TokenBrice

Pharos: Free and Open Research-Grade Stablecoin Intelligence

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 01:13:50 +0000

Stablecoins are the backbone of crypto. By every metric that matters — volume, users, real-world utility — they’re the most successful thing DeFi has produced. Over $300B in circulating supply. Hundreds of billions in daily settlement. The bridge between onchain finance and the rest of the world. And yet, the information infrastructure around them is embarrassingly thin.

Want to know if a stablecoin is safe? Good luck. You can check its price on CoinGecko, maybe find a supply chart on DeFiLlama. For the most popular ones, Bluechip provides excellent economic ratings. But that’s about it. There is no systematic way to monitor peg stability, assess liquidity depth, detect early warning signals, track freeze events, or evaluate risk across the many Stablecoins now in circulation. The information layer is stuck in 2021 while the market has 10x’d in complexity.

DeFi Bullshit Detector

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 01:13:50 +0000

In the Arena this week, I tried something different: instead of doing things onchain as usual, I wanted to show how to setup a Claude instance dedicated to DeFi research, and the results were impressive.

In 1h15, we were able to setup a new Claude instance from scratch, have it write its claude.md file with our instructions, install the necessary tools to query onchain data, and perform a test analysis on ThGold which returned many critical red flags, several of which were not previously discovered by another researcher as far as I could see.

Why Polaris? The Stablecoin we needed to build

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 01:13:50 +0000

Stablecoins have won: they’re the backbone of DeFi liquidity, the unit of account for onchain trades, and the most outward-facing DeFi usecase. By every adoption metric, they’re the most successful primitive we’ve built. And yet, something went wrong. The dominant stablecoin models have drifted from their original promises. What started as experiments in decentralized money has quietly become a collection of TradFi dependencies wrapped in smart-contract aesthetics. The foundations deteriorated as the TVL climbed. The most popular Stablecoins remain tokenized T-Bills that do not forward their yield, namely USDC and USDT.

Turning Locks into Leverage: How Autopilot, 40Acres & haiVELO Evolve veNFTs

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 16:06:21 +0000

The landscape of veNFTs is rapidly evolving, ushering in a new era of decentralized finance where governance power and yield generation are tokenized. As the adoption of the veNFT model grew, the infrastructure supporting it matured, harnessing veNFT’s native yield to deliver novel services and automations.

In this article I want to spotlight a few of these: Autopilot, 40Acres & haiVELO. You can refer to my previous articles if you are not already familiar with the veNFT model:

The Cycle of Aggregation Spins On, Now with Lending

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 01:13:50 +0000

Something big is happening in onchain lending. Beneath the surface, a quiet shift is reshaping how liquidity moves, how markets connect, and how users access yield. A wave of new models, integrations, and rising stars like Euler and Fluid rewrote the rules with unprecedented efficiency and flexibility. A new layer of coordination is emerging and could redefine lending itself: today, we pull back the curtain on lending aggregation.

The Cycle of Aggregation

I’ve seen a similar scenario unfold on the DEX side, with the rise of Uniswap, followed by competition from Sushi, aggregators, and the arrival of UNIv3. The core concepts required to analyze both transitions are similar, and I’ll explain them in this article.

The Pegged Asset Swap Wars

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 01:13:50 +0000

Dear readers, it’s been a while! As you likely know, liquidity management is both my passion and profession. In this article, I aim to revisit the basics and offer a brief history through the lens of pegged asset swaps. As we detail the liquidity structure and venues that best support those pairs, we will gain a deeper understanding of key concepts that remain critical to navigating that space today. We also get the chance to cover Fluid DEX and EulerSwap, the two most interesting releases of the year for liquidity-building who definitely deserved more airtime around here.

Leverage Like a Sir: Polynomial Gains, No Liquidation Pains

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 01:13:50 +0000

A few weeks ago, Sir Trading, a fascinating novel DeFi primitive was shipped, and I quickly fell in love with it. I’ve also decided to get involved, so welcome to this article introducing Sir Trading, explaining what I found interesting in the model, and announcing my involvement as an advisor.

