalability, NEAR’s sharded blockchain enables a substantial increase in overall capacity. Infura developers will now have access to a network that can process at a rate of 1,000 transactions per second. And once NEAR’s Nightshade sharding is fully implemented, network scalability will be theoretically limitless, processing millions of transactions per second.

## Enhancing the developer experience

Infura developers will now have access to the full development experience on NEAR, as well as the tools and resources at their disposal. This includes the ability to build decentralized applications using common programming languages such as Rust, AssemblyScript, and WebAssembly (WASM), and NEAR’s class-leading education platform. 

NEAR will also provide developers with a superior suite of learning resources including educational video series, as well as guided courses and workshops. While Infura developers are already using and accessing other networks like Ethereum, Polygon, and IPFS, they’ll find all the tools and resources needed to successfully build on NEAR.

The ability to utilize Ethereum assets on NEAR, and vice versa, is another core benefit to developers of the integration. With NEAR’s Rainbow Bridge, assets can be seamlessly moved cross-chain in a fraud-proof manner with optimal security. Rainbow Bridge is a permissionless protocol that removes the necessity of trusting a single party to complete transactions.

Infura developers can access the NEAR network today. The integration will accelerate the global adoption of Infura’s development tool suite, in addition to bringing more development talent and brainpower into the NEAR ecosystem. 

ConsenSys, the Ethereum incubator and enterprise company, has announced a partnership between the NEAR Protocol and Infura.

Infura Brings its Leading ETH Dev Platform to NEAR Protocol

Blockchain is among the most popular of all new technologies, and frequently referred to as Web 3.0. As new participants discover, however, it’s terribly complicated, with technical challenges every step of the way. A world of Googles and Facebooks brought wide adoption to Web 2.0. The clear opportunity now, is bridging the innovative world of Web 3.0, with the convenience and familiarity of Web 2.0.

Today we're excited to unveil that bridge, with Aurora+!

## What is Aurora+?

Aurora+ is an exciting new membership program for users of Aurora, that provides a suite of incredible benefits. Available today, all Aurora users can sign up for a free Basic account, including:

1. 50 free transactions per month. One of the biggest user experience hurdles throughout all of crypto, is understanding and dealing with transaction fees. Aurora+ eliminates this problem, setting the blockchain free!
2. AURORA Staking. Aurora+ members who stake AURORA tokens will enjoy not only a continuous stream of AURORA rewards, but also steams of rewards from the best projects throughout the Aurora ecosystem!
3. AURORA Airdrop. To ensure that all Aurora+ members experience the benefits of Aurora Staking, everyone who creates an account on Aurora+ during the first week of launch will be presented with an opportunity to claim and stake an Aurora Airdrop!

Those are the benefits available today. In the future, Aurora will continue to evolve the Aurora+ platform with foreseen features like:

1. Paid Premium Plans. Perhaps you need more than 50 transactions per months. Perhaps you're a trader and need your transactions prioritized. Just as with mobile phone service, Aurora+ Premium plans will allow users to access the features and services that exactly fit their needs.
2. Governance participation. Aurora+ members who stake AURORA will be eligible to participate in the governance of the Aurora protocol, through participation in the AuroraDAO.
3. Private transactions. Given the technical underpinnings between Aurora and the NEAR protocol, Aurora+ will roll out a solution to the Ethereum Dark Forest problems related to transaction analysis and front-running.
4. Single-point KYC. Aurora+ will offer optional KYC from within the user’s dashboard, recording the results to the blockchain, making them available to any dApps in the Aurora ecosystem that require KYCs.

## Aurobots — An exclusive NFT collection

In the famous words of Steve Jobs, we're excited to announce — one more thing!

To celebrate the launch of Aurora+, Aurora is giving away NFTs from an amazing new collection called "Aurobots", from renowned NFT creator, Mr. Brown.

111 unique Aurobot NFTs will be randomly distributed to lucky winners, in multiple lotteries corresponding to platform milestones during the first few weeks of launch. And in addition to owning a fantastic NFT, Aurobots holders will also benefit from a 10X boost of their monthly free transactions!

## Get started today!

Create your own free Aurora+ today, and begin experiencing the benefits of Web 3.0 with the convenience of Web 2.0 at: https://aurora.plus .


Aurora announces Aurora+, an exciting new platform providing Aurora users with free transactions, staking of AURORA tokens, airdrops and more.

Aurora+ sets the blockchain free!

## tl;dr

*   stNEAR from idea to implementation
*   Staking vs Liquid Staking+stNEAR
*   How to Get stNEAR
*   stNEAR Value and Staking Rewards Calculation
*   Difference between stNEAR and wNEAR
*   Do's and Don'ts with stNEAR

## What is stNEAR: NEAR's first liquid staking token

With the objective to make $NEAR staking more capital efficient, Claudio and Lucio co-founded Meta Pool, the leading liquid staking solution for NEAR and wNEAR tokens holders.

