While points programs are in full effect, it’s been a little while since there has been buzz around airdrops for coin/token stakers, especially pertaining to the Cosmos ecosystem. There has yet to be any meaningful airdrop for PYTH stakers, and Mantle’s MNT staking has not yet launched. This comes after cosmos ecosystem coins e.g. ATOM, OSMO, TIA, DYM primarily, have either remained mostly flat or significantly underperfomed tokens with strong narratives. Staking with the intention of receiving airdrops was clearly a key component of the motivation for stakers, as well as the price action of these assets.
Now this conviction is being tested as the opportunity cost of not being allocated in tokens with momentum manifests. Some of this liquidity might be sticky as unbinding periods may deter users from unstaking altogether. TIA’s price action as of late suggests some capitulation which could extend into the future if more stakers opt to unstake. DYM is also down ~20% in the past fortnight. Of course, both Celestia and Dymension are relatively new protocols, so it can’t be expected that new projects should be launching left and right…
There’s also been some level of disappointment in the INJ community. Some of this stems from disappointing airdrops from validators to delegates. Today we’ll be discussing a couple of interesting Injective protocols emerging on the chain with airdrops of their own, potentially ending what has been a bit of an airdrop drought in the Injective and even greater cosmos ecosystem as a whole.
Stay alert in the markets ⬇️
Background on Hydro Protocol
Hydro Protocol is Injective’s native Liquid Staking protocol. We actually first briefed our readers on Hydro in January, citing Milkyway Liquid Staking on Celestia as a case study supporting Hydro Protocol’s potential for success. Since it’s January 31st Launch, the protocol now holds nearly $60M in TVL. According to DefiLlama, the Injective chain’s total TVL is just ~$62M. The reason for the discrepancy in these numbers is that Hyrdo, the leading protocol by TVL, along with the #2 ranked DojoSwap, have their TVL excluded from the chain’s total count as these projects deposit into other protocols such as validators, DEXs, etc. When accounting for double counting between protocols, staking, and liquid staking, Injective’s TVL jumps from ~$73M to ~$143M, most of this coming from Hydro Protocol. Most of the remainder comes from DojoSwap, a DEX which also includes liquid staking as a side feature via their native dINJ LST. Hydro Protocol lists it’s own TVL as $116M, though it should be noted that the reason for this number is that nearly al of the INJ staked with Hydro (hINJ) is also deposited into the protocol’s farm (1.46M hINJ), which can earn bonus POINT tokens.
Beyond Liquid Staking, Hydro’s other core features are auto-compounding and farming. An additional product is also scheduled, the Real Yield Asset (RYA), with the intent to help users maximize yield strategies and take on diversified risk. Part of this plan involves deploying RWAs which as index components of the RYA, as well as using the protocols LST to collateralize RWAs.
HDRO will be the native governance token of the protocol. The maximum supply is 1B. Protocol fees will be used to ‘maintain deep liquidity’ for the token. Specifically, up to 30% will be redirected toward xHDRO stakers, who stake to participate in governance. There is also a 10% annual performance fee present on the protocol. The token will launch on March 7th, aligning with an airdrop to testnet users, early access farmers, as well as INJ stakers based on a 5-tier approach.
As it pertains to the points program, this is where season 2 of the Hydro airdrop campaign starts.
Hydro’s points program makes things a little simpler than previous projects;
1 POINT = 1 HDRO
The original allotted amount for airdrops was half of what it currently is. The team opted to double the allocation and split into into two seasons with the latter allowing hINJ depositors and xHDRO stakers to be rewarded.
Background on Filament Finance
Filament describes itself as a ‘Perps DEX for degens’. It’s feature include It focuses on providing a crisp trading UX, capital efficiency, and market adaptability. The project is slated to launch it’s Injective EVM testnet soon, with interoperability enabling the trading of assets from other chains, including Solana. This capability, also present in the Helix DEX, is made possible by the native Injective bridge, which leverages wormhole.
The testnet can be accessed by those who staked INJ with the stakecito validator, as well as STAKE token holders. It’s worth noting that the Injective EVM, which is also yet to launch, is an attractive attribute in and of itself for this project; protocols like Monad and the Eclipse SVM (Solana Virtual Machine) have shown the demand for performant but EVM compatible environments that can scale beyond what is possible with L2s. The team has explicitly hinted that there will be some sort of novel rewards mechanism beyond a typical points program, perhaps involving an incentivized testnet. The team has observed previous successful airdrop attempts involving rewarding NFT holders, and have given Cosmos ecosystem NFT projects, including Bad Kids, Galactic Punks, and even Mad Lads on Solana…
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