Introducing: vTHOR, New Staking Rewards, New Trading Discounts⚡️

$vTHOR offers new staking rewards, auto-compounding, trading discounts and more 👀

THORSwap Finance
8 min readApr 25, 2022

Update: $THOR Staking 2.0 and $vTHOR launched on May 4th. See migration instructions

Upgraded Single-Sided $THOR Staking offers New Benefits

Currently, many of you are already participating in Single-sided $THOR Staking (hence forth referred to as “Legacy Staking”) and enjoying juicy APRs.

The upgraded $THOR Staking 2.0 introduces several new benefits:

  • $vTHOR token: Stake $THOR tokens to receive $vTHOR tokens, a composable and transferrable representation of your staked $THOR position.
  • Additional Staking Rewards: Legacy Staking Rewards came purely from emissions of the Community Incentives pool. Staking 2.0 rewards are a culmination of Community Incentives emissions plus 75% of all THORSwap revenues.
  • Auto-compounding Staking Rewards: Staking 2.0 now features automatic compounding — your staking position will receive daily rewards and auto-compound without any user action. You no longer need to repeatedly claim and re-deposit, saving you gas and helping you to earn more rewards.
  • Trading Discounts: THORSwap users holding $vTHOR will be entitled to Exchange Fee discounts. To celebrate the launch of $vTHOR, for a limited time, THORSwap Exchange Fees will be 100% waived for everyone staking $THOR + holding any amount of $vTHOR!

What is $vTHOR?

$vTHOR is the new membership staking token that offers generous rewards and benefits to active THORSwap participants and users.

$vTHOR is built as a Tokenized Vault Standard (ERC-4626) on Ethereum, a cutting edge development which will become the “gold standard” in DeFi:

As a tradeable and composable token, $vTHOR will provide many more opportunities with other DeFi protocols.

New Staking Rewards & Where do they come from?

Legacy Staking Rewards came purely from emissions of the Community Incentives pool. This is not sustainable.

The newly upgraded Staking 2.0 Rewards will include Community Incentives emissions, and also 75% of ALL THORSwap fees!

Since our official launch over 1 year ago, THORSwap has not charged any fees for our users.

As announced during the Discord Community AMA, THORSwap will introduce a 0.3% Exchange Fee (on par with Sushiswap, Uniswap; much cheaper than Metamask, Phantom) beginning the week of April 25th. This Exchange Fee applies to Swaps only, not adding/withdrawing from liquidity pools.

25% of revenues will go to THORSwap Treasury, which helps support the dozens of core contributors who continue to work diligently to build, maintain and improve THORSwap. The THORSwap Treasury will also be used for community-driven initiatives, infrastructure improvements, charity and more.

75% of revenues will accrue back to $vTHOR holders in the form of $THOR rewards

As THORSwap adds more revenue sources (affiliates, aggregation, Hammer Wallet, merch, etc.), 75% of ALL REVENUES will continue to be rewarded to $THOR Stakers, aka $vTHOR Hodlers.

This new staking rewards model signifies a transition from emissions-based rewards, to a more sustainable model based on fee-sharing with our community.

Exchange Fee Discounts for $vTHOR

Hawk-eyed Chads may have noticed previous alpha leaks on trading discounts 👀

We’re excited to officially announce trading fee discounts for $vTHOR Hodlers! To celebrate the launch…

THORSwap’s Exchange Fees will be 100% waived for anyone and everyone who holds any amount of $vTHOR!

You can stake 1,000,000 $THOR, or 0.001 $THOR — as long as you hold any amount of $vTHOR, your Exchange Fee will be 100% waived.

In the future, additional tiers may be introduced; so discounts and minimum HODL amounts may be adjusted accordingly.

As long as you stake any amount of $THOR for $vTHOR, you’ll be able to enjoy the same fee-less THORSwap trading experience you’ve had thus far…but with the additional bonus of all the new $vTHOR benefits! 🤯

Important: Trading discounts only apply if you participate in the upgraded Staking 2.0 Programme. You must connect your ETH wallet holding $vTHOR to receive any trading discounts.

Staking in the Legacy Staking contract is ineligible for Exchange Fee discounts. Additionally, gas / blockchain network fees still apply as always.

How does Staking 2.0 work?

Two-Step Process for Users

  1. Stake $THOR tokens in the new single-sided staking contract (make sure you’ve withdrawn from Legacy Staking contract and re-stake)
  2. Receive $vTHOR tokens representing your staking position. Earn $THOR tokens while you remained staked.

All done! Your staking position will automatically receive daily staking rewards that auto-compound without any need to claim, redeposit, etc.

Auto-compounding

Legacy $THOR Staking required users to manually claim rewards and manually re-deposit into the staking pool — wasting a lot in gas fees.

In response to community feedback, $THOR Staking 2.0 now features automatic compounding — you no longer need to repeatedly claim and re-deposit. Your staking position will receive daily rewards and auto-compound without any user action.

Auto-compound is a user convenience, it helps you save gas by minimizing transactions, and ultimately helps you earn more rewards.

When you unstake your $THOR by redeeming your $vTHOR, you will receive all of your originally staked $THOR tokens plus any additional $THOR rewards.

Staking Rewards Explained

Staking $THOR for $vTHOR is very similar to the $xSUSHI and $sSpell staking models.

