The Mango Monitor: Q1 Edition
Housekeeping note: Mango is launching a newsletter to summarize relevant updates for community members. Primary topics are product updates, governance decisions and key performance metrics. This edition will cover all of Q1 and is rather lengthy but we’ll strive to keep things punchy in the future with a monthly schedule. A follow-up report focusing on product KPIs should be published next week.
INDEX
I — Product Updates
II — Governance Changes
III — Composability Corner
IV — Content Roundup
V — Dev Toolbox
SECTION I: PRODUCT UPDATES
Fee Reductions and Referrals Codes:
The largest change this period is the introduction of fee discounts for MNGO holders and referrals. Previously, perp trades were charged fees of 5bps for takers (market-style orders) and rebates of 4bps for makers (limit-style orders). Users with at least 10k MNGO in their account are now only charged 4bps taker fees and receive 3bps maker rebates.
For anyone without 10k MNGO, they should create an account using a referral link (here is one). They will then automatically receive a 0.2bps discount on taker orders (4.8bps vs. 5) and 0.8bps of fee revenue will flow to their referral source.
Overall, this system lowers fees and promotes MNGO ownership. The referral system further encourages users to spread the word about Mango’s smooth trading experience since they can earn revenue from referring others. See here for full details.
Account Delegation:
Another major feature introduced this quarter is account delegation. Users may provide trading access to an alternate wallet address but the delegated account is restricted from withdrawing money. In effect, delegate users can trade on the account but not steal the money.
The product enables a variety of use cases:
- Individuals may fund an account and delegate access to a friend that is an expert investor. The friend can make trades on their behalf.
- Users can setup full access on a hardware wallet (e.g., Ledger) while delegating access to a hot wallet (e.g., Phantom). This makes trade execution easier and ensures safe custody of the deposited capital. The same strategy could be applied to a core wallet and mobile wallet pair so trading remotely is possible without sacrificing security.
- DAOs or other entities can deposit funds into an account and choose an individual to allocate those funds on their behalf. Mango recently used this feature to purchase mSOL for the treasury.
- Note delegates can still drain capital via malicious trading so only use this feature with trusted entities (docs).
Other New Features:
- New listings: At the start of the year, LUNA perp was added along with spot listings for AVAX, LUNA and BNB.
- More leverage: SOL, BTC and ETH perp leverage limits were increased to 20x.
- Risk calculator: A new and improved risk calculator is available to analyze account health under various scenarios (docs).
- Email health alerts: Another feature to help users lever up responsibly. Mango can automatically email users if their account health drops below a specified threshold. This is the best way to profit from 20x leverage and still enjoy a day at the beach without stress. The feature is available on the accounts page.
- Order book analytics: We now track detailed liquidity and slippage for each perp listing along with historical details like trades and funding. Available for viewing and download here.
- User history downloads: Spot, perp and PNL history can now be exported as a CSV for each account. Helpful resource in case the tax man comes knocking!
- Mobile: Phantom rolled out its iOS wallet and Mango’s mobile UI is slick. Trading can now be done safely even on the go (Phantom site).
SECTION II: GOVERNANCE CHANGES
Vote Locking:
New governance tools were rolled out to allow vote locking for MNGO tokens in the governance program. Holders can now opt to lock their tokens for 5+ years in return for amplified voting weight (2x vote for 5-year lock). This mechanism incentivizes token locking and concentrates governance power with long-term holders. The program is setup to prevent the type of loopholes utilized by Convex in the Curve wars so locked tokens should remain illiquid.
Below is the current status of MNGO tokens in governance. 28% of all issued tokens are held in the program and over 2% are locked for some duration. See locking details here.
Treasury Diversification:
After a long discussion period, the DAO narrowly approved a vote to purchase $1mm of mSOL using its treasury reserves from the IDO. The purchases were executed via a delegated account and Mango DAO now owns over 9,500 mSOL. With SOL ripping the treasury is up almost $300k on its purchase! A parallel vote to purchase $1mm of BTC did not pass. The treasury remains largely allocated to cash with over $65mm of USDC. Catch up on the discussion and suggest next steps on the governance forum (link).
Trading Incentives (Liquidity Mining):
A variety of changes were made to liquidity mining emissions during the quarter. Last year Mango was emitting 925k MNGO per week (~$140k USD) but new market makers were still slow to offer deep liquidity. The DAO went through many iterations on the emissions level and reward formula and has settled on a promising solution.
Going forward, rewards will be split across the on-chain formula and an off-chain calculation including market share, quote size and uptime. The off-chain mechanic enables the DAO to use more data and reduce manipulation from bad actors. The managed program is still open to any interested parties regardless of credentials or capital.
