Acala and Anchor Integration, Ecosystem announcements, Karura Swap listings, and an online hackathon.
April has been an eventful month for Acala. After a successful March that featured the $250M aUSD fund launch, Wormhole multi-chain bridge connection, Talisman and Kujira’s addition to Acala and Karura’s ecosystem, Acala and Karura have continued to make significant progress in April with several new partnerships, ecosystem integrations, swap listings, and hackathons.
Let’s take a look at a recap of the major events in April!
Acala and Anchor Protocol Integrate To Unite Terra and Polkadot Ecosystems and Grow the Decentralized Stablecoin Market
Acala and Anchor’s synergistic partnership will see the networks link Polkadot and Terra, improving liquidity and yield opportunities for aUSD and UST.
Acala and Karura will initially help expand Anchor’s collateral options for UST — a decentralized, algorithmic stablecoin built on the Terra with the introduction of Liquid DOT (LDOT) and Liquid KSM (LKSM), Acala and Karura’s yield-bearing liquid staking derivatives.
The Acala and Anchor integration allows Polkadot and Kusama users to access Anchor yield by transferring liquid staking assets, including LKSM and LDOT, to Anchor via cross-collateralization to borrow UST on Anchor. Users earn ANC incentives for borrowing and can deposit UST to earn a stable yield.
An example of the yield opportunities following the Acala and Anchor integration includes:
- While staking KSM and earning ~20% returns, users will receive LKSM.
- The LKSM can be transferred to Anchor via Wormhole and used as collateral to borrow UST.
- The borrowed UST can then be deposited into Anchor to earn an additional yield of ~20%.
UST or aUST holders can leverage the integration as a gateway to Polkadot for increased yield opportunities. Acala and Anchor intend to create UST/aUSD pools and enhance aUSD and UST liquidity while enabling collaborative efforts to develop decentralized stablecoins.
Read more about the Acala and Anchor integration here.
Ecosystem Integrations
April saw Acala and Karura welcome new protocols into their respective ecosystems, increasing aUSD use cases and functionality.
Imbue Network Integrates aUSD As Its Default Stablecoin for Crowdfunding
Imbue Network, an idea incubator for project initiators and contributors aiming to improve Web3 functionality through advancing and implementing blockchain ideas, announced they will be integrating aUSD as its default stablecoin option. aUSD will impart value stability while providing a stablecoin funding option for projects on Imbue Network.
Imbue’s aUSD integration enables the completion of funding rounds free from lost capital value and encourages community participation while lowering entry barriers for project support.
Learn more about the Imbue integration here.
Citizend and Acala Partner To Bring Token Launch Platform to Karura
Citizend is set to launch its Polkadot-native token launch platform on the Karura EVM+, Acala’s custom-built EVM environment. The launch connects developers and investors by availing a service for funding access and early investment opportunities.
aUSD will serve as the default quote and routing asset for the Citizend platform; instead of charging project launch fees, Citizend will take up to 5% of a project’s native token and match each new native token with aUSD, creating a pool.
Users will access the CNTD-aUSD pair as an exchange route to trade in and out of native coins and stablecoins.
To follow Citizends’ integration, click here.
Mangata X aUSD Integration
Mangata Finance is launching its Kusama-based decentralized exchange parachain, Mangata X, facilitating easy and secure trading for Polkadot and Ethereum.
Mangata X ensures low fixed fees, front-running protection, and miner extractable value (MEV) prevention through cross-chain functionality and a novel Proof-of-Liquidity consensus mechanism. The integration allows a no-gas DEX, cushioning trade execution and providing safety against disingenuous parties.
Mangata X’s aUSD integration facilitates a hedge against market volatility and creates liquidity in the Mangata ecosystem by providing stable trading options on Ethereum, Polkadot, Kusama, and supported protocols.
Learn more about the Mangata X integration here.
