March 2022 Recap

In March, we continued to add significant features to our platform. We launched our new product line, Automated Vaults, which was immediately met with huge demand. We also rolled out the AUSD Commercialization Plan which successfully stabilized the AUSD peg, added new farms & lending pools, improved the UI, launched the Alpaca Insurance plan, and completed votes for 5 new Alpaca Improvement Proposals (AIPs), in addition to other updates.

Our commitment to build and iterate is reflected in our 493 code updates last month, making us among the top-ranked protocols in developer updates.

As a result not only has our platform grown, but also our user base (The Herd), as we reached the milestone of 75,000 Twitter followers last month!

Finally, this month, we were featured on Bloomberg Television (reach of 310 million viewers worldwide). However, this is just the beginning of Alpaca Finance, and DeFi in general, becoming mainstream.

🌾New Lending Pools and Farms

We added a TOMB lending pool on Fantom, so lenders can now lend/stake TOMB for 16% APY, and borrowers can use TOMB for leveraged yield farming.

We also added 1 new farm on BSC and 2 new farms on Fantom:

• XWG-USDC (2x): 1980%+ APY
• TSHARE-FTM (3x), earning 640%+ APY
• TOMB-FTM (4x), earning 74%+ APY

We will continue to add new farms with our existing DEX partners (PancakeSwap, MDEX, SpookySwap) and future ones too.

Interest models for BNB and USDT were adjusted to achieve higher capital efficiency to give more yields for lenders and farmers, as explained here: https://forum.alpacafinance.org/t/for-discussion-adjusting-borrowing-interest-slope-for-bnb-and-usdt/283.

💰AUSD

This month, we launched the AUSD Commercialization Plan to help stabilize the AUSD peg in two ways: 1) we moved the AUSD-BUSD swap pool from PancakeSwap to Ellipsis (Curve-like AMM on BSC), which will lead to a stronger $1 peg; and 2) we allocated 40% of Dev Fund earnings to a Peg Insurance Fund that will guarantee AUSD’s price doesn’t depeg, buying AUSD on the open market to support its price should it ever dip. With this backstop, it will be hard for AUSD to significantly depeg. Since the launch, AUSD has mostly remained stable between $1.00 and .99.

For newcomers, a community member made a great video on how to earn yield with AUSD here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxlBMs3eB4I. In summary, if you lend tokens on our platform, you can collateralize your ibTokens for AUSD. Then, you can provide AUSD liquidity on Ellipsis and stake the LP tokens for an additional 12.19% APY on Alpaca’s Stake page. The total APY for staking our stablecoin AUSD is currently up to 19%.

We have great ambitions for AUSD and are planning to add utility for it in our upcoming products, which we haven’t yet publicized because these developments are part of our multi-year strategy.

🏦Automated Neutral Vaults

We launched 3 automated neutral vaults this month, which were immediately filled to the cap limit, reaching $55Mn in TVL. All this TVL is generating revenue for the platform and ALPACA holders.

In these vaults, you can deposit stablecoins to earn 32–66% APY, which are the highest stable, market-neutral yields in all of DeFi.

These vaults have been extensively audited (2 completed audits). The strategies used are described in our Docs and we have published extensive backtests to show that they are profitable. We calculated the Sharpe Ratios as well(the return of investment compared to its risk) for our vaults and they are unprecedentedly high.

🔥ALPACA Buyback & Burn

Each week, we share our revenue and burn statistics on Twitter. In March, we burned 1,881,552 ALPACA (~$940,00) over 4 weeks, representing an average weekly burn of 470,388 ALPACA. The total cumulative burn is now 18.5 million ALPACA (9.8% of total supply).

You can visit Dune Analytics to see the positive trend in ALPACA’s deflationary tokenomics. We hope to again refer our readers to this article by a community member, explaining ALPACA’s deflationary nature and how it will lead to a natural rise of the ALPACA token’s price over time.

🗽Alpaca Governance

This month, we launched the Governance Vault on Fantom! Any user can stake ALPACA into the Governance Vault to (1)earn a share of our platform’s revenue, (2) Grazing Range tokens, and (2)receive xALPACA to vote on Alpaca Improvement Proposals (AIPs). Currently, users can earn 25% APY on Fantom or BNB Chain. In total, 36.5% of circulating ALPACA has been locked (up from 35% last month).

