Road Town, British Virgin Islands–(Newsfile Corp. – July 7, 2022) – Marinade is pleased to officially announce the next chapter of the DAO through the execution of the Token Exchange Program. Through the token exchange, Marinade is aligning with a collection of key builders across the Solana ecosystem.
As shared in the Marinade DAO Forum, The Token Exchange Program will enable Marinade to exchange a total of 9.83M MNDE for 483k USDC and 500k SLND. An additional 1.2M MNDE will be distributed in exchange for 1M SOL staked to Marinade for at least a year.
Among the Solana DeFi protocols participating in the exchange with Marinade are: Raydium, Solend, Port Finance and others. Validators participating are Blockdaemon, Staking Facilities, Laine, Shinobi Systems, Stakin, Cogent Crypto and Solana Compass.
At the beginning of 2022, Marinade shared that one of its key goals for the year was to decentralize the organization from the core founding team into a community-driven DAO. In April, on-chain governance was activated. This concept came with a unique wrinkle: locking MNDE governance tokens into NFT Chefs and using them to vote. The Token Exchange is the next step in decentralizing the DAO by giving these key builders a vested interest in the future of the protocol. This exchange will enable Marinade to not only work towards its decentralization and staking goals for the remainder of 2022, but pursue new projects that will potentially drive Solana performance.
The Token Exchange aligns with Marinade’s foundations as a project launched without venture capital backing or an IDO. It was founded in the spring of 2021 following a successful Solana x Serum Hackathon event and initial funding came from the Solana Foundation and Serum. Marinade launched its mainnet stake pool in August, 2021 with the collateralized SOL token, mSOL (Marinated SOL). Marinade launched its governance token, MNDE, in the fall of 2021 with no presale or IDO, and officially began its path towards an on-chain DAO.
Since launch, Marinade’s stake pool has grown into the largest on Solana with over 7 million SOL staked, distributing stake to over 400 high-performing validators, all of whom are outside the “superminority” - the 27 largest validators that make up 33% of the network stake. The protocol earns revenue primarily through fees generated from its Solana stake pool.
Right now, liquid staking tokens on Solana like mSOL represent only about 3% of all SOL currently staked, which is about 75% of all SOL on the market.
The partners participating in the Marinade Token exchange will receive a Limited Edition Chef NFT with MNDE tokens locked inside. In order to unlock the MNDE tokens, all holders of Chef NFTs must initiate a 30-day unlocking period. Upon completion, the NFT is burned and the MNDE tokens are returned to the holder’s wallet and free to trade.
Click here to view the full list of participants and amounts of the Marinade Token Exchange Program.
Statements from participants of the Marinade Token Exchange Program
Solana Protocols:
Solend: “It’s been great working with marinade the last eight months. So when they came to us with the token exchange program we were excited to jump on board and believe it will keep us aligned for the long term. We look forward to continue supporting further decentralization of the Solana network with Marinade.”
Raydium: “Having partnered with Marinade from the start, it’s been amazing to see their progress in driving the decentralization of Solana. The token exchange program is another big step towards this objective so Raydium is super excited to be a part of it.”
Port Finance: “Marinade is the first and the largest staking project on Solana. We are really impressed with their shipping speed and commitment to decentralization. It is a great pleasure that we can be part of their token exchange program to further strengthen our mutual partnership.”
Solana Validators:
Laine: “Marinade was one of the early innovators in stake pools on Solana and has brought about a paradigm shift for validators. Thanks to pools like Marinade the barrier to entry has been lowered considerably. As a validator that benefited from Marinade’s stake early on and has been closely following their journey, there was no question about participating in the token exchange program and being part of the ongoing growth and development of this incredible team.”
Staking Facilities: “We’ve always seen Solana as a uniquely different approach to scaling and composing web3 applications. As the largest liquid staking protocol on Solana, Marinade is key in pioneering new ideas around staking, increasing decentralization, and incentivizing good validator performance, all while unlocking massive utility for staked SOL. We’re thrilled to support Marinade in its mission over the coming years.”
Shinobi Systems: “I’m participating because I believe in the importance of Marinade’s position within the Solana Ecosystem. Marinade has always been a force of good, helping to spread stake to smaller validators which strengthens Solana by diversifying the network. I also have had great experiences with the Marinade core team whom I know have the interests of Solana at heart, so I’m happy to do my small part to support Marinade.”
Stakin: “Solana has one of the fastest growing ecosystems and blockchain, run by thousands of independent operators such as ourselves. Liquid staking solutions like Marinade are an important piece of this ecosystem. We intend to take part in the decentralized governance of Marinade and look forward to contributing to the growth of the protocol and Solana’s ecosystem.”