SubWallet Now Supports Acala and Karura Bringing aUSD Minting and a User-Friendly Experience
User experience is a crucial determinant in platform success; unfortunately, Polkadot and Karura lack native wallets to establish an intuitive feel. SubWallet is a user-friendly wallet tailored to enhance the Dotsama user experience (Polkadot and Kusama) by implementing a series of user-centric features, including:
- Transaction history tracking
- Display and management of multi-chain asset balance
- Staking portfolio management
- Crowdloan portfolio management
Sending and receiving multi-chain assets
The SubWallet team included novel options unavailable in any wallet extension. NFT support for popular platforms such as RMRK, Acala, Moonbeam, Astar, Unique, Bit.Country and others, management support of EVM assets, and MetaMask compatibility are SubWallet’s standout features.
SubWallet’s convenience incentives Acala and Karura users to trade their assets on Dotsama, increasing aUSD issuance, and utility; users can expect aUSD staking, farming, and additional yield-bearing use cases following the integration.
Read more on SubWallet’s Acala and Karura support here.
Coinbase Cloud Liquid Staking Support
Following Coinbase Cloud’s collaboration with the Acala Foundation, Coinbase Cloud will support liquid staking, starting with KSM liquid staking on Karura.
Liquid staking creates more crypto-economic opportunities by allowing token holders to stake their coins while putting the assets to work without an unbonding period. It lets users earn both staking rewards and any rewards that would accrue from using their tokens in DeFi.
Additionally, liquid staking lays the foundation for new utilities, including minting aUSD, creating new synthetic assets, and additional yield opportunities for aUSD and L-tokens (e.g. stake DOT and receive LDOT).
Learn more about Coinbase liquidity staking support here.
Karura Swap Listings
Karura Swap, an automated market maker (AMM)-styled decentralized exchange protocol implemented and deployed as upgradable runtime modules, uses a bootstrap model to encourage fair trading in the market.
Bootstrap works as a warm-up period for liquidity providers for any token pair on Karura Swap, enabling trustless trading at a fair market rate by temporarily disabling trading for a period until the market achieves a predetermined liquidity period. Once the bootstrap is complete, Karura Swap publicizes and enables trading.
The following tokens launched on Karura Swap to leverage the bootstrap model, among other advantages:
Unique Network
Karura collaborated with Unique Network to introduce the QTZ/aUSD and QTZ/KAR trading pair. The Karura swap enables Quartz to exchange application tokens for Quartz through opportunities in Karura; therefore, Quartz maintains the sustainability and longevity of its community and tokenomics.
Read more on the Unique Network launch here.
PolarisDAO
PolarisDAO is a community-managed DAO with members from Web3 developers, artists, and venture capitalists; it launched on Karura swap, offering over 700k rewards for ARIS/KSM liquidity providers.
Polaris will use the Karura Swap listing to advance the NFT market in Dotsama and identify/support early investment opportunities.
Find out more on the Polaris Launch here.
Crust Shadow Network
Another addition to Karura Swap was the Crust Shadow Network, the CSM/aUSD trading pair launched in bootstrap mode. Following the announcement, the Crust Shadow network receives a diversified trading tool for its original CSM holders, the network community, and traders.
While Karura Swap enables CSM exposure to all assets routed through aUSD, aUSD allows CSM holders to trade against other assets paired against aUSD, significantly improving the liquidity of CSM. Further, If CSM achieves sufficient liquidity, it can become a collateral asset for minting aUSD, adding utility to the CSM token.
Find out more on the Crust Shadow network here.
KSM Liquid Staking Tsunami Program Staking
In April, wave 2 of the Tsunami program — aUSD stablecoin farming for Liquid KSM (LKSM) collateral staking — went live. Stakers could earn 300k in aUSD rewards by participating in the LKSM Tsunami program.
Read more on how to start earning in the Tsunami program here.
Acala AmsterDot (Hackathon $50K prizes)
Acala announced a new online hackathon with $50k in prizes for EVM, Substrate, and front-end developers. Four new bounties run for six weeks with total prizes of $50,000 in aUSD. The bounties are part of the Polkadot ecosystem hack by AmsterDot.
Discover more about the AmsterDot hackathon here.
April marked an exciting beginning to Q2 with new Acala integrations, Karura launches, and aUSD use cases.
Follow our social media channels for the biggest news releases in May!
$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, offering 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 (aUSD), 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 a fully Ethereum-compatible development environment plus full compatibility with Substrate.
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