The cornerstone element of Meta Pool is a liquid asset, **stNEAR:** stNEAR is generated when you stake your $NEAR through Meta Pool. This is what we call “liquid staking”.

stNEAR is a yield bearing asset, accruing in value every epoch (~12 hours) meaning that you keep earning staking rewards while you can use it in DeFi, for example as a collateral asset in liquidity protocols.

Meta Pool’s liquid staking solution provides you with the **unique opportunity to participate both in staking and in DeFi activities without locking up your $NEAR into the native proof of stake systems**.

As the DeFi ecosystem grows, demand for stNEAR is also increasing sharply. We are thrilled to see so many sophisticated and ambitious protocols incorporating stNEAR at the core of their offering as it solidifies its place as the best form of collateral.

## Staking vs Liquid Staking + stNEAR

### Traditional Staking

**The main key difference Meta Pool staking gives from traditional staking**, is the amount of validator nodes you are delegating your staked $NEAR.

If you decide to stake through the [NEAR Web Wallet](https://wallet.near.org), you are staking with only 1 validator node that you choose in the validator list. Because of this, most of the $NEAR being staked gets listed in the top ten nodes of the network. Concentration of $NEAR in one validator node is not the best outcome for a Layer 1 protocol that wants to improve its censorship resistance and security.

![Native Staking Process](https://blog.metapool.app/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Staking-Process.png)

### Liquid Staking

Whereas when you [liquid stake with Meta Pool](https://metapool.app/dapp/mainnet/meta/), your $NEAR tokens are distributed to 87 validator nodes. This helps decentralize the network and allows new nodes coming into the NEAR Protocol network to get more exposure to retail $NEAR holders.

![](https://blog.metapool.app/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Liquid-Staking-with-Meta-Pool.png)

With the stNEAR handed to you, you now have the unique opportunity to simultaneously get the staking yield of your $NEAR and participate in DeFi protocols with stNEAR for additional yield.

After less than a year of existence Meta Pool has a TVL of ~9M $NEAR, and has become a cornerstone element of the NEAR ecosystem, heavily contributing to its decentralization and to the $NEAR token liquidity.

As a result stNEAR can be traded and farmed on multiple DeFi platforms such as [Trisolaris](/trisolaris), [WannaSwap](/wannaswap), and can also be used as a collateral asset on lending and borrowing platforms such as [Burrow](/burrow), [Bastion](/bastion) and [Aurigami](/aurigami) to receive additional income.

## How to Get stNEAR

**To get stNEAR you have to [liquid stake your $NEAR using the Meta Pool liquid staking platform](https://metapool.app/dapp/mainnet/meta/?_gl=1*zncetx*_ga*MTIyNjg0MjQyOC4xNjQ3Mzk4OTky*_ga_330HH1R960*MTY1MjM4NTY3MS4xMTIuMS4xNjUyMzg2NDgwLjA.)**. Or you can use swaps on DEXs ([Ref Finance](https://app.ref.finance/), [Burrow](https://app.burrow.cash/#/borrow), [Bastion](https://app.bastionprotocol.com/swap), [Trisolaris](https://www.trisolaris.io/#/swap), etc).

For each $NEAR token you liquid stake with Meta Pool, Meta Pool will give you a certain amount of stNEAR after the exchange.

[Stake NEAR - Get stNEAR](https://metapool.app/dapp/mainnet/meta/?utm_source=awesomenear)

## stNEAR Value and Staking Rewards Calculation

There is a ratio of exchange from $NEAR tokens to stNEAR tokens, and this ratio changes every epoch measured in the NEAR Network. The stNEAR:NEAR tokens ratio grows according to the staking APY, this is the fundamental mechanism of Meta Pool.

But because Meta Pool is accruing the NEAR tokens paid as rewards from single validators, your amount of stNEAR is not increasing.

For example, you change tokens when the value of 1 stNEAR is 1,06 NEAR. With this ratio, by exchanging 10 $NEAR tokens, you get 9,434 stNEAR tokens. **Since the value of stNEAR in relation to $NEAR is constantly increasing**, after a while having 9,434 stNEAR you will get more $NEAR tokens.

Let’s say the stNEAR: NEAR ratio has increased and now 1 stNEAR equivalent to 1,08 NEAR. This means that now, your 9,434 stNEAR are worth 10,19 $NEAR (9,434\*1,08 = 10,19).

## Difference between stNEAR and wNEAR

wNEAR (wrapped NEAR) corresponds to $NEAR bridged through the Aurora Network. It is also used to bootstrap liquidity for DEXs and AMMs on NEAR.

But **wNEAR is not capital efficient** because it is not earning the extra yield, meanwhile, stNEAR is accruing in value every 13 hours, since it represents $NEAR being staked.