The DAO is targeting 95k MNGO (~$15k) per week to distribute on-chain and $38k USDC per week via the managed program. This is a substantial reduction in overall emissions, however, Mango’s improved trader support and targeted approach have improved liquidity. Trading should only get easier as the full system rolls out over the next few weeks. Track liquidity in real time and historically with the Mangolorians dashboard. Engage in the discussion on the forum (here).
Market Maker Loans:
In conjunction with the above changes, the DAO is creating a loan program for active market makers on Mango. Market makers can borrow USDC from Mango’s treasury to add capital to their strategies. This will improve liquidity on Mango, help attract more market makers and generate a profit for the DAO from interest payments.
The program will be open to qualified market makers and distributed via the delegated account feature to ensure the safety of treasury capital. Loans should start rolling out in the next few weeks.
Market Maker Relations Team:
The liquidity mining program and market maker loans are managed by Mango’s new trader relations team Green Mamba (GM). The DAO poached GM from a crypto CEX and they have quickly onboarded new liquidity providers.
Anyone interested in market making incentives or the loan program should reach out to Crusher or Klossie in the Mango discord. They will walk you through Mango’s development resources and help craft an effective strategy. More background on the team and their hiring on the forum.
Other Governance Updates:
- Locked MNGO grants: The DAO can now grant locked MNGO that will vest over time (typically 5 years). Contributors can receive generous rewards upfront and be held accountable over time by the community for ongoing service. Over 7mm MNGO have been granted recently to community contributors and plenty more is available. Anyone interested in grants should check out Trello or join the discord to get started.
- Lower vote creation requirements: The minimum MNGO threshold to initiate governance votes has been lowered to help further decentralize governance. Catch up on the new limits here.
- Last oracle spot: Mango’s V3 program has capacity to add one more asset for deposit and trading. Candidates include UXD and NEAR. Read and comment on UXD’s proposal in the forum and suggest any others with a new post.
- MCAPS DAO: As Solana summer approaches, the ecosystem’s original fashion community is voting to formalize a DAO and eliminate the current auction. Caps are available for a limited time only here and holders may vote here.
SECTION III: COMPOSABILITY CORNER
- Note these projects are neither endorsed nor security reviewed by Mango; dyor.
- UXD launched in January as the first decentralized stablecoin back by a delta neutral derivatives position. UXD is exclusively integrated with Mango to support it’s current design and has over $28mm of perps already. The token is rapidly growing with a target of $200mm outstanding in the near-term. Follow their trades on Mango here and learn more about the innovative protocol design at https://uxd.fi/.
- Abas automates the arbitrage between perp prices on Drift and Mango. This democratizes market making profits that were historically captured only by sophisticated algo traders. Private alpha testing is live now. Details here.
- Juiced is a new project that automates the funding basis trade available on Mango (read about the funding trade here to try on your own). The project just launched their alpha to the public. Learn more: https://app.juiced.fi/.
- An open-source funding trade bot is also available for savvy traders: GitHub link and h/t to https://twitter.com/STACCart for the contribution.
- Riptide hackathon: The recent hackathon produced many exciting integrations with Mango. A selection of promising projects reviewed by Sir Toxic Mango at this link.
SECTION IV: CONTENT ROUNDUP
- We hosted a roundtable on non-speculative and yield-oriented earnings strategies with some of the smartest traders on Mango: twitter spaces link.
- Co-founder Daffy gave a presentation on Mango at a Pyth workshop. YouTube link.
- Community meetup recordings from January and February are available on the Mango YouTube channel. We have migrated the event to Discord where recordings are not currently available so be sure to tune in live going forward. The next meetup is April 14th. Youtube link for old recordings here.
- Chinese Community: Mango’s Chinese userbase is thriving. A contributor translated Mango’s docs into Chinese (link) and the community has an active Telegram channel (link). Daffy also just finished an AMA with the community. Read the AMA recap in Chinese here. Be sure to onboard any of your China-based friends to Mango (referral link) and h/t to https://twitter.com/kowei1995 for all the great work.
SECTION V: DEV TOOLBOX
- Mango Bowl: A CEX-like API for Mango trading with real time market data. See full details on GitHub.
- C++ Integration: A new library is now available to trade via C++. The repo is here.
- Solnet.Mango: A Solana .NET integration library including a Mango client. Checkout the repo here.
- Plenty of other tools are in Mango’s core library and, as always, hit up the discord with any specific development questions.
The next community meeting will be hosted on April 14th in the Mango Discord. In the meantime, learn more at the resources below and reach out with any questions.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
- Website: https://www.mango.markets
- Discord: https://discord.gg/mangomarkets
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/mangomarkets
- DAO Forum: https://forum.mango.markets
- Github: https://github.com/blockworks-foundation
