Before we get started, this is not a recommendation or endorsement to buy any token(s) mentioned.
This week, we cover the first native liquid staking solution for native tokens powering the largest data availability (DA) solution to launch this year, Avail.
Built by the cofounder of Polygon Anurag Arjun and spun out of Polygon Labs in 2023, Avail’s platform is best defined as the Web3 infrastructure layer that allows modular execution layers to scale and interoperate in a trust minimized way.
Avail DA is the next step in a three phase plan to provide this infrastructure layer to accelerate the unification of web3. Avail DA is the first modular data availability layer using validity proofs and data availability sampling.
Data Availability is a critical component to how blockchains work. Without guaranteed DA, network participants can’t easily verify the validity of blocks independently, which could result in fraud or censorship and having your funds stolen or frozen.
Historically, Ethereum L2s have relied on the base layer for DA guarantees. However, the rapid growth of L2s has led to network congestion resulting in slower throughput and rising gas prices. In order for blockchains to achieve mainstream adoption, they require an abundance of secure, affordable, and decentralized data availability blobspace.
Avail DA was built to meet the needs of next-generation, trust-minimized applications and sovereign rollups.
Avail DA’s modular approach simplifies blockchain integrations for developers, as they no longer need to worry about validator sets or tokenomics. It prioritizes ordering and publishing transactions while enabling users to verify the availability of block data without needing to download entire blocks.
The AVAIL token is the native asset that powers the Avail network. AVAIL is used to pay for Avail DA fees and secures Avail via staking.
Since Avail DA Mainnet launched a month ago, Avail token holders can now stake their AVAIL tokens to provide security to blockchains catering to all the cases built on top of Avail DA.
Currently, AVAIL token holders can use the Avail Bridge to transfer AVAIL tokens between the Avail Mainnet and Ethereum Mainnet.
Given the demand to stake AVAIL tokens and maintain liquidity while earning staking rewards, a new native liquid staking platform for Avail tokens on Ethereum has been launched by deq.fi. stAVAIL is an ERC20 token on Ethereum Mainnet that represents one’s staked AVAIL tokens. It accrues value over time based on staking rewards distributed via the Avail network.
Since it is not a rebasing token and increases in value to reflect the accumulation of staking rewards, it can easily be integrated into almost any DeFi protocol. For example, imagine if stAVAIL were to be whitelisted as collateral on Aave someday and users could borrow against stAVAIL.
Currently, stAVAIL’s yield is estimated at 21.5% APY, with $512k staked by 649 stAVAIL holders according to this deq.fi community dashboard.
The Deq protocol charges a flat 10% fee on rewards earned, in AVAIL. stAVAIL holders can also earn Deq points based on the amount of stAVAIL held in their wallet, and the amount of time stAVAIL is held, meaning there’s bonus yield assuming stAVAIL holders will get a future airdrop of deq.fi native tokens.
Today, I’ll cover how I can…
DeFi Dad is one of the earliest power users of DeFi, having worked with early Ethereum startups going back to 2018, including Zapper.
