May 3, 2022
In this new monthly transmission from Mission Control, we cover everything that’s happened on Mars over the past month including the dawn of governance, adding new assets to the Red Bank and raising caps in the Fields of Mars.
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More than 18,000 wallet addresses have interacted with Mars Protocol since its launch less than 8 weeks ago.
The total number of MARS staked is growing steadily as it approaches 40 million tokens.
Overall, the Total Value Locked (TVL) in the protocol stands at $267 million with much of the fluctuation driven by changes in price of the underlying tokens deposited in the protocol. New and increased credit lines in the Fields of Mars should ultimately drive higher APYs in the Red Bank, which may in turn attract fresh deposits over time.
Mars’ first-ever governance vote went live on April 6. In it, Delphi Labs proposed adding Anchor Protocol (ANC) tokens to the Red Bank. Voters overwhelmingly approved the proposal, and ANC tokens are now available for deposit and borrowing on Mars. After going live on April 11, the protocol has already attracted nearly $9 million in ANC deposits. Learn more.
OnApril 30, Mars builders released source code for a complete Mars UI, which anyone can use to deploy their own front-end that interacts with Mars’ smart contracts.
Specifically, users can:
The UI release was modified to differentiate it from the design at marsprotocol.io. With the new theme, designers paid homage to Curve.fi’s retro UI — perhaps the most recognizable in all of DeFi. Learn more and find links to the source code here.
The Terra yield management and auto-compounding platform Apollo DAO is the first third-party protocol to explore obtaining a credit line for Mars. Apollo’s currently seeking feedback on their strategy before pursuing a governance vote. Here’s an excerpt from their request for comment in the forums:
We propose providing Apollo DAO with access to a credit line from Mars to enable ANC-UST leveraged yield farming on Apollo. This would initially be for the ANC-UST Astroport based vault and would allow users to leverage their vault positions.
Apollo DAO currently has $40m in TVL and provides users access to a large number of auto-compounding Terra vaults. Apollo will continue to add new vaults, including bLuna/Luna, stLuna/Luna, nLuna and nEth. We also provide other benefits, such as being able to farm Apollo tokens, with all revenue that Apollo generates going to the Warchest.
By enabling a credit line for Apollo DAO, it would increase UST borrowing from Mars, incentivising more deposits to Mars and increasing Mars’ profitability and fees.
In the future, Apollo also aims to boost their vaults through Astroport’s “Boosties”. The combination of leveraged yield farming, Astroport “Boosties” and Apollo rewards will provide unrivaled rewards for farmers driving borrowing demand on Mars.
The Apollo Warchest also holds nearly 300k Mars tokens, which provides Apollo DAO with a direct incentive to help Mars grow, but also a strong incentive to maintain the safety and security of Mars’ funds. Apollo’s initial implementation of leverage yield farming is heavily based on the leverage yield farming contracts created by the Mars team, with only a few small modifications, which will allow us to provide Apollo rewards to farmers.
Join the conversation here: https://forum.marsprotocol.io/t/mrc-5-extend-credit-line-for-apollo-anc-ust-astroport-strategy/379
The Martian Council voted on May 1 to raise the caps for two leveraged yield farming strategies in the Fields of Mars:
Both strategies, which engage in farming on Astroport, were at or near capacity since launch. After the imminent launch of the higher credit lines, more users will have access to these popular strategies. And since all borrowed funds come from the Red Bank , they should help generate APY for the Red Bank.
Follow Mars on Twitter to get notified when the cap raises go live or enter the Fields now: https://app.marsprotocol.io/#/fields.
Two recent forum posts are seeking comment on adding stLUNA and LUNAX as collateral assets for lending and borrowing on the Red Bank.
From the stLUNA forum post:
Background
Lido is a liquid staking derivative platform that allows users to earn staking rewards on the Ethereum, Solana and Terra blockchains without them locking their tokens or maintaining staking infrastructure. On Terra, Lido handles staking on users’ behalf through the liquid stLUNA token. stLUNA tokens represent a tokenized staking deposit and can be held, traded, or sold.
