November continued the progress started during October mostly targeted towards v3 in preparation given the planned v3 launch during the week of December 9th. From an expense standpoint, the BDSP had no discretionary spending in November.
Initiative 1: Foster the growth of the Balancer v2 protocol
Main noteworthy accomplishments during month include:
- New yield bearing pools for partners such as Loop (lpETH), Yieldnest (ynETH), USDL
- Developed and progressed the pipeline of new yield bearing assets interested in deploying on Balancer (some convos started in Oct) on various chains including Ripple (rlUSD), Ondo (USDY), Lombard (lBTC), BTC LRTs (solvBTC, FBTC, pumpBTC), etc.
- CowAMM: launched Euler 8020 pool
- Other partnerships: Evaluated ad hoc opportunities with various partner such as OKX Connect, Grindery, Clipper, Bitlayer, DefiApp, Safe App, Reflexivity Research, etc.
- Began executing the veMode strategy on Mode. As a result of Balancer working closely with Desyn protocol, Balancer was able to attract meaningful mBTC and uniBTC liquidity ($29m total as of writing), and Balancer is now the #1 DEX on Mode ranked by TVL.
Initiative 2: Support the launch of Balancer v3
As mentioned above, November heavily prioritized v3 launch preparation. While October helped lay the guardrails for launch (chains, timing, incentives available, etc.), November was about getting all the pieces in place ahead of a mid-December launch. While too much to list item-by-item, here are some of the main activities the BDSP accomplished during November:
- After defining launch timelines in November, the BDSP (with @ZenDragon ) worked aggressively to recruit as many v3 launch partners as possible while also factoring in the limited incentive budget until veBAL is live in January.
- Secured TVL and buffer pool commitments from key partners
- Pitched v3 to countless protocols, partners, risk curators, and LPs. Expecting apprx. ~15 pools at launch (or very soon thereafter) and well into 8 figures of TVL by end of December. This should act as a very nice catalyst to build momentum.
- Secured verbal commitments for L2 launch partners once v3 is live on L2s
- Crafted incentive strategy for v3 using BAL and USDC until veBAL is live on v3 in January
- Drafted v3 security one-pager to give to partners (still private and WIP as not all info has been received by auditors)
- Began discussions other lending protocols (e.g. Fluid) about additional boosted markets for 2025
- Continued the exploration of hooks with creators such as Fyde Treasury and Treehouse.
- Connected QuantAMM with Base
- Supported BLabs by rallying key aggregators to integrate v3
Initiative 3: Partner Support
Partner support is an ongoing and high-touch activity. Below are a few extraordinary ares of partner support during November, some of which overlaps Initiative 1 and/or 2:
- Worked closely with marketing to promote devcon event
- Worked closely with marketing to support co-promotion of v3 with launch partners
- Began a small task force to ensure there’s no friction for market makers to use Balancer vs. other dexes
Financial Breakdown
- Discretionary spending = $0
- USDC = $12,000
- BAL = 1,462
Conclusion
In summary, November was a productive month in preparation of v3 launching in December. If all goes according to plan, Balancer should be able to kick off v3 in a meaningful way and build momentum throughout December and to kickoff 2025. Once again, a major shoutout goes to @ZenDragon for all of his partnership related efforts. After Zen beginning full-time contribution to the DAO, Zen and Lipman have been collaborating very closely across all things bd / partnerships.