New ACA Staking Program is starting, Interprotocol aUSD Distribution Scheme (IADS) is live, and several new Ecosystem integrations.
Continuing from June’s news of Acala joining forces with Alluvial, Coinbase Cloud, and Figment to provide institutions with a compliant, enterprise-grade Polkadot (DOT) Liquid Staking Product, several major announcements were made in July. Along with new ecosystem integrations, aUSD issuance and liquidity took a major boost with IADS going live, and a new ACA staking program will go live soon, in which stakers will be rewarded with three types of rewards!
Let’s recap another significant month of progress for Acala in July.
Acala’s Interprotocol aUSD Distribution Scheme (IADS) goes live
The Acala Interprotocol aUSD Distribution Scheme (IADS- pronounced “eye-ads”) has launched. IADS is a new form of aUSD issuance, in addition to collateralized debt positions (CDPs). IADS requires protocol-to-protocol collaboration (e.g., aUSD protocol and Taiga protocol’s 3pool) to facilitate protocol access to efficient liquidity in the DotSama (Polkadot and Kusama) ecosystem. The aUSD protocol has aUSD placed into the Taiga 3-pool using IADS to increase liquidity efficiency and solidify the aUSD $1 price peg.
IADS establishes an aUSD distribution network on various parachains like Acala and Karura. The cross-consensus messaging (XCM) links enable aUSD to support local trading venues like Taiga’s stableswap 3-pool on Karura and remote trading venues on other parachains. The aUSD protocol will collect trading fees from the stableswap as a liquidity provider, which will go into the aUSD “Honzon” Treasury; however, IADS does not impose a stability fee (interest rate).
The Polkadot ecosystem benefits from the IADS protocol via:
- Increased aUSD ecosystem liquidity by serving the Acala and Karura trading venues and other parachains via XCM, creating aUSD distribution networks for improved liquidity
- Accelerated aUSD issuance and liquidity growth by adding new growth drivers
- Strengthening the aUSD $1 peg through increased arbitrage opportunities.
Discover more about IADS and its contributions to the Polkadot ecosystem here.
Watch Acala’s Co-Founder, Bette Chen, explain and answer questions on IADS here.
New ACA staking program
ACA holders have another chance to grow their percentage network ownership through the ACA staking program. Acala will use approximately $200k in network surplus to purchase ACA to obtain ACA-aUSD LP tokens for distribution to ACA stakeholders. Rather than diluting the ACA token value through inflation, Acala buys back the ACA with network-owned staking reward excess, empowering the community.
Participants gain network ownership with ACA while also receiving aUSD. These rewards will be distributed as a yield-bearing ACA-aUSD LP token, which will also earn trading fees from the ACA-aUSD pool on Acala Swap (yes, your rewards earn rewards). The ACA-aUSD LP tokens can also be redeemed back into ACA and aUSD.
Important Notice — Claim past ACA staking rewards:
Please claim any unclaimed rewards from the previous ACA staking program before the new program begins on August 4th. All unclaimed ACA rewards will be subject to the new loyalty period once the new program begins. Early claims during the loyalty period are not eligible for the loyalty bonus. Claim your previous ACA staking rewards here.
Learn more about the new ACA staking program here.
Ecosystem Integrations
July’s integrations increase aUSD utility across chains within Polkadot and beyond.
Swim launches USDT metapool on Karura’s EVM+, enabling native stablecoin swaps via Wormhole
Swim, a multi-chain AMM for native assets, launched its metapool in Acala. Designed to simplify bridging through multi-token liquidity pools and the Wormhole bridge, Swim provides Karura with USDT metapool liquidity for increased DeFi and stablecoin functionality. Metapools allow Swim to facilitate trading between new tokens and an existing metapool or Swim’s signature hexapool of USDC, USDT on Ethereum, Solana, and BUSD on the BNB Chain. Token swaps across several chains are active thanks to Wormhole’s cross-chain communication and Swim’s AMM technology. Swim’s barrier-eliminating approach for users conducting cross-chain transactions improves compatibility between various protocols.
Once Acala is live on Wormhole and aUSD is fungible across Karura and Acala, Swim will also add aUSD support for both platforms.
Learn more about Swim’s metapool launch on Karura’s EVM+ here.
Basilisk launches DEX on Kusama with aUSD as its parachain’s choice stablecoin
July saw the launch of aUSD and KSM Snek Swap pools on Basilisk, a liquidity protocol for the Kusama ecosystem enabling frictionless liquidity. The Snek Swap pools allow Basilisk community members to gain decentralized and permissionless access to Polkadot and Kusama’s native stablecoin, aUSD and bring aUSD to a new Kusama parachain as its stablecoin of choice.
BSX, aUSD and KSM holders can now trade:
- BSX↔️aUSD
- BSX↔️KSM
Each pool will be bootstrapped with 500M BSX (0.5% of the supply provided from the allocation for the LBP) and $11,111 worth of aUSD and KSM.
Learn more about the aUSD and KSM Snek Swap pools launch on Basilisk here.
New cross-parachain channels between Astar and Acala enable asset sharing
Following the opening of the new cross-parachain channels between Astar and Acala, community members now enjoy aUSD, ACA, and LDOT transfers. Astar Network, which connects the Polkadot ecosystem to Ethereum, Cosmos, and all major Layer 1 blockchains, creates more utility and support for Acala system tokens within Polkadot and beyond.
Learn more here.
$250M aUSD Ecosystem Fund
If you are a developer interested in building a project that drives yield or utility of the aUSD stablecoin on Acala or any other parachain, apply for funding from the $250 aUSD Ecosystem Fund. The aUSD Ecosystem Fund is part of the broader Acala Ecosystem Program, which offers liquidity for new projects, Acala Foundation Grants, engineering support, and other support to ensure the success of the aUSD ecosystem.
Build on Acala
If you’re a team looking to build on Acala, integrate the aUSD stablecoin, get funding from the $250 million aUSD Ecosystem Fund, or receive support from Acala Grants, please get in touch with our team to chat about how we can support you.
About Acala
Acala is a decentralized finance network powering the aUSD ecosystem. The core product, Acala USD, is a decentralized, multi-collateral, crypto-backed stablecoin serving as the native stablecoin of the Polkadot ecosystem. Acala’s Ethereum-compatible blockchain has built-in DeFi protocols for application developers to leverage, including a trustless staking derivative (liquid DOT — LDOT), a decentralized exchange, and the EVM+, a hybrid EVM offering fully Ethereum-compatible development environment plus full compatibility with Substrate. Karura is Acala’s sister parachain to serve the Kusama ecosystem and shares the same codebase as Acala.
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