Principle Ventures

Focus on crypto innovation investment and digital assets management

[Fair Math @FairMath]

We are launching a major new competition on FHERMA focused on privacy-preserving AI for research groups and individual researchers.

If you are interested in exploring FHE for AI applications and would like to participate, please complete the form (https://t.co/7SCHg35rNO) by October 15.

Pre-registration is required to participate in the competition.

[Principle Ventures @PrincipleVC]

Blockscout proves the spirit of value building with excellent achievement of 1000+ EVM chains onchain data services and partnerships, now keep building from EVM to other ecosystems, SOL is the next.

[Blockscout 🔭 @blockscout]

🛩️ I feel the need...the need for speed!

Blockscout is hitting Mach 3 with our planned expansion to @solana 😎

After 1000+ EVM chains, we're stepping up R&D to bring open-source exploration to one of the fastest blockchains in the game

Read our vision:
https://t.co/vreHX8aqVU

[Mellow @mellowprotocol]

The @SymbioticFi launch begins a new restaking meta – with Mellow as its easiest access point.

The Mellow Vaults migration is now complete, letting Risk Curators quickly delegate their stake across all Symbiotic networks.

It’s the dawn of permissionless shared security!

[Mellow @mellowprotocol]

1/ 🧵

Mellow is building a permissionless, modular platform for structured products with onchain yield.

Our mission: to create foundational primitives that unlock maximum market value for users and eliminate entry barriers.

We invite you to explore how we plan to do that👇

[Open Source Fun @OpenSourceIsFun]

🔬 Welcome to DeSci BuildCon, the Third edition of our BuildCon series of Online Conferences for Blockchain Builders!

For this event, we're focusing on the rise of DeSci and exploring the future of Decentralized Science during and beyond this bull run. Perfect for builders looking to dive into this thriving space.

🗓 Date: December, 3rd. 13:00 UTC
🔴 Format: X Space
🔔 Set your Reminder Now: https://t.co/JbXxYSUDjn
ℹ️ More Info: https://t.co/NnZWS89Kf3

🎙 Speakers:
@paulkhls / @bioprotocol, @pumpdotscience, @vitadao, @molecule_dao
@Dr_JohnFletcher / @tigfoundation
@JelaniC3 / @Amino_Chain
@jb87ua / @DeSciWorld
@mstachowiak / @AxonDAO
@wadkevin / @eticaprotocol
@AsherLooi / @BitDoctorAI
@aldodepape / @GenomesDAO

🤝 We’re also glad to have our amazing partners, who help us make these conferences happen:
@PrincipleVC
@Opscientia 
Daos Science 
@InferenceActive
@ChainCatcher_
@tmpcryptomarket
https://t.co/1F2qeMbW3T
@AgencyMediax
@QuantumBioDAO
@nunet_global

See you all there on December 3rd!

[Mellow @mellowprotocol]

Some leverage is cooking for LRTs on Mellow👀

[Mellow @mellowprotocol]

A Restaking Vertical includes multiple players, each with their own technical burdens. AVSes/Networks want easy integrations, restakers want safety and better yields, while "someone" needs to manage the pieces in-between... but how? - Article link is in the last tweet.

tldr ⤵️🧵

[Gearbox Protocol @GearboxProtocol]

Borrow rates on Gearbox are largely determined by GEAR stakers, who vote to either reduce or increase rates, through so-called gauges. These rates stay the same intra-week, meaning more predictability for borrowers! Easier to manage, less headache…

Yesterday's epoch worked as intended for the majority of the assets but had an interesting outcome for USDe on Arbitrum, with votes to increase rates outnumbering votes to lower rates. How do borrow rates for USDe go back below 10% APYs? What are GEAR wars on gauges? How can you monitor future rates? Quick summary! 👇

To begin with, if you are holding a USDe position, make sure you take into account the increased borrow rate for this week when you manage your position. How do the rates go back to sub 10% by the next epoch, though? The answer is, again, gauges.

Such a model has beneficial outcomes for UX in terms of predictable rates intra-week, however, it requires involvement from stakers. Given that Arbitrum deployment is new, not many have had the chance to stake their GEAR yet, so a disbalance of rates occurred for USDe. Check back in a week to see the rates, probably, come back to normal!

What Gauges do...

Gauges democratise how rates work. Users stake their GEAR to increase or decrease rates as they deem fit. If they vote to increase rates, the rates for the week move towards the upper end of the range. If they vote to decrease, the rates move towards the lower end. The final rates depend on the ratio of the votes to increase and decrease rates. Moving the power of managing rates to GEAR holders.

Epochs end at 12PM UTC every Monday, and the rates are updated across assets right after. Rates on Gearbox are designed to be predictable and thus usually remain in a close range between two epochs.