Blockdaemon: “As a longstanding contributor to the Solana ecosystem, Blockdaemon is proud to participate in Marinade’s decentralized governance. Liquidity is the lifeblood of web3, and Marinade’s liquid staking solution plays an important role in Solana’s vibrant DeFi ecosystem. Blockdaemon continues to be an active and engaged operator on the Solana network, and is excited to contribute to the growth of the Marinade protocol.”
Solana Compass: “It’s really exciting to be part of Marinade’s exchange program and validator council. They are going above and beyond to help decentralize and support Solana’s validator ecosystem; indeed without their stake pool it is unlikely I, nor many others, would have had the confidence to launch my validator independently.”
About Marinade
Marinade.Finance is the first and leading non-custodial liquid staking protocol built on the Solana blockchain. Its mission is to strengthen and decentralize Solana and onboard people around the world to decentralized finance. Marinade is the creator of the mSOL, a liquid staking token that you receive when you stake SOL to Marinade. These mSOL tokens represent your staked SOL but can be utilized across the leading projects in the Solana DeFi ecosystem in addition to accruing staking rewards. Marinade operates as a DAO thru the MNDE governance token and NFT Chefs.
Today, Tulip Protocol made the announcement that they have integrated Chainlink Price Feeds in order to better secure their yield aggregating platform that is running on the Solana mainnet. The team had previously stated their intention to integrate Chainlink Price Feeds, and at this point, the connection has been completely put into action. Chainlink is the premier decentralized oracle network in the world, safeguarding tens of billions of dollars in smart contracts. It has diversified its offerings across other blockchains, notably Solana, Fantom, Polygon, BNB Chain, and others.
In a recent blog post, the team behind the Tulip Protocol explained that they had integrated Chainlink to provide users with more confidence that leveraged positions will be liquidated equitably using extremely accurate price data and that the protocol will continue to be completely collateralized at all times.
According to Tomasz Wojewoda, Head of Global Sales at Chainlink Labs:
“We’re pleased that Tulip Protocol has integrated Chainlink Price Feeds on Solana, helping secure its yield aggregation protocol with highly robust, decentralized market data. With the high-throughput performance of Solana and the strong security guarantees of the Chainlink Network, Tulip Protocol is able to empower users with a performant and secure platform.”
Tulip Protocol Seeks To Take Advantage Of Solana
Tulip Protocol brings together lenders who receive a return on their deposits and borrowers who are interested in gaining access to leverage. Users who initiate leverage positions are responsible for maintaining a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio that has been previously established. The Tulip Protocol then uses the asset price data that is provided by Chainlink Price Feeds to verify that this ratio is accurate. If the value of the collateral falls below the threshold that was established by the protocol, then their position will be immediately liquidated to assist in guaranteeing that the lenders will be repaid.
Tulip Protocol intends to capitalize on Solana by giving users the ability to more regularly reinvest their income and grow their assets without having to pay exorbitant amounts of gas expenses. Chainlink oracles can now be natively integrated on Solana, making it possible for Solana-based applications to benefit from enhanced levels of security and transparency. Yesterday, OpenOcean made the announcement that they would be integrating Chainlink Price Feeds in order to help secure the limited order functionality on many chains. These chains include Avalanche, Ethereum, Polygon, Fantom, and BNB Chain.
According to Senx, Co-Founder of Tulip Protocol:
“We’re excited to be using Chainlink Price Feeds on Solana to help secure our yield aggregation platform. By leveraging the most secure and reliable on-chain data available, we’re able to provide our lenders and borrowers with greater assurances that liquidations are based on accurate price data, and the protocol will maintain a healthy loan-to-value ratio through all market conditions.”
Allowing Stakers To Benefit From Higher APYs
Natives of the blockchain as well as newcomers to the technology are beginning to understand that decentralization does not necessarily equate to a secure platform. Given that Web3 services are currently disclosing their susceptibilities to attacks from both within and outside the network, further initiatives should be undertaken to improve the safety of user assets. Fortunately, a growing number of blockchain businesses are beginning to add various levels of security to their services in order to solidify the trust of their existing customers and attract additional investors in the near and distant future.
Tulip Protocol is the very first yield aggregation platform to be built on Solana, and it features auto-compounding vault techniques. The dApp was developed to make use of Solana’s blockchain, which has a low cost and high efficiency, hence enabling the vault techniques to compound frequently. Stakeholders are able to reap the benefits of greater APYs as a result, without the need for active management.
On this week’s episode of “The Market Report,” Cointelegraph’s resident experts discuss the latest updates concerning the recent Solana (SOL) hack.
To kick things off, we broke down the latest news in the markets this week:
Bitcoin realized price bands form key resistance as bulls lose $24K, significant whale activity between $22,000 and $24,800 adds to the complexity of the current spot market setup. Bitcoin (BTC) consolidated lower on Aug. 9 after familiar resistance preserved a multi-month trading range. When will we finally break out of this price range and make the move towards $30K?
