Leading Moonbeam-based DEX StellaSwap Integrates aUSD, Polkadot’s Native Over-Collateralized Stablecoin

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Acala

4 min readAug 9, 2022

We’re excited to announce an additional aUSD integration into the Moonbeam ecosystem with the StellaSwap platform. The move follows a collaboration between Acala and StellaSwap to bolster interoperability via cross-chain messaging (XCM) within the Polkadot ecosystem. aUSD’s integration brings together the most prominent parachains within Polkadot, Acala, and Moonbeam. The integration is also a bold statement on the future of cross-chain communication after the Nomad bridge exploit.

Polkadot parachains must focus on substrate-native assets via XCM to prevent bridge risk. The shared security through Polkadot allows trustless and interoperable asset transfer in a decentralized manner, which creates a robust barrier against bridge exploiters, as seen in the Nomad exploit. StellaSwap responded quickly to its community’s strong request for a decentralized stablecoin integration by postponing the Athos IDO and working with Acala for native-Substrate cross-chain transfers of aUSD across Moonbeam.

Meet StellaSwap and Moonbeam

Moonbeam is an EVM-compatible protocol enabling Ethereum functionalities in the Polkadot ecosystem. Intending to facilitate cross-chain communication between blockchains and Polkadot, Moonbeam structured itself to provide Ethereum compatibility, unified accounts, and cross-chain integrations.

StellaSwap is Moonbeam’s largest DEX, offering an integrated gateway to the DeFi industry. StellaSwap facilitates asset swapping, yield farming, bridging assets, and earning opportunities for its users. Inter-parachain integrations between Moonbeam and other parachains, such as Acala.

Emphasis on Substrate-Native Assets

The recent exploit on Nomad has strongly molded StellaSwap’s approach towards a core focus on substrate-native assets like aUSD that can be trustlessly bridged between parachains without bridges.

“We need to focus on substrate-native assets via cross-consensus messaging (XCM), in order to mitigate against bridge risks as well as enriching the Polkadot ecosystem as a whole. This entails focusing on cross-(para)chain assets listings, as well as adoption of strategic native assets like aUSD from Acala. “ - Atticus, StellaSwap Co-Founder

aUSD will be natively and trustlessly integrated into Moonbeam and StellaSwap via XCM

aUSD’s integration into StellaSwap and the Moonbeam ecosystem starts with three crucial use cases.

What’s Next — aUSD Inclusion in the StellaSwap Core Basepool

A core pool of liquidity in a Stable AMM defines a basepool. The basepool serves as the foundation of the stable AMM, as all other pools (known as metapools) within the stable AMM will be tethered to the basepool’s core liquidity.

The StellaSwap basepool allows users to trade stablecoins at ultra-low fees while earning from providing liquidity to the pool. StellaSwap basepool is the foundation for StellaSwap’s Stable AMM.

aUSD as the Primary Currency for Athos IDO Platform

aUSD will serve as the primary currency during the Athos IDO. aUSD represents an over-collateralized, decentralized stablecoin built as the native stablecoin for the Polkadot ecosystem. aUSD’s importance as a substrate-native and decentralized stablecoin and default routing asset for Polkadot intensifies as more industry vulnerabilities come to light. The Nomad attack reveals the need for Polkadot native asset adoption to mitigate potential exploits. StellaSwap and Moonbeam’s embrace of aUSD as a native Polkadot asset contributes to a secure and interoperable future within the ecosystem. More information regarding the dates of Athos IDO would be announced soon!

Build on Acala

Earlier this year, Acala teamed up with 9 parachains including Astar to launch the aUSD ecosystem fund. If you’re a team in the Astar or Acala ecosystem looking to build with the aUSD stablecoin, you are eligible to get funding from the $250 million aUSD Ecosystem Fund. Please get in touch with our team to chat about how we can support you.

About StellaSwap

StellaSwap is the first and leading Moonbeam DEX that offers an integrated gateway to the DeFi world. Users can swap, earn, yield farm, bridge assets, explore new projects and engage in NFT trading all from a single unified platform. StellaSwap’s products are structured in such a way that facilitates decentralized governance of STELLA holders, while continuing to innovate on the collective foundations by design.

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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