Last Friday (March 14, 2 pm UTC), Minterest CEO Kyn joined the community for a Telegram AMA session to address key questions about the platform’s direction, recent strategic decisions & its approach to achieving sustainable growth, offering a clear explanation of the decision-making process

Minterest’s AMA with Kyn provided a transparent and in-depth look into the project’s approach, highlighting their focus on sustainability and long-term growth. While the community eagerly awaits the MINTY listing, the team is focused on ensuring strategic and sustainable growth for the long term. Acknowledging that it’s been a long journey, Minterest is committed to positioning MINTY for success upon launch. They also recognise the extended patience of the community and emphasise that there are behind-the-scenes factors driving these decisions.

Below are the major takeaways from the session, featuring direct excerpts from the real responses.

Q1. What specific market conditions led to the decision to delay the listing?

Kyn: We are all being impacted around the uncertainty of the broader global market, but that is not what primarily influenced our recent decision to adjust the MINTY listing strategy.

Our focus is on liquidity in DeFi and the lending space, which has changed significantly, and in a measurable way.

As a short recap from our latest blog post:

1. Capital has consolidated: Aave alone now holds nearly 50% of all lending TVL. This means that a handful of protocols are dominating the space, while most others struggle to maintain activity.

2. The lending sector is oversaturated: There are now over 500 lending protocols, up from 50 in 2023, yet the overall TVL has not grown since 2021. This creates an environment where every project is competing for the same liquidity.

3. Short-term LP deals are failing: Many projects have been offering 40-60%+ APY deals to attract private LPs, but these models don’t work beyond the short term. We are seeing capital exit as soon as rewards dry up.

For MINTY, this means listing now would not provide the strong entry we want. Instead of rushing forward, we are making sure that when MINTY lists, it does so with momentum, growing capital in the protocol, and real adoption.

Q2. Why was $50M in borrow TVL chosen as the target before listing, and why is this requirement only coming up now?

Kyn: We stay in close discussions with our core investors and partners, tracking how they navigate these conditions. One of the biggest shifts we’ve seen is that Web3 projects can no longer rely on their token treasuries the way they once did.

1. Liquidity is lower

2. Market caps have dropped below even 2022 levels

3. Projects are faced with pivoting or identifying ways to generate real revenue to stay afloat

This is a reality all Web3 projects will need to face. For Minterest, $50M in borrow TVL has always been an internal milestone target that indicates the protocol is moving towards levels that generate enough fees to support operations without relying entirely on external funding. 

Given the current landscape, it now makes sense to make this a requirement before listing – ensuring that MINTY has a strong use case from day one, rather than relying on post-listing speculation.

Web3 businesses are simply not going to operate in the same way going forward. And we need to adjust to this mindset now in order to continue forward in a sustainable manner.

Q3. How do you respond to the argument that the lack of a MINTY token is actually preventing Minterest from growing?

Kyn: A liquid token can help drive engagement, and we are fully aware that emissions play a role in attracting LPs. That’s why Minterest already provides MNT (Mantle Network) emissions, which are entirely liquid, and have been for over 15 months now.  LPs can supply and borrow to earn MNT there, which has proven to be a popular favorite, as it is unique across lending protocols on Mantle Network.

But a liquid token alone is not the answer. We have seen projects (Chains, DeFi protocols, etc) list their token first, hoping that would drive liquidity, only to end up in a situation where:

1. The token collapses due to a lack of real utility.
2. LPs exit once short-term incentives dry up.

If high APYs and token incentives were enough to guarantee success, every high-yield lending protocol would be thriving. But the reality is many projects are burning through incentives without building necessary adoption.

The goal is to grow supply and borrow in a way that lasts beyond just emission incentives, ensuring that MINTY launches with real demand behind it. And this approach requires real introspection, and a review of what will drive that beyond the playbook which has been in use for the last 5 years.

That is why we are prioritising $50M in borrow TVL first, to create a foundation that makes the token valuable from day one, rather than relying on hope, that the token itself creates demand.

Q4. Some people in the community feel let down by another delay, especially after multiple previous delays. How do you respond to that?

Kyn: I know this has become a bit of a running tale around Minterest listing delays as it is certainly not the first time we have pushed back listing. A point though is that every decision we made in the past was based on the conditions at the time and what we believed was in the best long-term interest of Minterest and MINTY holders. 

But I also recognise that from the outside, it may feel like we are constantly moving the goalposts.

To be clear, this is not about avoiding a listing. A listing is a significant and expensive undertaking, and we have already committed time, resources, and financial outlay on legal work, deposits, and earlier marketing campaigns, particularly in mid-2024 when we were preparing to go live.

However, a poorly executed listing shortens the business’s runway. If we list without the right foundation, we risk damaging the project and the ability to maintain operations rather than strengthening it. 

Considering all the hurdles we’ve already had to overcome as a community and team, we aren’t sticking around for the sake of it. Those hurdles have not been minor events either, from restructuring the business, managing a security breach, and developing under very challenging market environments with a lean and dedicated team.  

We are still here because we believe in what we are building.

Q5. What steps are you taking to reach the $50M borrow TVL target?

Kyn: This is a time of exploration for product-market fit. Web3 is still in its early stages, with massive potential for growth, but onboarding remains a challenge.

What has been really surprising to us is that while market caps of a number of blue chip assets did reach ATHs, overall marketcap of Web3 reached ATHs, DeFi liquidity as a whole has not grown since 2021 levels! 

This is not because DeFi does not work, but because it’s still just so complicated and friction heavy that 90% of crypto users just don’t use it yet.

That will change, but it also means for the time being this liquidity is being spread thin across a large number of chains and protocols. 

With regulations coming in, new pathways to onboard users from Web 2, Trillions of capital is just waiting to come in to the space. DeFi will benefit, but we need to adjust our approach to make it easier to access.

So rather than just focus on the 10%, we are actively working on solutions to bridge this gap and grow Minterest’s TVL in a way that lasts. Some of the key areas we are focusing on include:

1. Liquidity Partnerships – We are working to onboard strategic LPs who can supply capital under steady conditions, rather than short-term APY farming. Stablecoin partnerships are a key part of this strategy.

2. Improving User Experience – DeFi remains friction-heavy, limiting adoption. We are exploring account abstraction, social logins, gas fee management, AI-driven solutions, and other ways to onboard the crypto users who do not use DeFi today.

I won’t claim there is a quick and easy fix, but this is the reality of where DeFi is today. We are taking a data-driven approach, testing what works, and refining our strategy to ensure Minterest scales in a way that is lasting.

Related to stablecoins, I actually love the dashboard on Artemis.xyz which highlights the incredible traction of Stables over the last 5 years. Even as we have faced bull and bear cycles, the adoption of stablecoins has continued to grow. It’s a testament to real product market fit.

Q6. What is the biggest takeaway from this AMA that you want the community to remember?

Kyn: Single biggest takeaway. That we are committed to getting this right.

For our team:
1. We are not rushing. We are executing strategically
2. We are focusing on sustainability, not hype
3. We are aligning MINTY’s launch with organic demand

I know this has been a long journey. But everything we are doing is to make sure that when MINTY launches, it is positioned for success. 

And yes the patience has been extended beyond anyone’s expectation, including the team’s. That includes me, after taking the lead on the project. There are so many aspects that are not seen by the public, but drive key decisions. 

And without seeing everything holistically it can seem like plans continue to change haphazardly. But that’s not the case, especially when so much is on the line. 

Thank you to everyone who has supported us, and I appreciate all the questions today.

Q7. Minterest claims to have the best technology and yet is now claiming it can’t compete with 500 other protocols?

Kyn: The reality is technology alone does not guarantee dominance in DeFi. If it did, the most innovative protocols would automatically lead in TVL. But that’s not how the market works.

Right now, the most successful lending platforms aren’t winning because of their tech, they’re winning because of their liquidity and network effects. Aave, for example, now controls nearly 50% of all lending TVL. Not because it’s the most advanced protocol, but because it has the deepest pools of capital, the strongest integrations, and the longest track record.

Meanwhile, many of the 500+ lending apps aren’t competing by being better, they’re competing by offering insane incentives. As I mentioned 40-60% APY deals with private LPs aren’t innovation, they’re temporary band-aids. The moment those incentives stop, the capital leaves.

Minterest’s Solvency Engine and long-term token model are fundamentally different. We have tech that actually creates a fairer lending market, but that doesn’t mean we can magically bypass the liquidity challenge overnight. 

What we are doing is building the right foundation first, so that when we scale, we do so with TVL that isn’t just here for a quick yield farm.

So yes, we believe in our tech. But we also recognise that winning in DeFi is as much about strategy as it is about innovation. That’s why we are executing in a way that supports long-term success, not just a short-term win.

As a side note the Minterest’s Solvency Engine and unique liquidation model have already proven to be highly efficient, protecting LPs from unfair liquidations better than any other lending protocol in the space. The Minterest protocol consistently protects LPs by up to 90%, in terms of the liquidations they might have faced on other lending protocols. 

It’s performed incredibly over the last year, especially during massive flash crashes.

Q8. What internal team changes have happened in Minterest, and how does this impact operations?

Kyn: We have onboarded new team members since the end of last year, including a CMO, content writer, community lead, and additional engineering team members. Each of these hires has strengthened our ability to execute across key areas, product development, marketing, and community engagement.

The team members who have joined are all highly capable and dedicated to Minterest’s cause. These people are all actively involved in accelerating our efforts now and moving forward towards Minterest’s Product Market Fit strategy.  And I couldn’t be prouder of them for managing through the challenges and maintaining their enthusiasm and dedication to our mission, to make DeFi accessible across all borders to empower the masses around the world.

Q9. What new developments have happened since the last AMA?

Kyn: Since the last AMA, we deployed Minterest’s latest integration on Morph via adaptiFi, marking the first franchise deployment of Minterest’s technology. This is an important milestone, as it shows that Minterest can scale beyond just our own direct deployments and be used by other ecosystems to build lending solutions.

It’s a slow burn growth approach with Morph but we like their team and strategic approach to gain traction.

We are now working alongside the Morph team to drive growth for adaptiFi, and borrowing functionality will be introduced soon.

As most in the community know, deploying Minterest with full features is a structured process, we do not launch borrow markets on Day 1 because security and stability come first.

Q10. What is the plan to turn around the loss of confidence from early backers?

Kyn: It has been a long journey, and the delays have tested patience. But Minterest has been here a long time for Web3 as well. For those who have been with us since 2021, they’ll know that there was a significant restructuring of the business and leadership change due to the initial capital invested in Minterest under former founder, Josh Rogers, being fully exhausted by early 2023.

The remaining team behind Minterest continued to believe in its vision and found a way to restructure the project and continue onwards, with a much leaner approach. During this time many projects that launched chasing short-term hype no longer exist. Minterest has continued building because we are not here for a quick exit. We are here to create something for the future.

For us, turning this around isn’t about making promises. It’s about delivering on the strategy we’ve laid out, focusing on TVL growth and protocol sustainability to support MINTY’s long-term success.

We are committed to executing in a way that benefits those who have supported us along the way, but it will take time as we figure the process out. 

Even then, Minterest is a business at the end of the day, and working through the options we have on the table is a core priority for all of us. And the community will be informed of the progress as we make it all along the way.  

Also, note that we aren’t pausing feature development on Minterest. That will continue forward even as we explore new options. 

From everyone at Minterest, we thank you for the willingness to believe. And we’ll do the best we can to achieve success, together.

Thanks to everyone who joined the AMA! For future updates, please follow Minterest on LinkedIn, X, and YouTube and join the conversation on Discord and Telegram.

Decentralised finance (DeFi) continues to revolutionise lending and borrowing, offering innovative solutions beyond traditional finance. Two prominent lending protocols, Minterest and Morpho, provide unique benefits to users. While both aim to optimise lending efficiency and yield distribution, Minterest stands out as the more rewarding and user-friendly platform due to its Buyback Engine distributes 100% of protocol fees generated back to users, superior liquidation mechanisms, and higher APYs. Below, there is a comparison table with the key differences:

In a nutshell: Key differences between Minterest and Morpho.

How Minterest Creates More Value for Users

Minterest and Morpho enable users to deposit assets to earn yield and borrow against collateral. However, Minterest ensures that all protocol-generated fees are redistributed to its users, while Morpho does not directly reward its participants.

• Minterest offers a fully automated lending ecosystem where users benefit from staking, NFT boosts, and loyalty rewards. The platform provides consistent value to its community, making it the most user-centric DeFi lending protocol.
• Morpho improves capital efficiency by matching lenders and borrowers, but it does not provide extra incentives like Minterest. While it optimises rates, users miss out on direct fees-sharing benefits.

Interest Rates & Borrowing Costs: Minterest Leads in Rewards

For any DeFi lending protocol, interest rates determine the platform’s attractiveness for depositors and borrowers. Lower borrowing costs and higher supply rates create better incentives for participation.

Minterest outperforms Morpho in APY rewards by offering high annual percentage yields (APY) through MINTY token emissions, NFT boosts, staking, and loyalty incentives.

Morpho, while efficient, does not match Minterest’s rewarding incentives and direct protocol fee redistribution.

Morpho vs. Minterest: How Their Liquidation Processes Compare

Morpho and Minterest are both DeFi lending protocols, but they take very different approaches to how borrowing, lending, and liquidations work. While Morpho optimises existing systems like Aave and Compound, Minterest is a standalone protocol with its liquidation model. Let’s break down the key differences.

While both Morpho and Minterest are designed to optimise DeFi lending, Minterest stands out with a more sustainable and borrower-friendly liquidation model. Instead of relying on third-party liquidators, Minterest reinvests liquidation fees back into its ecosystem, making it a more efficient and fairer system compared to traditional DeFi lending platforms, including Morpho.

How Liquidations Work in Each Protocol

Minterest’s Self-Sustaining Liquidation System Gives Borrowers an Advantage

• Fairer Liquidations → Unlike Morpho (which follows a similar procedure to what Aave/Compound’s apply with external liquidators), Minterest removes middlemen and ensures liquidated funds benefit the protocol, rather than external arbitrageurs.
• More Efficient Process → With its automated liquidation engine, borrowers get fairer liquidation prices, rather than facing predatory liquidators.
• Stronger Long-Term Sustainability → The protocol doesn’t lose value to third-party liquidators—it recycles liquidation fees into user rewards instead.

Why Morpho Falls Short

While Morpho improves efficiency with P2P lending, it doesn’t address the biggest issue in DeFi lending: third-party liquidations.

If a borrower gets liquidated on Morpho, they still face the same risks as Aave or Compound users, meaning external liquidators profit at their expense.

Minterest removes this external dependency, making liquidations more predictable, fair, and beneficial for the ecosystem.

