November 27, 2024
The following post contains a recap of news, projects, and important updates from the Spartan Council and Core Contributors from last week.
👉TLDR
- Meme Competition: Create a Synthetix-related meme and post it in #memes in the Synthetix Discord for a chance to win! 1st place: 100M $PEPE, 2nd place: 50M $PEPE. Voting tallied by emoji reactions.
- New Perps markets on Kwenta: $CAT, $DEGEN, $PNUT, and $SLERF meme tokens now live on Kwenta and available to trade on Base and Arbitrum chains.
- TLX Acquisition Proposal: Governance proposal has been drafted for Synthetix to acquire TLX and launch “Synthetix Vaults” as the newest product line. See below for more details.
- $USDC to $sUSD Wrapper on Optimism: Key changes — deploying a USDC wrapper with a $70M cap, phasing out the USDe wrapper, and zero fees.
- Synthetix.io Subdomains: As part of improving user experience, you can visit your favorite Synthetix pages on the synthetix.io domain. Navigate to staking.synthetix.io/ for V2 and liquidity.synthetix.io/ for V3.
- Coinbase 50: $SNX has made it into the Coinbase 50 Index!
- Fenway Blog Post: Fenway posted a blog last week reflecting on some of the progress made since Synthetix Referendum 2 (SR-2) and discussing what’s to come, see below for key takeaways.
Spartan Council and SIP updates
Happy Thanksgiving to our Spartans in the US! 🦃 While the year may be winding down, Synthetix is ramping up more than ever. We’ve got a lot of juicy updates for you guys this week, so let’s dive in.
Starting out with a high-level strategic update: it was confirmed last week that most of the ETH in the Treasury is now being staked, and the proceeds will be used to the benefit of the protocol and ecosystem. Some of the ETH was used to boost wstETH liquidity supporting multi-collateral Perps. There is also a meme challenge currently active in an effort to boost community engagement, we’ll get into the details later in this blog.
All in all, the new Synthetix team has been focused on the Kwenta acquisition and the roadmap consolidation over the past few weeks, but regular meetings and SIP presentations will be resuming sometime in December and comms will be coming shortly on the Kwenta transition. Now let’s get into a more detailed update!
Meme Competition
Starting off strong, Synthetix is bringing back DeFi summer vibes just like it promised — with a meme competition! Anyone can enter: just create a meme related to Synthetix and post it in the #memes channel in the Synthetix Discord before December 2nd. Voting will be tallied based on Discord reactions to your post, and final voting will take place on December 3rd with Discord emojis. Prizes will be as follows:
- 🥇1st place: 100 million $PEPE
- 🥈2nd place: 50 million $PEPE
- Plus, Synthetix Guardians have 100 $SNX to bless their favorite meme with some extra love.
So get creative, Spartans! Topics can be anything Synthetix-related, but here are some ideas courtesy of the Synthetix X account: Multi-collateral cross-margin V3 Perps, Synthetix launch on Solana, Perps on Arbitrum, BFP, SNAX chain, Kwenta + Synthetix = unstoppable, upcoming launches & alpha. The world is your oyster!
Live on Kwenta: $CAT, $DEGEN, $PNUT, and $SLERF
And speaking of memes, 4 new Perps markets are now live on Kwenta and available to trade on Base and Arbitrum chains. $CAT is based on Simon’s Cat, $DEGEN is a meme-inspired reward token for Farcaster users that fuels a unique tipping system, $PNUT is based on Peanut the Squirrel, and $SLERF is a memecoin with a doxed dev team, united community, and support from several crypto influencers. Explore these new markets alongside 80+ others, all with portfolio margin and multicollateral deposits on Synthetix V3 via Kwenta!
TLX Acquisition Proposal
A governance proposal has been drafted for Synthetix to acquire TLX and launch “Synthetix Vaults” as the newest product line. TLX is a leveraged token protocol powered exclusively by the Synthetix v2x perps platform on Optimism. This is an exciting first step towards producing native vaults that leverage the composability of Synthetix and give users frictionless access to high-quality structured products.
Should the acquisition be approved by both communities, Synthetix plans to launch a wide variety of vaults over the coming months to expand the core platform with innovative new financial products — starting with leverage token vaults and expanding towards yield-generating strategies (i.e., basis trade capture, funding rate arbitrage) and other actively managed strategies. There will be a governance call today to discuss the proposed acquisition of TLX, so tune in!