Sir.Trading explained like a business

To understand Sir Trading (and it works well with most protocols), we can use a business metaphor: Who are the customers, intermediaries, and stakeholders?

DeFi’s UX Disaster: Curation Could Save Innovation

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Sat, 08 Mar 2025 01:13:50 +0000

Everyone worries about the infrastructure and app layers, and that’s cute, but what about the curation layer? Without it, the two others are nearly useless, as the complexity of the space is already far too great for most of the population to handle. So today, I want to plead to address the most significant lack in DeFi, informed by my experience with over six years spent educating people about it, onboarding pretty much anyone willing in my surroundings and online, and following up with them.

Is this a Lending Protocol Renaissance?

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 01:13:50 +0000

In the last few months, we’ve seen a flurry of novel and exciting lending protocols come to market, such as Morpho, DYAD, Fluid, or Tapioca; even more are expected in the coming months, such as Liquity V2 (Bold) or Euler V2. All are innovative, in the arena, trying things to the point that I wonder if we’re not experiencing a lending protocol renaissance after a few years of rehashing the same concepts.

Subtles nuances with great consequences: a cross analysis of Curve and Velodrome

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 01:13:50 +0000

Today, I want to address Velodrome/Aerodrome, a genuine success story in DeFi. I’ve covered DEXes extensively on this blog, especially Curve: this article will compare the two models and explain how Velodrome improved on the veCRV template.

First, let me start with a disclaimer: there are two core components to a DEX that everyone needs to be aware of to understand what follows:

The liquidity structures it provides (x*y=k, stableswap, CL, stableswap-NG, curve V2, etc.)
The incentives model, which for a DEX is synonymous with its tokenomics.

This post focuses on the latter, the core of Velodrome’s innovation. This post assumes basic familiarity with Curve’s veCRV tokenomics; if not, I urge you to read my previous writing about it, posted three years ago but still helpful to understand the model.

Farewell to the GHO Liquidity Committee and reflections on the rise of DeFi newspeak

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 01:13:50 +0000

I’ve resigned from the GHO Liquidity Committee and would like, in this blog post, to share more context on its adventures and the learning we can draw from it.

For those whose first reaction will be “ain’t ready all of that,” here is a recap of the main shortcoming I see in the committee that led to my decision:

The committee’s operating model is inefficient and prevents a coherent vision from emerging and being delivered.
The committee’s scope of responsibilities is unclear, leading to a passive attitude (towards governance mishaps) assumed by most members.
The committee mainly comprises governance professionals who lack any serious expertise in the topic at play – liquidity management. It results in inefficient operations, conflicts of interest because of their numerous other commitments, and subpar use of the Committee’s resources.

Governance is always a challenge. Indeed, it can seem insane to give power to random people on the internet, and it often is. There is a built-in democratic assumption in governance operations – although most governances are purely plutocratic – that severely hinders any serious structuration that would enable delivering upon commonly agreed goals. The GHO Liquidity Committee was appointed by the Aave governance precisely because it recognized – in a flash of lucidity – its incompetence and ineptitude in directional liquidity management.

Introducing my next step: contributing to a DeFi mastermind geared to support trustless and unstoppable DeFi: The DeFi Collective

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 01:13:50 +0000

Proudly introducting The DeFi Collective

Historically, financial systems have been mismanaged by states, corrupted by entrenched private interests, and unable to deliver an equitable, fair, and transparent baseline to enable unfettered value exchanges.

Over five years ago, I discovered the (back then) nascent decentralized finance ecosystem and was promptly convinced it embodies a credible attempt to deliver a neutral value exchange layer, freed from the influence of states and able to resist the corruption attempts of private actors.

The Maurauder's Map of Decentralized Stablecoins

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 01:13:50 +0000

Wild new Stablecoins are constantly appearing, and with the multiplication of chains, layers, and viable stablecoin models the trend is not stopping anytime soon. Navigating the stablecoin landscape is turning into a critical skill for DeFi.

