Alluvial’s Polkadot (DOT) Liquid Staking Product, Acala EVM+ Launch/Wormhole Karura Bridge Live, Pike money market to be Built on Acala, and many new Ecosystem Integrations.
June was a month of rapid progress for Acala and Karura. The Acala Foundation joined forces with Alluvial, Coinbase Cloud, and Figment to provide institutions with a compliant, enterprise-grade Polkadot (DOT) Liquid Staking Product. The Acala EVM+ first phase launched on Karura, and the Wormhole bridge is live on Karura. There continued to be several ecosystem integrations, hackathons, and special events for the team.
Let’s recap the biggest Acala and Karura news for June.
Alluvial Polkadot Liquid Staking for Enterprise
The Acala Foundation, the organization building Acala’s decentralized finance network on Polkadot, is collaborating with Alluvial, Coinbase Cloud, and Figment to deliver a compliant, enterprise-grade Polkadot (DOT) liquid staking product for enterprises across multiple blockchains. Outside of BTC and ETH, Polkadot (DOT) is the most held token among crypto funds and institutions; however, despite the DOT holding and staking benefits, there is a growing demand for a DOT liquid staking product to allow access to yield for many regulated institutions. More importantly, this access will open the doors for the millions of customers using these banks, fintechs, and enterprise Web2 products to enjoy the benefits of DOT liquid staking provided by Acala.
Acala Foundation and Alluvial’s integration enables DOT liquid staking for a broader institutional audience seeking to participate in the Polkadot ecosystem. Acala will enjoy a wider and diversified DeFi product distribution because of the Alluvial integration. The new integration also exposes Acala to a broader mainstream audience by expanding the market for Acala products like the aUSD stablecoin.
The Acala team can offer the compliant product as Acala protocols were built with flexibility in mind. The protocols were built with the Polkadot SDK, Substrate, which allows for forkless upgrades and evolution with the changing enterprise, regulatory, and developer requirements. Acala’s environment will allow KYC/AML checks and other compliance demands by institutions, all in a non-custodial solution.
For more information, read through the full collaboration announcement here.
Acala EVM+ Launch & Wormhole Karura Bridge Live
After months of development, the Acala EVM+ entered its first launch phase with the initial live contracts going live. The EVM+ provides a development environment like Ethereum’s while leveraging the full power, high throughput, and customizability of Polkadot’s modular blockchain framework, Substrate. Developers will innovate outside the limitations of the EVM, meaning DApp teams can deploy their EVM-based smart contracts on Karura plus leveraging pre-compiled smart contracts to interact with Substrate pallets, all while using the same tooling used in other Ethereum environments.
The Wormhole launch facilitates Karura EVM+’s access to a broader Web3 and top Layer 1 protocols, creating interactions between different blockchain platforms and accommodating a larger blockchain audience. Wormhole’s multi-chain bridge, which is now live, allows Karura to leverage Wormhole to operate the 3 Stablecoin pool (3Pool) for instant liquidity and accessibility to aUSD, USDC, and USDT. 3Pool allows for a low-risk, capital-efficient stablecoin swapping mechanism, contributing to deep liquidity within the pool. Taiga — a parachain agnostic synthetic asset protocol — will help launch 3Pool by facilitating efficient trading through the uniform, closely pegged assets (aUSD, USDT, and USDC).
Learn more about the Acala EVM+ and Wormhole Multi-chain bridge here.
Pike to Launch Advanced Money Market on Acala
During Acala’s Chief Growth Officer, Dan Reecer’s Polkadot Decoded presentation, he announced a new money market to be built on Acala. Created by the team behind Taiga and Taipo, Pike has a tentative release scheduled for Q3 2022. Pike provides an enterprise-ready lending and borrowing market with advanced features for both retail and institutional users.
Enterprise-ready features from Pike include:
- Access to permissioned DeFi markets for expanding businesses.
- Fund protection with a non-custodial and secure product.
- Borrow, supply, and liquidate with known participants exclusively.
Watch Dan Reecer’s presentation at Polkadot Decoded to discover more about Pike.
Ecosystem Integrations
New collaborations in June will increase Acala’s visibility and aUSD use cases across several blockchains.
Pendulum and Amplitude Integrate with Acala to Bring aUSD to the Polkadot and Kusama-based Parachains
Pendulum is a Substrate-built blockchain platform connecting fiat rails to the decentralized finance environment, addressing fiat liquidity demand in the DeFi ecosystems by linking fiat-pegged tokens from the blockchain networks into the dynamic DeFi ecosystems. Pendulum will leverage aUSD to facilitate its cryptocurrency and fiat exchange services across different chains.
aUSD strengthens Pendulum’s trading stability by enabling trading opportunities available via different cryptocurrencies available on Pendulum. Given its use, aUSD also attracts liquidity providers to the Pendulum ecosystem, creating deeper liquidity pools to support launching DApps on Pendulum.
Pendulum’s aUSD integration provides a DApp-centric environment where developers receive access to the liquidity, traction, and vital value propositions of the Acala, Pendulum, and DotSama ecosystems.
For more Pendulum and Acala’s integration information, follow here.
First cross-parachain aUSD integrations live on Moonriver and Moonbeam
Moonbeam, and its Kusama canary network, Moonriver, have collaborated with Acala to launch the first aUSD cross-chain connection using XCM (cross-consensus messaging), a novel interoperability mechanism for interoperability between the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems. The cross-chain allows native communication and token transfer without bridges through bidirectional HRMP channels.