Which One is Better for Borrowers?

Conclusion: Minterest Delivers More Value Than Morpho

Minterest is not just another lending protocol; it fixes a fundamental problem in DeFi by making liquidations fairer, more predictable, and more sustainable. While Morpho is an improvement over traditional lending pools, it still shares a similar Aave/Compound’s outdated liquidation model.

By keeping liquidation fees within the protocol and redistributing them to users, Minterest creates a self-sustaining DeFi lending model that benefits everyone, and especially borrowers.

While Morpho’s peer-to-peer lending optimisation is beneficial, Minterest is the superior choice for users who want maximum returns, security, and community incentives.

• Minterest provides high APYs, lower borrowing costs, and fully automated liquidation protection.
• Morpho lacks revenue-sharing and relies on external liquidators, making it less user-friendly.

For users prioritising higher rewards, staking incentives, and Buyback Engine distributes 100% of protocol fees generated back to users who stake MINTY and participate in governance., Minterest is the clear winner.

For a more precise understanding of why Minterest is the perfect DeFi lending protocol, read this detailed breakdown.

Start exploring lending opportunities in DeFi with Minterest.
Follow Minterest on LinkedIn, X, and YouTube and join the conversation on Discord and Telegram.

The MINTY listing is a long-awaited milestone for our community, and we understand the eagerness to see it happen even as we make hard choices to secure our long-term success for all of us.

Over the past few months, our team has worked diligently refining our product, expanding the chains we support, and partnering with launch collaborators to build momentum for this milestone. But a closer look at the DeFi landscape shows major changes impacting all lending protocols, including us, so we’re rethinking our strategy and timing for the listing.

Rushing into a listing could weaken our community, risking lower interest and growth that might set us back. Instead, we’re focusing on finding the right fit for our product, driving growth, and building adoption to ensure a strong launch we can all celebrate. These changes also spark exciting opportunities for innovation, and we’re diving in to explore them.

In this post, we’ll walk you through the market shifts pushing us to take this new path, focusing on today’s Web3 challenges to keep Minterest thriving for the long haul.

1. Market Challenges & Shifting Liquidity Trends

1.1 TVL is Consolidating: Aave’s Dominance and Compound’s Pivot
Total Value Locked (TVL), or the total value of assets in a DeFi protocol, is concentrating in fewer platforms, with Aave’s rapid growth from H2 2024 now holding nearly $30B in TVL, approximately 50% of all lending TVL.

Fig. 1.1.1 – Aave TVL growth since H2 2024 shows dominance (Source for all charts: DeFiLlama)

Compound Finance is shifting away from expanding Compound V3 for multichain deployment and is instead collaborating with Morpho to enable this functionality, as announced by Compound’s Head of Growth, Bryan Colligan, on March 9, 2025. This pivot reflects a broader shift in dominance, with Compound’s borrow levels falling below Morpho’s for the first time in February 2024, showing just how fierce the competition is in DeFi lending, and we’re navigating this with you in mind.

Fig. 1.1.2 – Morpho has overtaken Compound TVL since Q4 2024

This trend is further evidenced by significant TVL declines among other quality projects, such as LayerBank (a 95% drop from $800M to $40M) and ZeroLend (a 85% drop from $850M to $130M), a pattern Minterest is also experiencing. 

Fig. 1.1.3 – TVL across prominent Lending Protocols has declined significantly since Q4 2024

This concentration of liquidity in a few dominant players shows how capital is increasingly flowing to larger protocols, leaving the vast majority of protocols needing to find new ways to attract and retain users.

Note: the selection of protocols used is an illustration of a broad trend, and is non-exhaustive, as there are lending protocols, in this category, that may be outperforming.

1.2 The Lending Market Competition has Exploded without new Liquidity
The number of lending protocols has risen from 50 to over 500 since March 2023, a 10-fold increase while TVL in DeFi has not increased beyond 2021 levels, intensifying the need for differentiation to stay competitive.

Fig. 1.2.1 TVL in DeFi has not grown in 3 years since Q4 2021

However, with over 500 protocols now competing for the same limited liquidity, the DeFi lending market has become overcrowded, making it increasingly difficult for projects to secure capital.

Historically, projects incentivised liquidity through high token emissions to drive user onboarding and growth. However, the market has shifted. Many now rely on unsustainable deals with private liquidity providers, promising returns of 40-60%+ to attract temporary capital, a model that no longer fosters long-term liquidity, prompting us to explore more sustainable alternatives.

1.3 Liquidity Distribution Across Chains Is Uneven

Liquidity distribution across more than 350 Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks remains uneven and fragmented, with significant capital concentrating on a few dominant chains like Base, Arbitrum, Tron, BNB Chain, and Solana, outside of Ethereum.

Fig. 1.3.1 TVL is fragmented across several chains (Source: DeFiLlama)

As a result, accessing liquidity and sustaining revenue for lending protocols now requires focusing on the Top 10 chains to support ongoing growth and development.

2. Finding Product-Market Fit for Sustainable Growth

Minterest isn’t just another protocol; it stands out with its unique Solvency Engine that ensures smarter, fairer liquidations compared to any other lending protocol, along with the MINTY token design, which drives long-term value. With the right TVL, Minterest can become a major force. 

Our team is taking a data-driven approach to product-market fit (PMF), focusing on long-term adoption rather than short-term incentives. Our goal is to identify and develop sustainable models where protocol fees support ongoing development, benefiting both the team and the community. As DeFi evolves, new trends are shaping the lending landscape, and we are actively exploring key areas that could define Minterest’s growth strategy.

2.1 Stablecoins: A Growing Opportunity in DeFi Lending

Stablecoins have emerged as the dominant product-market fit in blockchain, with over 30 million active wallets, doubling since March 2023. Over the same period, the stablecoin market cap has surpassed $200 billion, demonstrating consistent growth regardless of market conditions, with projections to reach into the trillions in the coming years.

For lending protocols, stablecoins drive over 90% of fee generation, yet only 10% of stablecoin holders actively use DeFi, revealing a vast untapped market.

Fig. 2.1.1 Stablecoin Marketcap Growth is Consistent since 2020 (Source: Artemis)

We are exploring how Minterest can:

• Leverage institutional and retail adoption trends to capture the expanding stablecoin market.
• Address key onboarding challenges that limit DeFi adoption among stablecoin holders.
• Expand stablecoin lending options across multiple chains to attract new liquidity.

Understanding how to bridge this adoption gap and align with rising stablecoin demand is a key focus as we refine our PMF strategy.

2.2 Exploring Friction Points to Adoptions

Despite DeFi’s growth, onboarding complexity and liquidity fragmentation remain significant barriers to mainstream adoption. Our team is evaluating innovations that could reduce these frictions, making DeFi lending more accessible and efficient.

We are assessing:

• Gasless Transactions & Smart Wallets: Exploring account abstraction to simplify onboarding by removing gas fees as a barrier to entry.
• AI-Powered Risk Management: Researching automation for borrowing rates, yield optimisation, and liquidation protection to improve efficiency.
• Intent-Based Execution: Evaluating solutions that automatically route lending actions to the best available rates without requiring manual intervention.

Rather than assuming any one solution is the answer, we’re focused on testing and validating where these innovations can deliver the most impact.

3. Listing Impact: Aligning with Ecosystem Growth

We know how much the MINTY listing means to you, our community and investors, especially after years of waiting. Rather than treating it as a one-time event, we believe a well-timed listing must align with our growth and long-term sustainability to deliver real value for everyone.

A thriving protocol strengthens MINTY by making it more valuable in a strong lending market, while a smart launch will draw in liquidity providers and borrowers to join our ecosystem. To make this happen, we’re linking the listing to real growth, aiming for at least $50M in borrow TVL as a key goal. This milestone ensures:

• Liquidity stays steady, offering reliable rates for suppliers and borrowers.
• Borrowing demand holds firm, supporting long-term fees to fund improvements and buybacks for all of us.
• Market momentum builds a solid liquid environment, setting MINTY up for success.

Instead of rushing, we’re focused on launching MINTY in a way that creates lasting value. Our roadmap, outlined below, shows how we’re working toward this $50M borrow TVL milestone, with you in mind.

4. Roadmap: The Path Forward

We’re building on our 2024 wins, reaching $16M TVL on Mantle, growing our social community to 100,000 followers, and expanding across four chains to find the right fit for Minterest and set up a sustainable MINTY listing we can all celebrate:

As you’ve seen in the roadmap, we’ve accomplished a lot in Q1 and have even bigger goals for the months ahead. Now you can dive deeper into our journey and explore the key milestones, achievements, and what’s next:

Q1 2025: Laying the Foundation:

• Expanded Team: Added experts in product, engineering, operations, and marketing.
• New Homepage Launch: Updated homepage for easier access.
• Fan Card NFT Launch: Launched Dagora NFTs with MINTY allocations.
• Protocol Deployment on Morph via adaptiFi: Started on Morph via adaptiFi for new lending options.
• MINTY Expansion on Viction: Extended MINTY to Viction for new liquidity.

Q2 2025: Focusing on Product-Market Fit:

• Improve Minterest Interface: Simplify Minterest for easier use.
• Liquidity Partnerships: Build partnerships for stable capital.
• Implementing New PMF Strategies: Launch strategies to boost TVL and ease onboarding.

Q3 2025: Scaling for Impact:

• Protocol Integrations: Connect to more networks for new liquidity.
• Strategic Partnerships: Form partnerships to expand reach.
• PMF Feedback Loop: Refine strategies with user feedback for success.

Q4 2025: Assessing Future Steps:

• MINTY Utility Expansion: Improve MINTY’s role in lending.
• Sustainable Growth: Build a self-sustaining model, targeting $50M borrow TVL.

This roadmap is designed to create tangible, measurable progress toward sustainable growth and a listing that adds value to the entire ecosystem.

5. Looking Ahead

The Minterest team has navigated financial restructuring, security incidents, and shifting market conditions before, and we’re always moving forward. Now, we are adapting once again, focusing on sustainability and long-term growth to ensure a MINTY listing that delivers real value. This journey is shaped by your input, and the team at Minterest is committed to keeping you informed every step of the way. We’ll continue sharing updates and welcome your feedback across our social channels.

Follow Minterest on LinkedIn, X, and YouTube and join the conversation on Discord and Telegram.

Decentralised finance (DeFi) has transformed the financial landscape, and lending protocols have played a key role in this evolution. Among them, Minterest and Aave are two widely used platforms. While both offer decentralised lending and borrowing services, they differ significantly in revenue-sharing, efficiency, and user incentives. This blog post highlights the key distinctions between the two to help users make informed decisions, as shown in the table below:

In a nutshell: Key differences between Minterest and Aave.

How Do Minterest and Aave Work?

Minterest and Aave enable users to deposit assets to earn yield and borrow assets using collateral. However, their mechanisms for yield generation, liquidation processes, and revenue distribution vary.

Minterest introduces an automated lending ecosystem that redistributes all protocol-generated revenue to its users. This structure ensures that those participating in the protocol—whether as depositors, borrowers, or governance members—benefit directly from its operations.

Aave is a well-established DeFi lending protocol with multi-chain deployment and features such as flash loans and stable and variable interest rates. Its model is built around liquidity providers who earn interest, while part of the revenue is directed towards the protocol’s treasury. With the latest governance changes, Aave is implementing revenue-sharing mechanisms, redistributing earnings to governance participants and safety module stakers, making it more competitive in this area (Aave Governance, Cointelegraph).

Interest Rates & Borrowing Costs

The appeal of a lending protocol largely depends on its interest rates, influencing both depositors seeking returns and borrowers managing costs. Lower borrowing costs and higher supply rates can make a platform more appealing for users looking to earn passive income or leverage assets.

Minterest offers some of the best annual percentage yields (APY) in DeFi. With its capital-efficient design and deflationary token economies, the platform ensures users earn more on their supply. Minterest offers up to 50% additional APY from MINTY emissions, NFT boosts, staking, and loyalty rewards. The protocol offers competitive APYs across multiple blue-chip assets, including USDT, USDC, ETH, and WBTC. Operating on Ethereum, Mantle, and Taiko, Minterest maximises earnings APY efficiently.

Additionally, Minterest keeps borrowing affordable by offering some of the lowest annual percentage rates (APR). Borrowers also benefit from MINTY emissions, lowering their effective APR. Minterest differentiates itself by providing auto-compounding incentives, allowing depositors to optimise their earnings without requiring additional manual actions. In contrast, Aave operates under a traditional lending model, where supply and borrow rates fluctuate based on market demand and liquidity availability. Below, there is a comparison table measuring the supply and borrow percentages on the ETH Network:

Liquidation Process: Risk and Efficiency

Liquidation is an important part of DeFi lending platforms, ensuring that borrowed funds remain adequately collateralised. Minterest’s Solvency Engine automates liquidations to maintain stability and reduce user exposure to repeated liquidations, whereas Aave relies on an auction-based liquidation model.

Scenario: Peter’s Liquidation Experience

Peter, an active DeFi investor, has deposited $7,000 worth of Bitcoin (BTC) and borrowed $6,900 in USDC on both Aave and Minterest. When BTC drops 2% from $50,000 to $49,000, Peter’s collateral reaches the liquidation threshold.

Due to Minterest’s automated liquidation process, Peter retains $1,227 more in collateral compared to Aave’s auction-based method. The Minterest Solvency Engine stabilises Peter’s Health Factor (HF) at 1.08, helping him avoid multiple liquidations and further losses. Aave, meanwhile, relies on third-party liquidators who may extract greater portions of collateral to cover risks.

Governance & Revenue Distribution

Minterest is designed to reward active participants, redistributing all value generated back to the community. This approach supports a self-sustaining ecosystem where depositors, borrowers, and governance members are incentivised to contribute and participate in the protocol’s long-term growth.

Aave previously kept most revenue within the protocol’s treasury, but recent governance proposals have set revenue to be shared among stakeholders and governance participants (Aave Governance). This brings Aave closer to a model that rewards active participants, though Minterest maintains a fully user-centric revenue model.

Conclusion: Minterest Leads on User Benefits, Aave Improves Revenue Model

While Aave remains one of the most recognised DeFi lending platforms with multi-chain integration, its latest governance changes improve its revenue-sharing mechanisms and safety protections. However, Minterest still maintains a 100% user-centric revenue model, ensuring that all protocol-generated value is redistributed within its ecosystem.

For users prioritising revenue-sharing and automated liquidation efficiency, Minterest continues to provide a strong alternative in the DeFi lending space. Aave’s recent governance updates bring it closer to competing in this area, making both protocols worth considering based on individual preferences.

For a more precise understanding of why Minterest is the perfect DeFi lending protocol, read this detailed breakdown.

