Hydration Newsletter: June / July 2024
TVL ATH, Memecoins Made Easy, Native Ledger Support, and more
Welcome to the June / July edition of Hydration Newsletter which brings you up-to-date on the most hydrated matters.
In the heat of peak summer, the Hydration TVL has reached an all-time high driven by the Polkadot Hydration Liquidity campaign that kicked off on June 10th. Furthermore, trading volumes got a boost with the addition of new tradable tokens.
We also released two exciting new products: Degen Mode and Meme Pad. These are designed to boost the creation and trading of memecoins on Polkadot.
On the Protocol and UX side, we introduced native Ledger support to make storing and managing your HDX more secure and easy.
Read more on these headlines below, and don’t forget to check out our Knowledge Centre, Dev Updates, and Governance Square.
TVL ATH
Thanks to the launch of the Polkadot Hydration Liquidity campaign on June 11th, our TVL crossed $50 million for the first time on June 28th, peaking at $56 million on July 18th. This represents an impressive 2x growth as measured from the beginning of the campaign ($28 million TVL).
Currently, farm APRs span between 17-81% on more than 7 pools. Thanks to Omnipool’s single-sided LPing, all you need to start farming is a single token. Check out the Liquidity hub on the Hydration app.
With farms being funded in 3-month cycles, the first round of liquidity incentives will soon expire. The second batch will kick off in September, and a governance vote is expected soon which will dictate which tokens should be incentivized and to what extent.
Wen $100m TVL? Stay tuned!
Memecoins made easy: Memepad & Degen Mode
Memepad is Hydration’s most recent product that allows users to easily launch memecoins on Polkadot. Memepad automates the whole process with a user-friendly UI, making the creation of memecoins accessible to anyone without technical knowledge. With just a few clicks, users can:
Create a new token on Asset Hub;
Register the token on Hydration;
Start an Isolated Pool and add liquidity to enable trading on Hydration.
Launch your own memecoin on https://nofunonpolkadot.com
Another related feature is Degen Mode. It allows users to view all assets registered on Hydration without the need to manually add them. By default, the Hydration UI displays only certain assets which have been “verified”. By clicking the toggle in the Settings section of the app, users will be able to see all tokens registered on Hydration. Caution is advised as some of these assets may be “fake” or potential rugs so always DYOR before aping.
Native Ledger Support
The support for Hardware wallets was a long-standing issue for Polkadot parachains. While there were some workarounds such as Polkadot Vault and Ledger support via MetaMask, native support for Ledger has been a pain point withholding some users from using their funds on Hydration.
We are happy to share that this is now in the past. On July 1st, the Polkadot Ledger Generic App was released, bringing native Ledger support for all Polkadot parachains, including Hydration. This update strengthens Hydration's compatibility with Ledger, making it easier to store tokens and sign transactions securely.
Ledger works with the major Polkadot wallets including Talisman, Nova Wallet and Subwallet.
Follow our detailed guide which will help you set up your Ledger on Hydration.
New Kids on the Block: MYTH and vASTR
In the past two months, several new assets were added on Hydration joining our ocean of liquidity with 50+ other assets. These include:
MYTH: The native token of Mythical, bridged from Ethereum using Snowbridge (the trustless Ethereum-Polkadot bridge). Mythical Games is a gaming chain home to the hit game NFL Rivals;
vASTR: The liquid staked form of Astar Network’s ASTR by Bifrost Finance;
NCTR: The recently launched token of Apillon;
ACA and LDOT: The native token of Acala Network as well as their DOT liquid staking token.
Knowledge Centre
The future is coming! Check out the Polkadot Decoded talk by Intergalactic CTO Jakub Panik, unveiling the Intent Composing Engine [ICE]:
Product Features / Cross-chain / Infrastructure
Money Market
Description: Allowing users to lend their assets as collateral to earn fees and borrow assets against those positions - alternatively those collateral positions can be used to mint the stablecoin HOLLAR.
Notes:
Testnet launch pending.
Audit of additional EVM substrate components complete.
HOLLAR Stablecoin
Description: Intrinsically linked to the Money Market - HOLLAR stablecoin can be minted by providing collateral.
Notes:
Final specification ongoing.
Runtime & UI implementation ongoing - pending launch of Money Market.
Intent Composing Engine [ICE]
Description: Order matching of trades, liquidations & OTC orders by off-chain workers in order to maximise efficiency for all users.
Github: https://github.com/galacticcouncil/hydration-node/issues/886
Notes:
Specification for solver being finalised.
Runtime implementation ongoing.
Async backing
Description: Introduction of async backing allowing for reduction of 12s blocktimes to 6s
Github: https://github.com/galacticcouncil/hydration-node/issues/887
Notes:
Runtime research & specification ongoing.
Other developments
Governance Square
A selection of recent governance proposals. Proposals, where vote totals/controversy are not discussed, can generally be assumed to have passed overwhelmingly (>90% non-abstaining vote).
Live
Ref #171 - Approve POL actions from Hydration Treasury Report
Ref #170 - Create BNC farm rewarding vASTR
Passed
Ref #169 - Add vASTR to Omnipool
Ref #168 - Set WUD as a sufficient asset on Hydration
Ref #167 - Authorize runtime release v29.0.1
Ref #166 - Authorize runtime release v29.0.0
Ref #165 - Initiate HRMP channel openings with 2043 NeuroWeb and 3345 EnergyWebX
Ref #164 - Register HDX as a foreign asset on AssetHub
Ref #163 - Register vASTR in Hydration