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

##  What Is Premia (PREMIA)?

[Premia](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/premia/) (PREMIA) is a [decentralized](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized) token that aims to be the next generation [options](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/options-market) [automated market maker](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/automated-market-maker-amm) (AMM) provider and [metavaults](https://docs.premia.finance/providing-liquidity/meta-vaults-aggregated-pool-strategies). It aims to deliver the best prices to users while bringing [peer-to-pool](https://docs.premia.finance/) [derivatives](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/derivatives-market) trading and capital efficiency to [decentralized finance](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/defi) (DeFi) options.

Premia facilitates the buying and selling of options, allowing users to earn market yield on DeFi assets and offers protection to users through the hedging of risks. \
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With the goal of providing universal access to the top DeFi products, Premia is powered by a financial infrastructure that features permissionless access to all users. Premia also has a heavy focus on [research](https://docs.premia.finance/), with one of its goals being to offer open access to the top research and innovation in the DeFi world.

 \
The Premia network utilizes social media network platforms for greater accessibility and ease of usage, such as a Telegram channel where users can get fast updates. Premia also provides information to users, both current and potential ones, through its [Medium blog](https://medium.premia.finance/) and [Twitter account](https://twitter.com/PremiaFinance). It also engages with its community of users on Discord and Github. 


## Who Are the Founders of Premia (PREMIA)?

The developers of Premia are currently semi-anonymous, which is not uncommon for projects like this in the crypto space. The team goes by the collective name of “members of the Premia republic.” They have currently not announced any plans for doxxing at the moment.


## What Makes Premia (PREMIA) Unique?

Premia is unique in that it is built on a DeFi-native options architecture.

This features market-sensitive pricing to allow for fair pricing based on supply and demand. It also uses a continuous [on-chain](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/on-chain) reinforcement learning algorithm to achieve crowd-sourced pricing, so that it can hit the target market price and liquidity utilization rate. Finally, it promises capital-efficient markets that even the least liquid tokens can achieve fair market price while using the least amount of capital.

With its strong market-centric mechanisms, PREMIA tokens are distributed to stakeholders based on the size of their position and the economics of capital, driving prices toward market clearing amounts. 

Compared to other peer-to-pool options protocols, Premia stands out because it prices options on market activity to ensure optimal pool utilization and offers risk management to [liquidity providers](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/liquidity-provider). \
 \
Premia’s [liquidity pools](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/liquidity-pool) are unique in that there is selectivity in the markets they overwrite, which deviates from other tokens that overwrite the entire market. The way the liquidity pools are designed allows for lower slippage when the first options are purchased from the pool.  \
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In addition, the liquidity pools are designed to strategically give out funds across the base level Put/[Call](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/call-options) pools. These smart pools are entrenched with numerous strategies and dynamic adjustments. Examples of such strategies include shorting volatility for specific assets and options arbitrage between different platforms.

Liquidity pools also feature fair accounting that takes into consideration the duration of time that users and their capital have spent in the pools, such that liquidity is arranged in a first-in first-out sequence.


## Related Pages

Learn how to [protect your crypto holdings and increase your crypto wealth](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/protecting-and-appreciating-crypto-wealth-with-options) using options here.

Learn how to [hedge against impermanent loss](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/hedging-against-impermanent-loss-a-deep-dive-with-finnexus-options) with this guide by FinNexus.

Find out more about [pooled liquidity in DeFi options](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/a-deep-dive-into-pooled-liquidity-in-defi-options-finnexus) in this deep dive.

What is web 3.0? [Click here](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-web-3-0) and find out.

Visit CoinMarketCap [Alexandria](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/) to learn everything you need to know about cryptocurrency and more.


## How Many Premia (PREMIA) Coins are There in Circulation?

As of October 2021, there are 10.6 million Premia coins in circulation, out of a total maximum supply of 100 million coins.


## How Is the Premia (PREMIA) Network Secured?

Premia has been audited and passed its security check by CertiK. 


## Can Premia (PREMIA) Coin Hit $10?

As of Oct. 14, 2021, the current value of PREMIA tokens stands around $2.75, almost increasing by 3X from the price of $0.90 on Oct. 10, 2021. Given the PREMIA exponential price rally, it might have the momentum to rally even further. A $10 price would imply a 3.6X increase from the current price, which should not be hard to achieve if Premia is able to continue gathering momentum and gaining more users on its platform.


## Where Can You Buy Premia (PREMIA)?

Premia is listed on several cryptocurrency exchanges. Among them: [Sushiswap](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/sushiswap/), [1inch Exchange](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/1inch-exchange/), [Hotbit](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/hotbit/) and [Hoo](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/hoo/).

Cryptocurrency newbie? You can read more about how to enter the market and how to buy BTC, PREMIA or any other token on CoinMarketCap’s very own educational portal — [Alexandria](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/).

Premia

Trust Wallet

MetaMask

Ethereum

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Chainlink

UNUS SED LEO

Uniswap

Aave

Ondo

SingularityNET

Fetch.ai

Gala

Lido DAO

Worldcoin

Axie Infinity

Maker

Bitget Token

CateCoin

Wibx

X2Y2

KAP Games

Calcium

Gains Network

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

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

Alchemix

Pendle

Keep3rV1 is a decentralized platform designed to facilitate the coordination between projects that need to source outside development operations and those who can provide those required services. Essentially, the project serves as a job board that facilitates the interaction between job posters, such as decentralized finance protocols, and job executors, known as Keepers. The tasks performed by Keepers range from submitting and calling transactions on-chain to completing complex operations off-chain. Keep3rV1 uses an ERC-20 token, KP3R, for governance and to provide rewards to Keepers.