Start exploring lending opportunities in DeFi with Minterest.
Follow Minterest on LinkedIn, X, and YouTube and join the conversation on Discord and Telegram.

The decentralised finance (DeFi) lending space is rapidly evolving, with various platforms competing to offer the most efficient and rewarding financial solutions. Among them, Minterest and Compound Finance stand out, though their approaches to lending and borrowing differ significantly. While both platforms allow users to earn interest on deposited assets, their core structures and benefits set them apart. Understanding these differences is crucial when selecting a platform that aligns with long-term financial goals.

Minterest and Compound Finance offer DeFi lending services. However, their operational models, incentive structures, and financial mechanics make them fundamentally distinct. Below is a breakdown of what each platform brings to the table.

In a nutshell: Key differences between Minterest and Compound Finance.

Earning: Maximising Earnings Potential

Minterest stands out by offering higher Annual Percentage Yields (APY) through MINTY token redistribution and auto-compounding. These mechanisms enable both lenders and borrowers to earn more without additional effort. Simply put, Minterest allows users to capture a larger share of the rewards.

Users can earn up to 50% more APY through MINTY emissions, staking, NFT boosts, and loyalty rewards, in addition to the standard APY from assets like USDT, ETH, and BTC.

Additionally, Minterest users can benefit from extra partner rewards. For example, the Metamorphosis Season offers MNT (Mantle network token) and Powder points.

In contrast, Compound Finance determines APY solely based on supply and demand, leading to frequent rate fluctuations. While this system can be effective in certain conditions, it lacks the yield-enhancing features that Minterest provides.

Borrowing: More Competitive Borrowing Rates

Minterest offers lower Annual Percentage Rates (APR) by integrating a unique buyback mechanism.

The Minterest Buyback Engine redistributes 100% of protocol fees to users in the form of MINTY tokens, effectively reducing borrowing costs. As fees generated by the protocol are returned to users, borrowing becomes more cost-effective.

On the other hand, Compound Finance’s APR model is entirely based on supply and demand, leading to frequent fluctuations that may not always favour borrowers. Minterest’s approach creates a more stable and borrower-friendly experience.

Liquidation Costs: Keeping Low Borrowing Expenses

Minterest’s Solvency Engine offers an efficient liquidation mechanism that benefits borrowers by eliminating third-party liquidators. Unlike traditional DeFi liquidation models, Minterest continuously monitors positions in real time and liquidates only the exact amount needed to restore solvency. This minimises unnecessary losses for borrowers while ensuring protocol stability.

Instead of rewarding external liquidators with discounted collateral, Minterest redistributes the value from liquidations back to the community, increasing user rewards and fostering a more sustainable lending ecosystem.

By contrast, Compound Finance relies on third-party liquidators who scan for undercollateralised positions. When a borrower’s collateral value drops below the required threshold, these liquidators repay a portion of the debt in exchange for discounted collateral. While this maintains protocol solvency, it often results in borrowers losing more collateral than necessary, as liquidators prioritise profit rather than user protection. This can create a more aggressive liquidation environment, where borrowers face steeper penalties compared to Minterest’s borrower-aligned model.

Comparing Liquidation Scenarios

If Bitcoin (BTC) drops from $50,000 to $49,000, triggering liquidation due to a Health Factor (HF) falling below 1, Minterest users would retain approximately $1,040 more in collateral compared to those using Compound Finance. This means borrowers experience greater efficiency in liquidation events, preserving more of their assets.

Thus, by optimising the liquidation process, Minterest can offer users more savings, as shown below:

Market Architecture: Siloed vs Shared

Minterest operates as a cross-market protocol, allowing users to supply and borrow any assets within its markets. Collateral assets can be shared across different markets, enabling users to achieve higher yields on average, as they are not restricted to a single market’s collateral.

In contrast, Compound Finance employs siloed markets, each with its own set of accepted collateral assets. This means assets cannot be shared across positions, limiting users’ strategies and borrowing flexibility.

Minterest provides a broader range of options, including long/short ETH positions with stablecoin assets, which are not available on Compound Finance.

COMP vs. MINTY: The Role of Tokens

Minterest’s MINTY token benefits from a structured buyback model, ensuring that protocol-generated fees are used to purchase MINTY from the market, reducing supply and increasing demand.

On the other hand, Compound Finance’s COMP token primarily functions as a governance tool. Its primary utility is voting on protocol decisions, rather than offering direct financial benefits to holders. While governance is crucial, Minterest ensures that holding its token carries tangible economic value.

When comparing the APY and APR associated with Minterest’s MINTY token and Compound Finance’s COMP token, it’s essential to understand their distinct mechanisms and the potential returns they offer to users.

Governance

Both platforms utilise decentralised governance, allowing token holders to influence decisions. However, Minterest’s governance model ensures users receive financial benefits from governance activities. Decisions regarding fee structures, buybacks, and protocol updates are made with direct community involvement.

Compound Finance’s governance, in contrast, is based purely on COMP token ownership, where voting power is proportional to the number of tokens held. While this is effective, it does not provide additional financial incentives for participation.

Conclusion: Why Minterest Leads the Way

Minterest is redefining DeFi lending by prioritising sustainability, efficiency, and user benefits. Its standout features include:

• Higher earning APY and lower borrowing APR
• Protocol-owned liquidations for reduced borrowing costs
• A structured buyback model that strengthens the MINTY token

While Compound Finance remains a well-known platform with strong liquidity, Minterest provides a more rewarding, cost-effective, and fair economic model.

For a more precise understanding of why Minterest is the perfect DeFi lending protocol, read this detailed breakdown.

Start exploring lending opportunities in DeFi with Minterest.
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Minterest is partnering with the Morph Team to introduce adaptiFi, a lending and borrowing protocol built specifically for Morph L2. This collaboration ensures a seamless integration of Minterest’s lending infrastructure with Morph’s high-performance Layer 2 ecosystem. 

What is adaptiFi?

adaptiFi is the first-ever franchise deployment of Minterest, extending its lending infrastructure to the Morph ecosystem through a new model for protocol expansion. The Dapp follows Morph’s branding and UI standards, ensuring a familiar experience for Morph users while remaining fully linked to Minterest’s documentation and communication channels. 

adaptiFi brings Minterest’s lending model to Morph L2. It is designed to maximise user rewards by capturing and redistributing value through its unique Buyback Engine. Minterest’s Buyback Engine distributes 100% of protocol fees generated back to users who stake MINTY (Minterest token) and participate in governance. This innovative approach enhances long-term earning APY and reduces borrowing APR, creating a fair, efficient, and sustainable lending ecosystem.

What is Morph L2?

Morph L2 is an Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution designed to improve transaction efficiency using optimistic and zero-knowledge rollups. Morph L2 supports a wide range of DeFi applications by reducing transaction costs and increasing throughput, enabling seamless interactions across its ecosystem. More details can be found here.

Minterest & Morph Partnership

Minterest and Morph share a vision of expanding DeFi accessibility through low-cost, scalable lending solutions. With adaptiFi, Minterest brings its lending innovations to Morph L2, making decentralised finance more secure, efficient, and accessible to a wider audience. This collaboration makes DeFi lending more accessible, scalable and cost-efficient. By leveraging Morph’s Layer 2 infrastructure, users benefit from lower fees, faster transactions, and enhanced accessibility.

What Makes adaptiFi Unique?

adaptiFi is designed to maximise user rewards by capturing and redistributing value through its unique Buyback Engine. Minterest’s Buyback Engine distributes 100% of protocol fees generated back to users who stake MINTY (Minterest token) and participate in governance. This innovative approach enhances long-term earning APY and reduces borrowing APR, creating a fair, efficient, and sustainable lending ecosystem.

Benefits of adaptiFi for the Minterest Community

The introduction of adaptiFi supports Minterest’s broader strategy of increasing TVL, reinforcing the protocol’s utility and sustainability.

• Higher TVL: Strengthens lending efficiency and capital reserves.
• Enhanced MINTY Buyback: Increased participation contributes to the buyback mechanism for MINTY.
• Community Growth: Morph L2’s ecosystem introduces new users to Minterest, driving adoption.

adaptiFi assets 

The adaptiFi platform enables lending and borrowing for the following assets:

• USDC
• USDT
• WETH
• WBTC
• BGB (Bitget Token) 

A 20% collateral factor applies to all assets mentioned above.

What’s Next for adaptiFi?

The launch of adaptiFi represents a series of improvements over several phases in integrating Minterest’s advantages into the Morph ecosystem. 

• Phase 1: Supply-side lending goes live for early adopters ✔️
• Phase 2: Borrowing is introduced once sufficient liquidity is built ✔️
• Phase 3: Full-feature lending ecosystem with NFT-based emission boosts and loyalty incentives.
• Integration Expansion: Future developments will integrate deeper Minterest functionalities into adaptiFi.

adaptiFi strengthens Minterest’s position within the Layer 2 DeFi lending sector, ensuring continuous expansion and adoption across evolving blockchain ecosystems.

More exciting developments are on the way—stay tuned!

Start exploring lending opportunities in DeFi with Minterest.
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To keep up with the latest updates on adaptiFi and Minterest’s expansion, follow us on our official channels, Minterest Social Communities.

At the core of Minterest’s design is the Solvency Engine (SE), a mechanism built to protect protocol stability while prioritising user portfolio health over profit-driven liquidations. Today, we’re introducing Solvency Engine 1.5, an upgrade that increases flexibility and expands Minterest’s ability to operate across multiple blockchain ecosystems.

Introducing Semi-Automatic Liquidations

All other lending protocols rely on third-party liquidators who profit from liquidating users’ positions as aggressively as possible. Minterest’s Solvency Engine is different—it prioritises keeping users in a position of financial health rather than allowing liquidators to extract value from them.

Previously, the Solvency Engine required DEX aggregators to execute liquidations, limiting operations to chains where these aggregators were available. Solvency Engine 1.5 removes this constraint by introducing semi-automatic liquidations, using Minterest’s internal reserve pools instead of external DEX swaps.

With semi-automatic liquidations, insolvent positions can be liquidated without relying on external aggregators. This gives Minterest more control over the process, reducing exposure to market volatility, increasing efficiency, and enabling greater blockchain compatibility.

Unlocking Multi-Chain Expansions

By reducing reliance on external DEXs, Solvency Engine 1.5 allows Minterest to expand to blockchain networks with limited liquidity infrastructure. This makes it easier to integrate with a wider range of chains while maintaining security and efficiency.

How Solvency Engine 1.5 Works

The Solvency Engine continuously monitors user loan positions for solvency. When an account becomes insolvent, it initiates liquidation using one of two automated methods:

•  Full-Automation (DEX Aggregator-Based): Seizes collateral, swaps it via a DEX aggregator, and repays the debt in a single transaction.
  
• Semi-Automatic Liquidation (Reserve Pool-Based): Uses Minterest’s internal reserve pools to directly repay the loan, eliminating exposure to external DEX liquidity conditions.

By introducing semi-automatic liquidation, Minterest removes external dependencies while ensuring liquidations are executed fairly and efficiently.

Risk Management & Efficiency

Solvency Engine 1.5 is designed to improve the liquidation process by reducing external risks and ensuring users have a more stable borrowing experience. This is achieved through:

Greater Stability: Semi-automatic liquidation reduces exposure to market volatility, slippage, and excessive gas fees by leveraging internal reserves rather than external DEX swaps.

Optimised Liquidation Pathways: Minterest always selects the most efficient liquidation method, minimising disruptions and preserving user portfolio health.

Why This Matters

Solvency Engine 1.5 further separates Minterest from traditional lending protocols by ensuring liquidations serve as a tool for stability, not profit extraction. With semi-automatic liquidations and no reliance on external aggregators, the system is more adaptable, scalable, and capable of operating across multiple chains.

At the core of Minterest’s design is the Solvency Engine (SE), a mechanism built to protect protocol stability while prioritising user portfolio health over profit-driven liquidations. Today, we’re introducing Solvency Engine 1.5, an upgrade that increases flexibility and expands Minterest’s ability to operate across multiple blockchain ecosystems.

Introducing Semi-Automatic Liquidations

All other lending protocols rely on third-party liquidators who profit from liquidating users’ positions as aggressively as possible. Minterest’s Solvency Engine is different—it prioritises keeping users in a position of financial health rather than allowing liquidators to extract value from them.

Previously, the Solvency Engine required DEX aggregators to execute liquidations, limiting operations to chains where these aggregators were available. Solvency Engine 1.5 removes this constraint by introducing semi-automatic liquidations, using Minterest’s internal reserve pools instead of external DEX swaps.

With semi-automatic liquidations, insolvent positions can be liquidated without relying on external aggregators. This gives Minterest more control over the process, reducing exposure to market volatility, increasing efficiency, and enabling greater blockchain compatibility.

Unlocking Multi-Chain Expansions

By reducing reliance on external DEXs, Solvency Engine 1.5 allows Minterest to expand to blockchain networks with limited liquidity infrastructure. This makes it easier to integrate with a wider range of chains while maintaining security and efficiency.

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Start exploring lending opportunities in DeFi with Minterest.
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Decentralised Finance (DeFi) lending has transformed traditional financial systems by providing a transparent, efficient, and accessible method for borrowing and lending digital assets without banks or intermediaries. In 2025, DeFi lending is set for exciting changes. Let’s explore the key trends shaping its future.

1. Automated Liquidation and Value Redistribution

A significant advancement in DeFi lending is the automation of liquidation processes and value redistribution. Traditionally, liquidations have benefited external parties, but innovative platforms now capture this value and return it to users.

Currently, Minterest employs an on-chain liquidation system that ensures users benefit from protocol-generated fees.
Instead of allowing external liquidators to profit, Minterest captures and redistributes the value to participants, maximising returns while maintaining a fair lending environment. This model ensures that lenders and borrowers receive the full benefits generated within the ecosystem without losing value to third-party liquidators.

2. Real-World Asset (RWA) Tokenisation

One of the biggest barriers to DeFi lending has been the reliance on volatile cryptocurrencies as collateral. The tokenisation of real-world assets (RWAs) solves this issue by allowing users to use traditional assets—such as real estate, government bonds, and commodities—as collateral in DeFi lending.
For example, platforms like Ondo Finance and Centrifuge allow borrowers to take loans using tokenised versions of real-world assets. This makes borrowing more stable and appealing to a broader audience, including businesses and institutional investors. Innovative lending frameworks incorporating asset-backed lending mechanisms may expand further, enhancing borrowing opportunities while maintaining decentralisation.