That is why Meta Pool offers now [the possibility for wNEAR holders to liquid stake it directly using Metmask and get stNEAR](https://blog.metapool.app/2022/04/18/get-stnear-directly-from-aurora-with-meta-pool/)! We wanted to make it as easy as possible for wNEAR holders on Aurora to obtain stNEAR like on NEAR Protocol.

[Meta Pool platform for liquid staking on Aurora Network](https://metapool.app/dapp/mainnet/metapool-aurora/) leverages the Rainbow Bridge’s ability to do contract calls between Aurora and NEAR. Meta Pool has built a simple solution that maintains the same user interface and experience as the NEAR native solution.

[Stake wNEAR with Meta Pool and get stNEAR](https://metapool.app/dapp/mainnet/metapool-aurora/?utm_source=awesomenear)


Additionally to cover the Liquidity Pools built with wNEAR (eg wNEAR\<\>stNEAR, or REF\<\>wNEAR soon) Meta Pool has created Meta Recipes: [Meta Recipes](https://metapool.app/dapp/mainnet/meta-recipes/?p=0) enables any wNEAR token holder that also has LP tokens\* (LP with wNEAR tokens such as wNEAR\<\>stNEAR for example), to easily unbundle assets and migrate wNEAR to stNEAR in just a few clicks.

\*LP tokens represent the user’s share of the total amount of locked liquidity in several tokens, on farms in NEAR Network and Aurora _Network._

## Do's and Don'ts with stNEAR

To have the best things for you, we are growing into the ecosystem quickly to help you leverage your stNEAR and receive more yield. Let stNEAR earn more profit for you and also learn what you should do with stNEAR. Moreover, you will know what you shouldn’t do with stNEAR.

### What to Do with stNEAR?

*   Stake NEAR for the long-term to ensure that you receive the best yield from Meta Pool
*   Leverage stNEAR in Meta Pool’s partner platforms, such as [Ref Finance](/ref-finance), [Burrow](/burrow), [Bastion](/bastion), [Trisolaris](/trisolaris), and [Jumbo](/jumbo-exchange)
*   Understand what is Impermanent Loss before providing liquidity, it’s comfortable for you to provide liquidity in any pairs
*   Provide liquidity with the stNEAR/wNEAR pair if you want to minimize LP risks
*   Deposit stNEAR to Lending – Borrowing protocol to receive more yield and safety
*   Use Meta Recipes to provide liquidity easily

### What Not to Do with stNEAR

*   Let your stNEAR in your wallet. There is only NEAR reward, you won’t receive META and other rewards when you let stNEAR in your wallet.
*   Provide liquidity in the short term. If you get an Impermanent Loss, you will lose a lot of money.
*   Provide liquidity to Meta Pool Liquidity pool when it’s over the target liquidity.
*   Send stNEAR to the Centralized Exchanges or other chains except for NEAR Protocol and Aurora.

Meta Pool is increasing over time the use-cases for stNEAR that can give you more and more places to use stNEAR to get more yield.

## About Meta Pool & stNEAR

**Meta Pool is the leading liquid staking solution** for $NEAR and wNEAR token holders to earn staking rewards and maintain their liquidity to participate in DeFi protocols on NEAR and [Aurora](https://aurora.dev/).

Users staking $NEAR and wNEAR with Meta Pool receive in exchange a NEP-141 standard token, **stNEAR (staked NEAR)**. 

stNEAR simultaneously accrues staking rewards and unlocks users’ liquidity enabling them to participate in DeFi activities (e.g. lending, farming, borrowing) on NEAR and Aurora.

### Stake $NEAR on Meta Pool

~11% APY

### Get stNEAR

Yield-bearing token

### Go DeFi on NEAR & Aurora

More APY and more rewards

Meta Pool solves the problems associated with Proof-of-Stake networks staking: illiquidity, immovability and accessibility. Meta Pool also aims to distribute staking in multiple validators to improve censorship-resistance of the NEAR network.

With a TVL of ~9 Million $NEAR and growing, Meta Pool has become in just a few months a cornerstone element of the NEAR ecosystem, making it more decentralized and therefore more secure, as well as making $NEAR liquid.

In February 2022 Meta Pool has been successfully audited by BlockSec, confirming the implementation of the highest security standards.

For more information visit [metapool.app](https://metapool.app/).

What is stNEAR: NEAR's first liquid staking token.

Guide to stNEAR and Liquid Staking $NEAR native token

Composability and interaction between protocols are the beauty of DeFi and its enhancement on Aurora and NEAR Ecosystem has risen significantly over the last three months with **800M+ TVL** pouring into the ecosystem, kickstarting many innovative protocols building for the future of NEAR Ecosystem.

As a multi-chain future is on the horizon, the ability to create a simple and frictionless experience, taking the best out of different environments, will be key.

Following that vision, Ref Finance introduces the latest feature **Liquidity Aggregation** to pilot all liquidity from Aurora and NEAR Ecosystem into one place, taking a huge step to enter the multi-chain world.

