Week in DeFi: Frax Leads LSD Race, MetaMask Hops on the Bandwagon

## What Is Dopex (DPX)?

[Dopex](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/dopex/) is a decentralized options protocol that targets liquidity maximization while minimizing losses for option writers and maximizing gains for option buyers. Dopex offers a simple and easy-to-use platform, meaning that anyone can participate in an option pool. Users can deposit base/quote for their respective pools, earn passive income by writing and purchase discounted options through liquidity pools. 

Moreover, option writers benefit from a rebate system for losses based on the exercised options for every monthly or weekly epoch. Rebates are calculated based on percentage losses incurred by options writers during a weekly epoch and then paid in the protocol’s rebate token [rDPX](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/dopex-rdpx/). Option pool participants receive a percentage of rPDX relative to their value of losses. Using this rebate system, options writers benefit from a higher return than they would have from hedging strategies. 


## Who Are the Founders of Dopex?

Dopex was founded in the spring 2021 and is run by an anonymous group of developers. Although the size and makeup of the team remains unclear, several team members can be identified via their Twitter accounts:



* [TzTok-Chad](https://twitter.com/tztokchad) (senior developer)
* [Casio](https://twitter.com/0xCasio) (product)
* [Witherblock](https://twitter.com/witherblock) (developer)
* [Halko](https://twitter.com/Halko500k) (probably also developer)
* [Hakho](https://twitter.com/polymmo) (UI)
* [Psytama](https://twitter.com/psytama7) (developer)

The project also enjoys the backing of several pseudonymous, well-known [whales](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/whale) from Crypto Twitter, such as [Tetranode](https://twitter.com/Tetranode), [DefiGod](https://twitter.com/DeFiGod1), and [DCV Capital](https://twitter.com/dcv_capital), a proclaimed collective of angel investors. Dopex stresses that it is not supported by VC funds and has no interest in cooperating with them. 


## What Makes Dopex Unique?

[Options](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/options-market) on Dopex are designed to mirror [Deribit](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/deribit/), the market leader in cryptocurrency options. Dopex offers European style options, meaning they can only be exercised at expiry. Options are fully backed by collateral either in the base asset (currently ETH and BTC) or the quote asset (USDT is used for settlement). They are issued as [ERC-20](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/erc-20) tokens and can be purchased from the Dopex Options AMM. This enables buyers to exchange them on any other AMM like [Uniswap](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/uniswap/) or [SushiSwap](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/sushiswap/), or potentially trade them over the counter and on centralized exchanges. 

Dopex uses “epochs” for accounting assets, option flows, and reward/rebate distribution of the DPX token as incentives for providing liquidity to the platform. Options have either weekly or monthly epochs. Options pools are permissionless, and anyone can become a liquidity provider and add options by adding base or quote assets to the pools. Liquidity providers can withdraw their liquidity at the end of an epoch. This allows LPs to earn passive yield with minimal interaction with the protocol while collecting rebates if the written options were not profitable. Moreover, options writers benefit from liquidity rewards in the bootstrapping phase of the protocol. Therefore, in contrast to traditional centralized options exchanges, users don’t have to look for liquid markets to provide liquidity manually, but can do so in an automated and simplified manner.

Buyers can swap their options for a different expiry and/or strike price and benefit from volume pools, allowing them to deposit funds before weekly global epochs. Moreover, buyers can use funds from the pool to purchase options from any option pool at a 5% discount. This allows for the creation of sophisticated option hedging strategies. In addition, Single Staking Options Vaults permits users to stake their DPX and rDPX while simultaneously selling them as call options to buyers. DPX holders can, thus, continue earning yield on their tokens and utilize them as productive assets. 


## Related Pages:

Check out [dYdX (DYDX)](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/dydx/) — a decentralized perpetual futures exchange.

Check out [Ribbon Finance (RBN)](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ribbon-finance/) — another decentralized options protocol.

Read our [deep dive into Injective Protocol, a decentralized trading exchange.](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-injective-protocol-inj-features-tokenomics-and-price-prediction)

Get the latest crypto news and latest trading insights with the [CoinMarketCap blog](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/categories/blog).


## How Many Dopex (DPX) Coins Are There in Circulation?

The total supply of DPX is 500,000. DPX is the protocol’s governance token used for voting on protocol and app-level proposals, which also accrues fees and revenues from pools, vaults, and wrappers built on the protocol. DPX is distributed as follows:



* Operational allocation (17%): distributed over five years. Governance community development, platform upgrades, operational costs.
* Liquidity mining (15%): distributed over two years.
* Platform rewards (30%): distributed over five years, incentivizing the use and maintenance of the protocol.
* Team (12%): 20% staked in liquidity pools, 80% vested for two years.
* Early investors and token sale (26%): 11% to early investors vested over six months, 15% to token sale.