3. Cross-Chain Lending & Interoperability

DeFi lending platforms operate mostly on single blockchains, such as Ethereum or Solana. This limits liquidity and restricts users to specific ecosystems. Cross-chain lending enables users to borrow and lend across multiple blockchain networks, making DeFi more accessible and flexible.

For instance, LayerZero and Axelar are developing solutions that allow users to move assets seamlessly between different chains. Imagine borrowing assets on Ethereum while holding collateral on Solana or Avalanche. Due to its agile design, Minterest seamlessly integrates across chains, enhancing accessibility for users. Unlike other protocols, it requires no additional infrastructure or third-party liquidator support, reducing deployment time and complexity.

4. Institutional Adoption and Regulatory Clarity

The DeFi lending market has become more stable and credible in recent years due to the entry of more institutions. Financial institutions must gain confidence in DeFi lending for it to reach mass adoption.

Major firms like BlackRock and Fidelity are exploring digital assets, creating permissioned lending pools so verified institutions can lend and borrow securely. These developments help bridge the gap between traditional finance and DeFi. It is important for platforms to ensure compliance while maintaining decentralisation to facilitate institutional engagement in the evolving regulatory landscape.

5. The Growth of DeFi Credit Scores

Currently, DeFi lending mostly relies on over-collateralisation, meaning users need to lock up more assets than they borrow. This limits accessibility, especially for smaller borrowers. On-chain credit scores aim to change this by assessing borrower reliability based on transaction history and blockchain activity.

Projects like Goldfinch and Spectral Finance are developing decentralised credit scoring models that evaluate the user’s financial trustworthiness. In the future, users with good DeFi credit scores will be able to borrow with lower collateral requirements. Decentralised lending solutions that use alternative credit assessments could greatly enhance borrowing accessibility while preserving risk management safeguards.

6. Integration of DeFi into Fintech Applications

An emerging trend in DeFi is the integration of decentralised lending into traditional financial technology (fintech) applications. This integration makes DeFi more accessible by embedding its features into familiar financial services, such as digital banking apps and payment platforms.

For example, some fintech companies are exploring ways to offer DeFi lending options alongside conventional loans, enabling users to seamlessly transition between decentralised and traditional financial services.

Final Thoughts

DeFi lending is evolving rapidly, and 2025 is expected to be a pivotal year for innovation. Automated liquidation mechanisms, real-world asset tokenisation, cross-chain lending, institutional adoption, DeFi credit scores, and fintech integration are transforming how people interact with decentralised finance. Platforms embracing these innovations will likely play a significant role in shaping the next phase of decentralised lending. 

Start exploring lending opportunities in DeFi with Minterest.
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Decentralised finance (DeFi) has opened up opportunities for people to grow their wealth and access financial services outside the traditional banking system. Among the many DeFi lending protocols out there, Minterest stands out. It delivers higher returns, lower borrowing costs, and regularly audited security. Here are 5 reasons why Minterest should be at the top of your list.

1. Higher Earning APY 

Minterest offers some of the best annual percentage yields (APY) in DeFi. By having a more a capital-efficient design tied together by deflationary token economies, the platform ensures users earn more on their supply.

Minterest is offering up to 50% additional APY from MINTY Emissions, NFT Boosts, Staking and loyalty rewards. The protocol offers competitive APY over 16 blue-chip assets including USDT, UCDC, ETH, and wBTC. Operating on Ethereum, Mantle and Taiko, Minterest aims to maximize earnings APY very effectively, in comparison with major players Aave and Compound as shown below:

 2. Lower Borrowing APR  

Minterest keeps borrowing affordable by offering some of the lowest annual percentage rates (APR). This makes accessing liquidity straightforward and cost-effective. By combining high returns for suppliers with low costs for borrowers, Minterest creates a balanced ecosystem that works for everyone, as shown on the Borrow APR graphic below in comparison to INIT Capital:

3. Lower Liquidation Costs for borrower Thanks to Minterest’s  Solvency Engine

In DeFi, liquidations occur when a borrower’s collateral falls below the required threshold due to market volatility, ensuring lenders are protected from potential losses. However, traditional liquidation processes often come with high costs that eat into borrower profits. Minterest has addressed this challenge with its unique Solvency Engine.
The Solvency Engine enhances stability by taking care of collateral, making it a standout feature in the DeFi space.

4. Smart Tokenomics with the MINTY Token

The MINTY token plays a key role in the ecosystem of Minterest. Here is the innovative part: Minterest’s Buyback Engine distributes 100% of protocol fees generated back to users who stake MINTY and participate in governance. This innovative approach enhances long-term earning APY and reduces borrowing APR. 

5. Stronger. Safer. More Secure.

In the DeFi space, security is critical, and Minterest prioritises it with nine extensive security audits conducted by top-tier blockchain security firms, including Trail of Bits, Hacken, PeckShield, and Zokyo. Minterest provides a strong and secure environment for both new and experienced DeFi users.

Minterest combines high returns, low borrowing costs, and advanced security in an intuitive platform. Whether looking to grow your portfolio or exploring DeFi for the first time, Minterest delivers the tools needed to succeed. It is not just about financial optimisation—it is about being part of a protocol shaping the future of finance.

Ready to get started? Explore Minterest’s website to see how it can enhance your DeFi experience.

Follow Minterest on LinkedIn, and X, and join the community on Discord and Telegram for updates and discussions.

Welcome $cmETH to Minterest on Mantle Network: New Opportunities in Lending and Borrowing

We’re excited to announce the launch of $cmETH as a new token market on Minterest! $cmETH opens up fresh opportunities for both lenders and borrowers, along with exclusive rewards aligned with Mantle Network’s Methamorphosis Season 2.

What is $cmETH?

$cmETH is a LRT – liquid restaking token on Mantle Network. $cmETH to $mETH token is pegged 1:1. This new addition enables users to earn yields from various restaking protocols without the need to switch between them including Eigen Layer, Symbiotic, Karak Points and Veda Points. Users also accrue Powder rewards for Mantle Network’s governance token $COOK.

For a detailed explanation of how rewards are calculated and distributed, take a look at this blog post from Mantle Network.

Borrowing and Lending Dynamics on Minterest

As $cmETH integrates into the Minterest lending protocol, borrowing will initially be capped at a conservative percentage, allowing us to monitor and grow liquidity pools for $cmETH. This approach is designed to strengthen stability for all users, ensuring a gradual and reliable market entry as liquidity pools deepen. You can easily get started by supplying $cmETH to earn competitive APYs, with more substantial borrowing limits coming soon as the pools grow.

Methamorphosis Season 2: Earn Rewards as You Supply

With Methamorphosis Season 2 that has just begun, both $cmETH and $mETH are set to gain exclusive Powder incentives. For the first 30 days, each $cmETH and $mETH token on Minterest will accrue 20 Powder per unit per day, providing early users a chance to earn Powder points at a significant rate. This also gives users substantial time to switch over from $mETH to $cmETH while both positions are indexed for Powder accrual. After this period, for the remaining 80 days, only $cmETH will continue to earn these incentives. You can switch from $mETH to $cmETH during this without losing any rewards.

Powder points aren’t just about boosting your rewards—holding Powder makes you eligible to earn $COOK, Mantle’s governance token. Through $COOK, you’ll be able to participate in future decisions for the Mantle ecosystem and play a role in shaping its path forward.

Where Can You Get $cmETH?

You can swap any asset for $cmETH on partner DEXes – Agni Finance and Merchant Moe amongst others. Soon, you’d also be able to swap $mETH to $cmETH right here.

Why Supply $cmETH on Minterest?

• Optimised Returns: With APYs tailored for DeFi growth, early participants can leverage favourable lending rates and Powder accumulation for additional rewards.
• Long-Term Engagement: Holding $cmETH opens up avenues for ongoing Powder rewards and potential $COOK earnings, making it a compelling option for users invested in the Mantle ecosystem.
• Dynamic Ecosystem: By supplying $cmETH, you’re actively supporting the expansion of Mantle’s interconnected markets, and contributing to a robust liquidity pool while accruing benefits.

Start Your $cmETH Journey Today

We’re thrilled to bring $cmETH into the Minterest stable and can’t wait to see the impact it has on our community. With Methamorphosis Season 2, now is the perfect time to explore the benefits of $cmETH and join a transformative journey in decentralised finance. Supply $cmETH on Minterest, earn rewards, and become an active part of building the future with Minterest and Mantle Network 🙂

Minterest NFT Launch on Mantle Network Giveaway

Minterest yield boosting NFTs are now on Mantle Network!

For the uninitiated, Minterest NFTs are not just an awesome work of art, they have inherent utility too. Holding one of Minterest’s limited edition 3000 NFTs in 100 unique characters enables you to get a boost on yield from 20-50% for 5-38 months.

Minterest NFTs also serve as a great snapshot in time of the 100 most influential names in Blockchain.

The NFT’s are available now on Mantle Network and a limited collection is available on Mintle to acquire. The APY boosts for holding a Minterest NFT in your wallet while supplying and borrowing begins from 18 March 2024.

To celebrate the launch of Minterest NFTs on Mantle Network, we ran a Galxe campaign led giveaway. The winners shall receive the NFTs on the wallet address provided. Without further ado, here are all the winners – Congratulations

Winners for Let’s Get Social

(selected through Raffle)

Winners for Let’s Get Social Redux

(selected through Raffle)

Winners for Let’s Take it On – Chain

(selected through Raffle amongst the leaderboard – https://galxe.com/Minterest/leaderboard)

Winners for Let’s Get CoM Users United

(selected through Raffle)

In addition to the Galxe campaign, Minterest gave ample opportunities to our awesome community to win one of these yield boosting NFTs. The winners are –

Mantle Discord Stage Live Giveaway Winners

Mantle x Minterest Space on X Giveaway Winners

Winners of Giveaway hosted by Crypto Lark

Winners of Giveaway hosted by Crypto Zombie

Winners of Giveaway hosted by Viktor

Winners of Giveaway hosted by Coach K

Winners of Giveaway hosted by arndxt

Find Minterest NFTs on NFT Marketplace, Mintle. 
And, keep your eyes peeled for more opportunities to win more Minterest NFTs and boost your yield!

We also have exciting announcements in store for those who hold a Minterest NFT on Ethereum for bridging and utilising them on Mantle Network. Stay tuned!

As DeFi becomes more widely adopted, new blockchains, Layer-2 scaling solutions, bridges and DEXs are being released at a rapid rate. While this diversity is a net positive for the crypto space, it also brings about new challenges.

How can users move their assets across all these networks and protocols and capitalise on the growing number of opportunities without sacrificing speed, security and cost efficiency? 

Traditional methods often involve multiple steps, such as transferring funds across expensive and time-consuming bridges, sending assets between multiple wallets, or using centralised exchanges as a bridging workaround.

To address these challenges, Minterest is excited to announce it will be integrating Swing as part of phase 1 of its Multi-Chain Strategy. During this phase—Single Chain Deployment—users will be able to bridge assets to Ethereum using Swing for use on Minterest. As part of the longer-term roadmap, the integration will be optimised to include a ‘Bridge and Supply’ feature.

This collaboration aims to simplify cross-chain liquidity. With Swing, Minterest can tap into global crypto liquidity, offering users reduced fees, faster transactions, and an intuitive lending and borrowing experience.

Swing & Minterest: Bridging the Divide

Swing aggregates bridges and DEXs to enable seamless asset transfers across blockchains. By integrating Swing, Minterest saves users time and money by bypassing unnecessary transactions and avoiding potential security vulnerabilities that cross-chain lenders and borrowers often face.

In one sentence, Minterest utilises Swing’s advanced features to unlock a little cross-chain magic!

Swing’s Features & Utility:

• Connectivity: Links to over 25 blockchains, offering diverse asset management options.
• Aggregation: By aggregating 60+ bridges and DEXs, Swing provides a one-stop solution for cross-chain transfers.
• Liquidity: Taps into $6 Billion of ready liquidity, optimising transactions for reduced slippage.
• Plug-and-Play Functionality: Swing’s user-friendly widget allows users to quickly review their positions and carry out cross-chain migrations without the typical bridging complexities.

Swing stands out as a unique aggregator in the DeFi space. Unlike traditional platforms, it gives users the autonomy to choose the bridge they trust the most. Every transaction depends on the user’s chosen setup—the bridge and the assets involved. 

Minterest doesn’t directly display, transfer, or store bridged assets. Instead, it leverages the Swing widget’s plug-and-play functionality, acting as an intermediary. This allows users to quickly review their positions and carry out cross-chain migrations with minimal hassle.

This flexibility ensures that users are not confined to a one-size-fits-all solution but have the freedom to tailor their cross-chain activities based on their preferences and risk appetite.

What does this mean for LPs and borrowers?

Minterest’s goal is to ensure that while the technology behind the scenes may be complex, the user experience remains intuitive, cost-effective and secure.

Let’s illustrate by comparing a traditional opportunity to one utilising Swing on Minterest.

Traditional Approach:

A user wants to take advantage of a time-sensitive, high-yield lending opportunity on Minterest’s Ethereum platform but is holding $USDC tokens on the Polygon blockchain.

Traditionally, they would have to navigate multiple steps on an external platform to bridge their $USDC from Polygon to Ethereum. This process often involves several transactions and intermediaries, leading to increased costs and wasted time.

With Minterest and Swing:

Disclaimer: The following is a hypothetical example for illustrative purposes only. Minterest does not have immediate plans to deploy on Polygon.

With Minterest’s Swing Integration, the process is streamlined:

1. The user holding $USDC on Polygon identifies the lending opportunity on Minterest’s Ethereum deployment.
2. Instead of navigating elsewhere, they open the Swing modal to start the bridging process.
3. The modal instantly detects the $USDC holdings on Polygon.
4. With a few clicks, Swing facilitates the bridging of $USDC from Polygon to Ethereum.
5. The $USDC tokens can now be lent on Ethereum to start earning yield.

The result? A simplified and expanded lending and borrowing experience that allows them to take advantage of cross-chain opportunities with fewer steps, saving both time and costs and the usual hassle.

The Future of Multi-Chain Lending & Borrowing

Minterest is gearing up for a significant shift—the introduction of a multi-chain platform by 2025. Central to this is the integration of Swing, which will allow lenders and borrowers efficient and secure asset transfers and unlock opportunities across 25+ blockchains! 

Here’s what Kyn Chaturvedi, CEO at Minterest had to say about the Swing integration: 

“By incorporating this user-friendly bridging tool within the Minterest application, we’ve made it effortless for users to bridge assets to chains supported by Minterest. This tool not only simplifies the user experience but also encourages more users to engage. As a result, this integration contributes to the expansion of our user base and ensures a more accessible and efficient service for our community.”

Users no longer need to grapple with intricate bridging processes. Instead, they can supply assets on Minterest from one chain to another with just a few clicks!