Alpaca Improvement Proposals (AIPs): This month, The Herd voted for AIP 2.1 & 2.2 (Fantom’s Governance Vault setup), AIP3 (Governance Vault’s early withdrawal penalty), and AIP 4.1 & 4.2 (handling of WaultSwap bad debt). For those who participated, NFTs for AIP1, AIP2.1/2.2, and AIP3 are now available to claim on Galaxy. Visit our Governance Forum to read about, discuss and vote on these AIPs.

To learn more about Alpaca’s governance, read these articles: Part 1 (explains the Governance Vault, revenue sharing, and xALPACA) and Part 2 (explains early withdrawals, proposal creation & voting, and the new Alpaca Insurance Plan) or visit our docs’ Governance section.

Grazing Ranges: Users who are staking ALPACA in our Governance Vault are still earning Grazing Range tokens. Grazing Range tokens are tokens of our partners (Highstreet (HIGH), X World Games (XWG), and DEAPcoin (DEP)). Specifically, ALPACA stakers are currently earning 23,437.5 HIGH (~$218k USD), 2,594,000 DEP (~$80k USD; from 3/17 to 5/12), and 3,879,300 XWG (~$225k USD; from 3/17 to 5/12). Details of each Grazing Range campaign are available on our Medium.

👨‍👨‍👧‍👦Community Events

We hosted several community events this month where our users earned NFTs (some of which will have utility in the future), community badges, and tokens. So far, thousands have participated. We make these events easy to participate in, so be sure to spend a few minutes to claim these rewards!

Meme Contest

We launched a Meme Contest where the top memes will win ALPACA , an exclusive NFT, and the “Memepaca” Discord role.

To join the contest, post your alpaca meme on social media such as Twitter/FB/IG, use hashtag #alpacamemes, and tag us @alpacafinance if possible. Then post the link to your social media post on our TG/Discord, also with #alpacamemes so we can find it.

Here are tips for creating memes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lUpB_FtUwT40EkTi89aWQ5DnwcpdYE4zIvSYyuWs2tI/edit

Frenpaca

Anyone can earn this NFT and the Frenpaca status badge — just simply help out the community and fill out the form in this article, which further explains what is a Frenpaca. The Frenpaca NFT can now be claimed on Galaxy.

Alpaca of the Month

Congratulations to the community members that won the title of Alpaca of the Month for March!

Each month, we will choose 1–5 people for the Alpaca of the Month award. They will receive their own custom-designed Alpaca avatar by @MerZair. To win, just be active in our Discord or Telegram, helping other users or contributing to the community. Our Mods will then select winners each month. Details here.

🔒Security

This month, Alpaca completed its 20th audit (two audits on Automated Vaults), making us the most audited platform in DeFi!

The Alpaca Insurance Plan is also now live, providing protocol-wide cover on all the products on our platform, so you can earn yields with peace of mind.

In addition, you can now buy InsurAce insurance for Alpaca’s Fantom platform.

📃Platform & UI/UX Updates

Notifications: We’ve added a Notifications button to our Portfolio page. If you have a farming position open, you can get mobile notifications on its health, thanks to @orbs_network and @DefiOrg.

Help/Support (Multilingual): We launched a support ticket bot on our Discord in 8 languages. If you need support at any time in the future, you can try the support channels on Discord https://discord.gg/2UvgmqcVDQ

A few other simple platform improvements:

• The “Vote Now” button pops up at top of the Governance page when there is a live vote
• Added TVL to staking pools
• Added APR tooltip to Automated Vaults
• Added cross-platform TVL to Lend page on all networks
• Added “Apply Now” banner on Grazing Range section of Governance page for new partners
• Updated old Graze page with content clarifying it’s deprecated
• Added links to top of Governance page for snapshot, discourse, & night mode

🎭New NFTs

We give out various NFTs (some of which have a utility) to those who participate in our community. Below is a summary of the kind of NFTs we give and how to earn them:

