To say that November was a pivotal month for DeFi would be a massive understatement. Polymarket became a discussion in everyday households, while pro-crypto candidates outperformed in the US Elections. With excitement returning to the industry, we've also seen rising vlAURA voting incentives.
Now that gas isn't regularly 1 gwei, having the option to earn vlAURA yields on Base, paid out weekly in USDC, is an increasingly attractive option for the non-whales.
$HYPER now streaming:
The Hyperlock franchise continues to operate as the primary source of boosted yield in the Blast ecosystem. As part of the franchise terms, 9% of the $HYPER supply will be streamed to vlAURA holders over three years.
And now, the weekly $HYPER stream has officially started!
Claim your rewards at http://app.hyperlock.finance/#/claim. To get started earning voting rewards, lock your tokens at http://app.hyperlock.finance/#/lock. Once locked, you can self-delegate or delegate to @HiddenHandFi to begin earning rewards.
Speaking of rewards, the Hyperlock flywheel has started spinning. 👀
A newer (and unaudited, DYOR) protocol has sprung up on Aura. Users can deposit $AURA and receive $kaiAURA, representing vlAURA in Kai. $kaiAURA can then be staked, and because not all $kaiAURA is staked, users earn a boosted yield. Keep in mind that converting $AURA to $kaiAURA is irreversible, and secondary market liquidity is limited.
Balancer v3 - Fee Optimization
Although we'd typically save governance updates for a bit later, this one is worth highlighting even though it's still under discussion. Balancer earns significant revenue from a specialized fee capture system on pools with yield-bearing assets. This proposal aims to reduce these fees, along with several other optimizations, from 50% to 10%, making it much easier to onboard protocols and liquidity providers.
But what about the revenue and yield flowing to $auraBAL? One exciting feature of v3 is the launch of Boosted Pools, where 100% of assets get deposited into yield-generating markets like Aave and Morpho. This makes LPing more profitable as you now have two sources of yield. Backtesting in the proposal showed that:
- LPs experience a 407% increase in income from boosted yield and reduced yield fees
- Protocol yield fee revenue maintains 56% of current levels even with the reduced fee capture, assuming no change in TVL
Join the discussion:
https://forum.balancer.fi/t/bip-734-balancer-v3-launch-and-protocol-enhancements/6168/4
Gyroscrope continues its expansion
November saw the passing of six new E-CLP gauges.
On Ethereum: cbBTC/WBTC and cbETH/wstETH
On Base: cbETH/wstETH and three differently calibrated WETH/USDC
Pools built by Gyroscope on top of Balancer regularly drive>10% of all Balancer trading volume, with high liquidity utilization and, in turn, earning fees for the protocol. As the bedrock of amm innovation, Balancer makes it easier for protocols like Gyroscope to iterate rapidly.
Other New Gauges