This collaboration not only broadens the scope of opportunities for users but also underscores Minterest’s commitment to diversifying and enhancing DeFi’s lending and borrowing sector.

For more insights into Minterest’s partnerships, development announcements and how you can be a part of the $MINTY community, check out some recent articles, follow Minterest on Twitter, and drop by the Telegram or Discord channel for a chat!

Updated on April 2, 2024. To read the original article please go here

As Minterest gears up for its public launch early 2024, our team is working diligently to ensure a smooth roll-out. With launch preparations underway, we are ready to reveal a larger strategic roadmap which has been brewing behind the scenes: Minterest’s multi-chain direction.

A New Blockchain Landscape

Between 2022 and 2023, there has been a remarkable surge in the number of Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchains. With Vitalik, himself, championing an ecosystem of Layer 2s on Ethereum, the emergence of parallel operating L2s like Polygon 2.0 and Optimism, and the availability of rollups-as-a-service that can establish L2s in mere minutes – the blockchain landscape is rapidly changing.

Despite the ambition, these blockchains face a challenge: establishing dynamic ecosystems that draw both substantial user traction and high-value transactions. With most chains being general-purpose, integrating DeFi becomes essential. And, there is a growing demand for reliable lending protocols, with blockchain foundations eagerly scouting for teams and protocols that epitomise security and stability.

Liquidity Fragmentation: The Challenge

Liquidity remains a cornerstone for chains. Yet, over 50% of active liquidity is anchored on Ethereum, while the rest is spread across over 100 chains. This dispersion poses macro inefficiencies and systemic challenges, such as inconsistent token asset pricing across chains to the emergence of incompatible derivative tokens (i.e. multiple wrapped versions of USDT), further fragmenting liquidity.

As more chains emerge, this fragmentation is set to escalate, possibly hampering the expansion of Web3 liquidity. Addressing this issue becomes vital.

Minterest’s Roadmap to Unify Liquidity

We envisage a multi-chain future where diverse chains can seamlessly interact. Minterest is driven to engineer a landscape where chains have access to ample, compatible liquidity regardless of its origin. Liquidity will effectively act as a public good and significantly enhance macro-level market efficiency where chains can then focus on their unique offerings and treat access to liquidity as a given. 

The aspiration is to expand Minterest’s architecture to ensure authentic cross-chain interoperability. This approach enables lending on one chain while borrowing on another, seamless liquidity migration, swapping of debt assets across chains, and holistic protocol health maintained via the Minterest Solvency Engine that expands to handle cross-chain liquidations among other features.

Minterest’s roadmap now expands into 2025 encompassing three distinct phases.

• Phase 1: Public Launch – Q1-Q2 2024

Minterest’s Public Launch on Ethereum and Mantle Network. $MINTY tokens and Minterest NFTs can move across supported Minterest deployments while retaining the same benefits as on the Ethereum deployment.

• Phase 2: Multi-Chain Expansion – Q2-Q4 2024

Sequential deployments of Minterest across chosen blockchains. Here, lending and borrowing activities are chain-specific. 

• Phase 3: Cross-Chain Lending – Q1 2025

Introducing genuine cross-chain lending and enhancing the solvency engine for cross-chain liquidations.

Each Minterest deployment seeks to unify liquidity, enabling partner chains to tap into an ever-growing liquidity network. The aim is to create a liquidity flywheel effect where liquidity attracts liquidity.

Stay tuned for additional details on Minterest’s cross-chain design, roadmap, and key partnership announcements.

Phase 1 Roadmap Revision

The comprehensive Minterest roadmap will be publicly updated to incorporate the multi-chain initiative. Additionally, after taking feedback from our community and partners into account we are adjusting the elements leading up to Public Launch to support the broader objectives for community growth and onboarding liquidity.

As communicated earlier, Public Launch and listing will occur at the same time and are scheduled for Early 2024. We are actively working with key partners to set a firm date. Earlyaccess campaigns will roll out several weeks ahead in order to drive awareness and traction before the grand launch. 

Why the campaign dates are being adjusted is related to a number of recent engagements with liquidity providers. Many have shifted to a monthly P&L framework necessitating meticulous capital allocation plans that prefer a liquid $MINTY token. Streamlining the campaigns will now align closely to  Public Launch. This phased approach is strategic, enabling Minterest to leverage $MINTY emissions to amplify rewards and onboard TVL rapidly.

$MINTY Fresh Community Campaign Teaser

We acknowledge that many in the Minterest community cannot contribute liquidity to Minterest due to the cost prohibitive nature of Ethereum so our team has been ideating solutions to reward proactive members in the run-up to the Public Launch.

November 2023, we’re launching an incentivised community campaign: $MINTY Fresh. This campaign will promote community growth, engagement, and education of Minterest. Exciting rewards, including a generous pool of $MINTY and potential NFT drops, await. More details to come shortly!

Closing Off

We are proud to finally share the future multi-chain vision of Minterest. Be on the lookout for a number of related announcements over the next several weeks that provide greater context and clarity. 

The Minterest team is operating with best laid plans for the success of the Minterest protocol and testing it methodically at every quarter. Some adjustments along the way are to be expected, but we will continue to progress forward with the intention of fulfilling Minterest’s mission to be the leading decentralised money market in Web3.

Minterest’s innovative approach to emission rewards & buybacks, protocol sustainability, and long-term value creation.

TVL is typically used to gauge a protocol’s success, stability, and security. Although useful in measuring growth and deposit trends, it fails to capture the bigger picture. TVL doesn’t effectively indicate a protocol’s sustainability or user benefits and is often used as a misleading marketing tool.

Minterest has developed a suite of features and mechanisms that go beyond superficial metrics. By addressing the commonly overlooked issues of token utility and a sustainable incentives model, Minterest aims to grow and retain TVL and its user base—a win-win for the protocol and its participants.

DeFi’s Overlooked Challenges

While TVL is an important metric, it shouldn’t act as the be-all and end-all of a protocol’s success or value. In fact, many ‘seemingly successful’ projects have fallen victim to the challenges and pitfalls of DeFi.

Insufficient Incentives

DeFi protocols offer incentives to borrow from or provide liquidity to their platforms, but these rewards are often insignificant—especially for blue chip coins and tokens. 

Cryptocurrencies like $ETH, $wBTC, and stablecoins are considered relatively safe investments and usually have a much higher TVL than low-cap, volatile alternatives. Because of this oversaturation of liquidity, APRs for LPs are regularly less than 5%.

The Cycle of Rotating Capital

Some protocols compensate for low APRs by providing native tokens (emission rewards) as an additional incentive. This is a bonus for users and a great way for projects to build out-of-the-gate TVL and bootstrap liquidity. 

However, if a well-planned tokenomics and utility model is not employed, this approach can quickly lead to detrimental consequences.

When tokens lack legitimate use cases or are plagued by high inflation rates, recipients have little incentive to hold long-term. They’ll likely opt to sell at the first opportunity and move on to bigger and better things.

Over the years, this cycle of ‘rotating capital’ has taken its toll on countless protocols.

Here’s a simplified representation of how it typically unfolds:

1. Decline in TVL: The influx of emission rewards or lack of token utility leads to the price depreciation of the project’s native token and a consequent decrease in TVL as the perceived value of the protocol diminishes.
2. Migration of Liquidity Providers: Liquidity providers, in pursuit of better returns, relocate their capital to other, more promising ventures, leaving the initial one struggling to maintain liquidity.
3. Desertion of the Protocol: With diminished liquidity and user engagement, the protocol is abandoned by LPs and borrowers, left struggling to attract new users and capital.

Utility, Incentives and Performance Value: The Minterest Difference

Now that we’ve introduced some of the pitfalls of everyday borrow/lend protocols, it’s time to ask an important question:

“What sets Minterest apart?”

MINTY Tokens, NFTs and the Buyback Mechanism

Let’s start by introducing $MINTY – Minterest’s native token. Liquidity suppliers and borrowers receive emission rewards in $MINTY for using the platform—in addition to supply and borrow APYs—and are incentivised to participate in protocol governance (voting and decision-making).

If holding one of Minterest’s yield enhancing NFTs, users will earn a further boost in $MINTY emissions ranging from 20% to 50%.

Finally, users who stake their $MINTY tokens and participate in governance earn additional buyback rewards—$MINTY tokens, acquired on-market by the protocol’s ‘buyback mechanism’ and accumulated in the treasury.

Here’s how it works:

• 1. Deposit: Lucy deposits 5 $ETH into the Minterest platform.
• 2. Earnings: Based on the 4% supply APY, Lucy earned 0.2 $ETH over the year. Additionally, she receives a 30% $MINTY APY. On top of this, Lucy holds a yield boosting NFT that provides a 40% boost, driving her $MINTY APY from 30% to 42%, earning her 1,000 $MINTY tokens.
• 3. Staking: Lucy then stakes her 1,000 $MINTY tokens to participate in protocol governance.
• 4. Value Accrual: Minterest generates value through fees from borrowing and lending.
• 5. Buyback Mechanism: The protocol uses value generated to activate the buyback mechanism, purchasing 200 $MINTY tokens from the open market.
• 6. Allocation: The bought-back 200 $MINTY tokens are then allocated to Lucy based on her contribution to staking and governance.
• 7. Enhanced APY: This allocation of additional $MINTY tokens effectively enhances Lucy’s original 4% + 42% APY, providing her with increased overall yield from the platform.

This increases Lucy’s total holding to 1,200 $MINTY tokens and reduces the available supply of $MINTY on the market, creating scarcity. 

 Please note, that arbitrary numbers have been used for example purposes.

This strategic approach to tokenomics and reward distribution ensures that value is continually returned to the users, incentivising staking and enhancing the APYs the protocol provides to its users.

Solvency Management: A Focus on Stability and User Protection

Minterest stands out with its solvency management and liquidation approach, focusing on user protection and protocol stability. 

The protocol constantly checks the USD value of all borrower collateral positions against the utilisation ratio. This ratio is crucial—it represents the total value of all loans, including accrued interest, compared to the value of the collateral.

On other lending protocols, when the ratio reaches 1.0, external liquidators and bots buy up to 50% of under-collateralised borrow positions at market rate discounts, ranging from 5% to 15%. 

Instead, Minterest’s smart contracts handle the liquidation in-house via the Solvency Engine, affecting only the necessary amount of collateral to regain solvency—plus a small buffer to avoid recurrent liquidation events.

Minterest’s Balanced and Sustainable Economic Model

Minterest is not just about accumulating assets; it’s about creating a balanced and sustainable economic model that prioritises long-term value and user benefits over misleading metrics and short-term gains.

It addresses overlooked challenges in the sector, such as insufficient incentives and the detrimental cycle of rotating capital. This is achieved through features like $MINTY utility tokens with a buyback mechanism, a dynamic interest rate model, and a unique approach to liquidations and solvency management.

To learn more about the Minterest ecosystem and how you can get involved, check out the official documentation, follow us on Twitter, and drop by the Discord channel for a chat with the $MINTY community!

Central to Minterest’s operations is growing and maintaining the Total Value Locked (TVL) on the protocol where there is a critical necessity to ensure the safety of user portfolio positions. In this piece, we will conduct a comprehensive exploration of the Minterest Health Gauge and its application in measuring and supporting loan health.

Understanding Loan Dynamics within Minterest

Minterest operates by facilitating over-collateralised loans. This essentially implies that every loan is supported by collateral with a value surpassing the loan amount. Illustratively, if Bob procures a loan of $50 USDT, he is obligated to collateralize it with assets worth considerably more – let’s say with Bitcoin worth at least $65 USDT.

Due to the inherent volatility of the crypto markets, the relative value of a loan’s collateral can oscillate. If this value diminishes below a predetermined threshold, the loan is liable for partial or full liquidation. To contextualise, should the value of Bob’s Bitcoin collateral reduce below $65, Minterest would instigate a liquidation process to settle the loan.

Deciphering the ‘Health Gauge’

Situated on the user dashboard, the Health Gauge serves as an instrument for users to monitor their loan positions. 

This mechanism presents a numeric value termed the “Health Factor”. A value exceeding “1” denotes stability, whereas a figure below “1” represents an insolvent position that is open for liquidation by Minterest’s Solvency Engine.

Computational Framework for Portfolio Health

Minterest’s architecture is distinct in its allowance for a basket of token assets to be used collectively to back loan positions. This structure aids users in diversifying their exposure across a wider set of collaterals to mitigate risk. However, it concurrently introduces a nuanced layer of computational complexity.

In Minterest’s holistic approach, liquidity is aggregated as the user marks which supply positions can be used as collateral. From there Minterest calculates the maximum allowable loan available to the user. 

For illustrative clarity, if Alice commits 10 USD each to DAI, USDT, and USDC markets and designates DAI and USDT for use as collateral, her total collateral valuation is 20 USD. 

The maximum amount of her loan borrow position is defined by the “Utilisation Limits” of each market. Let’s say that USDT has an 80% limit and DAI a 70% limit.  The maximum permissible loan available for Alice is computed as:

10 USD * 80% (USDT) + 10 USD * 70% (DAI) = 15 USD

This computation underscores that Alice maintains a stable position with a collateral value of 20 USD, provided her loan remains within the 0 to 15 USD bracket.

To come back full-circle with this example, assume Alice decides to borrow 7 USDT. The ratio between this and the value of her total collateral is her position’s Health Factor:

15 USD / 7 USD (USDT) = 2.14

Since Alice’s Health Factor is above 1, she is currently safe from a liquidation event.

Advancing Portfolio Risk Management

Beyond the Health Gauge, Minterest has been developing AI-imbued mathematical models for an advanced risk engine. This model draws from year-spanning data sets and evaluates real-time price fluctuations to estimate potential liquidation events. A key challenge highlighted during our focus group studies is that while predictive models do offer valuable insights, they don’t always translate to direct, actionable steps for liquidity providers.

To address this, Minterest’s team is developing a broader set of risk management tools to facilitate informed portfolio management decisions. These enhancements include risk alerts based on key metrics, allowing for automating select actions such as repayments, and superimposing a user’s loan position atop chart data of aggregated historical liquidation “heat zones” among other features which will be included in the 2024 roadmap.

Minterest’s primary aim is to equip users with accurate, timely data to support informed portfolio decisions. With tools like the Health Gauge and the forthcoming refined risk assessment tools, Minterest remains committed to meeting the practical needs of its user base.

Dear Minterest Supporters,

Over the past few months, we’ve been hard at work behind the scenes crafting a new chapter in the Minterest journey. And as a small, but important, visual marker to represent this moment we decided to do a refresh to the Minterest brand identity.  For the team, the exercise has been reinvigorating, perhaps a bit cathartic too. And though minor, the output is something that we are proud of. 