While centralized stablecoin models are easier to evaluate, decentralized Stablecoins harness various complex mechanisms, making it harder to compare their data face to face. Yet, dozens of relevant new decentralized Stablecoins are appearing yearly, and I don’t expect the trend to stop anytime soon.

Staying Ahead of the Curve: the shift from Liquidity Mining to Liquidity Shaping

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 01:13:50 +0000

It’s been four months since Maverick is out, and a few days since the MAV token joined the fray. Yet, most of DeFi is still scratching its head regarding how Maverick delivers 2-3x the capital efficiency of its top competitor, Uniswap.

So the time was right for a deep dive into the innovations brought by the model and the new paradigm it fosters regarding liquidity management: liquidity shaping.

Innovations on DEX? More like tools for LP to express themselves

Fundamentally, a decentralized exchange can innovate at two levels:

ve(3,3), the logical next step after veCRV?

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 01:13:50 +0000

Solidly/Velodrome forks have been popping up like mushrooms, especially across the popular layer 2 like Arbitrum or zkSync. Solidly is now the top #3 forked protocol in DeFi and one of the rare cases where the forks (such as Velodrome) are the market leaders. At first glance, it could seem like just another fork hype train, like when we had the Uni/Sushi fork season, Olympus fork season, etc.

And indeed, it’s overblown: an absurd amount of such DEXes are launching weekly, and 95% of them won’t be relevant six months from now. However, like with most of such hype trains, there is deep down, below the fluff, an actual fundamental innovation in how decentralized exchanges are designed that is worth looking into.

Announcement: TokenBrice 🤝 Maverick

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 01:13:50 +0000

This post is more of a personal announcement: I wanted to let you know what I am up to and what’s happening with Maverick. So let’s not beat around the bush: I’m thrilled to announce that I’m supporting the Maverick team as an advisor, helping with the growth strategy, tokenomics, and business development.

Storytime

Just like me, you must be over-saturated with DEXes. If you follow DeFi closely, you’ve seen several of these launches daily. Yet most still adopt fundamental liquidity structures: x*y=k for volatile pairs and stableswap, and focus on innovating on the tokenomics instead: the now famous ve(3,3) DEXes.

Hiring a Junior DeFi Strategist to help foster the growth of immutable protocols

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 01:13:50 +0000

I’m looking for a Junior DeFi Strategist to join me on my daily DeFi adventures, learn and grow. The fundamental missions are governance proposals, liquidity management, business development, and partnerships, but the scope is quite flexible.

This is a unique opportunity for a passionate DeFi curious to jumpstart his/her career in crypto. Be the first hire for a community-led effort to cater governance-minimized and immutable protocols to achieve the mission of DeFi.

Liquity-driver token races beyond Curve: a look at the Balancer Wars

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 01:13:50 +0000

Liquidity-driver tokens, as I call them, are an emergent and fascinating construction. Simply put, these tokens enable you to direct incentives (CRV, BAL, etc.) to the liquidity pool of your choice. To do so, you must usually own and lock the corresponding token (veCRV, veBAL, etc.) within their governance contract, ensuring continuous commitment from participating projects.

Thus, the liquidity-driver tokens quickly became highly sought after by DAOs with constant and usually growing liquidity needs. It led to what we call “races” (or “wars”): a term that refers to the various strategies projects harness to constantly increase their veTokens stash, ideally faster than the other participants of the races, to grow a competitive advantage.

Chicken Bonds: an NFT-powered hatching factory to beat DeFi’s liquidity chicken and egg problem

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 01:13:50 +0000

Liquity recently released the LUSD Chicken Bonds, a game-theory experiment merging DeFi and NFT elements to grow LUSD’s liquidity and reduce its price premium.

Although Chicken Bonds are building on top of existing protocols, such as Yearn, b.protocol, or Curve, it also instigates novel mechanisms, the two leading ones being:

No maturity principal-protected bonding: Chicken Bonds use a new type of bonding offering strong guarantees to the depositor, including the possibility to recoup the entire initially supplied capital at no cost (Chicken Out).
Participate to Earn dynamic NFT: While interacting with the LUSD Chicken Bonds protocol, users obtain a dynamic NFT that evolves depending on their choices and previous onchain interactions.