## How Is the Dopex Network Secured?

Dopex launched on Arbitrum, a [layer-two](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/layer-2) scaling solution of [Ethereum](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/) that utilizes [optimistic rollups](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/optimistic-rollups-for-the-rest-of-us). Optimistic Rollups (ORs) can trustlessly record transactions on the second-layer blockchain and broadcast periodic merkle roots of the transactions to the first-layer blockchain. External validators verify these merkle roots, which delays withdrawing funds from layer-twos running on optimistic rollups (usually by one week). 


## Where Can You Buy Dopex (DPX)?

DPX is available on [Uniswap (V2)](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/dopex/) and [SushiSwap](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/sushiswap/).


Dopex

Trust Wallet

MetaMask

Ethereum

Shiba Inu

Chainlink

UNUS SED LEO

Uniswap

Lido DAO

Ondo

Aave

The Sandbox

SingularityNET

Wormhole

Pepe

Maker

Ethena

Quant

Mazze

Scotty The Ai

Oracle AI

X2Y2

Brett

Gains Network

GMX is a decentralized exchange (DEX) for trading perpetual cryptocurrency futures with up to 50X leverage on popular cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH and more. The platform launched in September 2021 as Gambit Exchange. To date, GMX has a total trading volume of over $130B and 283K total users, making it the leading derivatives DEX on Arbitrum and Avalanche.

GMX runs on the Arbitrum and the Avalanche blockchain. These ecosystems are connected to the exchange via Synapse — a cross-chain bridge.

The Frax Protocol is the first fractional-algorithmic stablecoin system. Frax is open-source, permissionless, and entirely on-chain – currently implemented on Ethereum (with possible cross chain implementations in the future). The end goal of the Frax protocol is to provide a highly scalable, decentralized, algorithmic money in place of fixed-supply digital assets like BTC. The protocol incorporates the following concepts:

Fractional-Algorithmic – Frax is a unique stablecoin with parts of its supply backed by collateral and parts of the supply algorithmic. The ratio of collateralized and algorithmic depends on the market's pricing of the FRAX stablecoin. If FRAX is trading at above $1, the protocol decreases the collateral ratio. If FRAX is trading at under $1, the protocol increases the collateral ratio.

Decentralized & Governance-minimized – Community governed and emphasizing a highly autonomous, algorithmic approach with no active management.

Fully on-chain oracles – Frax v1 uses Uniswap (ETH, USDT, USDC time-weighted average prices) and Chainlink (USD price) oracles.

Two Tokens – FRAX is the stablecoin targeting a tight band around $1/coin. Frax Shares (FXS) is the governance token which accrues fees, seigniorage revenue, and excess collateral value.

Before Frax, stablecoins were divided into three different categories: fiat collateralized, overcollateralized with cryptocurrency, and algorithmic with no collateral. Frax is the first kind of decentralized stablecoin to classify itself as fractional-algorithmic ushering in the 4th and most unique category.

Frax Share

Convex Finance is a DeFi protocol that allows Curve liquidity providersto earn a share of trading fees on Curve without staking liquidity there. Instead, LPs can stake with Convex and receive boosted CRV and liquidity mining rewards. This provides CRV stakers with better capital efficiency and positions Convex Finance as an important player in the Curve wars.

Convex has entered a competitive race to obtain as much control as possible of the Curve Finance stablecoin exchange. The more CRV tokens a protocol has, the more influence it has over interest rates on Curve, which is the largest DEX in the world by TVL. Consequently, the “Curve wars” are an ongoing race for influence over what is probably the most important protocol in DeFi.

Convex Finance

Stargate Finance (STG) is an omnichain-native asset bridge designed to solve the blockchain trilemma, which says that no blockchain can be decentralized, secure, and fast simultaneously. It does this by simplifying cross-chain DeFi transactions, which lets users transfer and swap their assets between different blockchains, layer-2 networks, and decentralized applications (dApps) almost instantly.

Stargate users can also move their assets between different liquidity pools on various decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and dApps. The protocol supports transfers between eight chains: Ethereum, Avalanche, Polygon, Metis, BNB Chain, Arbitrum, Optimism and Fantom.

The platform offers several other, profit-making features: users can supply liquidity pools, stake assets, and farm tokens. When users stake their assets, they can help govern the Stargate Finance Exchange.

Stargate Finance

Radiant Capital

Synapse (SYN) is an interoperability protocol designed for safely and securely sending arbitrary data between blockchains.

Its users can transfer and swap their assets across many different chains, including layer 1, layer 2 and sidechain ecosystems.