Typically, this form of work is done in isolation and the results simply appear across brand properties once completed. However, we thought that sharing the behind-the-scenes process for conducting the refresh might provide an interesting glimpse into the way our team thinks and operates. 

We have included plenty of visuals, drafts, and work-in-progress pieces that eventually culminated into what you will now see across all of Minterest’s properties.

A Fresh Feel

Conceptually, we loved the earlier look-and-feel of Minterest. The purple motifs and darker accents really stood out, and they felt professional. So the goal was not to do a major rebrand or alter the overall approach. Instead our team wanted to reevaluate what the brand projects with fresh eyes, and ensure there is consistency around its overall theme.  

The journey began with the brand’s colour language. As an infrastructural product focused on decentralised finance, Minterest needs to exude safety and security first and foremost. 

We explored over 15 different colour schemes and styles combinations, closely evaluating both the latest trends and classic evergreen styles used by respected brands for decades in finance. Some of the options were certainly bold ones which attracted attention as early favourites as you will see in the visual below.

Internal biases will always be there. So, to gain perspective, we invited a select group of individuals into our creative space and showed them different variations of the brand colour options under consideration. It quickly became apparent that what works well for eye-popping visibility doesn’t necessarily translate to communicating safety and security in managing people’s finances (here’s looking at you, fluorescent orange). Additionally, some of the choice options were simply overused across both finance and social media. We took the feedback and dug deeper to refine our options.

The Final Pick

We arrived at a colour palette that combines the calmness of nature (green) with the innovation of technology (blue). It’s a harmonious blend that encapsulates the essence of Minterest — a secure, professional, forward-looking DeFi platform. And, everything thematically aligns around the essence of the mint leaf.

We sketched out all Minterest assets in this palette, ensuring they resonated throughout the product. And finally we were able to craft an extensive brand book with the new approach that will be utilised by our designers and partners.

Product Re-Branding

We carried this colour refresh across the Minterest website and associated social content platforms.

The Minterest token icon — the heart of the Minterest brand — got some TLC too. The team made subtle adjustments to the size of the leaf, colour combinations, and the shape of the coin icon to provide a bit of a visual lift.

The new colour palette really aligned well with the recent rebranding of the Minterest token ticker symbol to MINTY as it symbolises more than just a token; it has a playful nature that brings to mind child-like enjoyment akin to “minties” — refreshing candies that leave a memorable taste in your mouth. We had some fun playing around with that concept, with more to come in the future.

The Minty-er Minterest App

The Minterest application should be intuitive, user-friendly, and efficient — just like the dashboard of a car, where crucial information is clear at a glance, but where deeper insights are always at your fingertips. The visual refresh certainly improves readability and makes it easier to navigate the app since there are now fewer contrasting elements. 

Final Thoughts

As we share insights for refreshing the Minterest brand, we do reflect on the journey taken until this point and how the process led us down a captivating rabbit hole of creativity for several months.

Even after finalising the “winning” style, we fine-tuned it for even better resonance. Every nook and cranny of the Minterest app needed a new brand review — from the navigation bar to modals and even dashboard gauges. It’s a meticulous but necessary process to ensure a seamless user experience.

In the end we are really satisfied with the new look-and-feel of the product, and how it all came together piece-by-piece. Kudos to the entire product team and Minterest ambassadors for their incredible support in helping to refresh Minterest. 

The updated design is now a foundation to build from and we have quite a bit more work coming down the pipeline as the Minterest app expands to incorporate more features moving towards its public launch. Stay tuned.

The Minterest Smart Contracts continue to evolve, but their foundational aspects, including the Minterest ERC20 token smart contract, remain unchanged. Existing token holders can rest assured that no action is needed on their part. The current Minterest Smart Contracts list is located on the Gitbook here.

Tokenomics are Maintained

All Minterest token holders continue to operate under the same terms as before. Cliff and unlock periods for early supporters remain unchanged, and rewards are still accruing in the same manner for liquidity providers.

Vestings for early supporters commenced in February 2023 and will be honoured as outlined in the Minterest Whitepaper and the table below.

Minterest Tokenomics

Honouring the 50% Uplift for Stakeholders

Earlier this year, the Minterest total token supply was reduced from 100 million to 65.9 million MINTY tokens (formerly MINTY) from the burning of a third of the supply. This process streamlined tokenomics by shortening the overall emissions schedule to 5 years and making the numbers simpler to understand over that period. The impact of this decision for the benefit of all Minterest stakeholders is significant.

The percentage share of the overall supply is more valuable to the stakeholders than the number of tokens they possess. Early supporters, who previously held 20% of the total supply, now have a 30% share — a 50% uplift in overall token value allocation.

Beyond Numbers, a Greater Impact

This shift transcends mere numbers; it will amplify community impact in future governance decisions. For liquidity providers, this represents an increased share of Minterest’s buyback rewards too.

Share of Token Supply Ownership

Embracing Stability and Long-Term Vision

Minterest tokenomics 2.0 introduced back in January 2023 was a carefully calculated move to benefit all token holders, magnifying the share and influence of each participant in the Minterest ecosystem. This remains a part of our ongoing commitment to instil stability and to chart a long-term vision of success with all stakeholders.

For more information on the path towards Public Launch, please read about the Minterest Roadmap.

The mission of the Minterest protocol is to be the leading decentralised money market in Web3. Minterest’s unique model aligns incentives through innovations, such as the Liquidation Engine*, that generate greater fees and redistribute them all back to users of the protocol.

Minterest bootstraps the onboarding of liquidity by distributing its governance token, MINTY, to users of the protocol in addition to the underlying market yield. Like many DeFi projects, Minterest grapples with the challenge of aligning incentives to drive liquidity for the long-term success of the protocol. This blog post aims to shed light on how Minterest’s Distribution Gateway system provides a solution.

What is the Distribution Gateway?

The Distribution Gateway is a sophisticated contract, meticulously designed to manage the substantial distribution of MINTY during the early stages of the protocol’s life without compromising the overall health of the protocol.

This system keeps track of rewards accrued by each user and ensures their even release over a 12-month span. Consequently, our early supporters benefit significantly, while the influence on the circulating supply is adeptly controlled, granting the protocol the vital time it needs to achieve widespread user adoption and broader token distribution.

The Problem of Lazy Data Storing

Diving deeper, it’s crucial to address a technical nuance inherent to all blockchains – the lazy storage of data.

To minimise gas costs, when rewards are to be distributed to multiple users, DeFi projects (including Minterest) deploy indexes – ever-increasing variables that aggregate rewards. Rather than updating each user’s balances, the distributor modifies only one value – the index. Subsequently, all reward recipients bear the gas costs to deduce their respective reward share.

This method is efficient concerning gas consumption. However, the index doesn’t record the specific dates of reward distribution. As highlighted, the Distribution Gateway requires these dates to suitably release the MINTY tokens over a year. So, how do we navigate this challenge?

How the Distribution Gateway Works

Our answer to the lazy data storage dilemma is a strategic compromise in the precision of token release to the market, yet still within the bounds acceptable by our business model. The Distribution Gateway does not monitor every single token. Instead, it comprises 12 slots, each representing earnings for a month. Should a user remain active, their earnings data for the past 30 days is housed in the pertinent slot. When withdrawal is set into motion, the system computes the amount that can be withdrawn using the formula:

claimableMnt = slotBalance1 /12*11 + slotBalance2/12*10+…+slotBalance12/12

Here, slotBalance12 refers to the earnings of the most recent month.

The internal logic within the contract approximates the number of tokens from each slot ready for release. This method doesn’t trace the exact status of individual tokens but monitors the monthly earnings for a user’s yearly activity on the protocol.

For clarity, consider the following graphical representation that shows the total and available withdrawal balances for a user who earns a consistent MINTY amount each month and actively engages with the protocol:

Earned Balance represents all MINTY earned, both withdrawable and non-withdrawable.

Withdrawable Balance indicates the amount of MINTY that users can withdraw to their wallets.

What are Active and Inactive Users?

An “active user” is one who engages with markets or their MINTY balance at least once within 30 days. This means that a user who does a supply, borrow, repay or withdraw action, as well as stakes or unstakes MINTY in the governance process, triggers an update of the Distribution Gateway.

The Distribution Gateway system works flawlessly for active users. But how about users who deposit assets and then await their rewards, not making any chain transactions for several months?

The Distribution Gateway has provisions for this scenario as well. If such a user decides to withdraw MINTY after months of inactivity, the system gauges the duration (or number of slots) of their absence. All collected rewards are aggregated, and an average value per slot is calculated. This value is then incorporated into the previously mentioned formula to determine the withdrawable sum.

However, a minor hiccup arises. If a user remains inactive beyond 30 days, the UI might display a decline in the withdrawable sum. This usually occurs post the slot transition, roughly every 30 days. This apparent discrepancy arises as the averaging logic employed at the contract level is mirrored on the UI.

For a clearer picture, consider this example:

• On the 30th day of slot 1, a user accrues 10 tokens, enabling them to withdraw 1/12 of this total = 0.833 MINTY. 
• By the first day of slot 2, the user’s total earnings amount to 12 tokens. However, due to their inactivity, the averaging logic is activated. The newly averaged earnings amount to 6 tokens per slot (i.e. 12 tokens earned across 2 months = 6 tokens per month), with the total withdrawable sum being approximately 1/12 of the 6 tokens = 0.5 tokens.

This dip might seem concerning initially, but the system rapidly recalibrates. It typically takes between 6 to 9 days to revert to the withdrawal amount observed at the end of slot 1. As a consequence, inactive users might observe the following pattern on the UI:

This is the so-called “saw pattern.” A similar chart will feature on the Minterest user dashboard to offer users a clearer forecast of impending rewards.

The Distribution Gateway has been carefully designed to manage the distribution of MINTY tokens in a manner that is both fair to early supporters and beneficial for the long-term health of the Minterest protocol. We understand the complexities and concerns users might have regarding reward distribution, and this mechanism ensures a balanced approach. We hope this deep dive has shed light on the intricacies and design sensibilities of the Distribution Gateway.

*Note that Minterest’s Autoliquidation Engine has been renamed to Solvency Engine.

Our aim was clear: nail down the most fitting ticker symbol for Minterest’s token. Criteria? It had to resonate with Minterest, give the project extra value, be catchy, enjoy strong community support, and stand out in the crowd.

From days filled with suggestions to passionate community campaigns and an edge-of-your-seat voting round, we’re thrilled to introduce: MINTY – the new face of Minterest’s token!

Here is a rewind of this historic adventure.

The community and Minterest team submitted a plethora of ticker options.  Suggestions spanned the gamut, from succinct acronyms like MNTX and MTRST to catchy ideas such as iLEND and FRESH.

Hearteningly, every finalist came directly from our community’s creative minds.

Meet the Top 3 Contenders

MINTY: Suggested by Telegram’s Bee AhhBee, MINTY was also on the radar of our in-house team. It’s a fitting name that smoothly rolls off the tongue. And judging by the enthusiasm, our marketing team is already buzzing about the mascot and merch potentials!

MIFI: Joe from Telegram threw this witty suggestion into the ring. Much like WiFi’s omnipresence, Minterest Finance aims to be an inseparable part of everyone’s digital existence. Joe‘s idea captured our goal to offer a constant financial presence that is as reliable as it is innovative.

MINTX: Hats off to Discord’s BuyNoEvil for this gem. With a subtle tweak to his original idea, MINTX is a testament to Minterest’s roots while hinting at a grander vision for a multi-chain universe.

The showdown took the spotlight on our Minterest X Twitter profile. The voting frenzy lasted a solid 48 hours with MINTX and MINTY competing for the top till the final whistle.

How Did We Pick?

We loved so many community suggestions, but to cut down to the top contenders, a few considerations took centre stage:

1.  Avoid the ‘MNT’ Trap: Kudos to Vectorize and sampeik for highlighting the potential pitfalls of ‘MNT’— it might muddy the waters with other projects out there.
2. Distinctiveness: Some suggestions were, unfortunately, lookalikes of existing projects.
3. Easy Recollection: Brands need to be memorable. Tickers such as MTRST, MINTR, and others had appeal, but when spelled or spoken, they didn’t quite hit the expectations.

Diving Into the MINTY Fresh Era!

MINTY is a calculated pick.

It’s catchy, easy-to-share, and embodies the enthusiasm of a dynamic community. It’s the kind of name people align with and speak of with pride.

Here’s what a couple of our esteemed Minterest’s advisors chimed in with:

Tough choice. I assume MINT was taken already. Personally I like MiFi best, then MintX because they are both edgy-cool, but I don’t think they are the best choice, as easy memorability for someone just learning of the project is paramount, as long as it’s still professional. So I…

— David Esser (@blockchainolgst) August 15, 2023

btw, "Minties" (MNTY's) are a very popular lolly / candy in Australia :))

— Dom Rohde (@allesdom) August 16, 2023

With MINTY on board, we’re in for a creative whirlwind. Picture sticker packs (‘Mintojis’, anyone?), desirable merchandise, or even real-life ‘Minty Minties’ candies? This minty revival adds a ton of substance to the Minterest narrative, a tale we’re crafting hand-in-hand with our supporters.

A big thanks to every participant for turning this page in Minterest’s history book!

As Minterest ventures into a new chapter with an updated roadmap, a brand refresh is in the air. More than a mere symbol, it signifies a fresh beginning for the Minterest project and our community. And what captures the essence of a Web3 project better than its Ticker Symbol?

Ticker symbols are more than labels; they become the brand’s signature, appearing across wallets, token tracker sites, lending protocols, bridges, DEX, centralised exchanges, and more. But a ticker’s true spirit resides in the community who passionately embrace it through online discourse and in real-life conversations, allowing it to effortlessly spread fast and far.

With Minterest, we’re on the hunt for a new Ticker Symbol that resonates with you, our community, forging a strong identity that you are proud of and embracing our shared identity across Web3. Your participation matters so let’s make history and create something iconic together!

How do you participate?

1. August 10-14: Suggest a Ticker Symbol in the community channels on Telegram or Discord.
2. August 15: A final selection, including community favourites will be put up for vote on X.
3. August 17: A winner is selected, and you become part of Minterest history!

Ticker Symbol requirements

• 3 to 5 letters: Think along the lines of BTC, AAVE, MATIC.
• Unique: Not actively in use by another token on top-tier DEXs or CEXs. CoinGecko and CMC are great research tools.
• Relevant: No MNT or any unrelated symbols.