The GEAR staked in gauges has an unstaking period of 28 days.

How to use Gauges...

Gauges use a rolling vote. You vote once, and that vote carries forward until you decide to change it. Voting for the rate of an asset is fairly simple, head over to: https://t.co/1BO6Yro8sE

Choose the network you want to vote on and the asset you want to vote for from the list and click on it.

Select whether you want to increase or decrease rates using your staked GEAR. The UI projects the APY for the upcoming epoch and your impact on it to make sure you vote with your GEAR accordingly. This also enables users to monitor rates and avoid any surprise spikes. You can do this for any asset you can access leverage on.

GEAR wars...

Gauges enable lenders and borrowers to change the rates in their favour. With some power users calling it "Rate Warfare". While lenders and borrowers have opposite goals, one should think of this mechanism more as a negotiation than a war.

If lenders were to significantly increase rates, the borrow demand would plummet and lead to lower utilisation and interest earned. Similarly, if borrowers were to reduce the rates too much, it'd lead to lenders withdrawing and borrow rates spiking.

Voting for balanced rates thus remains the ideal action. The art of GEAR wars, now on Arbitrum: https://t.co/1BO6Yro8sE ⚙️🧰

[P2P.org @P2Pvalidator]

We're partnering with @mellowprotocol and @symbioticfi to bring you brand-new, innovative #restaking solutions.

Read our thread on Who's Mellow Protocol and Symbiotic and how you can benefit from this opportunity.
It's potentially the biggest opportunity of the summer. Enjoy!

[Open Source Fun @OpenSourceIsFun]

🎉We are thrilled to announce our partnership with @PrincipleVC

Principle Ventures is a builder-oriented investment firm focused on advancing crypto and Web3 innovations. They assist mission-driven founders in early growth stages with their expertise and extensive network. Principle Ventures partners with industry pioneers to explore synergies for open, trustless, and decentralized technologies, supporting long-term success through strategic investments and collaborations.

➡️ More details here: https://t.co/fBiXMe3EOl

This partnership promises to bring fresh perspectives and exciting opportunities, and we can't wait to see what we will accomplish together!

[Principle Ventures @PrincipleVC]

New chapter for @mellowprotocol as one of the strongest competitors in LRT infra solution.

[Mellow @mellowprotocol]

Today marks a new era for Mellow Protocol. We are excited to start unraveling our modular liquid restaking primitive, which enables permissionless LRT creation and curation.

[Principle Ventures @PrincipleVC]

Gearbox is growing

[Gearbox Protocol @GearboxProtocol]

“Liquid Eigen Layer Beta”- this is a statement we have seen being used to describe Gearbox recently. That claim seems to be even more substantiated as LRT integrations like @renzoai and @ether_fi have boosted TVL to $97M and put the lending market on course to generate over $15M in fees for lenders. So, is Gearbox about restaking?

Yes, No, and so much more.

Let's look at the metrics and V3's growth strategy 🧵

The "Network Effects" capture strategy

Gearbox is an onchain leverage layer. It enables you to borrow leverage and use it across other protocols and chains. That is currently mostly DeFi, but also some RWA and even staking facilities. With V3, our strategy was to develop Gearbox into a more modular protocol capable of offering leverage on protocols and assets that are the most relevant to users. This was a key growth mechanism to capture and grow our "Network effects". Integrating LRTs, thus, was a part of the V3 strategy and gained significant traction.
Beyond LRTs, V3 enabled leveraged trading on DEXes like Uniswap and Curve with PURE Margin Trading. Also, introduced leveraged RWAs with sDAI, leveraged LSDs with rETH and stETH and more from the @CurveFinance Ecosystem to grow these network effects.

Effect on Borrowers and TVL

With V3's additions, we have seen the user base rise to 240 active borrowers with an average position size of $333K. Whales, few in numbers, but huge 🐋 The overall TVL has now risen from $27M on V2 to $97M on V3, a 259% rise.

Out of this, the leveraged restaking TVL is at $68.7M, Gearbox PURE is at $9.4M Open Trade Value.

Growing Lenders Organically

With V2, the supply side was largely driven by $GEAR incentives. With V3, we have reduced the $GEAR incentives by over 60% and still seen supplied assets grow by over 3x to $80M. This is because Gearbox's lending side is on course to generate $15.5M for lenders annualized.

This enables lending rates of 25%+ APYs on ETH and 10%+ APYs on USDC 🔥

Lenders earn these yields from borrowers who earn 200%+ APYs on LRTs, borrow at 10%+ APYs to margin trade and have other farms that yield 40%+ APYs as well. This enables borrowers to pay above market rates for ETH and USDC and still earn more.