The project aims to improve inter-blockchain compatibility by helping its users move their assets between different networks more efficiently. In order to securely transfer its users' assets to and from different ecosystems, while maintaining slippage, liquidity pool balances, and transaction prices, Synapse uses a stableswap algorithm.

The Synapse ecosystem is made up of six parts: the Synapse Bridge technology, the cross-chain AMM, aggregative cross-chain communication, the SYN token, the Synapse Chain, and optimistic security approaches.

With Synapse’s generalized messaging system, any arbitrary data can be sent across chains in a secure and seamless way. Applications no longer have to be separately deployed across multiple blockchains; they can be deployed on a single chain and communicate with other chains to create the exact same user experience from one central application layer. Generic message passing also includes smart contract calls, enabling smart contracts on different chains to easily interoperate with one another.

Synapse Bridge allows users to seamlessly swap on-chain assets across 15+ EVM and non-EVM blockchains in a safe and secure manner. The bridge supports two types of bridging: Canonical Token Bridging — bridging of wrapped assets across chains; Liquidity-based Bridging — bridging of native assets across cross-chain stableswap pools.

Synapse Chain is an Ethereum-based optimistic rollup designed to serve as a sovereign execution environment for cross-chain use cases. Synapse Chain will offer developers a generalized smart contract interface for building natively cross-chain use cases by leveraging Synapse’s cross-chain messaging system. Applications built on Synapse Chain will be able to execute their business logic across any blockchain.

Synapse supports multiple EVM-compatible blockchains and is integrated with nearly 18 layer-1 and layer-2 chains, including Ethereum, Optimism, Arbitrum, Harmony, Avalanche, Polygon, Moonbeam, Fantom and BNB Chain.

Synapse

MAGIC is the utility token that connects gaming communities in the Treasure Metaverse: a decentralized NFT ecosystem which sits on Arbitrum, one of Ethereum’s Layer 2 scaling solutions.

MAGIC is a cross-game currency that connects games, players, metaverses, and communities, all within Web 3.0. The token was launched in September 2021 so its community could buy and sell in-game NFTs on Treasure. It also acts as a reserve currency for Treasure’s metaverse.

Players can earn MAGIC tokens by gaming, mining, and participating in Bridgeworld, Treasure’s flagship game. Treasure now hosts twelve other games on its platform, some of which allow you to use and generate MAGIC tokens like in Bridgeworld. These include Beacon, a free-to-play fantasy action rogue-lite RPG; and Realm, a world-building and exploration game.

Treasure

Metis is an Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution aiming to solve the blockchain trilemma: that blockchains cannot be decentralized, secure, and scalable simultaneously. It also strives to solve Ethereum's biggest challenges: speed, cost and scalability.

Metis wants to help developers create and manage existing decentralized applications (dApps), while also supporting developers and entrepreneurs who want to build and launch new dApps. It also integrates the Decentralized Autonomous Company (DAC) framework into its Layer 2 infrastructure to help developers and businesses move from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0.

Metis

Ethereum-based DYDX ($ethDYDX) is a governance token that allows the dYdX community to truly govern the dYdX Layer 2 Protocol built on Ethereum ("dYdX v3"). ethDYDX is currently undergoing a migration from Ethereum to the dYdX Chain. More information is available here. If you want to migrate ethDYDX to dYdX Chain DYDX, to enable staking, security and governance of the dYdX Chain you can follow the how-to-bridge guide here.

If you want to read about the new token utility for dYdX Chain DYDX you can read the blog here

ethDYDX (dYdX) is the governance token for the layer 2 protocol built on Ethereum. By enabling shared control of dYdX v3, ethDYDX allows traders, liquidity providers, and partners of dYdX to work collectively towards an enhanced dYdX v3.

Built on StarkWare’s StarkEx scalability engine, layer 2 is used for trading of cross-margined perpetuals on the platform. The scaling solution allows dYdX to increase transaction speed, eliminate gas costs, reduce trading fees and lower​​ minimum trade sizes on the protocol.

A total of 1,000,000,000 ethDYDX have been minted, and started to become accessible over five (5) years, on August 3rd, 2021, at 15:00:00 UTC.

dYdX (ethDYDX)

Alchemix

LooksRare is a decentralized, community-first NFT marketplace. The protocol was released on the Ethereum blockchain with an ERC-20 utility token — LOOKS — in January 2022.

The LooksRare platform enables individuals to trade non-fungible tokens, with an emphasis on rewarding users for their participation.