The Fine Print

• Voice in the Process: The Minterest team will carefully consider each entry. We want to find a ticker that fits the brand and our community, and that might mean we’ll need to set aside some suggestions.
• Final Say: We respect and value your input, but the final decision on accepting the ticker symbol will ultimately lie with the Minterest team. 
• Play Fair: We encourage creativity, but make sure your suggestions comply with applicable laws and don’t infringe on others’ rights. We’re all in this together, building something special, and that means playing by the rules.

This is an opportunity to shape Minterest’s future. Your voice matters to us, and we look forward to hearing your creative ideas.

This article explores the near future for Minterest’s go-to-market roadmap, detailing the key upcoming phases that begin the march towards achieving Minterest’s mission. If you have not read the prior post that provides a baseline for Minterest’s current state, we would recommend you read it first here.

As a preface, the Minterest protocol has been operating without issue in a closed beta format (i.e., Private Launch) since early 2023. All subsequent development will build upon the underlying smart contracts, so that Minterest LP’s do not need to change their behaviour in any way.

1. Roadmap

1.1 Public Access: Q1 2024

Public Access opens the protocol to anyone with a supported Web3 wallet on Ethereum and Mantle Network.

Included with Public Access:

• High rewards: Significant increase in emissions and staking rewards.
• NFT Boost Starts: Rewards on emissions increase up to 50% via Minterest NFT.
• Solvency engine launches: Borrowing allowances increase to match industry LTV ratios of 70%-90%. Learn more about why the Minterest solvency engine matters here.
• Governance token: Non-transferable during this phase.

1.2 Phase 1: Public Launch: Q2 2024

Public Launch builds on Public Access and unlocks vested governance tokens, allowing them to be transferable. 

Included with Public Launch:

• Governance token: Transferable.
• Listing: Key integrations and listings.

1.3 Phase 2: Multi-Chain Expansion: Q2-Q4 2024

Minterest’s movement towards true cross-chain lending includes new chain deployments of Minterest across additional L1s and L2s in a controlled manner. 

Included with Multi-Chain Expansion:

• Updated Minterest App UI to manage multi-chain access
• Common token markets such as certain stable coins (i.e. USDC) and/or volatiles (i.e. ETH) alongside unique token markets specific to the chain
• Minterest NFT deployments

1.4 Phase 3: Cross-Chain Lending: Q1 2025

• Minterest’s cross-chain architecture goes live, allowing users to lend on one chain and borrow on another. Minterest’s solvency engine expands to support cross-chain liquidations.

Once the dates are finalised, further information will be provided.

Marching Forward Together

There is a lot to digest with the roadmap. And yet, there is still so much more to share, detailing out each phase, new and updated product features, community activities, and exciting campaigns planned – all coming to the blog in the weeks ahead.

Join us in the Minterest community channels on Telegram and Discord to participate in the conversation as we work together to shape the future of decentralised finance.

The Minterest team has addressed community questions related to the roadmap on the Minterest Gitbook under section Community Asks.

Edit: The Minterest team has addressed community questions related to the roadmap on the Minterest Gitbook under section Community Asks.

Edit: Nov 7, 2023 – Roadmap has been updated based on the latest announcements which positions Private Access and Public Access right ahead of Public Launch in Q1 2024 and includes the broader multi-chain strategy roll-out.

Edit: Feb 25, 2024 – Roadmap has been updated removing Private Access as per the latest announcements and developments.

Edit: April 2, 2024 – Roadmap updates to public launch timeline and additional deliverables through Q1 2025.

What are Minterest NFTs and what makes them unique?

For those who might be unfamiliar, Minterest NFTs, with their protocol-specific utility, present a unique use case among DeFi protocols. Our collection of 3000 NFTs, spread across 12 tiers, commemorates historically influential Blockchain pioneers and offers holders privileged access during the Private Launch, along with an emission boost for supply/borrow activities during the Public Launch.

So, what’s the latest on Minterest NFTs?

Emission boosts are time-bound, lasting anywhere from 5 months to over 3 years, depending on the NFT’s rarity. Since these NFTs were minted in February 2023, many of them are now reaching their expiration before Minterest transitions into its Public Launch phase, where the emission boost becomes active. Clearly, this doesn’t present a fair scenario for our NFT holders.

Is there a solution?

We’ve got one, and it extends for 12 months! 

Our team has found a way to update the NFT smart contract to extend the operational validity of the NFT emission boost. This means the validity period of the emission boost will be extended by an additional 12 months from the current expiry date for all holders, thereby revitalising all NFTs and extending their valuable use with the protocol. 

What’s more, NFT holders don’t need to lift a finger to receive this benefit!

Here’s a quick look at the old and new validity periods of the NFTs across all tiers:

A few important points to note.

Development in Progress: Our team is still in the process of scheduling this development work to extend the lifespan of the NFTs in the product roadmap. We will share an announcement once it is completed.

Public Launch Time Frame: Please note, the 12-month extension of the Minterest NFTs has no direct correlation with the time frame of the public launch.

Tokenomics Impact: As the original token allocation for the emission boosts is more than what will actually be used, there will be no impact on the circulating supply. A key benefit of extending the lifespan of the NFTs for the Minterest community is the anticipated wider distribution of the Minterest token to a scaling user base, thus expediting the move towards decentralisation.

We hope this update brings a smile to your faces, as we know this has been a pressing concern to the community for quite some time.

As of the time of writing, 835 of the 3000 Minterest NFTs have been minted. You can explore our collection on OpenSea here. Additionally, we invite you to browse our extensive NFT Gallery here.

Minterest’s roadmap is brimming with details, and we’ll be rolling these out across a series of  posts. Today, we’ll give you a short recap of where Minterest currently stands following our recent transition, setting the stage for what’s next.

Building Towards the Future

Our dedicated core team, the original builders of Minterest, are hard at work. We’re focusing on key features that will attract early adopters and building upon Minterest’s solid architecture. The engineering and product teams are working in tandem, plotting the roadmap ahead and setting up the technical infrastructure to support these plans.

Brand

The Minterest brand is here to stay, and you’ll soon see our online and social properties coming back to life. As we enter this new era, we’re also subtly refreshing our visual identity, symbolising the beginning of a new stage in Minterest’s journey.

Solid Technology Foundation

Minterest audited smart contracts deployed on the Ethereum mainnet form the foundation we will build upon. All six security audit reports by reputable firms including Trail of Bits, Peckshield, Hacken, and Zokyo are readily accessible on Minterest’s Gitbook, underscoring the breadth and depth of Minterest’s technology and ensuring secure and smooth lending and borrowing operations.

Minterest Governance Token

The Minterest token contract remains unchanged, continuing to reward early supporters and liquidity providers. We’re planning a discussion with the community about the token’s future branding. Stay tuned!

Stable Tokenomics

Our tokenomics remain unchanged, honouring all vesting schedules established earlier this year. This includes the 50% proportional uplift provided to all early supporters. You can check out the details of the tokenomics here.

Empowering NFTs

Minterest NFTs will continue to serve their original purpose, providing key card access to the protocol and acting as emissions boost for liquidity providers.

And, if you’re an existing NFT holder, watch this space for some exciting news in a future post.

This is just the start. In the next post we’ll delve into the broader roadmap for 2023 and shine a spotlight on key product updates and plans towards public launch.

A “Community Asks” section has been set up on the Minterest Gitbook to address your questions. Our next update will share a roadmap for the remainder of 2023, offering insight into your key queries on topics including product highlights, Minterest NFTs, token vesting, supported token markets, DAO, and more.

We are also reopening the Minterest Telegram and Discord channels shortly and look ahead to resuming regular communication with the Minterest community.

Throughout this difficult period we have appreciated the messages of support. There is an incredible opportunity in front of us and we are excited to share it together.

Best regards,

The Minterest Team

Feb 28 to Mar 17, 2023

The final stage of Private Launch is live. That means money markets are growing, TVL is climbing – and the dev team is busy fixing bugs and adding new features ahead of public launch.

Here are some of the key updates in the roughly three weeks since the final stage went live.

• Integrated Gas Price Prediction 28.02.2023

Activated the gas price prediction feature to set the correct gas for swap/transfer transactions and to prevent transactions from hanging.

• Codebase Optimizations 02.03.2023

Integrated Manual Swap Manager into all inquisition services. Adjusted the codebases for increased efficiency.

• User Interface Add-ons 07.03.2023

Implemented several updates to the user interface. Added a button that enables easy access to available NFTs on OpenSea. Created a dedicated block to display total rewards, and included total supply/borrow values in the table headers.

• Bug Fixing Spree 09.03.2023

Fixed several bugs related to collateral and net APY display. Added helpful tooltips for staking and withdrawing. Temporarily hid some graphs until they can be fixed to ensure optimal user experience.

• Risk Endpoint Testing 16.03.2023

Introduced an API endpoint functionality that calculates the probability of default for a given portfolio using collateral and borrowing data. The tool enables monitoring the overall health of a selected portfolio by assessing the risk over the next three days.

Further Updates

Regular summaries of important updates will be posted here on the blog. For a https://minterest.com/blog/#buidl

Early participants noticed NFTs started appearing in their wallets on Monday, Feb. 27 as NFTs were minted and distributed and since access to Minterest from now till its public launch requires an NFT.

The first Minterest NFT sale happened shortly after for 1 ETH on the Monday on OpenSea.

Protocol Goes Live!

Last Tuesday afternoon, February 28, 2023, the Minterest protocol officially entered the last phase of its Private Launch. All core protocol functions went live including emission rewards,, with TVL pouring in right away.

$1,000,000 TVL Achieved

One day later, on March 1, Minterest attracted > $1,000,000 TVL. Users benefited greatly from the smaller pool of participants, with some markets reporting APYs over 3,000%!

Launch AMA Gains Hundreds of Listeners on Twitter Spaces

The Minterest team wrapped up the week with a truly epic Twitter Spaces, a freewheeling conversation with the management team of JR, Kyn, Veiko, Kevin, Martti and Denis. The event gained hundreds of  listeners over the course of an hour, and formed the capstone to a phenomenal first week.

Link to recording is here.

Week in Review

The end of the week saw a flurry of activity on OpenSea, with a growing number of NFT sales and a floor price currently sitting around 0.23 ETH.

The number of protocol users grew 60% over the week.

TVL exceeded $4,500,000 by the end of the first week, marking a highly significant achievement in such a short time

What’s Next?

All eyes start to look towards April as a potential date for the full public launch.

Next developments on the protocol include enabling auto-liquidations and the long-anticipated risk index – the first of its kind.

Minterest Launch FAQs

Excited to start using the protocol? Head over to OpenSea to grab an NFT for access.

Not sure where to start? Access the app here. You can also check out the Minterest FAQ on Gitbook, where you’ll find everything you need to know about:

• Accessing the protocol
• Supplying liquidity
• Borrowing assets
• Minterest NFTs
• Staking

Start with the FAQ, then head to the blog to learn more about the only DeFi protocol with sustainable real yield.

“Minteresting” Fun Facts

To whet your appetite, some Minterest fun facts from the first week:

TVL and Markets:

• First week TVL: $4.5 million+
• 2 markets $1M+ supply (wBTC & USDC)
• Whales swimming to Minterest:
  • Top 4 users provide greater than 50% supply,
  • Top 10 users provide greater than 90% supply
  • Top 3 borrowers account for roughly 50% total borrow
  • Top 10 borrowers account for 90% total borrow
• More than 60% of all users borrow
• More than 80% of available supply borrowed
• Current 20% borrow cap set to increase soon

NFT Sales

• 34 total sales
• 1 sale at 1.5 ETH – Level 5 “Sergey Nazarov”
• 2 sales at 1 ETH – Level 7  “Winklevoss Twins” & Level 7 “Roger Ver”
• 1 sale for 1 ETH – Level 8 “SBF” 

No one survived the crypto downturn unscathed. Noted CEXs failed, major NFT projects lost most of their value, and DeFi protocols collapsed.

Compound and Aave, in contrast, remain strong.

The two DeFi lending protocols have carved out a position as industry leaders, with $2.8 billion and $7 billion in TVL respectively. Together, they stand at the head of a DeFi sector poised for a potential rebound. 

If Compound and Aave represent the best of DeFi 1.0, what comes next? What are they doing right? And what will DeFi 2.0 do better?

In an ongoing series on the current state of DeFi (see part 1 here), this article describes how leading DeFi protocols are currently structured, and how Minterest and DeFi 2.0 aim to improve.

• DeFi Lending Protocols – Basic Structure
• DeFi 1.0 Value Creation
• DeFi’s True Value: Wealth-Building from Tokenized Assets
• Yield Farming Transitions to Real Yield
  • Current DeFi Challenges
  • Future-Focused User Benefits

DeFi Lending Protocols – Basic Structure

Compound and Aave both rely on similar principles. Users of each protocol fall into two general categories: liquidity users (borrowers) and liquidity providers (lenders). Aave and Compound create asset pools for various crypto tokens, and users add to and withdraw from those pools.

The premise is straightforward. All borrowing is collateralised, meaning no user can take out more than they have put in. The actual practice gets a bit more complicated; since users rarely lend one token and borrow the same token, protocols rely on token pairs, with asset pools for each pair.

DeFi 1.0 Value Creation

Why use a DeFi lending protocol? 

Access and inclusivity.

DeFi lending, as opposed to lending in traditional finance, reduces the friction of participation to anyone with a wallet, and provides absolute transparency to the inner workings of the protocol.

Permissionless – Anyone can participate. DeFi users don’t need to pass extensive financial scrutiny to participate. With sufficient collateral, whether it is Minterest, Aave, or Compound, users can simply connect a wallet and begin staking or borrowing.

Trustlessness – No one entity controls a user’s finances in DeFi. There is no loan approval and no extra hoops to jump through when supplying or withdrawing funds. Note that “trustlessness” does not mean “poor security.” For example, Compound touts “institutional” levels of reliability and safety. For its part, Minterest has undergone four security audits to date.

Liquidity

DeFi lending protocol participants gain access to liquidity, opening up a variety of use cases for both individuals and other ecosystem protocols. Borrowers utilize liquidity for several reasons.

Arbitrage. Arbitrage opportunities are aplenty across the market. The price of one asset may be higher or lower across different DEXs. A flashloan would allow a user to borrow that asset, swap the asset on the DEXs, make a tidy profit, and then pay back the loan all in one transaction. 

Trading Positions. Borrowing assets to gain exposure to an asset forlonging or shorting it is a widespread use case. For example, if a trader believes the price of BTC will drop, they can lend a stablecoin, borrow BTC, sell BTC at spot price, wait for the price to drop, purchase BTC again, pay back the loan, and pocket the difference.

Short-Term Loans. Purchasing real-world goods and services without selling the original assets is commonplace for groups, like Bitcoin miners. Bitcoin miners fund the expansion of their operations by using their BTC portfolio as collateral to borrow stablecoins to purchase new mining equipment. Why?