V3's integrations thus make growing Gearbox sustainable without relying on $GEAR emissions.

Composability amplifying our partners & friends

The cool part about Gearbox is its composability. All the trades, farms, liquidations happen on integrated DEXes and protocols. That means more volumes for them, more fees for them. This way, Gearbox brought about $6️⃣B in volumes for @Uniswap, @CurveFinance, and @Balancer over the course of 2023 with its V3! So far, with V3, it has been $100M+ in basically just a couple of weeks (source in next tweet).

Financial Impact for the Gearbox DAO

Gearbox DAO, at current levels, is on its way to $5M+ in revenue annualized. And that comes with a special twist which slowly starts to show its effect: gauges controlled by $GEAR stakers.

The interest rates in Gearbox are split into two parts: base utilization rate that everyone is familiar with + extra quota rates that are different for every asset you leverage. Protocols and whales can stake their GEAR and make those interest rates lower or higher, essentially creating a market for bribes and Gear Wars... but on that, in next tweet.

Next Source of Growth

While in terms of $$ value terms the protocol and DAO are doing well, the current limitations of Ethereum Mainnet's Gas fee and the 25ETH minimum borrow make expanding the user base tough. To enable more users to access Leveraged DeFi, Gearbox is deploying on Arbitrum, which would enable users of all sizes to access Leveraged DeFi. This should further bring Arbitrum-native integrations.

As for the other mainnet integrations, that could be Ethena, KelpDAO, GHO, Balancer and Aura pools, and… what would you like to see?

PS: links to sources and more info below ⤵️

[Mellow @mellowprotocol]

Mellow expands V2 with zk tech powering its core for proofing the computations on-chain!🔮
https://t.co/B8eLaNtPrd
This approach improves robustness of Decentralized Onchain Dutch Auctions and Decentralized Keepers and makes them more trustless🤖

[Principle Ventures @PrincipleVC]

We support visionary communities and teams for engineering innovations with special vibes in next coming decades.

Who’re also at @urbit Assembly Lisbon?

[Gearbox Protocol @GearboxProtocol]

"Alpha" or "news" in DAOs usually exist only because people don’t read. Can’t blame them though; who reads dozens of pages of thought processes?! Some who do though, find the alpha... It's not hidden, it's not centralized planning. Just lower awareness 👀

So let's fix it 🧵 1/N

[Mellow @mellowprotocol]

✨R u ready, frens?✨ Mellow Protocol🔮 is going live!
The first strategies🤖 are already available in our dapp: https://t.co/pATi9fkpgf

[Principle Ventures @PrincipleVC]

Great achievement by community OGs

[Gearbox Protocol @GearboxProtocol]

3 weeks since V2 went live and here’s a quick round up of how the protocol has been doing with some alpha at the end :

⚙️: The TVL, despite the market conditions, has held strong at ~$109M. $14M of this comes from collateral of the Ninjas and $95M from the LP side.

[Principle Ventures @PrincipleVC]

Exciting moment! Honor to be the backer along with other influenced VC brands, angels and big congrats to @Mellowprotocol.

[Mellow @mellowprotocol]

✨Mellow Protocol is getting closer to the launch and we're stepping out of the shadows🌚 We prepared an article with a development recap and details about our seed round🌱 led by @robotventures @arringtonXRPcap and @paraficapital https://t.co/KWg3HyecUO

[Principle Ventures @PrincipleVC]

Gearbox @GearboxProtocol keeps growing and working along with the builders and supporters on diversified leverage solution in #DeFi, big movement and ready to bet in the next DeFi 2.0 chapter.

[Gearbox Protocol @GearboxProtocol]

Some interns do be delivering! Today @joeljohn has summarized the most important July (in fact, June too) activities at Gearbox DAO 🍀

- DAO round closed $4.15M
- governance work
- preparing for V2
- treasury transparency

https://t.co/6LrBzvJqNa

[Principle Ventures @PrincipleVC]

We will always browse and discover such valuable writings on the platform, interact in @viamirror DAO, and collect them in our NFT vault as the Web3 version of Internet Archive @internetarchive.

[Principle Ventures @PrincipleVC]

To celebrate the Writing NFT launch as a paradigm shift of quantifiable writing value, we collected some of articles via NFT by some influenced builders in the industry at launch, and would like to share the list here for anyone who're also interested:

[Mirror @viamirror]

1/ Introducing Writing NFTs

https://t.co/1yqTvae9JT

[Principle Ventures @PrincipleVC]

Key learnings from DAOs — Some working experiences about DAO structure and culture by @lindaxie
https://t.co/ArWVuj4DSh

Co-ownership as a web3 social primitive — The thinking of ownership in Web3 by @chaserchapman
https://t.co/xR6vNTfNsF