1. What is #Synthetix?
Synthetix is a liquidity protocol based on Ethereum and Optimism that allows the issuance of synthetic assets.
Official X: @synthetix_io
Synthetic assets are assets that imitate other assets, such as securities, commodities or various financial instruments.
This concept also exists in traditional finance.
For example, commodity traders in traditional markets rarely trade physical gold bars or barrels of oil. Instead, they trade futures, whose value is determined by the underlying assets. In cryptocurrency, synthetic assets can be gold, fiat currencies, or even other cryptocurrencies. That is, those assets that may not be available to us.
The Synthetix protocol provides the infrastructure for issuing such assets (by minting) synthetic coins, such as synthetic versions of BTC (sBTC) or US dollars (sUSD). This collateral comes in the form of the Synthetix Network Token (SNX).
Synthetix also supports futures and options trading markets. While Synthetix does not provide its own trading platforms, it does provide the internal financial infrastructure and liquidity needed to operate them.
2. History of creation.
Synthetix was originally called Havven and was created in 2017.
Its white paper was written by Samuel Brooks, Anton Jurisevic, Michael Spain and Kane Warwick. At the time, Havven was intended to be a stablecoin protocol similar to the Maker protocol that issues DAI.
However, in 2018, the company was renamed Synthetix and also shifted its focus to the production and trading of synthetic assets.
3. Tokenomics.
$SNX - used for staking and decentralized governance.
49.91% — Staking;
19.20% — Private Sale;
18.49% — Team;
4.62% — Foundation;
3.05% — Public Sale;
1.93% — Partnership Incentives;
1.16% — Bounties/Airdrop;
0.87% — Pre-Sale;
0.77% — Advisors.
In circulation: ~326.5 million tokens.
Total supply: ~327.2 million tokens.
Maximum supply: ~327.2 million tokens.
4. Financing.
Инвестиции: Framework Ventures, Paradigm, Coinbase Ventures, ParaFi Capital, Jump Capital, IOSG Ventures, AU21 Capital, Genblock Capital, George Burke, Synapse Network, DWF Labs, Three Arrows Capital, SVK Crypto, DeFiance Capital.
Attracted: 65.38 million
5. How does Synthetix work?
To create synthetic assets, traders are required to provide collateral in SNX tokens.
However, the value of the pledged SNX must be greater than the value of the minted synthetic assets to account for the potential volatility of SNX. This creates excess collateral.
Stakers also receive more#SNXfor providing liquidity.
The price of synthetic tokens is determined by Chainlink price oracles.
Likewise, the Synthetix protocol provides liquidity to various trading platforms.
Today Synthetix is integrated into various trading protocols including Kwenta, Lyra, Curve, 1inch and Decentrex.
6. Statistics.
The total value locked (TVL) on Synthetix reached an impressive $680.89 million.
In addition, approximately $250.79 million in derivatives were traded using the protocol over the past 24 hours.
These are impressive amounts for the DeFi topic, especially in a bear market.
Conclusion
Synthetix has implemented one of the most non-trivial and useful protocols on Ethereum.
The project managed to implement a complex model for providing liquidity in DeFi.
In addition, Synthetix also has a resilient business model that allows it to earn revenue and remain profitable even in adverse market conditions.
Of course, it has inherent risks of hacking, vulnerability, etc. Therefore, you need to be able to work with DeFi tools and do it carefully 😏