You can read more about how the [Liquidity Aggregation functions here](https://ref-finance.medium.com/introducing-multi-chain-liquidity-aggregation-2441a9c5e1e8).

## Step 1: Entering Swap Pro Environment

![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0*YgixU6kJ4Y_7pEeO)

## Step 2: Choose the pair you want to swap first, for example, wNEAR to ETH

![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0*ZifFibknHMoBoC_q)

In this version, users can only swap on behalf of NEP-141 Standard, not ERC20, which is all the assets listed on Ref Finance Exchange as $NEAR, $ETH, $BRRR, $SKYWARD but not including the ERC20 standard like $TRI, $PLY, $BSTN.

Swapping ERC20 Assets using Liquidity Aggregation is currently on the plan and Ref Finance might implement it in the near future.

![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0*RfQEnkuVuv7Z5U7F)

After choosing both assets, click “Request for Quote” to show the price from all markets.

## Step 3: Double-check all the details (Swap-rate, fee, price impact) and compare the price between markets

![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0*OyOIUcpKSMJfONL-)

Ref Finance has looked for the optimal price across all liquidity pools on Aurora and NEAR Ecosystem and eventually shows the results along with the comparison between each protocol. In this case, Ref Finance responds at a better rate compared to Trisolaris.

[More details about the Liquidity Aggregation Algorithm and how it finds the optimal price](https://ref-finance.medium.com/introducing-multi-chain-liquidity-aggregation-2441a9c5e1e8).

## Step 4: Click confirm and approve the transaction

![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0*S3gWia5zlHmcD1YA)

First DEX in the market to offer liquidity aggregation across networks.

How-to access Liquidity Aggregation Guide on Ref Finance

Ethereum’s leading stableswap platform, Curve Finance, has integrated NEAR Protocol’s EVM layer, Aurora. Users can now connect to the Aurora network on their Ethereum wallets (such as Metamask) when using Curve, and enjoy the dapp’s deep liquidity pools without the high gas fees or wait time.

Aurora has witnessed the quickest growth in the recent month, crossing the $1.3b mark in TVL and reaching the Top 11 networks on DeFi Llama. At the time of writing, the Aurora ecosystem has more than 100 projects and 100 relayer nodes, with one of the most secure and innovative bridges in the industry operating between Ethereum, Aurora, and NEAR native.

The integration of Curve on Aurora comes at a critical time, with the burgeoning of bluechip DeFi protocols on Aurora, such as Aurigami, Bastion and Trisolaris, on one hand; and the deployment of market-leading bridge solutions, such as Multichain, Synapse, and Wormhole, on the other. Curve’s industry standard stableswap function will add a layer of DeFi composability and liquidity to the Aurora DeFi ecosystem, and at the same time, better position Aurora in an increasingly multi-chain world, allowing it to connect with other ecosystems via the transfer and exchange of pegged assets in its stablecoin, $wBTC, and $wETH pools.

In light of this integration, NEAR’s DeFi hub, Proximity Labs, will allocate up to $7.5M in grants to Curve to help establish their presence in the Aurora ecosystem. The synergy between Curve and Aurora will further accelerate the growth Aurora has enjoyed since the beginning of this year.

Ethereum’s leading stableswap platform, Curve Finance, has integrated NEAR Protocol’s EVM layer, Aurora.

Curve Finance Integrates the Aurora Network

It’s the moment that many of us have been waiting for.

Aurigami (PLY) token has now taken flight and is now live for trading 🚀

Since launching on the Aurora mainnet ~2 months ago, Aurigami has experienced tremendous growth, amassing over $500m as the TVL leader and more than $900m in liquidity. As with any new chains, having a strong money market is crucial in cultivating a bustling economy, and we’re proud to be leading the charge in establishing the foundation for the Near/Aurora DeFi ecosystem to flourish.

## PLY Token Launch

As mentioned, one of Aurigami’s North Star is to supercharge the growth of the Near/Aurora ecosystem. With this in mind, we decided to partner up with 3 renowned launchpads, Bybit, Kucoin and Impossible Finance, for the distribution of PLY. Having 3 top-tier exchanges/venues helped to ensure the greatest outreach and accessibility to attract more liquidity and users.

With a starting valuation of $50m, users also had the rare opportunity of participating in the token distribution at the same price as our esteemed VCs and angel investors, the ranks of which include Polychain Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Jump Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, Mechanism Capital and more.

Since then, PLY has gone live and is now trading on 2 of the leading centralized exchanges in the world — Bybit and Kucoin.

In addition to Bybit and Kucoin, PLY was also launched on Trisolaris using Rift’s liquidity infrastructure in partnership with NEAR Foundation, ensuring PLY liquidity through a PLY/NEAR pool for the Aurora community.