• Miners maintain exposure to the underlying asset
• Miners do not trigger taxable events for selling the underlying asset (depending on the jurisdiction, of course)

DeFi’s True Value: Wealth-Building from Tokenized Assets

All of the above benefits get to the beating heart of DeFi: providing advanced wealth-building tools for users. 

In DeFi 1.0, this took the form of yield farming. Demand for certain assets meant lenders on DeFi protocols could expect significant returns on their positions; rates of 20% APY were remarkable compared to TradFi savings interest rates of less than 1% but entirely unsustainable.

DeFi 1.0 quickly developed a yield farming problem. Investors earned sky-high returns built on the foundations of hyperinflationary tokenomics where tokens contained no underlying value. The unraveling of this flimsy structure came tumbling down during the crypto bear market, resulting in bank runs on protocols. Users withdrew and sold off their assets in droves as high-profile projects, like Terra, highlighted critical weaknesses in their designs.

Yield Farming Transitions to Real Yield

Despite high-profile failures, lending protocols functioned as they were designed to during the adverse market conditions, protecting lenders and borrowers where CeFi players did not due to their opaque walls and reliance on unwarranted trust from their users. In 2023, DeFi lending protocols are emerging as foundational layers for every major blockchain, as Aave and Compound have demonstrated. 

Aave and Compound, with significant TVL, collect fees from activities (borrowing, lending, flash loans) on the protocol. Both protocols feature a governance token, providing some limited utility for repaying fees.

The question for DeFi remains how to develop dependably attractive yields (thus attracting greater TVL) without relying on an inflationary model.

So where does DeFi go from here, and how can Minterest improve the existing model?

Current DeFi Challenges

Dysfunctional governance tokens. Both Aave and Compound feature governance tokens. Both tokens convey voting rights for their respective protocol. 

However, neither Aave nor Compound have made their tokens integral to the function of the protocol. The tokens do not derive any utility from the underlying lending and borrowing activities on these respective protocols, nor do the protocols derive value from the tokens outside of governance.

Predatory liquidations and outflow of fees. Protocol fees are generated from three areas: interest rate differential between lenders and borrowers, flash loans, and liquidations. Most of this value is parties who are not liquidity providers, even though the value is derived from them. Additionally, current DeFi lending protocols rely on third-party liquidators to remain solvent. Those liquidators are incentivized by collecting a portion of each loan liquidated, essentially a bounty for detecting under-collateralised positions on the protocol. And these liquidations siphon approx 50% of protocol value to themselves. What is clear is that there needs to be more alignment of incentives between liquidity providers and the protocols.

Future-Focused User Benefits

In both cases, DeFi 2.0 can build on the existing model to create additional value for users. Minterest is designed to do just this. 

Minterest captures more fees. Minterest captures more fees than others because it handles liquidations through its innovative auto-liquidation engine*. Thus, Minterest can capture those fees unlike other protocols where this value is lost to third parties.  

Minterest transfers all value back to users. Minterest captures all fee value and uses it to buy back its native token on-market through an automated Buyback engine. The token is then distributed back to users who participate proportionally in the protocol’s governance based on staking and voting in governance proposals.

MINTY is more than just a governance token. It’s a medium of value transfer, and the above benefits feed into the core function of the MINTY token. Minterest distributes the value it accrues from its various operations right back to the users of the protocol. The MINTY token is the medium by which this value is transferred back to participants, linking MINTY to the growth of the protocol’s TVL.. Such performance capabilities in a token are unique in the sector and form the bedrock of a new evolution of DeFi protocols.

Minterest provides Sustainable Real Yield. Minterest is designed to align the incentives of its core user, liquidity providers. Greater liquidity generates more significant fees, increasing the distribution of value back to these users. The results are fully sustainable yield farming for users and a DeFi revolution with the highest possible long-term APYs with the sector’s lowest borrow cost.

*Note that Minterest’s Autoliquidation Engine has been renamed to Solvency Engine.

Or put an old-fashioned way, what does this protocol offer its users?
One answer to that question is the idea of “real yield”, a topic that has generated increasing buzz in the crypto world. To understand what real yield is – and how Minterest provides real yield – you need to start with the current state of DeFi: where it is, what went wrong, and how DeFi 2.0 promises to improve.

• DeFi’s Untapped Potential
• DeFi: New Financial Model, Same Old Problems
  • Complexity
  • Centralization
  • Market Volatility
  • Fraud
  • Scalability/Sustainability
• Maturing Markets
• Finding Real Yield

DeFi’s Untapped Potential

DeFi (Decentralized Finance) refers to a growing ecosystem of financial applications built on blockchain technology that aim to provide financial services without the need for traditional intermediaries such as banks or financial institutions. The last crypto bull run saw easy money pumped into DeFi in vast quantities, fueled by the sector’s vast potential:

• Decentralized exchanges, for peer-to-peer trading of cryptocurrencies and other assets without the need for a centralized exchange.

• Lending and borrowing platforms, enabling users to earn interest on their assets or to borrow funds from others using smart contracts to manage the terms and conditions of the loans.

• Stablecoins, tying digital assets to a stable asset such as the US dollar, allowing for more stability in volatile crypto markets.

• Tokenization, converting traditional assets such as real estate or art into tokenized form and making it possible to trade those assets.

But in the rush to claim the vast wealth DeFi promised, new protocols started to take shortcuts. DeFi startups lured retail investors, flush with cash, by promising sky-high yields. Unsustainable yield farms grew in popularity, fueled by ever-greater demand.

What drew users in? Part of the allure was found in DeFi’s inherent advantages over TradFi. With DeFi, anyone could access advanced financial tools; borrowing and lending functions were no longer walled off behind staid financial institutions and vested interests.

DeFi held immense promise as an entirely new financial model. Unfortunately, in the rush to build a new model, DeFi began to repeat some of TradFi’s mistakes.

DeFi: New Financial Model, Same Old Problems

The early wave of DeFi protocols – DeFi 1.0 – eventually developed a set of core problems that were exposed dramatically during the crypto crash of 2022.

Complexity

Many DeFi platforms were difficult for average users to understand, leading to potential security risks and difficulties in accessing the platform.

Centralization

Despite being marketed as decentralized, many DeFi platforms were highly centralized and controlled by a small group of individuals, undermining the decentralized nature of DeFi and leaving it open to manipulation.

Market Volatility

DeFi proved highly susceptible to market volatility with dramatic and rapid price changes. As ETH went, so did the market; at its peak, the Ethereum blockchain was responsible for nearly 97% of DeFi TVL. That market share has since decreased to around 60% as more players have entered the DeFi space, providing some much-needed flexibility.

Fraud

Ponzi schemes abounded in DeFi 1.0, as bad actors took advantage of the hype and capitalized on DeFi’s unknowns. This was the case for many protocols that only produced high yields by relying on a steady stream of fresh liquidity, primarily from retail investors.

Scalability/Sustainability

DeFi 1.0 largely rode the wave of the crypto bull market, foregoing long-term development in favor of short-term gains. 

The bear market forced a reckoning. Fraudsters were exposed, poor business practices came to light, and major players in the sector (3AC, Celsius, FTX, etc.) collapsed.

Maturing Markets

In the aftermath, a new vision for DeFi emerged. Despite DeFi 1.0’s problems, it served as a clear proof-of-concept. The market wanted DeFi exchanges, borrowing and lending protocols, tokenization, etc. The underlying use cases were sound, even if numerous protocols didn’t hold up.

In fact, DeFi 1.0, and the resulting crash, bears strong similarities to an earlier tech market cycle: the dot-com bubble of the late 90s and early 2000s.

Note this comparison of the two:

Dot-com companies crashed – hard – in the early 2000s. In fact, value just after the initial crash rested at a level not much higher than before the boom took off. On the surface, dot-coms seemed to be right back where they started a few years before.

Zoom out, and a vastly different story emerges.

When the dot-com bubble burst, two things happened:

1. Companies with poor underlying fundamentals failed.
2. The underlying technology grew.

Why? Because there was genuine underlying value in the technology – just not in most of the applications. 

DeFi 2.0 finds itself in the same position.

There’s a renewed emphasis on sustainability and profitability. With the hype largely gone from the market, investors can evaluate projects more clearly.

On the project side, new DeFi protocols need to deliver clear value based on rock-solid industry fundamentals. And in typical crypto fashion, this search for underlying value has led to a new term: real yield.

Finding Real Yield

Real yield implies sustainability and value. Gone are the sky-high yields of Anchor Protocol and a yield-farming model built on attracting an endless stream of new investors. DeFi 2.0 relies on real yield, returns based on protocols that meet proven use cases and have a clear path to profitability.

DeFi 2.0 also involves a return to the core principles that set DeFi apart from traditional finance, including:

• Decentralization

• Accessibility

• Trust

• Reduced costs

• Speed

Minterest leads the charge towards DeFi 2.0, building a protocol with solid fundamentals to create genuine underlying value. It’s that value that powers real yield in a way that DeFi 1.0 never did.

How does it work? Read the whitepaper here, or watch a breakdown of how Minterest outcompetes other protocols.

Next up: What Works (And What Doesn’t) In DeFi: How current DeFi protocols generate value.

Tokenomics Jan 2023

The year finished with a flurry of activity, including revisions of Minterest’s tokenomics. All together, it’s no surprise the Minterest team has poured more than 50,000 hours into the project since inception, with Minterest now the most extensive, most secure code base ever conceived in DeFi.

So, what went down last year exactly? Here is a selection of key milestones in 2022.

Early 2022: Planning to launch

As 2022 began, Minterest was in the middle of community-focused fundraising events. The Community Allocation Event (CAE) took place in late January, and allowed supporters to secure MINTY token allocations up to 500 USDC at the lowest price in the upcoming Liquidity Bootstrapping Pool (LBP).

That event was quickly followed by the LBP, which in February raised over $5.5 million to support continued bootstrapping of the protocol. Together, the CAE and LBP provided crucial early support for the protocol and established an ever larger base of supporters.

Early-to-mid 2022: Major market shift

In late February, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine played into emerging macro-economic factors, which together saw market sentiment decline significantly. Hindsight showed the broader crypto market cap had peaked in November 2021 and by early April 2022 was beginning to face stiff headwinds.

Minterest planned to launch on Moonbeam, but increasing instability in the sector combined with Ethereum’s continued DeFi dominance, caused the switch to Ethereum in April 2022, a critical strategic decision. It resulted in extensive unforeseen development work, but the decision has been applauded ever since. 

In May, the crypto crash, aka the Do Kwon Krash, began with the infamous Terra/Luna implosion. The algorithmic Terra USD stablecoin lost its peg and Luna’s value plummeted from over $100 to mere fractions of a cent. 

What no one saw coming was the brewing macroeconomic negativity that turned Luna’s implosion into a match which ignited crypto’s sector-wide collapse. 

Minterest did not sit idly by during these events. A constant stream of information came from key players with regular AMAs and community discussions held on Discord and social media to keep supporters informed.

Minterest responded rigorously to the changing market conditions. First and foremost, that meant reappraising not just the launch schedule but the overall protocol product strategy. Doing so protected the interests of all token holders investors while ensuring the protocol’s best chance of success.

A snapshot of fundamental improvements the team worked over the year include:

• Revised token emissions structure and tokenomics 

• A new, highly sophisticated feature suite 

• Extensive additional auto-liquidation developments 

• Brand-new, DeFi first UX and UI features

The team also unrolled Lock & Load, a key opportunity to reward early supporters who participated in the CAE and LBP events at the start of the year. Lock & Load was a unique chance for such supporters to double their MINTY token allocation in return for locking up their MINTY for a year and vesting them over the following 12 months. The offer was hugely successful, with over 600,000 tokens or more than 50% of eligible participants taking it up.

2022 into 2023: Building a better DeFi

Where does that leave Minterest today?

• Key token markets deployed

• Whitelisted access to key features for product testing

• Lock & Load concluded in December, with over 50% acceptance for eligible tokens

• 4th security audit completed

• 5th security audit on the way

• Full functionality rollout and NFT access early 2023

• Public launch early in 2023

Despite the carnage of the broader crypto market, Minterest has never panicked. The bear market has separated, and continues to do so, the good from the bad, with the opportunity now open for new projects with strong fundamentals to emerge and stake a claim for dominance as the cycle resets.

DeFi is evolving. Its new reality means hyper-inflationary token emissions are no more. This has allowed sound, sustainable projects to now develop and flourish, which will be the building block of the next generation of DeFi, with Minterest leading the way.

Minterest. Yield gets real.

If you are a Minterest CAE and LBP participant, and you have an MINTY allocation, you can log into app.minterest.com and opt-in to the Lock & Load offer.

To learn more about the Lock & Load, head over to the terms & conditions.

Lock into Minterest, get loaded with MINTY.

To that end, we’ve made adjustments in the features and token economy of the Minterest protocol, and with it a corresponding revised whitepaper. The current DeFi ecosystem emphasises strong fundamentals and sustainability, and we believe Minterest excels at both. This blogpost explains in summary some of the changes that have been made.

DeFi’s New Reality

During the 2021 bull run, liquidity providers maximised yields using DeFi models with unsustainable inflationary emission rewards. Such projects’ high yields attracted tens of billions of dollars in liquidity. Super-returns became the ‘new normal’, fuelling even further boom-market speculation.

What happened next? Terra Network collapsed, markets followed suit, and the contagion of counterparty risk evaporated capital, adding fuel to the inferno of bankruptcies and insolvencies across the sector. 

The super-yield party was over. The resulting hangover from unsustainable, hyper-inflationary models caused liquidity providers to fundamentally reassess how they deployed capital.

Minterest’s Revised Tokenomics

The revision of Minterest’s tokenomics takes full advantage of DeFi’s new environment.

• Circulating supply is highly disciplined, on-market supply even more so.

• For project supporters, other than LBP participants, MINTY is locked for 12 months prior to 12 month vesting.

• All emission rewards vest over 12 months.

• Standard emission rewards are markedly reduced; only one-third of previous rewards, better reflecting DeFi’s new reality.

• Governance rewards emissions are maintained, strongly favouring staking and governance participation andincentivising long-term holding.

• A new Strategic Reserve accumulates MINTY from buyback processes, supporting on-market scarcity and MINTY demand.

Disciplined tokenomics that constrict supply powerfully support the protocol’s token economy. The new tokenomics protect Minterest from likely  worsening macroeconomic headwinds while allowing the protocol to successfully attract long term TVL despite such conditions. 

Finally, Minterest’s tokenomics achieve something else. Standard emissions that vest over 15 years and the Strategic Reserve enable the protocol to become fully self-sustaining.

Minterest Circulating Supply Comparison