Of all THORSwap revenues, 75% will be distributed to the $vTHOR staking pool as $THOR. The ratio of $vTHOR : $THOR in the staking pool starts off as a 1 : 1 ratio. Because staking rewards are added into the pool, this ratio will always remain above a 1 : 1 ratio.

Protocol Example
For easy math, let us assume there is only 100 $THOR staked in the staking pool at the original ratio of 1:1 (1 $vTHOR = 1 $THOR).

If the protocol distributes 10 $THOR rewards into the $vTHOR staking pool, the new ratio becomes 1 : 1.1, as 100 $vTHOR can claim 110 $THOR.

User Example
Let’s say Chad stakes 10 $THOR, at the original ratio of 1:1 and thus Chad would receive 10 $vTHOR. As shown above, the protocol distributes 10 $THOR into the staking pool changing the ratio to 1 : 1.1. When Chad redeems his 10 $vTHOR, Chad now receives 11 $THOR (initial deposit of 10 $THOR + staking rewards of 1 $THOR).

Alternatively, if Chad had staked his 10 $THOR when the ratio was 1 : 1.1, he would receive 9.09 $vTHOR. If he decides to redeem his 9.09 $vTHOR when the ratio is 1 : 1.3, he would then receive 11.8 $THOR.

Future $vTHOR Benefits & Utility

Lots of new benefits and utilities are in the works, most notably:

  • THORSwap Protocol Governance. $THOR is 65+% allocated to the community. Protocol governance will be thoughtfully rolled out for the community to drive key decisions.
  • Composability with other DeFi protocols. This will unleash #THORChads to leverage $vTHOR as collateral, margin trading, options, hedging, etc. The degen possibilities are endless!
  • more to come… 👀

Sustainable and Efficient Emissions

Several initiatives have allowed THORSwap to be more sustainable and capital efficient with token emissions:

THORSwap’s Incentive Pendulum

At the time of this writing, $THOR token pools have substantial liquidity — THOR-ETH Sushi pool is almost $3m deep and the THOR-RUNE THORChain pool is $23m deep — plenty to ensure liquid markets.

Our first use of the THORSwap incentive pendulum was in December 2021, when we reduced LP farming emissions on the $THOR pool in order to open up more space on the THORChain network for other, more efficient liquidity.

These emissions were then redirected to Ohm Pro bonds to allow THORSwap to acquire and own liquidity, a more capital efficient use of emissions.

Ohm Pro bonds and Protocol Owned Liquidity

Liquidity owned by THORSwap is important because it means users can trust that they’ll have ample and consistent liquidity for trading:

Today, THORSwap no longer needs to spend emissions to attract liquidity, thus greatly reducing emissions inflation of the $THOR token.

Fee-sharing replaces Emissions over time

Legacy Staking Rewards are emissions-based, which is unsustainable over the long term.

Staking 2.0 Rewards are based on both emissions and fee-sharing. The fee-sharing helps to ensure juicy Staking Rewards, while also allowing the protocol to slow emissions.

This combination of THORSwap’s own Incentive Pendulum, Protocol Owned Liquidity, and Fee-sharing as Staking Rewards means THORSwap can start to responsibly reduce token emissions.

Accelerating the Trading Black Hole

Whereas $RUNE incentivizes liquidity (the Liquidity Black Hole), $THOR incentivizes trading volume (the Trading Black Hole) — a complementary and synergistic partnership.

THORSwap’s job is to generate trading volume (which accrues value to $RUNE hodlers).

$vTHOR is a key mechanism in propelling the Trading Black Hole:

THORSwap processed $539M in swap volume in March (an all-time high), and is currently processing an average of $17M in swaps a day!

THORSwap’s Product Roadmap is designed to increase more trading volume, highlights from our Q2 Roadmap includes:

New & Improved V2 DEX Interface:

Cross-Chain Aggregator of Aggregators:

Hammer Wallet ⚒

THORSwap API for Developers

THORSwap’s Product Roadmap will drive trading volume, plus the value accrual and trading incentives of $vTHOR…this means the Trading Black Hole is just getting started fellow Chads ⚒⚒

TL;DR

  • $THOR Staking 2.0 is set to go live in early May, introducing the new $vTHOR vault token, new staking rewards (via fee-sharing), and new trading discounts. Legacy Single-sided $THOR Staking will be deprecated.
  • Previously 100% free, THORSwap will introduce a 0.3% Exchange Fee (Swaps only), beginning the week of April 25th.
  • 75% of ALL PROTOCOL REVENUES (including the 0.3% Exchange Fee) will accrue to $vTHOR Hodlers, aka Fee-Sharing.
  • Auto-compounding Staking Rewards to save gas and help you earn more rewards.
  • THORSwap’s upcoming Product Roadmap will drive trading volume, and therefore drive value accrual to $vTHOR Hodlers.
  • To celebrate vTHOR launch, staking any amount of $THOR for $vTHOR qualifies you for 100% discount of THORSwap Exchange fees.
  • THORSwap’s Incentive Pendulum, Protocol Owned Liquidity, and Fee-sharing as Staking Rewards means THORSwap can start to responsibly reduce token emissions.
  • How-to Guide for migrating and staking in $THOR Staking 2.0.
#IfYouKnowYouKnow ✌️ for vTHOR

About THORSwap

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