## So what is PLY?

Just like Aave’s AAVE, Solend’s SLND, and Benqi’s QI tokens, PLY is Aurigami’s governance and utility token. One of the beauties of DeFi is the communal governance of protocols by the collective intelligence of all stakeholders. The end-result is a more user-driven direction and product that is much in the spirit of Origami, where the final art piece is always more than the sum of its parts.

With PLY, you will get to experience this and become a part of Aurigami. It’s no secret that part of Aurigami’s tokenomics is inspired by Defi Kingdom and their proven track record in onboarding a large number of users to a budding chain, effectively jump-starting the Harmony ecosystem. Similarly, we have the foundation in place with The Papermill’s novel locking mechanics. Stay tuned for a further expansion on more games, more features that will spice up the PLY/PULP dynamic, one that is geared towards creating an entirely new economy of our own that is powered by PLY.

## What’s going to happen now?

With PLY having gone live for trading, Aurigami’s pre-mine concluded on 5 May, 2pm UTC and was followed shortly by the launch of our Liquidity Mining program, Round 1 of The Papermill, PLY deposit, and PLY/NEAR LP staking.

With over 3,000,000,000 PLY activated for Liquidity Mining, early participants especially will get to enjoy insanely juicy APYs and earn more rewards. With PLY deposit enabled, your favorite token is now transformed into a productive, yield-bearing asset. PLY/NEAR LP staking will allow you to stack yield-on-yield, earning both the liquidity mining rewards from Aurigami as well as a cut of the trading fees from the Trisolaris pool. The Papermill design is also baked in to align long-term user interests with the protocol’s as we strive towards a common goal. This is just the starting point.

Aurigami may have taken flight, but we’re bound for greater heights, and you’re all invited on the journey along.

Stay tuned for more, Aurigamists.



Aurigami (PLY) token has now taken flight and is now live for trading.

Aurigami PLY Token Launch

Tonic announced the close of a $5 million capital raise to build an open-source orderbook DEX on the NEAR Protocol. With this raise, Tonic will continue to expand its team and deliver a scalable platform for trading and building DeFi applications.

The funding round is led by Electric Capital and Move. dao5, Framework Ventures, NetZero Capital, Daedalus, and Bixin Ventures have also participated in the round. Tonic has also brought onboard prominent market makers such as GSR, Wintermute, Flow Traders, Cumberland, and Jane Street.

"Tonic is building a core piece of DeFi infrastructure for the financial ecosystem on NEAR." -Curtis Spencer, Partner at Electric Capital

Founded in January 2022, Tonic is building a decentralized protocol for fast and seamless trading of any asset on NEAR and Aurora. The Tonic platform will enable developers building on NEAR's Layer 1 solution to seamlessly integrate trading functionality into their applications.

With their deep ecosystem ties and protocol know-how, Tonic's lead investors will help drive the strategic growth and expansion of the Tonic platform over the coming months, and in turn help boost the adoption of NEAR's DeFi ecosystem at large.

> "Tonic is building a core piece of DeFi infrastructure for the financial ecosystem on NEAR. Tonic's order book foundation allows for all sorts of financial primitives like swaps, spot trading, options, perpetuals, and likely some we haven't seen before to be built on NEAR." - Curtis Spencer, Partner at Electric Capital

> "From our earliest conversations with the founders we knew we wanted to support them and Tonic on their journey. Not only are they addressing a significant opportunity, Tonic is a very product focused team with a strong emphasis on developer experience, open source and community. The NEAR ecosystem is fortunate that we can attract such talent and we are extremely excited to be involved from day zero." - Rune Bentien, Partner at MOVE

> "NEAR has been growing rapidly in the last few months due to the NEAR Foundation's primary focus on developer experience. The Tonic team's contributions to the ecosystem will set the stage for NEAR to become one of the top destinations for DeFi applications." - Tekin Salimi, Partner at dao5



Tonic announced the close of a $5 million capital raise to build an open-source orderbook DEX on the NEAR Protocol.

Tonic Raises $5 Million to Build a DeFi Platform on NEAR

Decentral Bank announces the launch of its first semi-algorithmic stablecoin, $USN. $USN is a NEAR-native stablecoin soft-pegged to the US Dollar, backed by a Reserve Fund that contains $NEAR, along with $USDT initially. $USN’s core stability mechanisms consist of on-chain arbitrage and a self-balancing Reserve Fund based on the Currency Board Principle. Combining the growth potential of $UST and the strong peg defense of $FRAX, $USN is positioned to be one of the most effective ways to bootstrap liquidity in the NEAR ecosystem; all while adding a new layer to $NEAR’s utility as a token.

The Decentral Bank DAO manages all the aspects of the Reserve Fund and main smart contract operations. The DAO can also vote to stake the $NEAR part of the Reserve Fund and distribute the staking rewards to the users of the protocols that integrate $USN. At launch, Decentral Bank will receive a grant from Proximity Labs to bootstrap initial liquidity for $USN on CEXs and DEXs.