1. Grazing Range NFTs: If you stake at least 500/5000/50,000 (three theirs) xALPACA in the Governance Vault for the first 28 days of each NFT campaign (follow our Twitter or Medium for details when we announce Grazing Range campaigns). Remember xALPACA decreases over time, so be sure to have enough.
2. Community Event NFTs: Each month and on the holidays, we hold several community events (see above Community Events section), where participants usually get an exclusive NFT. Follow our Twitter to learn when the next event will be hosted.
3. Badge NFTs: We have NFTs for Artpaca (those who submitted alpaca artwork), Memepaca (those who submitted alpaca memes), and Frenpaca (those who help the community).
4. AIP NFTs: For every AIP, voters will receive an NFT as an on-chain memorabilia of their participation.
5. AMA NFTs: Given to those who participate in our AMA events.
6. Easter Egg NFTs: These NFTs are a complete suprise and usually given to active users of our platform.

We make these events easy to participate in, so follow our Twitter/Medium to earn your next Alpaca NFT!

All NFTs can be claimed and viewed on Project Galaxy and traded on the secondary markets on NFTrade and Treasureland. On NFTrade, you can search specific NFTs by category to easily find the one you want to buy.

👨‍👨‍👦Twitter Spaces Fireside Chats and Podcasts

Listen to insightful thoughts on key blockchain developments with our Head of Business Development James, our Head of Strategy and Marketing Sam, and our Head of Institutional Growth Pete:

14th Fireside Chat (March 10, 2022) — Andre Cronje, Ukraine and crypto’s future, government regulations, Alpaca’s neutral vaults, Alpies utility, how to eliminate liquidation, and ITAM reward conversion

15th Fireside Chat (March 23, 2022) — crypto and sports sponsorships, ApeCoin, mergers & acquisitions of Web2 by Web3, Anchor protocol, the NFT market, China regulation, and a Q&A about Alpaca Finance

To learn more about institutional DeFi, listen to the Snapshop Podcast with Pete, our Head of Institutional Growth, as he interviews Alex from Trustology, a leading custodial wallet for institutions: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8xBPBPgRD-xe_ZfyOwV_Dg

❤Charities

We are distributing a % of Alpies sales to alpaca-related and wildlife/nature charities, as detailed in our Docs. Donated amounts so far include:

$25,000 to the Tree Millions Program from Binance; an ambitious effort to plant 10 million trees worldwide, promote environmental awareness, and partner with experts to find solutions to help the environment.

$26,000 to Cross Creek Alpaca, one of the oldest and largest alpaca sanctuaries in the U.S.

$18,537 to Indraloka Animal Sanctuary, one of the largest animal sanctuaries in the U.S. Northeast. Because of the donation, Alpaca Finance was featured in this Fox56 news article.

$5000 to Firwood Farm Alpacas, a small alpaca sanctuary run by the lovely Leanne.

$7500 To Sammish Animal Sanctuary, an animal sanctuary run by a dedicated husband and wife duo looking to expand their capacity.

$6000 to SouthEast Llama Rescue, who coordinates alpaca and llama rescue in the southeast U.S.

$10,000 to Goodheart Animal Sanctuaries, a GFAS-certified U.K. animal sanctuary that rescued many alpacas.

$20,000 to Wild Animal Sanctuary, a Colorado-based sanctuary housing many alpacas, as featured in this press release.

$28,000 to Help Peru, which does great work funding the most needed projects in Peru, home of the alpacas

We will be continue donating to charities in the future.

📰Other News

• We hosted several AMAs this month, and we gave NFTs to those who participated in our AMAs with Fantomine and Tokyocrypto Community Day.
• Simple Swap wrote a featured article introducing Alpaca Finance

Feedback

We greatly value our user’s feedback, which you can give at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1QGY4wJUvYdYWe6TQn460m0A7H07xMUcBGEnU-pUXyg4/viewform?ts=61e8ce4e&edit_requested=true

Next Steps

We will continue to build and meet the list of goals detailed on our roadmap. Recently, we have been particularly focused on building our GameFi department, which we’ll share news about soon. Updates will be first announced on our Twitter, so follow us and be the first to know!