Introducing Mirage Protocol
Mirage Protocol is a next-generation decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol that leverages synthetic assets to fuel a perpetual futures exchange. Built on Aptos — a high-performant L1 that delivers a level of speed and security unrivaled in the market today — Mirage provides near-instant execution alongside minimal fees.
Mirage’s Synthetic Liquidity Model overcomes the limitations of multi-asset liquidity pools popularized by platforms like GMX, providing liquidity providers (LPs) with better risk management and utility while giving traders access to more trading pairs and non-crypto asset classes.
Cryptocurrencies, Stocks, Commodities, and Currencies can be traded with leverage of up to 100x.
Understanding Mirage Protocol
As centralized exchanges face operational and trust issues, decentralized alternatives have emerged as a trusted and viable solution.
Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) offer a layer of transparency and flexibility, handing control back to users through governance and revenue-sharing capabilities that are typically absent on centralized platforms. Notably, users can provide liquidity and act as the ‘house’ without the traditional barriers to entry, while still maintaining custody of their assets. Furthermore, as DeFi evolves and scales, the trading experience on DEXs has been dramatically enhanced, becoming more streamlined and user-friendly.
Mirage stands at the forefront of this movement, offering a seamless, low-cost trading experience that rewards LPs and $MIRA holders with platform fees. The protocol operates via three core components: Mirage Assets, Mirage Market and the Oasis.
Mirage Assets are composable synthetic assets minted by providing high-quality collateral. They serve as margin and create the backbone for the Mirage Market — a perpetual futures DEX — where the liquidity backing Mirage Assets serves as the counter-party to traders on the platform.
Lastly, the Oasis is where governance and staking of the native token, $MIRA, takes place. It’s more than a component of the Mirage ecosystem; it underlines the protocol’s commitment to decentralized control while incentivizing deep and long-lasting liquidity.
These three elements create a vertically-integrated system that aligns the interests of both traders and LPs while generating consistent real yields.
Let’s take a quick look at each component in more detail.
Mirage Assets
Mirage Assets track the price of real-world assets (RWAs) ranging from fiat currencies to Bitcoin. Users mint Mirage Assets by providing high quality collateral such as USDC and Aptos (APT), taking on an over-collateralized debt position that acts as a counter-party to traders. The fees generated by the protocol work towards repaying the debt positions created by the minting of Mirage Assets.
That’s right: while minting Mirage Assets functions similarly to other lending platforms, these loans are self-repaying as the protocol generates fees. In the future, Mirage plans to implement yield-bearing strategies to further accelerate the self-repaying mechanism. See Alchemix for more details on how this is possible.
The first two Mirage Assets are a native stable coin, mUSD, and a synthetic Aptos token, mAPT. LPs will have access to the typical leverage and hedging strategies that will be familiar to users of popular DeFi lending platforms. For example, a user bullish on Aptos will be able to lock their staked APT to mint mAPT, effectively leveraging their position. The position could be further leveraged by swapping mAPT for more staked APT, which could then be redeposited and used to mint more mAPT. A more detailed look at a variety of leverage and hedging strategies will be found in a future article.
By minting synthetic assets rather than depositing to multi-asset liquidity pools, LPs can more effectively manage their risk, the assets they are exposed to, and have more control over their capital.
Mirage Market
Perpetual futures are the main source of liquidity and trading activity in crypto. The Mirage Market is a cutting-edge perpetual futures exchange offering a broad selection of trading pairs — crypto, stocks, commodities, and currencies. Users can expect low fees, real-time market data via low-latency Pyth oracles, and advanced charting tools from TradingView. Mirage offers fully on-chain market orders as well as conditional order types such limit orders, take profit, stop loss. Plan your moves and let the market do the rest. Quickly bridge and swap funds from almost any source of liquidity. For a fast and secure trading experience, users are able to interact through a user-friendly web interface or leverage a robust open-source TypeScript SDK to deploy more advanced strategies. Stay tuned for a more detailed looked at the Mirage Market.
Oasis
At the heart of Mirage Protocol is the $MIRA token, which drives a vote-escrow governance system. $MIRA holders and LPs who provide liquidity for swapping between Mirage Assets and other native assets can lock this liquidity in the Oasis to earn rewards.
Holders of veMIRA are eligible to participate in on-chain governance votes that directly result in changes to the protocol — from fee adjustments to the rollout of new Mirage Assets, trading pairs, and protocol upgrades.
Rewards earned in the Oasis are based on two factors:
- How long the liquidity is locked
- How much $veMIRA the user has
A more detailed look at MIRA and veMIRA will be the topic of a future article.
Why Aptos?
The safest and most scalable Layer 1 blockchain
The decision to build on Aptos was a key aspect of Mirage’s early development. Other popular DEXs grapple with challenges inherent to their selected Layer 2 (L2) solution. We’ve seen these issues compel platforms to migrate to other L2s or venture into building their own protocol specific chain, leading to fragmented liquidity and disruptions for their user base.
Aptos presents a forward-thinking solution. It offers the scalability, security, and speed that future-focused projects like Mirage require. By choosing Aptos, Mirage signals its long-term commitment to staying competitive in the fast-paced world of decentralized finance.
For more info on Aptos:
Looking Forward
Mirage is working closely with partners within Aptos and across web3 to build the most accessible and intuitive trading platform, and is now in the final stages of development.
Soon, participants will have an opportunity to test the platform firsthand through an incentivized testnet trading contest. This will give users a glimpse into the seamless trading experience that Mirage offers, and a chance to win cash prizes and other rewards.
For ongoing updates and discussion, follow Mirage on Twitter and join the conversation on Discord.
