Project Showcase: Apollo

In this regular series, we showcase projects that are currently participating in the Interchain Builders Program. Today we have an interview with Bruce, co-founder of Apollo. He began casually investing in crypto in 2016, before becoming enamored with DeFi’s potential to revolutionise our archaic financial system. By 2020 he was working full time in DeFi, investing and writing research, before discovering Terra and joining @AnonNgmi and the Apollo Team for their initial Hackathon in May 2021. Since then he has worked on everything from project management, tokenomics and content writing to community management for Apollo.

What is Apollo?

Bruce: Apollo is building an Asset Management Platform and “Homepage for the Cosmos”.

Our aim is to enable users (ranging from Foundations and DAOs to retail) to securely manage their assets on-chain and to access the best DeFi (yield, leverage and trading) opportunities across the interchain. As the number of appchains increase and the larger the ecosystem grows, the greater the need for one place where users can manage all their assets and access trading and yield opportunities from across the interchain.

How Does It Work?

Bruce: So far Apollo has built a multisig wallet (Apollo Safe) deployed natively on Osmosis, Injective, Terra, Mars and Stargaze and will soon be bringing it to Neutron, Sei and Archway.

This enables:

• Foundations to manage ecosystems funds
• Projects to deploy contracts and build treasuries
• Investors to securely manage their funds on-chain

A multisig wallet is critical for the development of crypto ecosystems and we are continuing to develop Apollo Safe with a number of additional features, such as payment streaming.

Apollo is also developing and building a range of yield strategies, enabling users to easily earn yield on their assets. We have already built leveraged Yield Farming in collaboration with Mars Protocol on Osmosis, attracting over $2m in TVL to date. While the most obvious advantage of Leveraged Yield Farming is higher yields (but with liquidation risk) Leveraged Yield Farming provides a number of other benefits:

1. LPing with only a single asset (and borrowing the other side of the pair), meaning you are exposed to only one side of the LP.
2. Increase yields and liquidity for LSDs and other correlated assets (with a low liquidation risk)

Leveraged yield farming also enables Apollo to create more advanced yield strategies on top, including:

• Managed (anti-liquidation) Leveraged Vaults
• Auto-rebalancing/fixed leveraged vaults
• Shorting of LPs (long volatility)

Apollo will take a 2% performance fee on the rewards generated through our yield strategies, which will be used to buy back Apollo tokens and distribute them to Apollo holders.

However this is just the start and we are already working on additional advanced yield strategies for our users.

Why did you choose the Interchain Stack?

Bruce: Having come from Terra, the Apollo developers already had a strong understanding of CosmWasm and the benefits that it provides. The three main reasons we decided to develop on the Interchain Stack are:

1. We believe the security offered by Rust/CosmWasm makes it a far safer language to develop a DeFi protocol, reducing the risk of hacks and exploits, as well as making auditing easier. Safety of our users has always been our primary concern and therefore this is a huge benefit to Apollo.
2. DeFi in the interchain is still in its infancy, with only a few DEXs and lending protocols, similar to the start of DeFi Summer on Ethereum. We believe this is the perfect time to start building on Cosmos, gaining a large market share and providing the most benefit to our users. Apollo has always had a focus on helping the ecosystems we build on to grow and develop and is the reason we released our multisig wallet.
3. Cosmos’ appchain thesis allows more specialist chains and provides unique advantages over a general purpose chain such as Ethereum (DyDx coming to the interchain is a great example of this). This allows new innovations to take place that are not possible in other ecosystems. The potential downside of this is that appchains within the ecosystem will become more siloed, reducing composability, which is why reducing the complexity will be a primary focus for Apollo in the future.

What stage is the project in?

Bruce: Apollo has currently deployed our leveraged yield farming on Osmosis, which is the first stage of our deployment. The next stage will be to deploy strategies to a variety of upcoming Cosmos SDK-based appchains, starting with Neutron, but also Sei and Archway in the near future.

So far we have only deployed our basic yield strategies of LP vaults and leveraged yield farming, but as more DeFi protocols release in the ecosystem, Apollo will be able to create more interesting and advanced yield strategies for our users; for example we are in talks with protocols that will allow users to “split” yield to either lever up their yield, or buy assets at a discount (similar to Pendle). This is just one example and we therefore are very excited by the current developments of DeF in the interchain.

Long term Apollo will focus on reducing the complexity for users, especially in regards to moving assets and finding and accessing DeFi opportunities across a variety of Cosmos SDK-based appchains.

How is the Builders Program supporting you?

Bruce: The Builders Program has helped Apollo in a number of ways, e.g. by providing advice and guidance and especially with connecting us to a range of protocols, users and investors in the interchain.

What are you looking forward to?

Bruce: We are very excited to fully deploy and release Apollo to new appchains, as well as relaunching the Apollo token. We are also very excited for the beginning of DeFi in the interchain and that only the surface of what is possible has been scratched so far. Some of the developments we are most excited about are:

• Release of new appchains, such as Neutron, Sei, Archway and others, as well as DyDx coming to the interchain, which we believe will create a vast array of new opportunities, bringing new users to the ecosystem.
• The launch and continued development of DeFi protocols, from the continued expansion of liquid staking in Cosmos, to increased options and liquidity for on-chain perps trading and the launch of new DeFi products, such as yield splitting protocols.

The Interchain Builders Program provides mentorship and guidance for Web3 founders looking to navigate the interchain. We help teams with incorporation strategies, fundraising, token economic design, technical support, validator bootstrapping and going to market. If you’re a founder looking to build on top of the Interchain Stack, we encourage you to apply to the program now!

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