Chicken Bonds tackle one of the core challenges of DeFi, the sustainable growth of liquidity pools, first for the LUSD token only. Still, eventually, the model will be made available in a generalizable permissionless version for any protocol in need of liquidity to use.

Can Aave's GHO stablecoin help the protocol further grow and overtake MakerDAO and DAI?

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 01:13:50 +0000

A few weeks ago, the concept for the GHO stablecoin was introduced on the Aave Governance Forum and triggered a wave of excitement across DeFi. Indeed, the idea of a decentralized, collateral-backed stablecoin, pegged to USD and native to the Aave DAO makes a lot of sense as a next step for the protocol.

In this article, we’ll examine the design introduced before considering how the Aave DAO and team could bring it to market and turn it into a stablecoin potentially as significant as DAI. Of course, the information is still scarce, so the second part of the article will be primarily extrapolations stemming from my DeFi experience.

Behind the scene of the decentralization theater: a study of the inalterability of DeFi protocols

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Wed, 18 May 2022 01:13:50 +0000

Decentralized finance has allowed the emergence of autonomous protocols whose functionalities are ensured by smart contracts that are sometimes immutable. It enables individuals from all over the world to use financial services that are at the same time sovereign, accessible, and more efficient and resilient than those available in traditional finance. It’s the lovely story that newcomers are told to lull them to sleep: the reality is much more nuanced.

Announcement: Joining Liquity to bolster the growth of unstoppable DeFi

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Mon, 16 May 2022 01:13:50 +0000

I’ve been a little less involved in the DeFi discussion lately and you might righfully wonder why. First, I needed to slow down and take some time for myself, and the timing could not be better. While I was off, I had the time to reflect on what drew me to DeFi in the first place and how the space has evolved since I started getting involved about four years ago. Watching protocols with massive design flaws blowing up is reassuring, especially to those who anticipated it, but not exactly what I dreamed of when I discovered DeFi.

⚔ Advanced CRV warfare: analysis of protocols built on top of Curve and Convex

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Tue, 05 Apr 2022 01:13:50 +0000

The game and the fight around CRV and CVX tokens have changed in scope since my last article describing the original Curve Wars, now almost primitive. The infrastructure around Curve has become much denser with the arrival of Convex of course, but also Votium, Union Llama Airforce, Concentrator, CCRV, Lendflare, Warden, and many other protocols still in development.

To assume a strategic position on CRV or CVX, one must now be able to support an investment of several tens of millions of dollars. Thus, the race to accumulate CVX and CRV has become primarily a game for DAOs or whales. More specifically, DAOs seem to prefer CVX to CRV, which represents a more favorable trade-off:

NFTfi: NFT meets DeFi, liquidity and leverage ensue

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Tue, 29 Mar 2022 01:13:50 +0000

Decentralized finance has opened up a world of possibilities: a myriad of previously necessary intermediaries are now supernumerary. Nevertheless, it is intimidating because of its potential complexity and interdisciplinary. In addition to the obvious technical dimension, DeFi also invokes concepts from various disciplines: economics, social sciences, “memetics”, etc.

Thus, for years now, NFTs have served as a gateway to the decentralized world, demonstrating the benefits of tokenization and disintermediation to a population still not very fond of DeFi.

How to build an inflation-proof DeFi portfolio?

tokenbrice@proton.me (TokenBrice) — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 01:13:50 +0000

Inflation is more than ever at the center of discussions and concerns: no one understands much about it, no economist has really anticipated it, but we all have an opinion about it.

Today, we leave economics and politics aside to focus on what matters for your wallet: in decentralized finance, all kinds of protocols are developed, and a good part of them provide credible and innovative tools to preserve and develop the purchasing power of a portfolio, even when the macroeconomic context is most uncertain.