$USN’s peg to the US Dollar is secured through on-chain arbitrage and a self-balancing Reserve Fund. $USN maintains its peg through a smart contract which allows for the exchange of $NEAR\<\>$USN with 0 slippage and minimal commissions. As soon as $USN loses its peg, arbitrageurs will exploit the price difference between the on-chain smart contract and the exchanges until $USN returns to its peg.

The $NEAR used to mint $USN goes to the Reserve Fund. The Reserve Fund is based on the Currency Board principle, and automatically balances to maintain a backing of $USN at a rate greater than 100% at all times. Initially, $USN will be double-collateralized by $NEAR and $USDT, the latter of which is pooled on NEAR’s main DEX, Ref Finance, and other CEXs to secure $USN’s peg to the dollar in the open market. The stability design of $USN means that in a worst case scenario, Decentral Bank could buy back the entire amount of $USN ever issued.

Starting today (April 25th), users can mint $USN using $NEAR through the core smart contract via the NEAR web wallet. Users can also swap between $USN and $USDT on Ref Finance’s StableSwap. During this initial bootstrapping phase, Decentral Bank will receive a grant with which the $USN \<\> $USDT pool on Ref Finance will be seeded.

The Decentral Bank DAO can vote to stake the $NEAR part of the Reserve Fund, meaning $USN will automatically generate yield based on the $NEAR staking rewards. With this decision, $10m+ in rewards will be distributed monthly to $USN holders through lending protocols on NEAR and Aurora (NEAR’s EVM layer), such as Burrow, Aurigami, and Bastion. The exact $USN APY can change depending on the circulating supply and treasury size, but at its lowest it will be equal to NEAR’s staking APY (currently ~11%). The first lenders will likely receive over 20% APY through additional incentive mechanics.

In the near future, users can expect $USN to be integrated on CEXs as well as other chains. After maturation, $USN can also be integrated on the protocol level as a native asset on NEAR, which will be used to pay for gas and storage fees.

Decentral Bank announces the launch of its first semi-algorithmic stablecoin, $USN.

Decentral Bank Launches $USN: a NEAR-native Stablecoin

The past few months have been amazing for Trisolaris and the Aurora ecosystem as a whole. We reached some remarkable milestones but it won’t stop here, this is just the dawn of DeFi on Aurora and we’re excited for what’s to come!

As the next phase in our development, [Trisolaris](/trisolaris) is proud to announce our partnership with one of the leading DeFi primitives on Aurora — Bastion. Bastion will be deploying their first liquidity pool on Rift finance, which will later be placed in Trisolaris.

A new farm will also be launched as a result of this partnership:

## BSTN \<\> wNEAR

After the BSTN goes live (more here) on April 21st at 23:59pm UTC, users will be able to stake their BSTN  \<\> WNEAR LP tokens in the trisolaris farms page. The rewards will begin the following morning April 22nd (exact time tbd) and all stakers will earn double rewards of $TRI and $BSTN.

We will announce on our discord/telegram/twitter once rewards are live!

## What’s next?

To deepen our ties, there will be a special pool launching next week, which allows users to earn multiple yields at once, stay tuned!

We reached some remarkable milestones but it won’t stop here, this is just the dawn of DeFi on Aurora and we’re excited for what’s to come!

Bastion is launching $BSTN <> $wNEAR pool on Trisolaris with a double rewards farm!

Hello, NEAR world. The global Web3 community rolled into France on April 12-14 for the Paris Blockchain Week Summit. Several key NEAR figures were there to take attendees on a tour of the major happenings in NEAR’s thriving ecosystem. 

PBWS is the flagship event of Paris Blockchain Week. Over two days, more than 3,000 attendees, 70 sponsors, 250 speakers, and 100 media partners hosted sessions on Web3 innovation, governance, international regulatory cooperation, and more. 

NEAR Foundation hosted a number of talks at PBWS from ecosystem figures, as well as a meetup with partner Atka. These events showcased NEAR’s simple, secure and scalable protocol, and its vibrant ecosystem of developers building decentralized apps.

If you weren’t able to make it IRL, worry not. We’ve got highlights from NEAR at PBWS. 

## April 12 — NEAR-Atka Meetup, Keynotes and ‘Building on NEAR’ Panel

Day 1 of PBWS began in the evening with the NEAR-Atka meetup at Palais Brongniart. Attendees mingled and networked over champagne and food. 

NEAR Foundation CEO Marieke Flament kicked the Keynotes event off with opening remarks and an introduction of the NEAR ecosystem. Florian Le Goff, Founder of Synaps, followed Marieke with a talk on Amina, a newly-launched decentralized identity platform, built on NEAR. NEAR Co-founder Illia Polosukhin then updated the audience on NEAR infrastructure and what’s next, including details on protocol security and enterprise solutions. 