Motivation
There is strong demand for staked Luna on Terra. Currently, 20% of Luna is staked with bLuna. stLuna is an upgrade of bLuna on Terra which improves Terra’s liquid staking utility and decentralization. More information here.
The addition of stLuna on Mars would benefit the decentralization and security of the Terra network, benefiting the Terra ecosystem as a whole. Furthermore, holders of stLuna would be able to use their stLuna as collateral to borrow other assets while earning staking rewards on top. This will attract a larger audience to Mars as market participants borrow against their stLuna or lend their stLuna for yield. Ultimately, this will generate more fees for Mars with the new borrow demand.
Share your feedback here: https://forum.marsprotocol.io/t/mrc-6-new-asset-listing-stluna/382
And here’s an excerpt from the LUNAX forum post:
Background
Stader 3 is a non-custodial smart contract based staking platform that provides staking solutions, including liquid staking and other staking strategies. Their liquid staking token LunaX allows users to earn staking rewards and air drops on the Terra Blockchain without them locking their tokens or maintaining staking infrastructure. LunaX is an auto-compounding accrual token that can be minted when users stake with Stader using the liquid staking pool. LunaX tokens represent a tokenized staking deposit and can be held, traded, or sold.
Motivation
Stader promotes decentralization by spreading stake across multiple best-in-class validators selected based on transparent, objective performance criteria. The addition of LunaX on Mars would thus encourage the decentralization and security of the Terra network, benefiting the Terra ecosystem as a whole.
Furthermore, holders of LunaX would be able to use their LunaX as collateral to borrow other assets while accumulating staking rewards on top. This will attract a larger audience to Mars as market participants borrow against their LunaX and/or lend it out for a yield. Ultimately, this will generate more fees for Mars with the new demand.
Share your feedback here: https://forum.marsprotocol.io/t/mrc-7-new-asset-listing-lunax-token/394
With the successful passage of MRC-0: The Mars Improvement Proposal (MIPs) Framework, Mars now has a standardized process for voting on and executing protocol changes. The full framework is available on Github and gives anyone the ability to propose upgrades to Mars.
The Delphi Labs team recently posted a Mars Request for Comment in the Mars Forums to gauge sentiment on boosting the credit line for the ANC-UST leveraged yield farming strategy on Astroport from $5m to $10m. If sentiment is positive, the proposal could go to a vote soon.
Join the debate here.
To ease onboarding of new devs into the Mars ecosystem, v2 of Mars’ documentation is now live at Docs.marsprotocol.io. Contributors have also launched a series of technical articles that will guide users through advanced interactions with Mars.
As a protocol, there are several ways to interact with Mars. Users can access it via the UI at marsprotocol.io, by self-hosting the UI files on their local computers or by accessing the Mars smart contracts directly.
Learn more in Mars’ first technical guide: Tutorial: How to use the Red Bank by interacting directly with Mars Protocol’s smart contracts.
Devs anywhere can now access data on Mars via a new GraphQL API. Available at api.marsprotocol.io/graphql, the API will return the circulating and total supply numbers for MARS tokens with plans to add information on liquidations and APYs.
Mars Protocol’s first-ever Happy Hour is approaching. Join your fellow Martians in Discord for a session on How to DeFi Safely w security expert @jurad0x.
Listen or participate at 14:00 UTC on Earth date May 6, 2022 in Discord: http://discord.gg/marsprotocol.
Mars is a foundational piece of software for the entire Terra ecosystem. As a protocol, it’s neutral and accessible to all. And with approval from the Martian Council, third party protocols can use it to borrow funds without collateral in the Fields of Mars. Apollo DAO aims to be the first of these third parties. We’re excited to see who’s next. Check out our full vision for the Fields of Mars.
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The future is red.
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Follow Mars on Twitter for the latest updates from Mission Control.
DISCLAIMER
This article does not constitute investment advice. Before interacting with Mars, review the project disclaimers here.
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