GM, this is your Daily Bolt briefing.
Level Finance has been growing in popularity and trading volume. We’ve also included some insights from industry experts on Uniswap’s V4 plans and how they align with the larger themes in DeFi
Stay vigilant ⬇️
1/ Level Finance - Omnichain and Cross-Chain Messaging Protocols
Preview: MaxPower and Dr. LVL discuss the introduction of both protocols, cross-chain messaging protocols, and omnichain protocols. Click here to listen to the full episode (32 mins).
Read our Note (6 mins) and save 26 mins.
Here are some key takeaways:
Dr. LVL describes Level as an omnichain liquidity marketplace. He says this means that it operates across multiple blockchain networks, providing a platform where traders and liquidity providers can interact.
He says that one of the unique features of Level is its risk management framework. This framework is innovative and customized, providing a unique solution for managing risk in the DeFi space. It's designed with different tranches (senior, mezzanine, and junior) to cater to the different risk appetites of liquidity providers.
Dr. LVL also shares some metrics about Level's performance. Despite being operational for only six months, Level has seen significant organic growth. It has processed over 18 billion in trading volume, generated more than 20 million in protocol revenue, and recently hit 30,000 users. This growth has been achieved during a bear market. He says that this indicates a strong interest in the DeFi space.
Dr. LVL says that their primary focus is on the upcoming launch and the recent Level 1.5 upgrade. The Level 1.5 upgrade transferred all of Level's governance powers, economics, treasury, and leftover Level allocation to the DAO. This means that the control and decision-making power of Level is now in the hands of the DAO, which is governed by the community of $LVL token holders.
Dr. LVL also talks about their conversations with several tier-1 projects and the support they've received from the Arbitrum ecosystem. He says that this indicates that Level is actively seeking partnerships and collaborations with other projects in the crypto space, which could lead to new opportunities and developments for Level.
Dr. Level talks about an upcoming NFT drop. He says that they intend to ensure it's not just a random NFT drop.
MaxPower says that LayerZero is a protocol that allows for the development of novel solutions to complex problems by utilizing multiple chains. It allows users to use chains for the best features of what the chains have to offer and to connect with disparate audiences around various chains that are otherwise siloed.
He says that LayerZero can pass any kind of arbitrary message, including value, instruction, and state. This flexibility allows for a variety of applications to be built on top of it.
Dr. LVL says that there are several reasons why they chose LayerZero for their operations. He says that LayerZero's technology and protocols were easy to integrate with Level's existing systems. This ease of integration is crucial when implementing new technologies as it can significantly reduce the time and resources required for the integration process.
2/ Empire - Exploring Uniswap v4
Preview: Jason, Santi, Ren, and David discuss the launch of Uniswap v4, the future of Curve and other AMMs, and the fee switch debate. Click here to listen to the full episode (60 mins).
Read our Note (5 mins) and save 55 mins.
Here are some key takeaways:
David envisions the future of crypto to be an app-chain model. This model gives the community ownership of the application, which he sees as a significant advantage over the current state where everything built on Ethereum is at the mercy of Ethereum.
Ren says that Uniswap may not transition to an app-chain model. The reason for this, he explains, is that a DeFi product would move to an app-chain model primarily for value capture.
He says that this value capture happens in two ways: the internalization of MEV or turning on the fee switch. With Uniswap V4, these protocols can internalize the MEV to some extent, reducing the need for an app-chain.
Jason believes that Uniswap could easily create a lending market and take a significant market share.
He sees Uniswap as having a commanding lead in the DeFi space, even beyond just the DEX space. He also thinks that crypto will create digital monopolies over time due to their ability to expand indefinitely with limited friction.
Santi points out the power and authority that Uniswap has as the market leader. If other protocols have better features, Uniswap can integrate these features from other protocols and launch it as a platform model, thereby owning everything.
Ren says that Uniswap's strategy of allowing other protocols to launch liquidity pools and capture fees might indicate that they aren't that concerned about value capture. This could potentially challenge the app-chain thesis.
Ren predicts that the migration from Uniswap v3 to v4 will be a slow process due to the complexity of deploying concentrated liquidity pools.
If you read these 2 Notes on Revelo Intel you would have saved: 1 hour and 21 minutes!