Outlook 2023
We’ve come a long way since LEVEL’s soft launch on December 26th, 2022. In just one month, the protocol has facilitated $320 million in decentralized trading and generated over $400k of economics for its 1,000 users. The community also came together and established Governance (LGO), a first-of-kind decentralized autonomous organization governing a platform of this sophistication. In three short weeks, Governance came together and voted 280 times across 6 proposals to improve the protocol. The Treasury balance has grown to $1,879,021 and LVL appreciated more than 20x since the DAO was founded.
Over the past week alone, LEVEL has become the largest liquidity center for derivatives trading on the BNB Chain, and the second most profitable project by fees generated in the last 7 days. First was PancakeSwap.
Since launch, we have also introduced a Loyalty Program for traders, and a Referral Program for users.
We’re just getting started
Security
As an open-source protocol, we rely on peer review as well as user feedback to improve LEVEL. Security is our number one priority, and community involvement is paramount to the long-term success of the platform. With a codebase built completely from the ground up (not a GMX fork), LEVEL’s repository is massive.
Our first security audit with Obelisk took 6 audit weeks, uncovering over 40 findings which resulted in a number of improvements we have since made to the code. A second audit is currently planned with an industry-leading security firm in the coming weeks (subject to DAO approval), in addition to launching a bounty program with Immunefi.
Economics
Over January the LVL token has seen considerable price and volume growth, with price rising by just over 2000%. From a low of $0.074 on Jan 7th to a high of $2.06 on Jan 29th, as seen in the chart below.
Partnerships
We’ve been contacted by a number of exchanges for the potential of listing LVL. Some of them asked for listing fees, and others a significant amount of LVL to be deposited into their custody. As and when an agreement could be reached that is in the long-term interest of the platform, a proposal will be submitted to the DAO. Concurrently we have also been contacted by a number of VC firms looking to form strategic partnerships. As with the exchange listing, a proposal will be submitted to Governance if strong synergies were to be uncovered. Any investments secured for the platform will be made directly from the LVL balance of the DAO, and all proceeds will go directly to the DAO Treasury, as usual.
Looking Ahead
Finances
With the passing of proposal LIP-003, a surrender vehicle will be established for LGO holders who no longer wish to participate in Governance. LGO can be redeemable directly against the cash balance of the treasury, and any surrendered LGO will be burned. Governance aims to be accessible to all members of the community, and significant quality-of-life upgrades in the DAO will begin rolling out towards the end of Q1 ‘23.
Since its inception, LEVEL has been focused on delivering durable value to the members of its community. The goal is to develop the protocol into a pre-eminent marketplace for decentralized liquidity. As such we are committed to continuously improving the model until the said goal is realized. To do so, however, we need to be nimble. Vigilant in balancing the economic output of the protocol against the many incentives given to its community members. To this end, there will be dynamic adjustments made to the reward allocations across the various cross-sections within the platform. An upcoming DAO proposal will address this in greater detail.
Rather than operating as a token farming project, the platform balances revenue with token emission to ensure that $LVL stakeholders remain the primary beneficiaries of the platform’s long-term growth and maximize their return.
Community Engagement
The upcoming Weekly Trading Contest will introduce a competitive aspect to the DEX, with a publicly viewable head-to-head ranking list that will reward the most successful traders by weekly PnL. Traders will be required to stake LVL tokens to participate in this competition.
We’re launching additional features that will further incentivize trading activity and focus on user gamification, by introducing a measurable attribute such as POWER, MANA, or a similar concept. This will serve as a means of leveling up one’s account while competing with other users to unlock rewards and perks. Users will be required to stake LVL tokens to participate in the competition.
There will be a governance forum to make discussions more accessible and transparent to the community. Topics can range from broad directional views to new feature requests users would like to see added to the development pipeline. Separately, we will also enable delegation in Governance. Thereby empowering community members to come together and put forth proposals of their own.
Ultimate Decentralization
With a significant amount of efforts being directed toward developing a usable decentralized custody solution, we will also begin testing community-controlled threshold signature schemes as well as auditable MPC verification protocols using a federation of community-controlled nodes.
Cross Chain
While LEVEL has made significant strides in becoming the leading liquidity center for perpetual contracts within the BNB ecosystem, our goal is to become the default purveyor of decentralized liquidity. We are open to exploring opportunities for cross-chain integration with other DeFi ecosystems, where we can demonstrate the full potential of our product. Our strategy is to allocate minimal emissions of LVL for cross-chain ventures in order to attract liquidity providers, and instead focus on generating Real Yield.
Beyond that, we envision cross-chain swaps using reputable third-party bridges that users can select for themselves, but eventually, the goal is to become a multi-chain liquidity aggregator where fragmented liquidity across different ecosystems can come together and present a unified pool, allowing users to trade, swap, and borrow against.
We’re looking forward to executing on our roadmap and establishing LEVEL as a premier perpetual trading platform in DeFi.
🌏For the Japanese language version of this article, please check here.
LEVEL is a decentralized and non-custodial perpetual DEX on BNB Chain with custom risk management and innovative LP solutions. Experience LEVEL’s advanced DeFi venue that offers a great user experience, leverage trading, and real yield. Start trading on LEVEL today and take control of your decentralized trading journey.
🏡 Website: Level.Finance
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