Institutions flocking to Ethereum for 7 straight weeks as Merge nears: Report, “Greater clarity” around the Merge has driven institutional inflows into Ethereum products, according to a CoinShares report. Is the ETH merge finally around the corner and will it bring new all time highs to ETH or has the price already been factored into the current price?
Circle freezes blacklisted Tornado Cash smart contract addresses, Crypto data aggregator Dune Analytics said that, on Monday, Circle, the issuer of the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin, froze over 75,000 USDC worth of funds linked to the 44 Tornado Cash addresses sanctioned by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) list. Could this mark the end for Tornado Cash or is there a way they can redeem themselves?
Next up is a new segment called “Quick Crypto Tips,” which aims to give newcomers to the crypto industry quick and easy tips to get the most out of their experience. This week’s tip: Have some funds ready to buy further downturns.
Market expert Marcel Pechman then carefully examines the Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) markets. Are the current market conditions bullish or bearish? What is the outlook for the next few months? Pechman is here to break it down. The experts also go over some markets news to bring you up to date on the latest regarding the top two cryptocurrencies.
After Marcel’s market analysis, our resident experts discuss whether your SOL is safe and the latest updates on the Solana hack. We also discuss why the network has been victim to so many hacks and downtimes. What exactly do these exploits mean for the Solana platform and if you should be worried.
Lastly, we’ve got insights from Cointelegraph Markets Pro, a platform for crypto traders who want to stay one step ahead of the market. The analysts use Cointelegraph Markets Pro to identify two altcoins that stood out this week: Radicle’s RAD and DigiByte’s DGB.
Do you have a question about a coin or topic not covered here? Don’t worry. Join the YouTube chat room, and write your questions there. The person with the most interesting comment or question will be given a 1 month free subscription to markets Pro worth $100!
The Market Report streams live every Tuesday at 12:00 pm ET (4:00 pm UTC), so be sure to head on over to Cointelegraph’s YouTube page and smash those like and subscribe buttons for all our future videos and updates.
Singapore, Singapore , Aug. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, the ZepetoX team (ZTX, ZepetoX.io) announced its foray into the web3 space, sharing its vision to build an open world that empowers creators and communities to build, play and earn.
ZepetoX is the crypto metaverse initiative jointly incubated by ZEPETO – Asia’s largest metaverse platform with over 320 million registered users – alongside leading global blockchain organizations including Jump Crypto.
As the sole blockchain project comprehensively backed by ZEPETO, ZepetoX will have exclusive ties to ZEPETO in terms of IP including technological, design, and content assets as well as bridges to facilitate user onboarding between the two platforms. ZepetoX’s blockchain development efforts will be advised by Jump.
“ZepetoX is our official venture into the blockchain industry. We feel that web3 opportunities should be advanced through a crypto-native approach, which is why we are excited to have Jump as a contributor to developing a new platform that would have exclusive connections to ZEPETO. Overall, we believe that ZepetoX can build the ideal web3 platform to not only bring blockchain to our existing users but also to expand our footprint in the blockchain space through various disruptive initiatives,” said Daewook Kim, CEO of Naver Z – the operating entity of ZEPETO.
“We are excited to support ZepetoX’s efforts aimed at onboarding new audiences into the rapidly growing crypto space. ZEPETO’s expertise and technological know-hows accumulated over the past years from building an immersive social platform will serve as a springboard for ZepetoX,” said Saurabh Sharma, Partner at Jump Crypto.
Building on the Solana network, ZepetoX will offer a web-based 3D open world with varying levels of gamification integrated as well as opportunities for users to monetize via ownership of digital assets and social interaction. Ultimately, ZepetoX aims to empower self-expression through customizable avatars and lands that can be equipped with NFTs from a rich collection of assets created by diverse creators, DAOs, or communities.
“I am thrilled to see IP powerhouses like ZepetoX choosing to build their metaverse on Solana,” said Anatoly Yakovenko, Co-Founder of Solana. “Projects like ZepetoX create new pathways for onboarding millions of users to web3.”
“Our global team brings a depth of crypto native experiences and our goal is to build on the foundation of ZEPETO to spearhead the adoption of blockchain among metaverse users, developers, and creators,” said co-CEO of ZepetoX, Chris Chang.
In the coming months, ZepetoX will launch its first land sale. The lands will be tradable on the ZepetoX marketplace, which will feature a variety of different NFTs as the open world project evolves. Further details on the sale will be available on the ZepetoX website in the coming weeks.
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About ZepetoX: ZepetoX (ZTX) is a web3 company building an immersive content-driven platform for users to create, trade digital assets and enjoy social interaction. Founded in 2022, ZepetoX is the blockchain initiative of ZEPETO, widely regarded as the largest Asia-based metaverse platform boasting over 320 million lifetime users with over 2.5 billion virtual fashion items sold.
