0x Ecosystem Update, October 2020
🎃 Welcome to the October 2020 ecosystem update from 0x Tracker! 👻 Each month we share highlights, trends, trading insights, and news from across the 0x ecosystem.
💡 Highlights
- MetaMask integrates 0x API for its new direct token swap functionality with over $13 million in volume sourced through 0x protocol so far.
- 0x API v1 offers better adjusted prices 7 out of 10 times than 1inch, Dex Ag, Paraswap, and Uniswap. Read the comprehensive analysis here.
- Tokenlon’s LON token launches
- 0x Tracker releases its new Apps Activity feature.
- 0x protocol celebrates its first $1 billion+ volume month! 📈 🎉
🌐 Network Insights
There were several new 0x API integrations this month, including MetaMask, Zapper, and DexKit Swap. Metamask, one of the largest Ethereum wallets with over a million users, has already sourced over $13 million in volume since early October. Zapper, a DeFi assets management platform, only recently integrated the API but has already seen $1.15 million in volume in just a few days.
It’s been interesting to compare the initial trade data on the new integrations. Compared to MetaMask, where we see a higher number of active users making smaller trades (~$2.5k per trade), Zapper’s users, while fewer, are making larger trades (~3.7k per trade). While DexKit Swap has a lower user count and average trade size (~$400 per trade), it serves as a useful demo for the core DexKit platform that offers a white-label solution for companies seeking to provide simple 0x-powered exchange functionality. The top traded tokens across the three platforms were WETH, USDC, USDT, DAI, WTBC, and LINK.
Since the week of Sept. 21–25, 0x API has seen roughly 3x growth in active traders, driven mostly by taker activity, increasing from ~2k to ~6k traders per week. This user base growth can be largely attributed to:
- MetaMask onboarding 3k+ new traders
- Matcha’s steady month-over-month user growth
As detailed in this blog post, recent updates to 0x API have resulted in “better adjusted prices than Uniswap 7 out of 10 times.” (adjusted price = price after factoring in transaction fees). How is this possible? The 0x Labs team built an extremely optimized contract that allows 0x API to directly source liquidity through Uniswap and Sushiswap in a more gas efficient way than even their own contracts can achieve. This API update is particularly beneficial for smaller trades (<$5K) routed to a single source. Since the update, direct trades from these sources have increased from ~$0.2m to ~$0.6m per day, with Uniswap driving 60%-90% of the volume.
Check out the Network Insights page to further explore 0x network growth.
🗺 Ecosystem News
0x Labs
- Blog post on the strategy for expanding the 0x protocol beyond Ethereum. Additional CoinTelegraph coverage here.
- Reddit AMA on 0x API v1
- 0x economics researcher, Peter Zeitz, discovers a Curve smart contract vulnerability (reported in confidence to the Curve team and subsequently fixed)
- Community dev, @iamonuwa, completes the first 0x Gitcoin bounty to add additional wallet support on the ZRX portal
- Watch the 0x Labs — Developer & Governance Meeting from October
- ETHOnline hackathon (hosted by ETHGlobal) — 0x API workshop by Engineering Manager, Brandon Millman
- Liquidity2020 (hosted by Dystopia Labs) — Growing Defi with the Help of Professional Market Makers presentation by Project Manager, Blake Henderson
- 0x Labs, Matcha, and Periscope Trading are hiring for software engineers (back-end, front-end, full-stack, and protocol) and product marketing roles. All positions are remote-eligible.
- Reminder: Anyone is welcome to submit 0x protocol improvement ideas/proposals on the 0x Labs — Governance and Research forum
Lots of new 0x API new integrations and on-chain liquidity sources:
- MetaMask (direct token swaps) — announcement
- Prysm (in beta) — announcement
- Zapper.fi — announcement
- Cream, DODO, mStable, Shell Protocol, SnowSwap, Swerve (all trackable through: https://0xtracker.com/asset-bridges)
Augur
- Total election market volume on Catnip Exchange, built on Augur, surpasses $3 million dollars
DeFi Saver
- Loan Shifter beta launched — change your collateral or debt asset and shift between protocols using DeFi Saver
DexKit
- Introductory blog post to DexKit, a market-making, and cryptocurrency trading toolkit built on 0x protocol
- Live DexKit white-labeled solutions include BitSwap, Swap, and Unilayer
- Planned launch of the KIT token on November 14, 2020 — details here
Matcha
- Sponsorships of the Ledger Cast and Venture Coinist podcasts
- Introduction to Synthetix blog post
- Save Money, Trade With Matcha.xyz! by Bitcoin for Beginners on YouTube
- How to Trade on Matcha the DeFi Exchange Powered by 0x by The CryptoDad on YouTube
Radar
- Radar is hiring for engineering and operations roles
Rari Capital
- Rari Capital v2, which leverages 0x API for its yield strategies, goes live
Tokenlon
- LON (Tokenlon Network Token) launches with a token incentive plan and community governance pilot
- BlockDown 2020 — Yield Farming Risks, Opportunities and New Crops panel featuring Head of Growth, Lucas Huang
- ImToken is hiring for engineering, QA, operations, user support, and community roles
Zapper
- Now using 0x API on zapper.fi/exchange. Check out their announcement.
- Yield TV, powered by Zapper, recently produced its 25th show. 🎉 Hosted by @DeFi_Dad, watch all the episodes at tv.zapper.fi.
Zerion
- Liquidity2020 (hosted by Dystopia Labs) — Designing & Building The Ultimate DeFi Aggregator presentation by Zerion Co-founder, Evgeny Yurtaev
- Zerion is hiring for various engineer roles
Disclaimer: Any updates related to ecosystem project token launches and news does not constitute or imply endorsement by 0x Tracker or 0x Labs.
🎬 Wrapping Up
And that it’s for October! If you enjoyed reading this, be sure to subscribe to the newsletter to receive the monthly update direct to your inbox.
If you’re building on 0x protocol and have a project or hiring update you’d like to share, email hello@0xtracker.com to be included in next month’s edition.
Big thanks to our new contributors this month:
Brent Oshiro (0x Labs), Clay Robbins (0x Labs), Danning Sui (0x Labs), and Nikita (0x Community Ambassador).