The project was first announced on Oct. 22, 2020. It launched on the Ethereum mainnet in beta mode on Oct. 28, 2020.

Keep3rV1

Perpetual Protocol is a decentralized exchange (DEX) for futures on Ethereum and xDai. Traders can go long or short with up to 10X leverage on a growing number of assets like BTC, ETH, DOT, SNX, YFI and others. Trading is non-custodial, meaning traders always retain possession of their assets, and on-chain. Perpetual Protocol utilizes a virtual automated market maker (vAMM), which provides on-chain liquidity with predictable pricing set by constant product curves. Furthermore, Perpetual Protocol designed its vAMMs to be market-neutral and fully collateralized.

The declared vision of Perpetual Protocol is to create the world’s best, most accessible, and most secure decentralized derivatives trading platform. By building on our DeFi projects and allowing projects to build on Perpetual Protocol, the company embraces the “DeFi money lego” ethos. After hitting a number of milestones in its roadmap, such as launching staking pools and implementing limit and stop-orders, Perpetual Protocol plans to expand to other chains, introduce leveraged tokens, and launch dynamic liquidity in its pools.

Perpetual Protocol

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

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.

Radiant Capital

Founded in 2018, SuperRare is the leading curated marketplace for onchain art with more than US$300M in total sales and US$180M earned by artists. As one of the earliest champions of perpetual artist royalties, SuperRare is working to improve discovery while decentralising the art market. Core to SuperRare is $RARE, a token offering utility as a currency on the marketplace, a staking based reputation system, and DAO governance rights.

SuperRare is governed by $RARE token holders through RareDAO and sits atop Rare Protocol, an ecosystem focused on unifying the currently fragmented NFT landscape to supercharge the industry’s ability to revolutionise the economics of human creativity through onchain innovation.

SuperRare

Gnosis (GNO) builds decentralized infrastructure on Ethereum. Its mission has always been centered on experimentation and building decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem. When Gnosis was founded in 2015, it focused on building prediction markets to enable worldwide access to accurate information. While creating the prediction market platform, it became clear that Gnosis needed to build the infrastructure required to support it. Gnosis Safe, for example, was born of necessity.

Gnosis operates as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) which provides infrastructure for various types of decentralized applications (dApps), and builds products to transparently guide decisions on the development, support and governance of its ecosystem.

In November 2021, both the xDAI and GnosisDAO community voted to combine their vibrant ecosystems to create the Gnosis Chain: An Ethereum forerunner-companion that addresses scaling issues through solid engineering.

Gnosis

Smart contracts often struggle to access dependable data, but application programming interfaces (APIs) have been touted as a solution to this problem.

API3’s stated goal is to allow decentralized versions of APIs to be built, managed and monetized at scales. As blockchain technology plays an ever bigger role in the economy — from decentralized finance to supply chain management — the team behind this project says it has never been more important for smart contracts to provide “timely, reliable real-world data.”

The whitepaper for API3 was unveiled in September 2020 and set out the main problem that’s associated with APIs at present: connectivity. At present, there’s no way for smart contracts to establish a direct connection with APIs for the latest data — and this has led to an explosion in the popularity of oracles.

Although this has helped solve the problem to some extent, the industry has since been grappling with the “Blockchain Oracle Problem.” Oracles are a form of middleware that sit in between APIs and smart contracts — increasing costs and centralization. API3 intends to get around this problem by enabling API providers to operate their very own nodes.

API3’s token went live at the start of December following on from a token sale that generated tens of millions of dollars.

API3

Balancer is an automated market maker (AMM) that was developed on the Ethereum blockchain and launched in March 2020. It was able to raise a $3M seed round by Placeholder and Accomplice. Balancer protocol functions as a self-balancing weighted portfolio, price sensor and liquidity provider. It allows users to earn profits through its recently introduced token ($BAL) by contributing to customizable liquidity pools.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Balancer(https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-balancer.

The protocol operates a few types of pools:

Private pools give the owner governance over the pool, and make the person the sole contributor of liquidity to the pool. Also, all the parameters are mutable by the owner.

Shared pools are for those who want to become liquidity providers (LPs). The LPs are rewarded with the Balancer Pool Tokens (BPTs).

Smart pools are similar to private pools but are controlled by a smart contract. They also reward using BPTs and allow anyone to contribute liquidity to the pool.

Balancer

Synthetix is building a decentralized liquidity provisioning protocol that any protocol can tap into for various purposes. Its deep liquidity and low fees serve as a backend for many exciting protocols on both Optimism and Ethereum. Many user-facing protocols in the Synthetix ecosystem, such as Kwenta (Spot and Futures), Lyra (Options), Polynomial (Automated Options), and 1inch & Curve (Atomic Swaps), tap into Synthetix liquidity to power their protocols. Synthetix is built on Optimism and Ethereum mainnet. The Synthetix Network is collateralized by SNX, ETH, and LUSD, enabling the issuance of synthetic assets (Synths). Synths track and provide returns on the underlying asset without requiring one to directly hold the asset. This pooled collateral enables an array of on-chain, composable financial instruments backed by liquidity from Synthetix. Some of the most exciting upcoming releases from SNX are Perps V2, which hopes to enable low-fee on-chain futures trading through the usage of off-chain oracles, and Synthetix V3, which aims to rebuild the protocol to achieve its earliest goal, being a fully permissionless derivatives protocol. Learn more about Synthetix on their blog or by joining the SNX Discord.

The platform aims to broaden the cryptocurrency space by introducing non-blockchain assets, providing access to a more robust financial market.

Synthetix

Router Protocol

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.