Minterest Update, 6.4.23
Hi, Josh here with a Minterest update.
Current Status
For the last four weeks, the protocol has been going through the final phase of its Private Launch, as it moves towards its Public Launch and MNT’s token listing.
There are very solid results. $5 million in TVL has come largely from internal supporters, an active market on OpenSea for Minterest NFTs has developed, both of which are very encouraging. We’re currently seeing high APYs on the protocol with users benefitting from yield farming, and we’re using this phase to finalise key features.
Feature Rollout
The auto-liquidation engine has been undergoing extensive testing and will be fully deployed shortly. This will allow the protocol to increase lending ratios in its token markets which will begin to what its value capture mechanisms are capable of, and how it leads to being able to fully fund valuable governance rewards through its auto-liquidations and buyback.
You’ll also see V1 of Minterest’s extraordinary risk engine deployed shortly, so expect to see it in the dashboard very soon. A lot has also been happening in the background, as is normal with any launch, with intense bug fixing of minor issues on the front-end plus other operational optimisations.
Market Headwinds
On March 10, 2023, something happened that nobody expected. In the United States, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) blew up, resulting in USDC de-pegging over the weekend.
While it was a wild and crazy weekend for Crypto Twitter, the events themselves did not directly impact Minterest. What did was waking up on Monday morning to discover Euler Finance had been hacked to the tune of $197 million.
Euler is a new lending protocol which successfully positioned itself as a quality project, and in doing so attracted 550M in TVL within an 8 month period. Consider it looking like a version of Minterest, but not as secure and not as good 🙂
Euler blowing up had an immediate impact on sentiment with whales. It fundamentally changed their short term relationship to the risk associated with new protocols. Such whales, or significant liquidity providers, are essential partners at launch given they ensure strong supply and borrow foundations are present to enable the protocol’s TVL to build out from.
How this manifests in the current market usually includes a token sale, done at discounts to market, to create a financial incentive for the liquidity provider and ensure their interests and the protocol’s success are aligned. The token sale also provides the funding to ensure launch and token listing are successful.
Euler’s exploit meant the team’s negotiations with significant liquidity providers suddenly got put on pause.
Minterest’s Response
While crypto generally has the shortest memory of any out there, relying on that to proceed is not a plan. Minterest is instead reframing its initial proposal for these partners and re-initiating the process.
Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse and Euler’s hack came out of nowhere and has impacted timelines to lock in these last pieces. Obviously this is frustrating for everyone. We are working on this right now and expect to have news regarding it and the public launch date sometime shortly.
Worth noting
The achievements to date are worth noting. In addition to Minterest’s strong initial results, the protocol is built out, its auto-liquidations and risk engine are fully tested and being deployed shortly, it is built to be regulatory future-proofed for MiCA and so AML compliant, and its DAO and bug bounty program are ready to be deployed.
More than anything, what matters is what the protocol’s users think, given it is built for them. The response to date has been extremely positive and we’re excited for how this will play out for the protocol’s future.
Thank you so much again for your continued support.
Josh Rogers, CEO of Minterest
06, April 2023