$USDC to $sUSD Wrapper on Optimism
Synthetix has introduced a $USDC to $sUSD wrapper on Optimism with a $70M cap and zero fees for easier ways to convert to sUSD. This upgrade includes two key changes: deploying a USDC wrapper with a $70 million cap and phasing out the USDe wrapper (cap reduced to zero) once major integrators implement support for the new USDC wrapper.
Synthetix.io Subdomains
You can now visit your favorite Synthetix pages on the synthetix.io domain! Navigate to staking.synthetix.io/ for V2 and liquidity.synthetix.io/ for V3. Links have also been updated in the docs, and some changes may take time to propagate. Eth.limo versions will remain as backups, and keep an eye out for further improvements on how to navigate across the Synthetix ecosystem and products.
Coinbase 50
$SNX has made it into the Coinbase 50 Index! This index (COIN50) tracks the performance of the 50 largest and most liquid digital assets by market cap. It applies a fundamental and market eligibility criteria screen to ensure investability. 50 tokens were selected with consideration of token economics, blockchain architecture, security, and broad coverage of the crypto market. And Synthetix was one of them!
Fenway Blog Post
Lastly, Fenway posted a blog last week reflecting on some of the progress made since Synthetix Referendum 2 (SR-2). In the post he expresses both optimism and urgency about the direction Synthetix is heading in, emphasizing a renewed sense of accountability, innovation, and community engagement. Let’s discuss the key takeaways from this post:
Strategic Changes and Actions
- Kwenta Acquisition: A key early milestone was acquiring Kwenta, which now means Synthetix has control over its front-end, allowing for improved user experience and brand visibility.
- More Product Launches: The acquisition of Kwenta is just one of many changes underway. There are more product launches in the pipeline, though the details are mostly kept under wraps for now.
- Partnerships & Integrations: Synthetix is focusing on growing its partnerships, and there may be additional acquisitions or integrations down the line (TLX 👀). The aim is to be more proactive about bringing new products and services to the platform.
Focus on Community and Marketing
- The Synthetix community — historically known as passionate, innovative, and creative — is being reinvigorated. The SC and CCs see this as a strength to leverage in the coming months, as the Spartan spirit is essential to driving the protocol forward.
- Increased emphasis on product marketing: The front-end revamp, starting with Kwenta, will be a crucial element in this. The community is expected to help generate content and hype around Synthetix once again.
Roadmap for 2025
- SNX Token: The SNX token will be placed at the center of Synthetix again, with a token redesign proposal expected to surface in 2024. This redesign aims to improve the utility and incentives around SNX.
- Snaxchain: Snaxchain is live and will play a critical role in the evolution of Synthetix’s perpetual markets. There’s a more fundamental change to the perp markets being developed, though it’s taking time to perfect.
- Synth Teleporters: This feature, which was originally a part of Synthetix’s 2025 vision, remains in consideration and may still play a role in snaxchain’s operationalization.
- Synthetix V3: The community should expect further updates on perp V3 features, especially around decentralized and centralized trading experiences.
- New Markets: Plans include expanding to Solana, SUI, and Base in addition to launching V3 perps on Ethereum mainnet in 2025.
- Solving the User Experience Gap: Expect continued iteration on products and features to close the gap between centralized and decentralized markets.
Treasury Strategy
- The Synthetix Treasury, worth over $25M in non-SNX assets, will no longer be passively managed. Strategic treasury management will become more active, with goals of:
- Strategic Asset Allocation: Purchasing promising tokens (like VELO or AERO) to support Synthetix’s growth.
- Optimizing Current Holdings: For example, staking ETH to generate additional revenue for the treasury.
- Empowering Products: Using the treasury to provide incentives that drive trader adoption of the platform.
- The focus is not just on incremental improvements to existing products but on reimagining and reinventing the decentralized derivatives market. With renewed community engagement, a strategic roadmap for 2025, and a revamped organizational structure, Synthetix is positioning itself to once again be a leader in the DeFi space.
Fenway believes that success lies in maintaining momentum by delivering innovative products, rebuilding the brand, optimizing the Treasury, and most importantly, leveraging the community’s energy and creativity to drive the protocol forward.
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SIP/SCCP status tracker:
SIP-412: Acquire TLX and Launch Synthetix Vaults, Status: draft