The LOOKS token serves a handful of functions within the LooksRare ecosystem:

100% of trading fees are earned by users who ‘commit’ their LOOKS in the form of Protocol Rewards

Every (non-private) trade incurs a Trading Reward, which acts as a LOOKS rebate for the fee paid on LooksRare trades (currently 0.5%, collected in ETH)

It can be used to participate in exclusive drops and other token-gated applications

LooksRare

Secret (SCRT) is a privacy-oriented blockchain built on Cosmos. Its smart contracts are called Secret Contracts and allow DApps to use private data on Secret, similar to how smart contracts operate on other blockchains. However, Secret Contracts transfer encrypted inputs into encrypted outputs without exposing data. This is made possible thanks to the encrypted contract states during the execution.

Data privacy is guaranteed by combining encryption protocols and key management within a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE). This allows Secret Contracts to compete for several privacy-related use cases that traditional blockchains have found difficult to accommodate. For instance, private voting mechanisms or credit scoring applications become possible since they do not expose sensitive user data on-chain with Secret.

Secret

Enzyme

Vulcan Forged is a blockchain game studio and NFT marketplace. They are the makers of VulcanVerse.

PYR  is the native utility token that is used for:

Fees for marketplace settlement

Staking in VulcanVerse land and other assets

Upgrading and sustaining game asset levels

Play-to-earn rewards

Access to our game developers and NFT dapp incubation program

Vulcan Forged Platforms and games include:

*VulcanVerse, a Grece-Roman fantasy metaverse made up of 10,000 plots of land

Anvil, a crypto-less and gas-free NFT engine for easy game and dApp onboarding

Vulcan Market, a gas free NFT marketplace for all Vulcan Forged games

Berserk, an NFT online TGG

Frenzy, a create-your-own tournament platform with PYR as it’s reward token.

Vulcan Forged (PYR)

JOE (JOE) is the native token of Trader Joe, a decentralized exchange (DEX) on the Avalanche (AVAX) blockchain that offers DeFi services, including swapping, staking and yield farming. The exchange has been growing rapidly, attracting over $4 billion in total value locked (TVL) since it was launched in June 2021. Trader Joe claims to take a community-first approach, and to prioritize innovation, speed and safety. It aims to provide a one-stop-shop DeFi experience and to integrate new products without compromising on security. To achieve this, Trader Joe has outlined an ambitious roadmap that focuses on token-holder growth. It plans to have improved staking, non-fungible-token (NFT) exchange listings, the collateralization of the JOE token, and leveraged trading –– all during 2021.

Ribbon uses financial engineering to create structured products that deliver sustainable yield. Ribbon's first product focuses on yield through automated options strategies. The protocol also allows developers to create arbitrary structured products through combining various DeFi derivatives.

Structured products are packaged financial instruments that use a combination of derivatives to achieve some specific risk-return objective, such as betting on volatility, enhancing yields or principal protection.

Theta Vault is a new product that automates a covered call strategy to earn high yield on ETH. The vault runs a covered call strategy and sells out of the money call options on a weekly basis for yield.

The primary risk for running this strategy is that depositors could potentially give up upside in exchange for guaranteed yield. By selling a call option, users are basically promising to sell the asset at the strike price, even if it goes above it (a.k.a selling early). Because of this, if the price of the asset moves up significantly in a short period of time, it is possible for depositors to have "negative yield" on their ETH.

However, this only happens if ETH/USD appreciates significantly, so depositors will still be up in USD terms. The vault also sells call options that are very out of the money, which means there is a relatively low chance of the options getting exercised.

Ribbon Finance

Wilder World

Curve is a decentralized exchange for stablecoins that uses an automated market maker (AMM) to manage liquidity.

Launched in January 2020, Curve is now synonymous with the decentralized finance (DeFi) phenomenon, and has seen significant growth in the second half of 2020.

In August, Curve launched a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), with CRV as its in-house token. The DAO uses Ethereum-based creation tool Aragon to connect multiple smart contracts used for users’ deposited liquidity. Issues such as governance, however, differ from Aragon in their weighting and other respects.

Curve DAO Token

Rocket Pool is a decentralized Ethereum staking pool offering up to 4.33% APR for ETH2 staking. Users can join the Rocket Pool with its decentralized node operator network or run their own nodes with only 16 ETH. In the latter case, they can earn a commission from staking ETH and earn additional RPL rewards from providing RPL collateral, amounting to up to 6.36% APR for ETH and the additional RPL rewards.

Rocket Pool provides liquid staking, meaning users benefit from an increasing exchange rate instead of adding on to their initial staked collateral, which would be a taxable event. Furthermore, Rocket Pool offers smart nodes: a custom node software allowing anyone to run a node on its network. With losses from bad nodes distributed across the network, individual users minimize their risk of facing penalties. This is supported by the pool’s open-source and audited smart contracts, which guarantee fully non-custodial staking and a maximum degree of decentralization.