Balancer will release Balancer V3 this year. Understand the current situation of Balancer

Author: Jake Pahor, encryption researcher; Translator: Golden Finance xiaozou

Aave, Gyroscope and Beethoven X have this in common: they are all based on the powerful Balancer technology stack. And with the upcoming release of V3, Balancer is about to bring a truly game-changing upgrade.

This article is the latest research report of Balancer in February 2024, including the following content: 1. Overview, 2. Use cases, 3. Adoption, 4. Benefits, 5. Token Economics, 6. Vault, 7. Governance, 8. Team & Investors, 9. Competitors, 10. Risk & Audit, 11. Conclusion.

Balancer is a decentralized AMM protocol at its core. However, when you dig deeper, you'll find that its team is building a robust technology stack that serves as a liquidity center for:

·  New AMMs/DEXs under development

· Income assets

·  ;DAO governance

Balancer is not only a forward-looking DEX, but also a basic technology that cultivates future DeFi innovation.

Its unique architecture simplifies the process of bringing unique financial technologies to market.

For example, Aave, Beethoven X, Radiant and Fjord.

Balancer V3 is expected to be released this year (second quarter of 2024), which is what I am most looking forward to.

V3 promises to build on the innovation of V2 to promote the development of Balancer into:

·  ;DeFi Revenue Center

· Launchpad release platform for innovative AMM deployment

Balancer TVL is currently $915 million. Ranked 23rd among all DeFi protocols and 4th among other DEX protocols.

Although it is still 72% lower than the US$3.31 billion in November 2011, Balancer TVL has been on a slow upward trend since July 2022. A solid foundation was formed.

In the past 30 days, Balancer:

· Incurred $1.5 million in expenses

· Created US$649,000 in revenue

According to data from Defillama, Balancer Ranked 35th overall among all DeFi protocols and 6th among DEXs.

As of August 2023, the protocol charges 50% swap fees and 50% wrapper token revenue fees for non-exempt pools.

There are two main tokens in the ecosystem:

· BAL -- Governance Tokens

· veBAL -- time-locked BAL (80:20)

The ve8020 proposal by Balancer is an innovative way to solve some of the unilateral staking issues faced by DAO governance token economics (such as Curve).

Let's look at some key differences in detail:

· User lock 80 /20 BAL/WETH Balancer pool token instead of simply locking BAL to obtain veBAL. Deep liquidity is ensured even if the majority of BAL tokens are locked.

· The maximum lock-in period is 1 year, which is shorter than veCRV’s 4-year lock-in period.

The current supply data is as follows:

· Circulating supply: 54.78 million pieces

· Maximum supply: 96.15 million pieces

· Market value: US$195 million< /p>

· FDV: US$342 million

· Market value/FDV: 57%

Balancer's treasury is currently worth US$23.77 million. Includes:

· BAL valued at US$19.59 million

· valued at US$236 Ten thousand US dollars in other tokens (ARB, AETHBAL)

· Stablecoins worth US$1.43 million

· $390,000 worth of BTC and ETH

These funds are currently held by the DAO multi-signature wallet.

Balancer has deployed a reliable decentralized governance process that has been running for quite some time.

In addition, they also released the ve8020 proposal, which aims to significantly enhance the token economics of traditional DAO governance.

Balancer was founded in 2018 by Fernando Martinelli and Mike McDonald.

Since its inception, Balancer has successfully raised US$39.25 million.

Investors are well-known institutions such as Pantera Capital, Blockchain Capital, CoinFund, Fenbushi Capital and Arbitrum Foundation.

Balancer is a prominent DEX, and its competing platforms include Uniswap, Curve, PancakeSwap, Sushi and Thorchain.

However, Balancer positions itself as the best AMM and technology stack for new projects, enabling rapid expansion and construction.

In 2023, Balancer experienced two major vulnerability attacks. One of them attacked the V2 pool, while the other was an attack on the front end.

It is worth noting that Balancer has gone through multiple rounds of audits and maintains a high-value bug bounty program (the maximum reward is US$1 million).

Balancer keeps a low profile, and its team has been constantly developing useful innovative products.

Upcoming catalysts are:

· Balancer V3 upgrade

· The growth of LSTs and yield-based stablecoins

· Governance Token Economics  ;-- ve8020 pool

The total weighted score is 8.55 points.