With this update, the chains’ base utility tokens, ACA, GLMR, and aUSD, will enjoy unrestricted accessibility in the DeFi ecosystems of both parachains.
Find out more about Acala and Moonbeam’s collaboration here.
Equilibrium to Integrate with Acala to Bring the aUSD Stablecoin to its Ecosystems on Polkadot and Kusama
Equilibrium, a DeFi platform on Polkadot, supports digital asset trading and borrowing by combining a money market with an order book-based DEX to help solve existing DeFi limitations. Equilibrium’s products and services rely on liquidity to ensure community members access the digital assets they require. Equilibrium plans to generate enough liquidity to address DeFi’s limitations through its services for lending, borrowing, staking, and cross-chain trading interactions. The aUSD presence and utility in the partnership will facilitate cross-chain trading, enabling token swaps, DEX trading, stablecoin swaps, and increased staking options.
Learn more about Equilibrium here.
Composable Finance and Picasso to Integrate aUSD
Composable Finance is a DeFi developer-friendly cross-chain and cross-layer infrastructure. To provide users with a reliable stablecoin, Composable and its canary network, Picasso will integrate aUSD as the default stablecoin on their parachains. Users and developers using Composable can interact with ecosystems from Polkadot, Kusama, and Cosmos, with aUSD serving as a crucial crypto interoperable facilitator.
The Picasso-Karura cross-chain communication channel connects the protocols, allowing Composable DApps to benefit from aUSD connection and stability. aUSD provides a stable and trustworthy currency whose peg remains stable amid market turbulence thanks to the liquidation of over-collateralized assets that back its issuance.
Read more on Composable Finance’s aUSD integration here.
Polkadex Integrates aUSD as The Default Stablecoin for its Polkadot Parachain
Polkadex, based on Substrate, is a fully decentralized peer-to-peer orderbook-based cryptocurrency exchange for the DeFi ecosystem. It solves the problem of user onboarding caused by the complexity of DEX systems; despite their many advantages, blockchain platforms have yet to deliver convenience and a good user experience. Polkadex offers a centralized-like experience while maintaining decentralized benefits.
aUSD creates a route for interoperability between various Polkdadex chains. Polkadot’s parachain-to-parachain messaging allows users to trade aUSD between parachains, boosting aUSD adoption and importance in the Polkadot ecosystem with no trusted bridge. Establishing aUSD as the default stablecoin for the Polkadex ecosystem will help Polkadex build itself as a Web3 and DeFi trading engine.
Read more on this exciting integration here.
Satori To Launch Polkadot-based Perpetuals on Acala’s EVM+, Integrating aUSD and LDOT as Collateral Assets
Satori is an exchange platform that allows retail and institutional investors to use their DOT tokens to leverage derivative trading. The platform enables traders to overcome capital inefficiencies through creative financial transactions that would otherwise be unavailable in spot markets by allowing free expression in money markets. Users can increase their earnings by executing sophisticated trades involving leverage while also having the freedom to create payoff and risk profiles designed for their specific needs.
Satori intends to assist DOT holders in realizing DOT’s full potential by providing them with their own derivatives platform. After the launch of Satori in Acala’s EVM+ and further parachains, DOT owners will have access to a larger market and more use cases for their tokens.
Acala EVM+ combines the Ethereum Virtual Machine with the adaptability and versatility of Substrate, Polkadot’s blockchain development framework. Projects like Satori can leverage DeFi primitives, liquidity, user base, adjustable economic policies, flexible fees, native cross-chain compatibilities, and more on the Acala EVM+.
Learn more about the Satori integration here.
Acala @ Polkadot Decoded
Acala participated in Polkadot Decoded, where our superstar team members, Dan Reecer, Robinson Burkey, and Nicolas Arevalo, all took part in presentations that highlighted why Acala is an integral part of Polkadot’s ecosystem. The event took place simultaneously in several cities worldwide and was a powerful example of the thriving Polkadot ecosystem in the present and for the future.
Some highlights from Polkadot Decoded include:
$250M aUSD Ecosystem Fund
If you are a developer interested in building a project that drives yield or utility of the aUSD stablecoin on Acala or any other parachain, apply for funding from the $250 aUSD Ecosystem Fund. The aUSD Ecosystem Fund is part of the broader Acala Ecosystem Program, offering liquidity for new projects, Acala Foundation Grants, engineering support, and other support to ensure the success of the aUSD ecosystem.
Build on Acala
If you’re a team looking to build on Acala, integrate the aUSD stablecoin, get funding from the $250 million aUSD Ecosystem Fund, or receive support from Acala Grants, please get in touch with our team to chat about how we can support you.
About Acala
Acala is a decentralized finance network powering the aUSD ecosystem. The core product, Acala USD (aUSD), is a decentralized, multi-collateral, crypto-backed stablecoin serving as the native stablecoin of the Polkadot ecosystem. Acala’s Ethereum-compatible blockchain has built-in DeFi protocols for application developers to leverage, including a trustless staking derivative (liquid DOT — LDOT), a decentralized exchange, and the EVM+, a hybrid EVM offering fully Ethereum-compatible development environment plus full compatibility with Substrate.
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