Following Polosukhin’s talk, Anton Vaisburd, general manager of NEAR’s Regional Hub in Ukraine took to the stage. The Ukraine Regional Hub is part of NEAR Foundation’s mission to create a network of thriving regional hubs. These NEAR hubs are places for community members to meet up, learn, and create. The Ukraine hub is a resource for efforts like Unchain Fund, a charity project that has raised nearly $10 million for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. 

Day 1 wrapped up with the 90-minute panel “Building on NEAR”. Moderated by Atka’s William Piquard, the panel featured Didier Pironi ([Ref Finance](/ref-finance)), Anton Paisov ([Aurora](/aurora-dev)), Jon Werthen ([ARterra Labs](/arterra)), Jasper De Gooijer ([Flux Protocol](/flux)), and Nadim Kobeissi ([Capsule Social](/capsule-social)). “Building on NEAR” focused on developing decentralized apps on the NEAR protocol. 

Notably, Werthen shared his thoughts on esports on the blockchain. He said it’s imperative to make “Web3 [esports] applications feel like something people are already used to in Web2” apps. 

## April 13 – NEAR Keynote 

On Day 2, NEAR Foundation CEO Marieke Flament gave a keynote address on the Paris Blockchain Week Summit Discovery Stage. She talked about access, movement, and the diversity of distinct apps and economies set to emerge in the near future.

“What is NEAR? A world where people control their assets, data, and power of governance,” said Flament. “An open web world.”

Flament then highlighted NEAR’s simple, infinitely scalable (thanks to Nightshade sharding), and secure next generation platform for dapps—one that is climate neutral. 

On NEAR there is more open access—the individual is empowered while gatekeepers are eliminated. Flament pointed to [YouMinter](/youminter), a decentralized social media app for iOS and Android, where creators can mint and post NFTs. Think of it as an alternative to Instagram, where creators can easily sell their work, instead of handing over data to centralized platforms for free. 

Flament pointed to NEAR Foundation’s partnerships with SailGP and [OrangeDAO](/orangedao) as proof that DAOs are helping to power new economies through community-based decision-making. She also shared special news from the NEAR Ecosystem. London-based tech company [Sweatcoin](/sweat-economy) partnered with NEAR Foundation to create a new movement economy. Sweatcoin is on a mission to inspire a healthier planet by incentivizing people to move more. The NEAR-Sweatcoin partnership brings with it SWEAT, a radical new token that is minted purely by steps. 

“One of NEAR’s core missions is to help onboard the world to Web3, collaborating with SweatCoin allows us to take a step closer to that mission.” said Flament.

Flament was joined on stage by Sweatcoin co-founder Oleg Fomenko, who shared his vision for a world where people have better control of their data, but can also be rewarded for taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint. 

## April 14 – Interactive Roundtable

On the final day of Paris Blockchain Week Summit, Flament led the “Interactive Roundtable: Pioneering the Future of DAOs”. Panelists included NEAR Co-founder Polosukhin, SailGP’s Charlie Dewhurst and Paraswap’s Founder, Mounir Benchelemb. 

Polosukhin is well-known for his love of DAOs. He said that a DAO is essentially an experiment with something, often real world problems, between a community and a company. With the DAO behind Unchain Fund, of which Polosukhin is a member, that meant getting funds and resources to Ukrainians who needed it. 

“In our case, time was of the essence,” said Polosukhin. “You can start a DAO in 5 minutes whereas starting a nonprofit would be more like 5 months or even 5 years.”

“We are building NEAR to lower the barrier to entry for mainstream users,” he said. “Right now, DAOs are beyond regulation territory but we live in the physical world and understand how these new organizations will map. We need to figure out how DAOs can interact with the traditional world. Also, security and making users feel safe using this technology.”

Dewhurst’s appearance came hot on the heels of NEAR Foundation’s partnership with SailGP, which will include the sale of a new sailing team to a NEAR-based DAO. This could revolutionize team ownership but also fan access to and interaction with teams and athletes.  

“A new generation of fans recognize how much of a role they have in shaping a brand or a product,” said Dewhurst. “It’s a lot less top down. Influencers are this whole new category and they’re engaging directly. There is a lot less distance between a brand and its users or customers. That’s also central to Web3 and has been since the beginning.”

Paraswap’s Benchelemb emphasized that DAOs offer individual members a way to contribute through a crypto bank account, established processes, tooling for offline groups to increase online capabilities, and more. “[DAOs] give more people a voice without limitations like background, jurisdiction, social ties, level of access,” he said.

As Benchelemb sees it, the major challenge facing mainstream adoption is the complexity of DAO tooling for non-crypto natives. One solution he offered is simplifying onboarding.

Several key NEAR figures were there to take attendees on a tour of the major happenings in NEAR’s thriving ecosystem. 

Highlights from NEAR at Paris Blockchain Week Summit

Today, Rift is proud to be partnering with leading NEAR DeFi protocols to unlock composability on Aurora for de-risked yield farming. We are working with [Trisolaris](/trisolaris) and [Meta Pool](/meta-pool) to create lucrative yield opportunities in the NEAR ecosystem by launching the stNEAR:TRI liquidity pool, upgrading our existing partnership with Trisolaris.

This pool grants community members access to TRI by swapping in stNEAR. stNEAR is a yield-bearing asset on NEAR that allows holders to access liquidity while earning staking rewards. As a result, the stNEAR:TRI pool offers liquidity providers boosted rewards.

By redistributing the risks and rewards of liquidity positions on decentralized exchanges, Rift empowers all parties to work collaboratively rather than competitively. Rift allows Trisolaris to sustainably source liquidity for the TRI token without giving up ownership over their treasury.

Unlike traditional pools where liquidity providers must deposit in both assets to start earning rewards, the Rift Protocol enables users to provide liquidity using a single crypto asset in a de-risked way.

When users deposit stNEAR, it is paired with TRI deposited by Trisolaris in the Rift vaults and then deployed as liquidity into the DEX pool. **Liquidity providers who deposit to this vault will earn double swap fees on the already boosted rewards from stNEAR**, compared to depositing directly into the DEX pool. Rift creates a passive and straightforward experience for DAOs and liquidity providers to deposit by abstracting away the complexity on both sides.

Rift empowers DAOs with sustainable token liquidity while simultaneously improving the return profile for liquidity providers. Rift Vaults will be opening for public deposits within the next few weeks, granting users the ability to earn 2x returns and downside impermanent loss protection.

> “Composability is at the heart of DeFi. It's exciting to be a part of an initiative that directly utilizes this along multiple dimensions, bringing together various projects to achieve their independent goals, possible because of the unique interoperability of DeFi”, said Tyler Tarsi, co-founder of Rift Finance.

The composability of these protocols demonstrates a shift in the maturity of the NEAR DeFi ecosystem. The foundational layer of DeFi has been built; it’s now time for innovation and DeFi Legos. The composability of these primitive protocols will usher in a new wave of innovation on Aurora.

> “This partnership will bring the value of stNEAR asset into the growing Aurora DeFi ecosystem through an easy flow by the Rift platform into Trisolaris. A match made in DeFi heaven,” says Claudio Cossio, co-founder at Meta Pool.

Rift is proud to be partnering with leading NEAR DeFi protocols to unlock composability on Aurora for de-risked yield farming.

Money Legos Stacked on Aurora

The Cypherpunk Guild is pleased to announce the opening of a new grant program to fund privacy-enhancing projects in a variety of areas, from DeFi, to governance, and more.

The Cypherpunk Guild is committed to providing up to 50k USD to projects that aim at expanding the NEAR ecosystem and advancing its mission of empowering people by giving them options to control their money, data, and governance.

The three main areas of interest for the guild are DeFi, Governance, and Social Networks, however, the guild also remains open to exploring and supporting other ideas so do not hesitate to come up with more original suggestions!

## Privacy DeFi Infrastructure

As the demand for DeFi applications grows, so does the need to guarantee users’ privacy and safety to secure scalability. The Cypherpunk Guild is looking to fund projects aiming at implementing privacy solutions and strong protection mechanisms for DeFi that will help protect users and DeFi’s smooth ascent. Examples of such projects might include privacy-related solutions encompassing:

- Distributed financial infrastructure
- Prediction Markets
- Identity and KYC
- General Marketplaces
- Derivatives
- Insurance
- Lending
- Asset Tokenization
- Stablecoins
- Exchanges

## DAO/Governance Technology

DAOs are emerging in the crypto space as a new form of on-chain governance that allows for decentralized and democratic management of organizations. Since DAOs are run according to member consensus, privacy is essential in order to guarantee an environment free of corruption and pressure for the people engaging in voting, proposal resolutions, and funds allocations.
The Cypherpunk Guild is looking to fund projects that enhance the privacy solutions for DAOs, empower its users, and strengthen the processes of on-chain governance on NEAR Protocol.

## Social Networks

The most popular social networks leave their users vulnerable to a variety of threats, such as identity theft, data mining, and the stealing and exploitation of personal information. As we increasingly rely on social networks for communication, we need solutions to guarantee users’s privacy, data protection, and safety.

Being committed to enhancing privacy and self-sovereignty through the use of cryptography, the Cypherpunk Guild is looking to award funds to projects that will work towards the realization of social networks respectful of users’ privacy and safety built on NEAR Protocol.

## How To Apply

In order to apply you will need the following:

1. Complete documentation and roadmap (or a well-planned development timeline)
2. A clear and well-thought-out product architecture
3. At least two active devs working on the project

To apply, please send us an email with the required documentation at: info@cypherpunkguild.org .We are looking forward to your projects!

The Cypherpunk Guild is pleased to announce the opening of a new grant program to fund privacy-enhancing projects in a variety of areas, from DeFi, to governance, and more.

Articles

Recent articles on NEAR and ecosystem projects.